SPECKLED TEOUT. 129 



miles below, the rain set in, keeping up a lazy, mo- 

 notonous drizzle till the afternoon. 



The clearing was quite a recent one, made mostly 

 by bark-peelers, who followed their calling in the 

 mountains round about in summer, and worked in 

 their shops making shingle in winter. The Biscuit 

 Brook came in here from the west, a fine, rapid 

 trout stream six or eight miles in length, with plenty 

 of deer in the mountains about its head. On its 

 banks we found the house of an old woodman, to 

 whom we had been directed for information about 

 the section we proposed to traverse. 



" Is the way very difficult," we inquired, " across 

 from the Neversink into the head of the Beaver- 

 kill?" 



" Not to me ; I could go it the darkest night ever 

 was. And I can direct you so you can find the way 

 without any trouble. You go down the Neversink 

 about a mile, when you come to Highfall Brook, the 

 first stream that comes down on the right. Follow 

 up it to Jim Reed's shanty, about three miles. Then 

 cross the stream, and on the left bank, pretty well 

 up on the side of the mountain, you will find a wood- 

 road, which was made by a fellow below here who 

 stole some ash logs off the top of the ridge last win- 

 ter and drew them out on the snow. "When the road 

 first begins to tilt over the mountain, strike down to 

 your left, and you can reach the Beaverkill before 

 sundown." 



As it was then after two o'clock, and as the dis- 

 9 



