The Golden Trout of Cottonwood Lakes. 193 



THE GOLDEN TROUT OF COTTONWOOD 

 LAKES. 



By Fred Koch. 



The snow was still on the ground when we got there, 

 young Butcher and I, with our pack trains, and as the 

 sun was going down, we unloaded the mules, and picked 

 out a little clear spot on the edge of the meadow, where 

 we built a fire, hoping to dry off a small space before 

 turning in for the night. June sixteenth seemed pretty 

 late in the season to us when we left the desert with its 

 temperature of over a hundred in the shade, but it seemed 

 very early when we emerged from the scant yellow pine 

 belt and plunged into the tamaracks ten thousand feet 

 above sea level. The ascent had been sudden, for we had 

 climbed along the precipitous sides of the great fault of 

 the eastern slope of the Sierra, ascending in one place 

 three thousand feet in less than three miles. At ten 

 thousand five hunded feet, the shady nooks were still 

 covered with snow, while far above us we could see the 

 precipitous cliffs with great snow banks at their feet. 



We comprised one section of the Death Valley expedi- 

 tion, which in 1891 spent half a year hunting and trap- 

 ping in the heart of the desert, and now the two of us 

 were to spend three months studying the birds and mam- 

 mals of the High Sierra, and with our barometers and 

 other instruments make meteorological observations at 

 an altitude of over ten thousand feet. 



At Lone Pine, at the eastern base of the mountain, 

 people hinted at the wonderful trout we would find in 

 Cottonwood and Volcano Creeks, and described them in 

 a manner fit to make our mouths water; so we were a 

 happy pair of youngsters, when, a little after noon, we 

 poked our heads through the clouds, as it were, and 

 crossing the first bridge, started to clamber down the 



