240 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 



volume to float the logs to manufacturing points, 

 of which Plattsburg, Potsdam and Glen's Falls 

 are the principal. During the winter the logs 

 are cut and placed upon the ice, ready for the 

 spring freshets, and from the time of breaking 

 up until well on in May, there is scarcely an 

 available stream which is not filled with these 

 moving masses. And yet the Kev. Mr. Murray, 

 in his famous book, contrasting the Adirondacks 

 with the forests of Maine, says of the former that 

 they retain their primitive beauty because "the 

 sound of the woodman's ax has never been heard " 

 among them. If the reverend gentleman's theology 

 is as loose as his facts, it must be a poor commodity. 



But these annual drafts upon this wilderness are 

 scarcely perceptible to the casual observer. Pine 

 and spruce and hemlock constitute but a very small 

 percentage of the entire forest, which remains 

 seemingly as dense as if the woodman's ax had 

 really never been heard here or the lumberman had 

 never responded to the demands of commerce. 



Stony brook (through which we pass to the Ka- 

 quette) besides the water of its two or three ponds, 

 has the flow from Ampersand brook, which has its 

 supply from Ampersand pond, which lies some five 

 miles up the mountain. The outlet of this brook 

 is famous for its summer fishing, but it has never 

 been my fortune to strike it at just the right mo- 



