The Trout Streams of the Missions 149 



beneath which the trout hide, rising at vagrant 

 insects which swarin and hang in midair, or 

 play in the beams of light which come down 

 through the leaves. 



In midwinter this and all the canons of the 

 range are at their best, and doubtless in the old 

 days many a party of friars with their neophytes 

 spent the day in these charming resorts catching 

 trout for the mission supply. 



The splendid mission of Santa Barbara faces 

 the sea at Santa Barbara, and its long line of 

 arches presents an artistic, indeed imposing pres- 

 ence. No trout stream makes music here, but 

 not far three hours as the burros please 

 back in the range flows the Santa Ynez, which 

 we have seen at La Purissima Concepcion, even 

 to-day affording some of the best trout in 

 California. 



The mission of San Fernando Rey de Espagna 

 in the Encino Valley, founded in 1797, looks 

 out on a great valley surrounded by mountains 

 down which pours the Los Angeles River, and 

 one does not have to wander far from its long 

 corridors to find a trout stream and trout. And 

 so one might easily associate every mission in 

 this monastic chain, from San Diego de Alcala 

 to San Carlos Borromeo, with the quiet and 

 beauty of trout streams. " Angling is somewhat 

 like poetry, men are to be born so," was an 

 epigram of Walton, and as angling is a vir- 



