THE ALLEGHANIES. 81 



capacious umbrellas, whose amplitude of sliade protects 

 their darling easels from the sun — sitting sketching from Na- 

 ture with assiduous eye and hand, as though the reputation 

 of Nature depended upon the sketch. 



Many are the pounds of fish I have taken from Lake 

 George ; many the ''•laker" I have raised with my troUing- 

 spoon from the buoys where old Moses " chummed" his fish. 

 It was a sort of confidence-game on the fish at the expense 

 of Moses ; but I always gave the old man what I caught. 

 I did, honor bright ! Around the three hundred islands of 

 the Narrows, and the peninsula of Tongue Mountain, I have 

 trolled for black bass with rich success, and taken them time 

 and again with my rod and an ibis-fly from the rocks at the 

 north end of Fourteen-mile Island. And nearly all the 

 trout-streams in the neighborhood have paid shining tribute 

 to my creel. Many a happy hour have I whiled away upon 

 the lawn at Bolton, now studying anatomy and physiology, 

 while the unconscious subjects played croquet, and anon 

 reading my favorite book, or watching the little steamer that 

 phed to and fro. , In the quietness of my rural seclusion I 

 envy not the artificial attractions of the grand hotel at 

 Caldwell — its hops, its billiards, its brass band, its bar, its 

 fast horses, its entremets, its flare and its flummery. I enjoy 

 only things natural, and it is not without reluctance that I 

 turn my back upon them when the hour for adieu comes. 

 All the eloquence of the " Colonel's*' historical apostrophes 

 to Ticonderoga and the American fLas, with a sight of the 

 bleached old ruins themselves, will not utterly banish my feel- 

 ings of regret. 



All the great lakes of New York are celebrated as summer- 

 resorts, and in them the angler will always find good sport, 

 for the kinds of fish are various, though not all of the Sal- 

 mo family. It is needless to specify them here, for the pis- 

 catory dish I dole is epicurean. It is the delicate and deli- 

 cious flesh of trout and salmon, pink and flaky, served with 



sauce piquante. 

 6 



