CHAPTER XVIII.
BY STEAMER AROUND LAKE TAHOE The ride around Lake Tahoe is one of varied delights, as the visitor sees not only the Lake itself from every possible angle, but gains an ever shifting panorama of country, and, more remarkable than all, he rides directly over that wonderful kaleidoscope of changing color that is a never-ceasing surprise and enchantment.
Tahoe Tavern is the starting point of the ride, the train conveying the passenger directly to the wharf from which he takes the steamer.
Capt.

Pomin is in control.
Not far from where this, the most beautiful and charming hotel of the Lake is erected, there used to be a logging camp, noted as the place from which the first ties were cut for that portion of the Central Pacific Railroad lying east of the summit of the Sierras.

A number of beautiful private residences line the Lake for some distance, the area having been portioned out in acre and half-acre lots.

Chief of these are the summer home of Professor W.T.Reid, for a time President of the State University of California, and Idlewyld, the residence of Mr.
and Mrs.Frederick Kohl, of San Francisco.
One of the oldest villas of this portion of the Lake used to be owned by Thomas McConnell, of Galt, and it was his daughter, Mary, who first made the ascent of one of the peaks now known as Maggie's Peaks, as a marble tablet placed there testifies.
In the mountains beyond are Ward's Peak (8665 feet) to the right, and Twin Peak (8924) to the left, from the first of which heads Ward's Creek, and the second Blackwood Creek, both entering the Lake two miles or so apart.

Just beyond Twin Peak are Barker's Peak (8000 feet), and nearer to the Lake, Ellis Peak (8745 feet), the waters from the former making the South Fork of Blackwood Creek.