A Rainbow in the Sierra Madre 87 



beauties of these resorts can be had by a four-mile ride 

 from Pasadena, at the head of the San Gabriel Valley. 

 The town lies on the bank of the Arroyo Seco, which 

 abounded in trout for almost its entire length some years 

 ago, but they have been forced to the upper ranges. A 

 fairly good trail extends up the canon twelve or fifteen 

 miles, taking one into the very heart of this part of the 

 Sierra Madre. Near by is Millard Canon, a beautiful 

 gorge with a notable fall splashing over beds of ferns, 

 the canon then winding its way upward six thousand 

 feet above the sea. 



The San Gabriel Canon, the head waters of the 

 river of that name, always has fishing unless the water 

 is too high ; but the smaller canons fail sometimes for 

 opposite reasons, the supply of rain often being too low 

 for a period of years, killing off the fish. But in fishing 

 all is not fish, and some of the most enjoyable days I 

 have had in Southern California have been in the hey- 

 day of the Arroyo Seco, when its pools were full, and 

 its stream musical, laughing waters. Countless times 

 the trail crosses the stream, and I have stopped at the 

 crossing, and, while my horse cooled his hoofs, cast 

 down the stream from the saddle and hooked a fish in 

 the riffle. 



A delight-giver indeed was this stream. It began 

 far away in the upper range and drained many square 

 miles of surface ; cool, pure as crystal I often stood 

 on its edge, or on some rock, and watched it go whirling 

 by ; now loud and melodious, as it ran over some rocky 



