Flies and Fly-fishing. 371 



hotel half " gin-mill," two or three other frame build- 

 ings not "gin-mills," and fifteen or twenty scattered 

 log-houses and cabins made up the metropolis. And 

 not one single green thing in sight a dismal Golden! 

 Why is it, in the new towns west of the Rocky Moun- 

 tains, where timber grows, in some localities grows so 

 magnificently, that the pioneer settlers seem to know no 

 peace of mind till they have skinned the land as bare of 

 trees as the back of one's hand? I sometimes think 

 that an unrestrained man with an axe, and skilled in its 

 use, is as much worse than a small boy with a drum as 

 his evil deeds are more lasting in effect. 



The first living object of interest we saw was a long- 

 legged Chinaman, who, impassive in face as a sphinx, 

 stalked the length of the station platform, towing his 

 long pig-tail behind him, and also, by a less visible but 

 apparently no less secure tenure, a small, black and bare- 

 headed Chinese girl, apparently about thirteen or four- 

 teen years old, who trotted at his heels as a dog follows 

 its master. The station-master informed us this midget 

 was the long-legged Chinaman's wife, and delivered 

 himself of some remarks upon the Chinese in general, 

 and that male sample in particular, which left the hearer 

 in no doubt that, if he possibly did regard that sample 

 as a man, he certainly did not look upon him as a 

 brother. 



One, and but one, other passenger alighted from the 

 train a nice-looking, dove-eyed girl of nineteen or 

 twenty, evidently a mother's girl, and apparently thrown 

 on her own resources for the first time, and keenly con- 

 scious how inadequate those resources were. 



As far as inspection went, it was a case of Hobson's 

 choice between the two rival hostelries. But the station- 



