THE ALLEGHANIES. 87 



All the denizens of Potter and Elk were invited. The girl 

 was spliced. The stalwart backwoodsmen, in brand new 

 suits of homespun and shirts of gaudy calico, smacked the 

 blushing bride in due and proper form, and drank the health 

 of the happy pair in bumpers full. Then the fiddler was 

 hoisted upon a chest ; and when old Pritchard himself flung 

 his sturdy arm around his step-daughter's plump waist, and 

 " clar'd the floor " for a dance which he called " French 

 fours," he seemed to mean that as much dancing as four or- 

 dinary persons could do in the same time should be done 

 then and there in a style as far from French as possible. 



And it was done, you may depend. Modern dancers 

 couldn't shine in that crowd. Long were the festivities pro- 

 tracted ; and when the catgut ceased to scrape at last, and 

 the final bumper was swallowed, it is not denied that some 

 who sought their homes in the trackless gloom of the woods, 

 awoke in the morning with only a blue sky for a canopy. 



Mention should not be omitted of one other resort the 

 Catskills. If they cannot be recommended as first-class 

 fishing-ground, they ought, nevertheless, to be reverently 

 regarded, for their history is made classic by association with 

 such proud names as Cooper, Irving, Bryant, and Cole. 

 Once the waters of the Kauterskill and the Plauterskill 

 abounded with trout, and doubtless years ago yielded fre- 

 quent tribute to the cunning hand of the veritable Kip Van 

 Winkle himself. Certain it is that they were the favorite 

 resort of anglers of no mean standing in their profession 

 men whom a love of nature in its purity led apart from the 

 noise and stir of the busy metropolis below, to worship in 

 these mountain cloves. In the Esopus, too, and in Sweet- 

 water Brook, Shews' Lake, Schoharie Creek, and Roaring 

 Kill, the tiny splash of the trout was heard at early dawn, 

 and anglers, who tried their luck at favorable seasons, re- 

 turned to town with strings that numbered hundreds. But 

 these streams have been sadly depleted since ; and although 

 they aiford fair sport for summer guests of the great moun- 



