52 HASTINGS LAKE. 



passable vine maple to crawl through, varied by vast 

 mounds of upturned soil and deep holes. 



It was early one morning, in 1893, I left my ranch 

 on a spur of the Bear Mountain, in Cowlitz County, 

 for a day's salmon fishing in the Kalama River, four 

 miles north. The nature of the surroundings necessi- 

 tated my taking even this short distance a two days' 

 trip if I wished to spend a few hours on the stream. 

 A short bait-casting rod, revolver, hunting knife, and a 

 few pounds of beans, with a morsel of salt pork, was 

 all I dared to load myself with. My object on this 

 trip was to satisfy myself whether a salmon would 

 take a spoon bait. 



I started in at the Kalama Creek, which ended in 

 the Kalama River, and fished the larger pools on my 

 way down, picking up a half a dozen large rainbow 

 trout and returning the Dolly Vardens and cutthroats, 

 as this species of trout are called, to the water; I reached 

 the Kalama River about three in the afternoon, and 

 after fixing up camp started in for the evening fishing. 



The spot I selected was a spacious rocky basin, 

 shaped not unlike a huge bowl, with precipitous rocks 

 rising either side several hundred feet in height, the 

 sides studded with a scant growth of stunted under- 

 brush and here and there spanned by the huge trunk 

 of some fallen pines. The pool was probably fifty feet 

 wide in the center, ending some forty yards below in 

 a fall of about fifteen feet. The current was unusually 

 strong and rapid. I intended to skirt this pool on its 

 shallowest side, hugging the rocky wall on my left 

 until I reached a big rock which stood out high and 

 dry overlooking the fall. 



I donned my waders, strapping them tightly around 

 my waist, and slipped over my head an old inflated air 

 cushion to provide against an accidental submersion. 

 Experience has taught me the value of this precau- 

 tion, and I would advise every angler who wades rapid 

 streams with deep holes to wear either an inflated col- 

 lar or a light collaret of cork around his neck when 



