[Illustration: THE PICTURESQUE TRUCKER RIVER, NEAR LAKE TAHOE]

How utterly absurd this is. Lake Tahoe has upward of a hundred feeders,
among which may be named Glenbrook, the Upper Truckee, Fallen Leaf
Creek, Eagle Creek, Meek's Creek, General Creek, McKinney Creek, Madden
Creek, Blackwood Creek, and Ward Creek, all of these being constant
streams, pouring many thousands of inches of water daily into the Lake
even at the lowest flow, and in the snow-melting and rainy seasons
sending down their floods in great abundance.

To many it is a singular fact that Lake Tahoe never freezes over
in winter. This is owing to its great depth, possibly aided by the
ruffling and consequent disturbance of its surface by the strong
northeasterly winter winds. The vast body of water, with such
tremendous depth, maintains too high a temperature to be affected
by surface reductions in temperature. Experiments show that the
temperature in summer on the surface is 68 degrees Fahr. At 100 feet
55 degrees; at 300 feet 46 degrees; at 1506 feet 39 degrees.

Twenty years ago the thermometer at Lake Tahoe registered 18 degrees
F. _below zero_, and in 1910 it was 10 degrees F. below. Both
these years Emerald Bay froze over. Perhaps the reason for this is
found in the fact that the entrance to the bay is very shallow, and
that this meager depth is subject to change in surface temperature,
becoming warmer in summer and colder in winter. This narrow ridge once
solidly frozen, the warmth of the larger body of water would have no
effect upon the now-confined smaller body of Emerald Bay. Once a firm
hold taken by the ice, it would slowly spread its fingers and aid in
the reduction of the temperature beyond, first producing slush-ice,