Dutch Flat—A Retrospect 165 
stage and started for Soda Springs or Sissons 
at the base of Shasta—round about Eden, 
that is—a journey of seventy or eighty miles. 
Now the great difference between fishing as 
it was then in California and as it is now in the 
East, is that in the East there is much fishing, 
and few fish, while in California there were 
few anglers, but ah, what an abundance, what 
a plethora of trout. What fisherman would 
not cherish the memory of that sport to his 
dying day and keep it so green that the 
very fish would grow in size and their 
number increase in his fancy, as the actual 
trout diminish and their numbers dwindle? 
He shall recall too, the peculiar creak and 
rumble—the voice as it were—of the Con- 
cord stage, and the soft swish of water gur- 
gling about the flatboat as the stage was 
ferried over the river in the night, sounds ever 
after associated in his mind with fishing— 
real fishing. Nor will he ever forget those 
eating stations on the road where, as fresh 
horses were being put in, the passengers 
descended stiffly from the stage, stamped 
upon the ground to recover the use of 
their legs, while they slapped the red dust 
from their hats, and single file marched 
up to the bench in front of the shanty, upon 
