78 
THE SPOR?TSMAN’S AND TOURIST’S GUIDE. 
season, in some, if not all of these streams, 
they take the fly pretty well. The cause of 
their not rising to the fly is that in the months 
of June and July, perhaps earlier or perhaps 
later than this, it may happen the trout are 
feeding upon the salmon roe that is floating 
down the stream or are disturbed in the gravel 
or sand in the eddies by the trout themselves, 
and which although fiercely guarded by the 
male salmon, who remains by the female while 
discharging her eggs, and, after dropping his 
melt over them, drives, or attempts to drive off 
all intruders, of course including the trout and 
perhaps others of his own kith and kin, who 
are known to be very destructive even of their 
own particular kind. This is especially the 
case where the holes are deep, a little away 
from the swift current, and where great num- 
bers of salmon rest, and which afford the In- 
dians capital opportunities to spear them. 
Every year the numbers of fisherman who re- 
sort to these waters as the ne plus ultra of 
angling sport, and their neighborhood, as the 
habitants of deer and many varieties of the 
larger game, are increasing. Those who can 
afford the time and means have a grand time 
of it. They generally camp out either on the 
shores of one of the many rivers which, flow- 
ing from the base of Mt. Shasta, form the Sac- 
ramento, Pitt, or McCloud, or on one of the lat- © 
ter. The canyons are heavily wooded with 
magnificent old trees through which these pure 
and cold waters from melting snow flow. 
These visitors feast on venison, trout, and any 
other portable provisions they may choose to 
bring with them or obtain from the well-pro- 
vided public houses, and the best sauce they 
possess is a good appetite. There is a pretty 
long stage journey from Redding, the terminus 
of the railroad, but men who can camp out and 
fish, are supposed to be well able to stand a 
day and night’s travel and a strong shaking 
up. The scenery, to lessen the fatigue, is pic- 
turesque and indeed magnificent. Here are 
the primeval forests, pine-tinctured mountain 
air, and never failing sport with the trout and 
salmon ahead, as the fish seen jumping every- 
where in the passing streams attest. The sal- 
mon that are taken average about twelve 
pounds each. So many of them can be cap- 
tured with salmon roe, the fishing soon be- 
comes monotonous. The attention after a lit- 
tle while is turned to brook trout and Dolly 
Vardens. It is quite common to catch fifty of 
these per day, averaging about a pound each. 
The Dolly Varden is the rarest sort to bag. 
They weigh heavier, are gamier than the brook 
trout, have some yellow and red spots on their 
sides, but are not so beautiful either in shape 
or color, nor so good in the quality of their 
meat. The supply of fish is inexhaustible, 
and the charm of fishing would be as much so 
could they be ecreeled by means of the fly in- 
stead of the roe-bait. But what a splashing 
and struggling and excitement there is on the 
shores of these thickly peopled waters at any 
rate, and upon the whole the trip to a thorough 
angler and lover of the grand and beautiful and 
the healthful, cannot be otherwise than highly 
satisfactory and delightful. 
AROUND SACRAMENTO. 
There are many fine hunting and fishing 
grounds in the neighborhood of Sacramento, 
California. Deer, hare, rabbits, wild geese, 
and ducks of all kinds, snipe, plover, curlew, 
quail, &c., are always to be had by those who 
are willing to go where they are. Resident 
sportsmen often hitch up a team at one or two 
o'clock of an afternoon, and manage to get a 
good half day’s sport near the city. But to 
the sportsman who goes there for pleasure, 
with time and means at his command, Califor- 
nia offers the most tempting allurements. In 
January the climate is delightful, the grass 
green, and the soft perfume of violets and ger- 
aniums is quite perceptible from under your 
window, while the sun shines out bright and 
warm, with the thermometer somewhere be- 
tween fifty and sixty degrees. Off in the east, 
stretching from north to south as far as the eye 
can reach, like a wall of white marble, runs 
the Sierra Nevada chain of mountains, whose 
summits are white with snow, forming a pic-_ 
turesque background to the valley in front an 
the foothills warm-looking and green with ver- 
dure. On the western side of the Sierras there 
are no grouse, excepting those which stay high 
up in the mountains near the summit. There, 
too, are found in large numbers the “ mountain 
quail,” a species larger than the blue valley 
quail, of a brownish-gray color, and with (in 
the male) a long plume rising on the top of the 
head, and falling behind almost to the middle 
of the back. At the summit of the mountain, 
in the very heart of the Sierra, some eight to 
