138 Recreations of a Sportsman 



" Oh, forty or fifty, mostly ten-pounders. But 

 it was a poor night; there was a dew on." But 

 Thomas said, and he stands for the type of 

 anglers, " We caught nothing." 



My reason for assuming that the fathers were 

 anglers does not rest on a question of biblical 

 precedent, but is based on a far more practical 

 hypothesis, the location of the missions, the fact 

 that nearly all of these fine old Moorish piles, 

 the only real ruins in America outside of Ari- 

 zona and New Mexico, were built near or on 

 streams famous then and to-day for their trout. 



It is true that mere water may have been the 

 inspiration, or perchance the rare beauty of 

 these localities, still I prefer to imagine that 

 these trail-makers of the Californias, these men 

 of intense courage, of ideal faith, who were 

 in the vanguards of early exploration and ad- 

 venture, who bore the cross along the Sierra 

 Nevada at the risk of their lives, had in their 

 stern and spiritual make-up the gentle philosophy 

 of Walton and his friends, and I like to think 

 that they selected their sites by beautiful streams 

 that they might at least be near not only the 

 musical water, but the living rainbows which 

 made joyous every pool to the lover of sport. 



Be this as it may, the missions of California 

 in almost every instance stand not far from 

 notable trout streams, or what were trout 

 streams years ago, and it requires but little 



