148 Recreations of a Sportsman 



old? Perish the thought! On the mesa, over- 

 looking the river, with a commanding view of 

 the snow-capped Sierra Madre, are still to be 

 seen the ruins of the first mission of San Gabriel 

 Archangel, the fourth on the chain, founded in 

 1771, now known as the mission Viejo. This 

 region was deserted on account of the earth- 

 quakes and the present fine mission, one hundred 

 and forty feet long and twenty-six feet wide, 

 built in the nineteenth century; a fortress so 

 far as strength and bulk are concerned, as at 

 the base its walls are five feet thick, supported 

 by ten colossal buttresses, while above rises a 

 beautiful campanile pierced with arches of vari- 

 ous sizes for bells which for years called, and 

 still call, the faithful in the valley of San 

 Gabriel. 



The mission is now five or six miles from a 

 stream, where in leafy coverts trout of large 

 size were originally found, all the streams hav- 

 ing been looted by the Americans. The Arroyo 

 Seco near-by, twenty-three years ago when I first 

 fished it, was an ideal region for the angler. The 

 stream winds up into the Sierra Madre, the trail 

 constantly crossing it, carrying one from leafy 

 covert to sunshine and back, the canon becoming 

 deeper and deeper until at times the stream 

 seems to be flowing down a long leafy tunnel. 

 In all its length are delightful pools with over- 

 hanging verdure, nodding ferns and brakes 



