CHAPTER LV.

HOLIDAYS AND FUN.

The people of the land of the “big bonanza” do not toil always and without ceasing; but, as in other lands, give some time to pleasure and recreation.

There are a number of places of summer resort to which all may flee for a few weeks each year during the hot weather of July and August. Most popular among these is Lake Tahoe, situated high among the grand scenery of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and distant but thirty-five miles from Virginia City. No land can boast a more beautiful sheet of water than Lake Tahoe, and its surroundings form a fit setting for such a gem. Donner Lake, also in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and situated but a few miles north of Lake Tahoe, is almost as popular as the latter, though it is much smaller. Its surroundings are, however, grand and picturesque, turn which way we may.

There are, besides, Webber and Independence Lakes, which are in the same neighborhood, and which are easy of access. In Hope Valley on or near the summit of the Sierras, where many pleasure-seekers go, there is found fine trout-fishing in all the brooks, and excellent quail and grouse-shooting everywhere among the hills. Indeed, for those who have the time and means to spend a few weeks in the bracing atmosphere and amid the wild and picturesque scenery of the mountains, there is no lack of attractions. The man of meditative disposition, who is weary of the bustle and strife and the noise and crowds of towns, will wander along by himself and be happy in many and many a place away up by the tall peaks in the grand solitudes, where whispers from heaven seem to come down through the pines.

Lake Tahoe lies one mile and a quarter above the level of the sea, and is surrounded on all sides by most romantic and picturesque mountain scenery. The lake is about thirty miles in length from north to south, and from eight to fifteen miles in width. It lies partly in California and partly in Nevada. Its waters are of extraordinary purity and clearness and, in places, have been sounded to a depth of over two thousand feet.

There are several fine bays around the lake, the largest and most beautiful of which is that known as Emerald Bay, which is over two miles long. This bay is about four hundred yards wide at its mouth, but rapidly widens inland. It is completely land-locked and is surrounded with timbered hills, many of which are covered with rugged and picturesque rocks, which tower among and above the pines, and other evergreen-trees. There are some small islands in the bay which add much to its beauty, and on all sides are to be obtained fine views of immense rocky cañons. Eagle Cañon contains some vast piles of rocks, with clumps of pines scattered here and there among them, and a whole day might be spent in rambling through it without exhausting its many beauties. Cave Rock, on the eastern shore of the lake is a huge pyramid of granite which occupies a very picturesque position and which contains on one side a cavern of considerable extent. In the neighborhood of this rock tall and beautiful pines are seen quite down to the shore of the lake.

The view from what is called Rocky Point, on the eastern shore, looking toward Cave Rock is also very fine. Another fine view in the direction of Cave Rock is obtained from the Sierra Rocks. The view to the northward from Sierra Rocks, toward Rocky Point, is one in which are found several picturesque tree-covered points of rocky land, extending far out into the waters of the lake. Indeed, there are new beauties to be found in all directions.

[Illustration: VIEWS ON LAKE TAHOE.]

Zephyr Cave, also on the eastern shore of the lake is a most romantic spot and the scenery is such as to set the artist thinking of his pencils the moment he enters the little bay. The Shakespeare-Rock, plainly visible from the Glenbrook House, on the southern shore of the lake, is so called on account of there being in the rugged outlines of its face a striking resemblance to the features of the immortal poet. All who visit the lake desire first of all to see this rock. Like many other things of the kind, there is much in the position from which it is viewed, and not a little in the imaginative powers of the person viewing it. The water of the lake is so transparent that pebbles on its bottom can be distinctly seen at the depth of fifty or sixty feet. When out upon the water in a boat during a time when it is perfectly calm, one seems suspended in mid-air. It is not easy to swim in the waters of the lake. Owing to the great altitude and consequent decrease of atmospheric pressure, the water is much less dense then the water of a lake or stream at the level of the sea. On account of this lack of density and buoyancy, the bodies of persons drowned in the lake never rise to the surface. Many have been drowned in Lake Tahoe, but a body has never yet been recovered.

