most noted of all of them, the Beaverkill, which has its 

 source in the very heart of the Southern Catskill range, 

 and runs for many miles before it reaches even the 

 smallest clearing. 



There are but few of the veteran anglers in this 

 State who did not visit the delightful fishing retreat 

 of James Murdock, which is situated on this stream, 

 some twenty-five or thirty miles below its source, in the 

 fifties; and all will bear testimony not only to the 

 abundance of the trout but also to the abundance of 

 the watertiow. 



At that time this region was. always visited during 

 the latter part of May and the fore part of June with 

 one or more severe northeast storms, which were 

 largely or wholly local, and so regularly did these 

 storms occur that the lumbermen could always rely 

 upon what was generally termed by them the ''June 

 fresh" for the purpose of rafting their lumber from a 

 point some twelve miles below Murdock's, at the 

 junction of the Beaverkill and Willewemoc streams, 

 down to the .Delaware River, and thence to Trenton or 

 Philadelphia, and they could also always rely upon the 

 high water produced by these storms for the three or 

 four days required for that purpose. 



In 1859 I encountered one of these storms just 

 after reaching Mr. Murdock's house. He immediately 

 started off his rafts, and my brother anglers and I 

 waited for some five days before the waters receded to 

 such an extent that we could wade the stream. The 

 next day another storm of like severity occurred, and 

 after waiting for some five or six days and finding the 

 stream still unfit to wade I returned home, having had 

 but one day's sport in a trip of two weeks. 



