Missouri River -- Juvenile fiction; United States -- Juvenile fiction
The proprietor of this place was an old-time settler who could remember
the days of buffalo and beaver in this country, and who told them
marvelous tales of the enormous number of trout in the lake.
"Go down to the landing, below the tamarack swamp," said he, "and get a
boat and just push out over the moss a little way. Off to the right
you'll see a stake sticking up in the water. Drop your anchor a little
way from it and cast that way; it marks a spring, or cold hole, and they
lie in there."
The three boys did as advised, and to their great surprise began to
catch trout after trout as they cast their flies toward the indicated
spot. They all were about the same size, just under two pounds, all
native or cutthroat trout. They soon tired of it, and returned nearly
all of their catch to the water as soon as taken. Sometimes a fish,
tired with the struggle, would lie at the bottom, on its side, as though
dead, but if touched with the end of the landing-net handle would
recover and swiftly dart away.
"From all I learn," said Rob, "this fishing is too easy to be called
sport--they lie in all the spring holes and creek mouths. This is the
head of the Henry's Fork of the Snake River, and a great spawning
ground. Now, you want to remember you're not on Missouri waters, but
Pacific waters. If Lewis and Clark had come over that shallow gap
yonder--the Raynolds Pass, which cuts off the Madison Valley--they'd
have been on one of the true heads of the Columbia. But they probably
never would have got through, that year, at least."
The young anglers found that their catch of trout created no enthusiasm
at the camp. The cook told them that he didn't care for these trout
very much, because you had to soak them overnight in salt and water to
make them fit to eat, they tasted so muddy in the summertime. So they
said they would not fish any more at that place.
That evening as they sat about their table engaged with their maps and
notebooks, they were joined by Jim, the son of the rancher, a young man
still in the half uniform of the returned soldier, with whom they all
rapidly made friends, the more so since he proved very well posted in
the geography of that part of the country. He readily agreed to take the
young explorers on a trip over the Raynolds Pass on the following
morning, so that they might get a better idea of the exact situation of
the Madison River.
They made an early start, leaving their Uncle Dick and Billy Williams at
the ranch to employ themselves as they liked. It was a drive of only a
few miles from the northern end of Henry's Lake, along a very good road,
to the crest of the gentle elevation which lay to the northward. The
young ranchman pulled up the car at last and pointed to an iron plug
driven down into the ground.
"Here's the Divide," said he. "You now are on top of the Rocky
Mountains, although it doesn't look like it."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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