All the streams were filled with trout, and more than once we saw the side-hill salmon on the slopes.  No, side-hill salmon is not a peripatetic fish; it is a deer out of season.  But the trout!  At Gualala Charmian caught her first one.  Once before in my life I had caught two . . . on angleworms.  On occasion I had tried fly and spinner and never got a strike, and I had come to believe that all this talk of fly-fishing was just so much nature-faking.  But on the Gualala River I caught trout—­a lot of them—­on fly and spinners; and I was beginning to feel quite an expert, until Nakata, fishing on bottom with a pellet of bread for bait, caught the biggest trout of all.  I now affirm there is nothing in science nor in art.  Nevertheless, since that day poles and baskets have been added to our baggage, we tackle every stream we come to, and we no longer are able to remember the grand total of our catch.

At Usal, many hilly and picturesque miles north of Fort Bragg, we turned again into the interior of Mendocino, crossing the ranges and coming out in Humboldt County on the south fork of Eel River at Garberville.  Throughout the trip, from Marin County north, we had been warned of “bad roads ahead.”  Yet we never found those bad roads.  We seemed always to be just ahead of them or behind them.  The farther we came the better the roads seemed, though this was probably due to the fact that we were learning more and more what four horses and a light rig could do on a road.  And thus do I save my face with all the counties.  I refuse to make invidious road comparisons.  I can add that while, save in rare instances on steep pitches, I have trotted my horses down all the grades, I have never had one horse fall down nor have I had to send the rig to a blacksmith shop for repairs.

Also, I am learning to throw leather.  If any tyro thinks it is easy to take a short-handled, long-lashed whip, and throw the end of that lash just where he wants it, let him put on automobile goggles and try it.  On reconsideration, I would suggest the substitution of a wire fencing-mask for the goggles.  For days I looked at that whip.  It fascinated me, and the fascination was composed mostly of fear.  At my first attempt, Charmian and Nakata became afflicted with the same sort of fascination, and for a long time afterward, whenever they saw me reach for the whip, they closed their eyes and shielded their heads with their arms.

Here’s the problem.  Instead of pulling honestly, Prince is lagging back and manoeuvring for a bite at Milda’s neck.  I have four reins in my hands.  I must put these four reins into my left hand, properly gather the whip handle and the bight of the lash in my right hand, and throw that lash past Maid without striking her and into Prince.  If the lash strikes Maid, her thoroughbredness will go up in the air, and I’ll have a case of horse hysteria on my hands for the next half hour.  But follow.  The whole problem is not yet stated.