292 THE ADIRONDACK. 



pools. After indulging in sundry strong exclamations, 

 F could stand it no longer, and taking out his city- 

 tackle, began to whip the stream. But it was soon evi- 

 dent that, however expert he might be in larger streams, 

 with larger fish, he could do nothing with his flies with 

 these nimble little fellows. They would be on the sur- 

 face and back again to the bottom of the pool long 

 before he began to jerk. Keane was the last settlement 

 we reached before we began the ascent of the mountain. 

 Here we took a breathing spell, and were told that we 

 should find it no child's-play to get over the mountain 

 with a wagon. A water-spout had burst a year or two 

 before on its top, and, taking the road for its channel, 

 had rushed down like an Alpine torrent into the valley, 

 sweeping, in some places, three feet deep over the grain 

 fields, and carrying desolation in its path. We had 

 scarcely turned out of the settlement, with our faces 

 towards the distant mountain, before we came upon the 

 evidences of its ravages. Long stretches, paved with 

 stones, piled just as the torrent had left them ; great cuts 

 into clayey banks, which the current had undermined, 

 showed what wild work this sudden avalanche of water 

 had made. So complete was the destruction of the 

 roau, that the inhabitants had not attempted to repair it. 



