9 8 Life in the Open 



The pools in Deep Creek, in the San Bernardino 

 mountains, are of great beauty and size, often chiselled 

 out of the rocky and literal basins of stone, flanked by 

 stupendous masses of rock, down which the clear waters 

 splash and foam, pouring from one great pool into 

 another on their way down the stupendous slope of 

 the range. Such is the lower Big Pool. The upper Big 

 Pool, Deep Creek, is even more remarkable, if possible, 

 for its water-worn rocks, the clearness of the water, and 

 its melody where it falls in a level sheet ; then striking 

 a sloping ledge it bounds down into the pool, a mass of 

 molten silver, carrying life and aeration into an ideal 

 pool in the heart of the forest where the angler does not 

 cast in vain. 



This fine mountain stream well illustrates the possi- 

 bilities of mountain climbing and trout fishing, abound- 

 ing in long reaches of forest, tumbling down great 

 distances in short periods, at once one of the hardest 

 streams to climb, and one of the most beautiful and 

 satisfactory to the lover of mountain life. 



Deep Creek is an eastern fork and possibly the 

 largest branch of the Mojave River, and can be traced 

 into a desert second only to the Sahara in its terrors 

 of heat in midsummer ; hence, one of the most remark- 

 able trout streams in the world for its contrasts. If 

 any one should point out this dry river-bed in the 

 desert as a trout stream, he would be laughed at, as it is 

 a mere streak of water-polished stones overwhelmed by 

 sand-dunes for miles over the desert, what water there is 



