The Arkansaw traveler., 1888-06-16
TRAGEDY OF LOST LAKE.
San Francesca Alta.

interest much worn silver bracelet, on which with difficulty could be traced the letters "Nomah," scratched evidently with knife. "The brace let came into my possession" said the gentleman, Gin peculiar manner, and if you don't mind a short story I'll tell you about it." The reporter, of course, was anxious for the story, and the gentleman, after lighting cigar, went on with his narrative: T sup pose you know that for some time back was for several years connected with the Columbia river steamboats, and so was often thrown among the old-time steamboatmen, whose pioneer and legendary knowledge was most profound.
 "The Columbia river is a magnifi- cent body of water, and doubt if there is any grander scenery in the world than that along the river from the Dalles to the Pacific ocean. It is st the Cascades, however, that the country is of the widest description and the mountains are dark with the gloom of dense forests or rugged with tremendous cliffs and frightful preci- pices. There is tradition among the few struggling Indians that one now sees along the river, which is to the effect that many, many years ago great arch of rock spsnned the river at the Cascades, forming natural bridge of stupendous size. One day the two great spirits living one on either side of the river got into desperate quar- rel, and in their mighty wrath and fury they tore the bridge asunder, and in it's fall it choked with huge blocks of stone the current of the river, thus forming the Cascades, around which Uncle Sam is now building a series of locks at enormous cost. Not only was the bridge destroyed, but from the mountain sides the angry spirits clawed off masses of rocks and stones to hurl at each other. Strangely enough, the mountains on each side of the Columbia at the Cascades do look as if they had been savagely dealt with in some Titanic struggle, and it takes but little stretch of the imagination to believe that the tradition is true so far as the natural bridge is concerned"
 "But the bracelet" interposed the reporter.
 ''I am coming to that" continued the gentleman, as he brushed the ashes from his cigar. "In the mountains around the Cascades there are num- berless lakes unsurpassed in beauty, and many of them to this day no white man has ever seen, so rough and ter ribly wild is the country through which one must travel to reach them. Some of these lakes are many acres in extent, the heavy timber coming right down to the edge of the water. Clearer than the brightest diamond that ever sparkled are the waters of these lakes ana of unfathomable depth. In the hottest days of August the wa ter is almost at the freezing point, and as you can easily imagine, the trout in these lakes are magnificent fighters, and take a fly with such savage earnestness that it makes your blood bound through your veins with ex- citement as your reel whirrs to the first mad rush of the sturdy fish. Many an hour I've fished in those lakes, with half breed boy to paddle my shallow dug-out noiselessly through the water. Curious, ain't it, that those trout will never take fly unless the wind is blowing down stream, and as for"
 "Haven't heard anything about the bracelet yet" interrupted the reporter.
 "That's 30. Well, one day the wind was blowing stiff down stream, and as our steamer was waiting to tow up barge loading with railroad iron, Captain Row suggested that we go fishing to 8 certain lake some miles back in the woods. We knew that no one had fished there for sev- eral years and that the Indians never went near it, as they said an evil spirit in the shape of monster fish lived in its waters, and though sev- eral Indians had in bravado gone to the lake to fish, none of them ever re- turned. After a hard tramp we reached the lake, and in few minutes had constructed rough raft, pushed out to the center of the lake and thrown our flies. I never had such sport in my lite. A fly could scarcely touch the water before it was seized by some hungry and keen eyed trout. | Finally, tired of the sport, we deter mined to put back to the shore, and just for luck I threw my fly once more. There was slight tug, but to my annoyance I found the fly was caught on bit of drift. We padded up to it, and reaching over to free the hook l saw piece of shining metal on the drift. hauled in the branch and there was that bracelet you have been looking at. At first I did not notice the letters scratched on it, but I fell to wondering how it got into the lake, for certainly for twenty years past no Indians had been within
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