[Illustration: STEAMER TAHOE OFF CAVE ROCK, NEVADA SIDE, LAKE TAHOE]




THE LAKE OF THE SKY
LAKE TAHOE




CHAPTER I

WHY "THE LAKE OF THE SKY"?


Lake Tahoe is the largest lake at its altitude--twenty-three miles
long by thirteen broad, 6225 feet above the level of the sea--with but
one exception in the world. Then, too, it closely resembles the sky
in its pure and perfect color. One often experiences, on looking
down upon it from one of its many surrounding mountains, a feeling of
surprise, as if the sky and earth had somehow been reversed and he was
looking down upon the sky instead of the earth.

And, further, Lake Tahoe so exquisitely mirrors the purity of the sky;
its general atmosphere is so perfect, that one feels it is peculiarly
akin to the sky.

Mark Twain walked to Lake Tahoe in the early sixties, from Carson