Forest and Stream 
Terms, $3 a Year, 10 Cts. a Copy. 
Six Months, $1.50. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JULY 22, 1911. 
VOL. LXXVII.—No. 4. 
No. 127 Franklin St., New York. 
PLAYING A GOOD ONE. 
Rainbow Chasing in Linville Gorge 
I F you're game for the roughest climb ever 
you tried, I’ll show you better sport in a 
couple of days than you can get here all 
summer.” 
The voice of this tempter was big and strong 
and assuring. It belonged to John Turner, a 
Blue Ridge Mountain fisherman. He had been 
watching me patiently angling for ten-inch rain¬ 
bow trout near the big falls of Linville River 
in Western North Carolina. It was the third 
summer that this wild, clear, turbulent mountain 
stream had held me by the charm of its setting 
and the gamy conduct of its uncertain, moodish 
occupants. Without going far into the dark and 
By FRANK W. BICKNELL 
dangerous depths of its picturesque canon, pools 
had been found, and rapids, too, that yielded 
plenty of fish, but not the big ones that moun¬ 
taineers claimed were there. I had seen a few 
of them brought out by ambitious anglers who 
had ventured below. Here was my chance. 
A few days later we set off along the rim of 
the canon, the top of Linville Mountain, till we 
came to a trail—so it is called—down which 
John T. walked and I—well, lowered myself 
1,400 feet to the bottom of the canon or gorge. 
We found ourselves at the foot of one of the 
numerous beautiful cascades that help the river 
to fall 1,800 feet in ten miles. Though my oblig¬ 
ing pathfinder shouldered most of the baggage 
and every unnecessary ounce had been left be¬ 
hind, we still felt that tackle, camera and three 
days’ rations were quite enough impedimenta. 
The long, lank, sinewy mountaineer had an ad¬ 
vantage of some twenty pounds that I could not 
well slice off on short notice. This handicap 
multiplied my grief tenfold and sometimes de¬ 
layed the game. 
If all the skyscrapers on lower Broadway were 
tumbled into the narrow canon that man has left 
between them, it would not be more difficult to 
travel “the great white way” than it is to walk 
down Linville gorge. Occasionally one does 
