CHAPTER VIII. 



STONY BROOK A GOOD TIME WITH THE TROUT RACKETT RIVER 



TUPPER'S LAKE A QUESTION ASKED AND ANSWERED. 



THE next morning we started down Stony Brook, towards 

 the Rackett River, intending to pitch our tents at night on 

 the banks of Tapper's Lake, twenty-three miles distant. 

 Before leaving the Spectacle Ponds, we visited a littte island 

 at the north end .of the middle pond, containing perhaps 

 half an acre. This island has a few Norway pines upon it, 

 is of a loose sandy soil, and at the highest portion is some 

 twenty feet above the level of the water. It is a great resort 

 for turtle in the season of depositing their eggs. We found 

 thousands of their eggs, some on the surface and some 

 buried in the sand, and if one in a dozen of them brings 

 forth a turtle, there will be no lack of the animal in the 

 neighborhood. Stony Brook is a sluggish, tortuous stream, 

 large enough to float our little boats, and goes meandering 

 most of the way for five miles among natural meadows, 

 overflowed at high water, or thinly timbered prairie, when 



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