90 Life in the Open 



two pounds and was an ideal trout a splendid fellow, 

 that, dying, eyed me with disdain. He was well propor- 

 tioned, and comparing him to the brook trout I saw that 

 he had larger eyes, a small mouth, the head more salmon 

 like. His colour on the back was an iridescent green ; 

 the sides lighter, tending to white, and dotted, stamped 

 with small, black, velvet-like spots, while from gills to tail 

 was a band of reddish blotches, a combination that blazed 

 like a rainbow when the trout leaped in the sunlight. 



I kept on up the cafton, following the trail, then 

 taking the stream and fishing down, in short sections, 

 with varying success and always a splendid play from the 

 animate rainbow. In these wilds of the Sierra Madre, at 

 least half the charm is the environment. I walked or 

 rode, led on and on by the constant change, then turned 

 and followed the stream in its race to the sea, to again 

 turn back. As I worked into the range the canon deep- 

 ened and large pools and deep gorges appeared. Once I 

 crept up to one twenty feet across ; and on its rim grew 

 masses of brakes, olive-green plumes that caught the 

 slightest breeze. Opposite were groups of wild lilac, 

 its delicate lavender flowers showering into the pool, 

 while long, pointed bay-leaves, like mimic ships, and 

 acorns nearly two inches long, that had rolled down the 

 cafion side, floated about. On one side clumps of 

 columbine made a blaze of colour ; and on the other 

 a vivid green carpet of moss marked the passage of the 

 stream from the pool above ; the water coming gently 

 down like a sheet of quicksilver. 



