May I, 1909.] 
FOREST AND STREAM 
701 
for it grows in few other places. All the rho¬ 
dodendrons, however, are at their best here. 
The rhododendron catawbiense unfolds its 
larger, redder blossoms in May and June, and 
in June and July we have the giant of them all, 
the rhododendron maximum, largest of bloom 
as well as of leaf and tree. Often reaching a 
height of forty feet, it is covered with great 
clusters of blossoms ranging from deep pink to 
almost pure white. In June the woods are 
literally ablaze with the many-hued azaleas. In 
May and June comes the kalmia latifolia, or 
calico bush, considered by many to be the most 
beautiful of all these flowering shrubs. Flowers 
come so fast one makes new discoveries every 
day, until he is amazed at the unlimited decora¬ 
tive resources of the Blue Ridge and of Lin- 
ville Mountain in particular. 
All the landscape gardeners, backed by all the 
wealth and liberality of our modern Croesuses, 
could not create such a show as the native flora 
of this region offers in May, June and July. 
This is the time for horseback rides and tramps, 
for the days are never hot and the ever-chang¬ 
ing panorama of the mountains, the steep sides 
of Linville gorge and the winding wooded road¬ 
sides and trails, all richly decorated with these 
gorgeous masses of bloom, make one marvel 
that nature has been so lavish in her bestowal 
of beauty upon this spot. 
Nor does winter—a season scarcely deserving 
so cold a name in this kind climate—put an end 
to the display. Then we get the galax, leu- 
cothoe, wintergreen, ground pine, holly, heather, 
ferns, many kinds of the most beautiful mosses, 
and other evergreens, besides all the laurels and 
conifers. The winter sun kisses the galax, win¬ 
tergreen and leucothoe, and they blush to such 
bronzes and reds that those who find bunches 
of the leaves among their Christmas tokens in 
the cold, bare North are inspired to such enthu¬ 
siasm as many a costly gift fails to arouse. In 
shade they retain a deep, rich green all winter. 
A greater variety of trees grow here than 
may be found in the native forests of almost 
any other section of North America. Investiga¬ 
tion has discovered 137 different trees, chiefly 
hardwood. Again the beautiful as well as the 
useful abounds. Besides the many kinds of 
oaks, pines and spruces, there are the hickories, 
chestnuts, maples, walnuts, ash, beech, birch, the 
great tulip tree, two kinds of mountain magnolia 
or cucumber tree, the locust, flowering dog¬ 
wood, sourwood and many others. 
“All I’m looking for is plenty to eat,” ingenu¬ 
ously declared a thrifty mountaineer. His stand¬ 
ard of living was hardly below the average, 
though many of the mountain people show pro¬ 
gress, have been fired by higher ambitions, and 
aspire to “ordered” things from the great world 
beyond the mountains. A few have seen a bit 
of it, but most of them know little of it and 
care less. The people of the Blue Ridge are 
not the primitive feudists of Tennessee novels, 
though their century or two of isolation has 
made them self-reliant, ingenious and resource¬ 
ful. Their staple of diet — cornbread, pork, 
beans, sauerkraut, onions and potatoes, varied 
with fruit and vegetables in the summer, often 
put up for winter—shows how sufficient are their 
products to their needs. We found them in¬ 
teresting, hospitable and thrifty, almost every¬ 
one owning his home. 
Everything, even to the time in the month of 
killing a pig, “so it will have plenty of grease,” 
is regulated by the moon, which has much to 
answer for. Almost everyone has a good gar¬ 
den, and this is a large factor in the family 
living the year round. Some of the mountain 
sides have been cleared for corn and meadow, 
a ruinous waste of timber for very poor agricul¬ 
ture. A ride through these mountains on horse¬ 
back, amid the devastation of timber and the 
washed hillsides, should convert anyone, as it 
did Secretary Wilson, of the urgent need of the 
adoption of the Appalachian Forest Reserve 
scheme. 
Occasionally there is a little hotel in the moun¬ 
tains. Some of the mountaineers have comfort¬ 
able homes and will take paying guests. As for 
camping, the prime requisites of wood and pure 
water are abundant and free. Sometimes a cot¬ 
tage may be rented. The cost of living here 
is low and little stores may be found every few 
miles to supply most of the staples. 
The fruit and vegetables of the Blue Ridge 
have earned their fame. Apples, peaches, huckle¬ 
berries, plums, blackberries, grapes—these are 
plenty and cheap. It is worth a trip here for 
, the luscious huckleberries at twenty cents a gal¬ 
lon the day they are picked, for they bear small 
resemblance to those in the city that must be 
several days old. The season is the month of July. 
