Lake Tahoe.
This beautiful mountain lake lies along the eastern margins of Placer and El Dorado counties. The State line between California and Nevada passes through it, lengthwise, from north to south. We reach it by stage from the Central Pacific railroad at Truckee, in three hours, over a variable road, through scenery often beautiful, and for the extravagant fare of $3.00.
The lake is one mile and a quarter above the sea level. It is itself a little inland sea, thirty miles long, from eight to fifteen wide, and in places nearly two thousand feet deep. Its water is clear as crystal, cold as the melting ice and snows which feed it, and the purest known upon the continent. Floating upon its surface, and looking down through its water, one can easily count the pebbles and stones along its gravelly bottom at the depth of sixty feet. One seems suspended between two firmaments of ether, with birds flying above and fish swimming below. And such trout! swimming forty feet beneath you, and plainly visible in all their quick and graceful motions between you and the rocky bottom.
From the water's edge, grassy slopes, pebbly beaches, rocky shores and precipitous bluffs lead the eye up through tree-dotted ravines, over forest-crowned hills to snow-clad mountains, white-headed with age, and ermine-mantled upon their tremendous shoulders.
A small steamer or two ply upon the lake—plenty of good boats await one, and excellent hotels accommodate transient guests, or more permanent boarders.
From Tahoe, back to Truckee, by stage, cross the railroad, and ride out two miles to
Donner Lake,
Smaller, but hardly less beautiful than that just left. Its great beauty in itself, the wild and romantic surrounding scenery, its ease of access and its good hotel, make it a popular summer resort. The tragical circumstances, seldom equaled in the pioneer history of any country, which gave the name to this lake, may be found graphically narrated in the "Overland Monthly" for July, 1870.
If you visit these charming lakes on your journey to the State you could not have a grander introduction to its scenes of wonder and beauty; if you take them on your return east, you could not possibly carry away more delicious memories of lovelier spots. Whether they bid you "welcome" or "farewell," you will leave them with regret, recall them with delight, and long to return and linger among their matchless charms.