262 The Trout s of America 



from its size and the grandeur of its environment, 

 the river coursing through a canon of great 

 depth, with the mountain sides on the west bank 

 rising nearly perpendicular some thousands of 

 feet. Adown its course the stream rushes 

 wildly over a series of broken rocks, sand bars, 

 cascades, and gigantic trunks of fallen juniper 

 trees, and then subsiding, here and there, into 

 deep pools. The trout may be found in all the 

 varied conditions of the stream, and as they reach 

 a weight of about eight pounds, the pleasure of 

 catching them on a light rod and a dancing fly 

 in such surroundings is incomparable, but to 

 reach their home waters is somewhat of an ardu- 

 ous, certainly a lengthy, journey. My recent 

 visit to the Kern River entailed a buckboard ride 

 of sixty miles from Visalia, California, and a mule- 

 back straddle from Mineral King, of three days, 

 over mountain ranges with narrow trails and 

 precipitous sides, and rattlesnakes startling the 

 mule every few hundred feet. Our party of 

 six averaged a snake to a man each day of the 

 trip, the revolver fired from the back of our 

 mules being the destroyer. The Kern River 

 country is the natural and densely populated 

 home of the rattlers. 



