The man laughed and said to Jim, "Mr. Bridger, you made the right remark when you said that the river was full of fish. I have been fishing all my life, and I never saw so many fish at one time as I saw this morning. I went down to the river about daylight, and I caught fifteen fish, and I don't think I was over fifteen minutes in catching them, and I believe they will average two pounds to a fish, and they are as luscious as I ever tasted in the way of fish." I asked him if this was his first experience in eating Mountain Trout. He said it was, but he hoped it would not be his last, and said, "Can you tell me why they have such an extra flavor?" I said, "Certainly, I can. There is no stream in the world that has purer water than the Truckee river, and do you see that snowcapped mountain yonder?" and I pointed to a mountain at the south west of us which was always covered with snow at the top. "This stream is surrounded with mountains like that, and the water is cold the year around, no matter how hot the weather may be, and that is the secret of the fine flavor of the fish caught in it." And here I must say that, although I had eaten Mountain Trout many times before that morning, I never enjoyed a meal more than I did this one. As I finished eating, six young girls came to the tent and asked me if I was going fishing. I said I had thought of going. They asked if they could go with me, I said, "Certainly, you can if you wish to, but I shall have to go out and hunt some bait before I can go." One of them said, "We have enough grass hoppers to last us all day, and we will share them with you for bait." I answered, "Well, we will go up the river a little ways to those rocks yonder," and I pointed up the stream. When we got opposite the rocks which were in the middle of the stream, I helped each of the girls to a place by herself and then took a place on a rock myself, but I could not do anything for laughing at the girls. I told them they would scare all the fish out of the river. In a moment one of the girls caught a fish on her hook, but he struggled so hard that she could not pull him out of the water, and she cried for me to come and help her to land him. I got to her as quickly as I could and took the fish out of the water, and it was the largest trout I had ever seen, and I did not wonder the girl could not land him, for he made a brave fight for liberty, and it was all I could do to capture him. By this time it was a sight to look up and down the stream and see the people that were fishing. Men, women and children, old and young, seeming to be perfectly happy and to be having the time of their lives.