242 BIRCH BROWSINGS. 



This was encouraging, but we could not 

 make out whether it was on Beaver Kill or 

 Mill Brook or Dry Brook, and did not long 

 stop to consider where it was. We at last 

 brought up at the bottom of a deep gorge, 

 through which flowed a rapid creek that lit- 

 erally swarmed with trout. But we were in 

 no mood to catch them, and pushed on along 

 the channel of the stream, sometimes leap- 

 ing from rock to rock, and sometimes 

 splashing heedlessly through the water, and 

 speculating the while as to where we would 

 probably come out. On the Beaver Kill, 

 my companions thought ; but from the posi- 

 tion of the sun, I said on the Mill Brook, 

 about six miles below our team ; for I re- 

 membered having seen, in coming up this 

 stream, a deep, wild valley that led up into 

 the mountains, like this one. Soon the 

 banks of the stream became lower, and we 

 moved into the woods. Here we entered 

 upon an obscure wood-road, which presently 

 conducted us into the midst of a vast hem- 

 lock forest. The land had a gentle slope, 

 and we wondered why the lumbermen and 

 barkmen who prowl through these woods 

 had left this fine tract untouched. Beyond 

 this the forest was mostly birch and maple. 

 We were now close to the settlement, and 



