PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 217 



accomplish this result ; but there will be trout in 

 those waters long after those who perpetrated this 

 folly shall have passed over their rods and reels to 

 their successors. 



The high water caused by the dam at Setting- 

 Pole rapids is working great mischief in all this 

 region. It has caused the overflow of tens of 

 thousands of acres. The result will be that the 

 beauty of the Raquette and its connected lakes 

 will be marred by the destruction of the beautiful 

 evergreens and maples which line their banks, and 

 which have rendered them so wonderfully attrac- 

 tive and picturesque. But this is not all. The 

 receding waters in midsummer must leave this 

 whole region a reeking mass of decaying vegeta- 

 tion, filling the air with fever-exciting miasma, and 

 making a sojourn in the midst of it exceedingly 

 hazardous. Its effects are already seen in the 

 thousands of dead trees which mar the beauty of 

 the river's banks, and the coming August will 

 demonstrate its pernicious influence upon the com- 

 fort and health of visitors, and the scattered resi- 

 dents upon its borders. If the effects apprehended 

 are realized, the dam will be abated as a nuisance, 

 by lawful process or otherwise unless indeed the 

 threatened suits for damages by parties aggrieved 

 shall induce its owners to rid themselves of trouble- 

 some litigation by destroying the dam themselves. 



28 