Of course the garden was one of the essen¬ 
tials of the outdoor cure. Amid some mistakes 
I proved my theory that any man who will work 
may have a good garden the first time trying 
if he will get reliable seeds, follow concise, prac¬ 
tical directions and observe local conditions. 
People raise most of the ordinary garden vege¬ 
tables here and they are glad of a little revenue 
from the sale thereof. Our head lettuce, grown 
in the open, was a joy nearly all summer. 
With the newspapers and magazines calling 
seductively to people with money, painting in 
bright colors the attractions of hundreds of the 
haunts of fashion and frivolity, one who desires 
that sort of “rest” has only to decide how much 
money he will spend and how fast the gait at 
which he will travel. But I think there are 
many who, like myself, will be grateful for such 
a haven of rest as this, where nature heals 
bruised, strained nerves and transforms lassi¬ 
tude into vigor. Though not many such “un¬ 
discovered countries” are within the reach of 
ordinary persons, the need is growing as the 
pace of the city becomes faster, more relentless 
and more ruinous to nerves. 
No one can tell how long this condition of 
exclusiveness and quiet is going to last. A well 
built standard gauge railvi^ay has just been com¬ 
pleted from Johnson City, Tenn., to Marion, 
N. C., traversing some of the most imposing 
mountain scenery of the East. Linville Falls 
station on this line is six miles from this place. 
It cannot be long before Linville Falls, with its 
rich gifts from nature, will be developed into 
a conventional summer resort. 
Another interesting route is from Johnson City 
over a narrow gauge line up Doe River gorge 
to Pineola, a ten-mile drive up the Linville River 
from the falls. This is one of the most pic¬ 
turesque mountain railway rides. The tortu¬ 
ous route it follows in climbing the mountains, 
leaping from one side of the stream to the other, 
between precipitous walls sometimes a thousand 
feet high, gives this train the name “stem- 
winder.” Frank W. Bicknell. 
Fishing Around San Francisco. 
San Francisco, Cal., April 26. —Editor Forest 
and Stream: Since the opening of the steel- 
head season on April i, ideal weather condi¬ 
tions have prevailed and hundreds of anglers 
have visited the streams where these fish are 
to be found. High water is still interfering 
with the sport to a considerable extent and but 
few fish are being caught by those who insist 
on using a fly. .Anglers who use bait have had 
no difficulty in securing good catches, and with¬ 
in the course of another week, if present con¬ 
ditions prevail, the sport should be excellent. 
The best fishing grounds at the present time are 
to be found on Paper Mill and Lagunitas creeks 
and it is there that the crowds are now to be 
seen. The fish taken there are small but quite 
numerous, and there is but little difficulty in 
securing a limit catch. 
From present indications the best fishing will 
be experienced this year in many seasons past. 
Steelheads are reported to be very plentiful on 
the Russian River, but it will be a couple of 
weeks before there is much fishing done there. 
The water is still high and the fish have plenty 
of f^od. 
P. L. Murphy, of Petaluma, has been meet¬ 
ing with great success on Salmon Creek, a 
stream but little visited by city sportsmen, and 
took twenty-two fish on the opening day. 
Ed. Ladd and Fred. Savage have been going 
after striped bass of late, and while this is sup¬ 
posed to be between seasons for this fish, they 
have managed to secure good catches, though 
none of the fish were larger than 12-pounders. 
Old-time fishermen are of the opinion that 
salmon will be found in the bay waters earlier 
than usual this season and base their opinions 
on the fact that sardines are so much in evi¬ 
dence at the present time. As soon as these 
fish make their appearance in large numbers it 
is certain that the salmon are close by. Ordi¬ 
narily they do not make their appearance before 
about the first of July. 
The Anglers’ Association, at a meeting held 
recently, decided to offer a number of valuable 
prizes for the best catches made by members 
during the coming season, but the full details 
and conditions have not been named. Great 
preparations are being made for the field day 
and picnic that is to be held by the association 
at Point Reyes on the 25th of April, and the 
meeting directed the most of its attention to 
arranging the details of this. The work of the 
past year along legislative lines is very gratify¬ 
ing to the members and much good was accom¬ 
plished, but there are still important -changes 
to be made in fishing laws, and the association 
is preparing for an active campaign next year. 
The regular monthly meeting of the San 
Francisco Fly-Casting Club was held at Stow 
Lake on Saturday and Sunday of last week and 
the members were much encouraged by the large 
attendance, there being more entries in the 
events than has been the case in many months 
past. Some very good scores were made in 
spite of the fact that the wind was quite strong. 
The Price Creek hatchery on Eel River has 
had a very successful season’s run, and about 
300,000 steelhead trout eggs were secured. 
There are a large number of silver salmon 
now ready to turn loose from the hatchery and 
the Eel River is expected to be well stocked 
soon with these fish. A. P. B. 
