24 Recreations of a Sportsman 



and echoes gently wafted through the soft and 

 flower-cloyed air. 



I believe the most ardent angler cannot ap- 

 proach certain regions of California and Oregon 

 without forgetting the object of his quest in the 

 contemplation of but two features of nature 

 the splendid forests, and the lava beds fields, 

 flows, and craters they attempt to cover, as no 

 more stupendous region of volcanic activity can 

 be found in the world than that ranging from 

 Lassen to Mazama and east and west for hun- 

 dreds of miles. Not so many years ago, as the 

 charred trees can still be seen, standing in the 

 ash of a crater near Lassen, this entire region 

 was a nest of volcanoes, and the country of 

 the Cascades over which the angler rides or 

 walks to reach the Klamath country and its 

 trout, has been the scene of an eruption which 

 can only be compared to the stupendous whirl- 

 winds of fire discovered on the sun by Professor 

 Hale. Imagine a rainstorm in which each drop 

 was a piece of molten lava ranging from a thou- 

 sand tons or more in weight down to a pound, 

 and some idea can be had of this region not 

 many years ago. All these volcanoes were then 

 in operation, and the reality is seen in crossing 

 the Cascades almost everywhere, but especially by 

 the Dead Indian trail from Pelican Bay to Ash- 

 land, where, in places where the forests have not 

 covered them, these missiles are seen just as they 



