our supplies, encountered Indians, and had other 

 adventures, when from the high mountains we looked 

 down upon the beautiful valley of Strawberry, its face 

 broken by the serpentine windings of a stream by the 

 same name. We were told that this stream was full 

 of fish and that it would furnish water for our coffee 

 and tired mules. When we reached the low lands 

 early in the afternoon we went into camp, and mem- 

 bers of our party sought to catch some fish for the 

 evening meal. There were many of them, but so shy 

 that with all the ingenuity we could devise but few 

 were caught. About this time when our pleasant 

 anticipations of a few hours before began to vanish, a 

 hearty looking ranchman appeared with a bucket full 

 and they were quickly purchased and almost as soon 

 on the fire. The native had repaired our shattered 

 hopes and we all wondered how he managed to provide 

 the trout in such quantities after our skilled anglers 

 had failed. Twenty years later it was my pleasure 

 to meet the same plainsman who had sold us the trout 

 by the bucket full in Strawberry Valley. He had 

 become a bond holder in New York. Laughingly 

 he related that he had engaged his cow-boys with 

 picks and shovels, to turn the direction of the stream 

 which watered Strawberry Valley. A point in the / 

 stream had been danjed so as to alter its course. This tHY 

 left the old channel below the dam barren of water 

 except in pools, where the trout had swarmed in 

 great numbers, and from which he had shoveled the 

 fish into the bucket which he had brought to us. This / 



would be regarded as a d/stardly trick in these days & / 

 and it would have been condemned in those no doubt, 

 had we then known the truth, but we were all awfully 



73 



