Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-07-06

natural beauty and grandeur, they are no
more TO be compared TO Lake Tahoe than
a meridian of longitude is to a rainbow.
Speaking of the wonderful transparency of
the water of this lake, in his "Innocents
Abroad he says:
81 speak Of the north shore of Tahoe,
where one can count the scales on trout
at a depth of $50 feet. / have tried to get
this statement off at par, but with no sue
cess so | have been obliged to negotiate
it at 30 per cent. discount. At this rate l
find some takers; perhaps the reader will
receive il on the same terms-ninety feet
instead of $780, But let it be remembered
that those are forced terms-Sherif7s sale
prices As far as am privately concerned,
/ abate not jot of the original assertion,
that in those strangely magnifying
waters one may count the scales on
a trout Ia trout OF the large kind at
depth of $50 feet-may see every pebble
on the bottom-might even count paper
of dray-pins, People talk OF the transpar-
ent waters of the Mexican bay of Acapulco,
but in my own experience | know they
cannot compare with those am speaking
of | have fished for trout in Tahoe, and
at measured depth of eighty-four feet i
have seen them put their noses to the bait
and could see their gills open and shut /
could hardly have seen the trout them
selves at that distance in the open air.
GAS l go back in spirit and recall that
noble sea, reposing among the snow peaks,
5000 feet above the ocean, the conviction
comes strong upon me again that Como
would seem bedizened little courtier in
that august presence. Tahoe is from ten
to eighteen miles wide, and its mountains
shut it in like a wall Their SUBMITS are
never free from snow the year round. One
thing about it is very strange: 1t never
has even a skim of ice upon its surface,
although lakes in the same range of
mountains lying in lower and warmer
temperature, freeze over in winter"
The shore of the lake is a hard grayish
sand. The water gradually deepens until
when the bottom no longer is visible it
appears beautiful emerald green; at vary
ing distances from the shore the color
changes TO dee per green tinged with blue
until it suddenly changes to an indigo, and
one wonders as the steamer plows its way
through these waters why some enterpris-
ing Yankee don't barrel it up and furnish
il to laundries for "blueing water" The
color lines are as distinctly drawn between
the clear, the green and the blue waters as
if the surface were painted. This of course
when the waters are calm. But Tahoe is
not always dreary calm, and no one can
anticipate when its surface will be ruffled.
The wind may at any time whistle unex-
pectedly down from any quarter, through
surrounding canyons, and her fair smiles
are then converted into frowns, threatening
and uneasy, while white-capped waves
lash themselves into foaming, seething
surf upon its shores.
CURIOUS, BUT A FACT.
1t is known that people have lived all
their lives within sound of the roar of
Niagara and yet died without ever having
seen the falls that others have crossed
continents and oceans to look at. Ameri-
cans, and among them Californians, visit
foreign lands to view the scenery of the
old world, and, while abroad, when asked
regarding the scenery of our own country,
shamefully confess that they have no per-
sonal knowledge of the beauty and grand
err of Sierra Nevada and Rocky maintain