SPECKLED TROUT 101 



fathered by the mountains from whose loins most of 

 its beginnings issue, namely, the Rondout and the 

 Esopus. These swell a more illustrious current than 

 the Delaware, but the Eondout, one of the finest 

 trout streams in the world, makes an uncanny alli- 

 ance before it reaches its destination, namely, with 

 the malarious Wallkill. 



In the same nest of mountains from which they 

 start are born the Neversink and the BeaverkUl, 

 streams of wondrous beauty that flow south and west 

 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 

 unexpectedly about the middle of the afternoon, at 

 a point where it was a good-sized trout stream. It 

 proved to be one of those black mountain brooks 

 born of innumerable ice-cold springs, nourished in 

 the shade, and shod, as it were, with thick-matted 

 moss, that every camper-out remembers. The fish 

 are as black as the stream and very wild. They dart 

 from beneath the fringed rocks, or dive with the 

 hook into the dusky depths, — an integral part of 



