l, got off, and walked and led them. Bowman Lake, our objective
point, seemed to recede.

Very few people have ever seen Bowman Lake. Yet I believe it is one of
the most beautiful lakes in this country. It is not large, perhaps only
twelve miles long and from a mile to two miles in width. Save for the
lower end, it lies entirely surrounded by precipitous and inaccessible
peaks--old Rainbow, on whose mist-cap the setting sun paints a true
rainbow day after day, Square Peak, Reuter Peak, and Peabody, named with
the usual poetic instinct of the Geological Survey. They form a natural
wall, round the upper end of the lake, of solid-granite slopes which
rise over a mile in height above it. Perpetual snow covers the tops of
these mountains, and, melting in innumerable waterfalls, feeds the lake
below.

So far as I can discover, we were taking the first boat, with the
possible exception of an Indian canoe long ago, to Bowman Lake. Not the
first boat, either, for the Geological Survey had nailed a few boards
together, and the ruin of this venture was still decaying on the shore.

There was a report that Bowman Lake was full of trout. That was one of
the things we had come to find out. It was for Bowman Lake primarily
that all the reels and flies and other lure had been arranged. If it was
true, then twenty-four square miles of virgin lake were ours to fish
from.

IV

A FISHERMAN'S PARADISE

After our first view of the lake, the instant decision was to make a
permanent camp there for a few days. And this we did. Tents were put up
for the luxurious-minded, three of them. Mine was erected over me, when,
as I had pre-determined, I had found a place where I could lie
comfortably. The men belonging to the outfit, of course, slept under the
stars. A packer, a guide, or the cook with an outfit like ours has,
outside of such clothing as he wears or carries rolled in his blankets,
but one possession--and that is his tarp bed. With such a bed, a can of
tomatoes, and a gun, it is said that a cow-puncher can go anywhere.

Once or twice I was awake in the morning before the cook's loud call of
"Come and get it!" brought us from our tents. I never ceased to view
with interest this line of tarp beds, each with its sleeping occupant,
his hat on the ground beside him, ready, when the call came, to sit up
blinking in the sunlight, put on his hat, crawl out, and be ready for
the day.

The boats had traveled well. The next morning,