A Rainbow in the Sierra Madre 99 



being far below the surface or entirely gone ; but if traced 

 up to the foot of the San Bernardino range, that rises 

 ten thousand feet above the desert, it soon appears 

 and for miles climbs the Sierras as one of the most at- 

 tractive trout streams in California, abounding in huge 

 pools, and scenery of the wildest description, where the 

 elements appear to have had full sway and have vented 

 their fury upon rock, forest, and range. 



The stroller along the picturesque shores of South- 

 ern California will find here and there peculiar lagunas, 

 small bodies of water separated from the sea by the 

 sand-dunes, yet at high tide connected by a little chan- 

 nel that at other times is not always apparent. 



These lagunas are often the mouths of the Southern 

 California trout streams. There is one at the mouth 

 of the Santa Ynez, near Lompoc, reached by steamer, 

 stage, or rail from Santa Barbara ; one at Alamitos, and 

 at Long Beach where the San Gabriel River reaches 

 the sea ; another at Venice, where the genius of Abbot 

 Kinney has produced a beautiful town on water-way 

 streets, after the Venetian fashion ; another is found in 

 San Diego County where the San Luis Rey River runs 

 into the sea ; and there are many others along shore ; 

 but the four mentioned are the mouths of rivers down 

 which trout may reach the sea, at times, and in and 

 about which is found the steel-head, supposed by some 

 to be the sea-living form of the rainbow, but by others 

 considered a distinct species. The steel-head bears 

 some resemblance to the rainbow, but would never be 



