TROUT OF THE SAW-TOOTH 



BY W. E. BRAMEL 



OF ALL the people, the myriads of 

 people, who cross the continent — 

 I mean of all those who have crossed 

 and who will cross the continent in order to 

 see California and the Pacific Coast and 

 the West in general— it is a great surprise 



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THE FALLS ON OAK CREEK 



how few of those travelers know as large a 

 proportion of the West as they believe they 

 do upon their return home. True, the 

 wide expanse of desert and sage-brush in 

 Southern Idaho, which requires one whole 

 day to cross, gives one the impression — 

 observing from the car win- 

 dow — that nothing but star- 

 vation and poor success 

 could attend any one's 

 efforts in that part of the 

 State, but true as this may 

 m all seem, and natural enough 



jl^ i as this may be, I want to say 



right here that it is a conun- 

 drum to any one who knows 

 this part of the State, why 

 the railroad was put in such 

 a desolate stretch of coun- 

 try. The probability is that 

 it was built there because of 

 the apparent evenness of the 

 ground for the construction 

 of the road-bed — where the 

 wash from the mountains in 

 the prehistoric ages reached 

 the borders of the great 

 snake river. 



It is only fifty-seven miles 

 north of this railroad that 

 the little town of Hailey is 

 located — a town of 2,000 

 souls, situated on a branch 

 line and amid immense min- 

 ing and sheep industries — 

 sheep industries second to 

 none in the Coast States. It 

 is the stream upon which 

 this little city is located that 

 nature has amply supplied 

 with those speckled beau- 

 ties — the trout that our Gov- 

 ernment has termed the 

 " cut-throat" trout. This 

 stream is named Big Wood 

 River and heads in the snow- 

 clad Saw Tooth range of 

 mountains north of Hailey. 



