Indian method of driving them into a corral, by coming down upon a herd from all sides and gradually forcing them into an inclosure made for the purpose—a very unsportsman-like way of taking such delicate game.
Eastern Oregon also furnishes the mountain sheep. In the region of John Day and Des Chutes rivers, they were formerly very numerous. Their flesh is good, though likely to be flavored with whatever they feed most upon. It appears from the testimony of early voyagers to this coast, that the Indians formerly made a kind of cloth from the wool of the mountain sheep, but the process of its manufacture is unknown in Oregon at this period. The fact of the sheep being native to the grassy plains of Eastern Oregon and Washington, furnishes a hint by which wool-growers might profit.
The prairie hare—a large, blue-gray species—is found in Eastern Oregon and Washington; and also on the mountains of Southern Oregon, where it is very common. The flesh is good eating.
Of fur-bearing animals which are hunted for their skins, there is the hair seal in the Columbia River—a very pretty creature, of a bluish-gray color, spotted with white. These seals swim up the river as far as the Cascades, and in high-water make their way up to the Dalles. They are smaller in size than the red seal of the Pacific, and very docile in their dispositions. Instances have occurred of their being domesticated, when they have shown the same attachment to their masters that the dog does, following them also by scent, even into the thick woods, where they have torn themselves fearfully in their efforts to overtake those who had deserted them. The Indians roast and cat them.
