166 THERE OREGON SPORTSMAN 
there were more than the others. Of all the fish we saw, not the least 
blemish was noticeable on one. Our party fished in rather a desultory 
way for about three hours; altogether it would not amount to more than 
four hours’ steady fishing for one person. The result was twenty very 
fine rainbow trout, running in weight from two to five pounds. The 
fish were fat and the finest that I ever saw taken from the water at 
this. season of the year. For several reasons, which I shall state, we 
‘are certain that the big run of trout from this lake is just beginning. 
In the first place, there are not nearly so many fish in evidence as 
there were at this date a year ago, when the run was the result of 
7000 fingerlings placed in the lake by the Fish and Game Commission 
three years before. Of these oldest fish but a few have been taken 
as yet this season. The largest number already captured is made up 
of the two-year-old fish, of which there were 115,000 planted in the 
lake in the month of July, 1915. It would appear to ve very probable 
that a majority of this planting will spawn this year. From two to 
three thousand eggs have been taken from each of the two-year-old 
fish, and the eggs are of the finest quality. The lowest estimate of 
the eggs to be taken this season would be a million, and it will not 
be a very great surprise to the best informed if double that number of 
eggs should be secured. These eggs will be eyed at the lake and from 
there taken to the Klamath hatchery, near Fort Klamath, where the 
eggs will be hatched and the fish fed until time to distribute same in 
the various streams and lakes of Oregon. This planting will take place 
in August or September of the present year. 
No eggs were taken at Four Mile Lake last year, and it was 
estimated by persons who were in a position to know that at least one 
million trout fry went back into the lake last fall, as a result of the 
spawning in Four Mile Creek last year, and at the present time milt 
is being taken from these yearling male fish with which to fertilize 
the eggs that are taken from day to day. This may be seen by any 
person who will take the time and trouble to make the trip to Four 
Mile Lake. 
We confidently expect the fish wonders of this lake to continue 
until it will be one of the show places, not only of the state but of 
the world. And, as often stated, until the Summer of 1913, Four Mile 
Lake was utterly devoid of fish life. 
A COLORADO MEMORY 
By MARK WOODRUFF, Portland, Oregon 
‘THINK it was in the spring of 1893 that the Congress repealed the 
I Sherman law, the bill which compelled the government to purchase 
a few ounces of silver each year and thereby sustained the price at 
around 90 cents an ounce. I ought to be clear in mind as to the date, 
because it threw myself and several hundred other silver miners out 
of a job, and thereby furnished the opportunity for the fly-casting 
bug to get into my system. We lived at Creede, Colorado, one mile 
from the upper Rio Grande, one of the finest trout streams in America. 
When the mines closed down, most of the hard-rock workers pulled 
out for the gold and copper camps, but being encumbered with a family 
the writer thought it good judgment to stick around to see the out- 
come of the matter, believing that rich properties could not be perma- 
nently closed. 
My stepfather, E. D. Wells, and myself got together a camp outfit 