Leaving the lake and rambling off into the surrounding country, much that is grand and romantic is to be found. From the western summit is to be had a magnificent panoramic view of the lake and the valley or basin in which it is situated, with all the surrounding mountains. The tourist may extend his rambles above Lake Tahoe to Fallen Leaf Lake, one of the most beatiful little lakes in the mountains. Cascade Lake and other small lakes will also be found worthy of a visit. About the shores of Lake Tahoe will frequently be encountered the huts of the Washoe Indians. They are generally found in some romantic spot, and, with their uncouth occupants, add not a little to the picturesqueness of the region. Some of the old saw-mills are also of a rather unusual style and will attract the attention of the tourist and the artist.

At “Yank’s Station,” on the Placerville road, a short distance from the shore of the lake, is to be seen a most singular freak of nature to which the name of “Nick of the Woods” has been given. It is a large knot in a crotch of a cedar-tree, which forks a few feet from the ground, but it looks like a work of art. It startlingly resembles the head of an old man. In looking upon this marvel of nature we can very easily imagine it to be some hoary-headed old sinner thus wedged into the crotch of the tree and imprisoned for all time on account of some grievous offence committed about the time that he was thus placed in the stocks. So natural and perfect is this head of an old man, and such an expression of patient suffering is seen in every feature of the face, that many persons will not believe that it is wholly the work of nature until after having closely examined it. “Yank’s” and all of the other stations along the Placerville road, were places of much importance during the early days of Washoe, when all the machinery and supplies of every kind came over the mountains on wagons.

When the teamsters stopped at night or noon, the road in front of the stations at which they halted would be blockaded for a great distance, and it looked almost as though all the teams in California were crossing the Sierras in one grand caravan. Now, since the completion of the Central Pacific, and Virginia and Truckee Railroads, the travellers on the old mountain-roads are few, and nothing of the old life and bustle is seen at the once famous stations. Even the old Lake House, at Tahoe, though it was built of good pine-logs and was very warm and substantial, has given way to more stylish structures. Times are changed and few but pleasure-seekers are now seen on the old road where once the sounding “blacksnake” awoke the echoes far and wide among the hills.

The tourist who wishes to see as much as possible of the mountains may go to the Big Tree Grove, Calaveras county, California, from Lake Tahoe, by taking what is called the Big Tree Road. On this road he will find many beautiful valleys, and much romantic scenery at an elevation of from seven to nine thousand feet above the level of the sea. At Lake Tahoe there are large and well-kept hotels at several points, two or three small steamboats and a great fleet of sail and row-boats, with fishing-tackle of all kinds, as trout abound in the waters of the lake. Tourists from the East who desire to visit the lake while on their way to California can do so very conveniently by leaving the Central Pacific Railroad at Reno and taking the cars of the Virginia and Truckee Railroad to Carson City, a distance of thirty-one miles, thence by stage to the lake, a distance of fourteen miles.

[Illustration: NICK-OF-THE-WOODS.]

[Illustration:

HANK MONK. (_The Famous Stage-driver of the Sierras._) ]

On this stage-line (Benton’s) from Carson to Lake Tahoe will be found Hank Monk, one of the best known and most famous stage-drivers of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. He it was who gave Horace Greeley his memorable ride across the Sierras on the occasion of his visit to California. Mr. Greeley was anxious to reach Placerville as early in the evening as possible, as he was expected to make a speech to the people of the town, and once or twice expressed a fear that he should be behind time. Monk said nothing, as he was then on a long up-grade. At length the top of the mountain was reached, and Monk started on the down-grade at a fearful rate of speed. Mr. Greeley bounded about the coach like a bean in a gourd, and soon became greatly alarmed. He thrust his head out at the coach window and tried to remonstrate, but Monk only cried: “Keep your seat, Horace, I’ll take you through on time!”

Mr. Greeley then remained quiet for a time, when he again became alarmed as they whirled at lightning speed around some short curve in the road, and out would come his head, and again Monk would shout: “Keep your seat, Horace.”

It is safe to say that the philosopher never took a wilder ride, than that in the Sierras with Hank Monk for his driver.

Monk, in common with all his tribe, hates the sight of one of those ponderous specimens of architecture in the trunk-line known as the “Saratoga bandbox.” On one occasion a lady who was stopping at the Glenbrook House, Lake Tahoe, had a “Saratoga” of the three-decker style at Carson City, which she wished brought up to the lake. The trunk was about as long and wide as a first-class spring mattress and seven or eight feet high. The lady had managed to get it as far as Carson by rail, but the trouble was to get it up into the mountain. Monk had two or three times promised to bring it up “next trip,” but always arrived without it. At last he drove up in front of the hotel one evening, and, as usual, the lady came out on the veranda to ask if he had brought her trunk.

