at the bottom of the slope! The cougar
was promptly shot.
Stalking Track

As we talked of cougar extermina-
tion, Jimmy Dewar added a fresh
angle to the lore. He claims that a
cougar can shut off his scent. He calls
the phenomena a “stalking track.”
Often, he told me, when dogs are
trailing a cat in the snow the scent
will come to an abrupt end. The dogs
cast about completely puzzled and the
hunter promptly scans the neighbor-
ing trees. But the visible tracks are
still there and the hunter follows
them until the baffled hounds pick
up the scent again.

“The theory sounds screwy,” said
Dewar, “but when I was down in
Arizona recently I checked with the
Lee brothers and they corroborated
the experience.”

Maybe science will catch up with
this angle one day and let us have
the answer.

Every cougar killed by the game
department’s predatory hunters is
gutted and the stomach contents ex-
amined and reported on. In the main,
Dewar told me, cougar on the Island
seems to live on venison, blue grouse
and the occasional beaver. * *«

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Page Seventy-six

ney eel Game Consens 2

(Continued from page 70)

with and the welfare of our game
populations is to be protected.
“There has been some criticism as
to the cost per animal killed by the
professional hunter as compared to
the number and cost of animals taken
under the bountry system, but it is
felt that such criticism has been made
without due regard to the problem.

“We have on occasions found that
the taking of one predator re
sponsible for excessive damage has
run the cost to the department into
hundreds of dollars, and we are satis-
fied that bounties—no matter how
high—would not have resulted in the
capture of this particular predator.
This is cited only as an example, but
there are many similar instances we
have presented from time to time.”

The report continues on this sub-
ject that Chief Predatory-animal Hun-
ter James Dewar on Vancouver Island,
on reporting that an Indian boy had
been killed by a cougar in the Al-
berni district, was instructed to pro-
ceed to the scene by plane. The hun-
ters disposed of the cougar responsible
in a matter of a very few hours.

W. W. Mair has been appointed to
take charge of all predatory-animal
operations. He will be making a com-
plete survey of the whole province
relative to the problem and may be in
a position in the near future to advise
more fully on a control program.

The commissioners say that the
continued operation of the checking-
station at Cache Creek has afforded
department biologists a splendid op-
portunity to keep a close check on the
game resources of the vast Cariboo
and Chilcotin districts. Station, in
charge of Game Warden W. H.
Cameron, has become an annual
necessity, and has been the means of
providing for the collection of a
large amount of valuable scientific
data.

Increased monies for operation of

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the department will result in a similar
station to be established in the Koo.
tenay district and possibly one some.
where on the Hope-Princeton High-
way.

Briefly, the record indicated that
1,153 moose, 876 deer, 96 black bear,
21 grizzly bear, 45 mountain goats, |
mountain sheep, 5,780 ducks, 32]
geese and 8,141 grouse were recorded
at the Cache Creek station.

The commissioners say that they
are still confronted with the problem
of straightening out the situation pre.
vailing in the province so far as big:
game guides are concerned. It is a
perplexing problem, they say, and we
are satisfied that it will be some time
before we are in a position to make
the statement that these guides have
increased their efficiency to such an
extent that there will be no cause for
complaint from any hunter employing
a guide licensed under the B.C. Game
Act.

Other tit-bits from the report:
Total of 76 rifles and 10 shotguns
confiscated from erring hunters.
Bounty payments totaled $70,501.
Big-game trophy fees paid by non-
resident hunters during year aggre-
gated $84,410. Increased numbers of
resident and non-resident fishermen
each year resulted in a large modern
trout hatchery being built at Smith
Falls on the east shoreline of Cultus
Lake, Chilliwack district, ’and our
next problem will be that of provid-
ing a similar hatchery at some point
in the Cariboo or Central Interior
section of the province.” % *%

The Fleetwood Logging Co.

404 Bank of Nova Scotia Building
602 W. Hastings Street
Vancouver, B.C.

Box 866

42-HOUR SERVICE

FISH AND GAME — SUMMER ISSUE