The Russellville Democrat., 1880-01-01
TULARE LAKE.
Romantic, Weird and Dreamy Retreat Mysterious Relics of a Preh istoric
 Race.
San Francisco Bulletin


 ke San Francisco Bulletin rN
 The lake is in Tulare county, inthe | southern part of California. It is reach. ed from this city by q ride of nearly three hundred miles on the Southern Pacific railroad, stepping down at Tulare City Tuiare lake is one of the most singular sheets of water in the state. II Is little inland sea, being forty miles in length and almost thirty in breadth. Its shores are low, flat and marshy. You come from the dry plain to the water margin, as :. general thing, by so gradual declne that the water seems to be higher than the land, The dry land of the plain becomes moist, in another mile it is decidedly wet, and in another it is only ankle-deep. Yet there are some bluff banks of five or six feet. If YOU would take sail and have very light boat, you must select deep water land ing, As general thing you have your boat on wagon, and put it into the wa ter wherever you please. Drive your wagon well in; out with your boat; roll up the sleeves of your pants and wade in, pushing the boat before you. In . while she swims, and you get in. Just take . look around. North and south 8 boundless sea and sky; east and west in the distance, forty miles or so, the Sierra Navada mountains, and the Coast Range. Around you, the lake, without mark and without bound. Screaming water fowl overhead. on the water, near and far of. The duck, goose, pelican, swan, gull, the whole range of waterfowl are there. In the distance the mirage makes them look like stately ships with flying sails. Itis magic lake. The wa ter warm, so warm that in or out you are equally comfortable. The air a little sultry, The breeze, generally light, or not n breath; though rarely, Old Boreas blows everything to ruin.
 Teh atmosphere is hazy. Clear close around you, but on every side the out lines are lost in mist, and in that mist all things are exaggerated. A swan is a ship, a bunch of tulea is on island, an island! seems vast continent. Tulare lake is world of itself when you are three miles from shore.
 MISTY ENcHANTMENT AND ENNrI.
 The lazy sails must have help or we shall die right here. But in this warm water, this close air, this misty enchant- ment, we arc as lazy as the sails. And so we just paddle along. But all places are alike. Our boat, the center, the mist, the circumference, the birds, the life. The picture is all one. Fines are there, :too. Great big fishes. And the whole bottom is paved with clans. You can eat them if you are very hungry, but you will never again--Rever, never, It should have been called clam lake. Take up a handful of sand, from the bot tom, from the top, from the shore, from the island beach, apply your microscope, and three-fourth of the grains are clam shells. How long has this work been proceeding? On we go. An island. A cluster! group! Like Columbus, we have discovered new land. Yes, in- deed; never before did the foot of a white man mark these shores. We will land; we do so, on the largest, It might be two miles in length, quarter wide, It's highest hills eight feet above the lake, Bushes, coarse grass, thick brush and few stunted trees are all We find. There is not land animal, not a squirrel, mouse, chipmonk-nothing from the main saore. Two Indian huts of basket-work, very neat, ten feet square, eight feet high, walls erect, and small doorway, But no one is at home.