SPECKLED TROUT. 117 



II. 



The Delaware is one of our minor rivers, but it is 

 a stream beloved of the trout. Nearly all its remote 

 branches head in mountain springs, and its collected 

 waters, even when warmed by the summer sun, are as 

 sweet and wholesome as dew swept from the grass. 

 The Hudson wins from it two streams that are fath- 

 ered by the mountains from whose loins most of its 

 beginnings issue, namely, the Rondout and the Eso- 

 pus. These swell a more illustrious current than 

 the Delaware, but the Rondout, one of the finest trout 

 streams in the world, makes an uncanny alliance be- 

 fore it reaches its destination, namely with the ma- 

 larious Wallkill. 



In the same nest of mountains from which they 

 start are born the Neversink and the Beaverkill, 

 streams of wondrous beauty that flow south and we^t 

 into the Delaware. From my native hills I could 

 catch glimpses of the mountains in whose laps these 

 creeks were cradled, but it was not till after many 

 years, and after dwelling in a country where trout 

 are not found, that I returned to pay my respects to 

 them as an angler. 



My first acquaintance with the Neversink was 

 made in company with some friends in 1869. We 

 passed up the valley of the Big Ingin, marveling at 

 its copious ice-cold springs, and its immense sweep of 

 heavy timbered mountain sides. Crossing the range 

 at its head we struck the Neversink quite unexpect- 