Like the immortal Washington, Monk cannot tell a lie, and so he said: “No, marm, I haven’t brought it, but I think some of it will be up on the next stage.”

“Some of it!” cried the lady.

“Yes; maybe half of it, or such a matter.”

“Half of it?” fairly shrieked the owner of the Saratoga.

“Yes, marm; half to-morrow and the rest of it next day or the day after.”

“Why, how in the name of common sense can they bring half of it?”

“Well, when I left they were sawing it in two, and—”

“Sawing it in two! Sawing _my_ trunk in two?”

“That was what I said,” coolly answered Monk. “Two men had a big cross-cut saw, and were working down through it—had got down about to the middle, I think.”

“Sawing my trunk in two in the middle!” groaned the lady. “Sawing it in two and all my best clothes in it! God help the man that saws _my_ trunk!—God help him I say!” and in a flood of tears and a towering passion she rushed indoors, threatening the hotel-keeper, the stage-line, the railroad company, the town of Carson, and the State of Nevada with suits for damages. It was in vain that she was assured that there was no truth in the story of the sawing—that she was told that Monk was a great joker—she would not believe but that her trunk had been cut in two until it arrived intact; even then she had first to examine its contents most thoroughly, so strongly had the story of the sawing impressed itself on her mind. Monk’s “Saratoga” joke is still remembered and told at Lake Tahoe, but the ladies all say that they can’t see that there is “one bit of fun in it.”

Just here I may say that when at Carson City, by taking the cars of the Virginia and Truckee Railroad to Virginia City, the “big bonanza” and all of the big mines, and mills on the Comstock lode may be seen and explored. The distance is but twenty-one miles.

In passing down the Carson River by rail, the tourists will see a number of water-mills that are at work on silver ores, and after leaving the river, and beginning the ascent of the mountain to Virginia, he will see many miles of the crookedest railroad in the world. Were these wonderful silver-mines in Chili and Peru, all Americans who found themselves anywhere within five hundred miles of them would visit and examine them, even though obliged to bribe a dozen squads of guards in order to attain their object; but being here on American soil, where they may be reached in a ride of three hours by rail from the main line of travel, few take the trouble to visit them. Ladies, as well as gentlemen, may visit and explore the mines, even to the lowest of the lower levels.

Travellers may leave the Central Pacific Railroad at Reno, take the Virginia and Truckee Railroad and run up to Virginia City, examine the mines and mills, return to Carson City and take the stage-line to Lake Tahoe, cross the lake on a steamer, then take another line of stages, nine miles, to Truckee, on the line of the Central Pacific again, when the journey to San Francisco may be resumed.

In passing by stage from Carson City to Lake Tahoe a fine view will be obtained of the huge lumber-flume of the Carson and Lake Tahoe Lumber Company, which is twenty-one miles in length and through which seven hundred cords of wood, or half a million feet of lumber or mining timbers can daily be delivered at Carson from the eastern summit of the Sierras. The altitude of the eastern summit is 7,312 feet; of Lake Tahoe, 6,220 feet; and of the western summit, 7,315 feet; consequently the lake lies in a basin about 1000 feet in depth.

At the north end of the lake, near Tahoe City, stands the mountain selected for the Lick Observatory. This astronomical observatory is to be built with money donated for the purpose by James Lick, a San Francisco millionaire, and on it is to be mounted the finest and most powerful telescope that can be manufactured in the world. At Truckee, on the Central Pacific Railroad, the altitude is 5,860 feet; at Summit Valley, seventeen miles further west, it is 6,800; and ten miles beyond, at Cisco, it has decreased to 5,950. Here is the great snow-belt on the summit of the Sierras. It is here that snow falls to such a depth as to almost cover up the houses, and here it is that the people travel on Norwegian snow-shoes in winter, when they travel any other way than by rail.

About Cisco the snow appears to fall to a greater depth than at any other point on the mountains. It is a very difficult matter to keep the track of the railroad open at this place in winter, and at times the trains are almost buried in the snow. The snow-banks are frequently so high on both sides of the track that even the smoke-stack of the engine is hidden when a train passes along.