THE BERKSHIRE RIVER. 



THERE are some rather critical souls, who object 

 to Berkshire because, they say, it lacks water. 

 Having in mind, perhaps, the many lakes of the 

 Adirondacks, or the endless chains of Northern Maine, 

 these hydromaniacs complain of a lack of that di- 

 versity which is afforded by this feature in the land- 

 scape. Sometimes, too, they add a remark, — which 

 betrays the real animus of their criticism, — that there 

 is very little good trout-fishing in this region. I have 

 my opinion of a man who only values a brook or a 

 pond for what he can get out of it. And the de- 

 murrers of fishermen are always to be received with 

 suspicion by real nature-lovers. The man who loves 

 nature and fish is not open to objection ; but the 

 man who cares for only so much nature as he can 

 reach with a trout-pole and line is not a competent 

 judge of her charms. Such people overlook the 

 picturesque Reservoir in Cheshire, with its stump- 

 fringed shores and sedgy shallows ; and Pontoosuc, the 

 Coney Island of Pittsfield, and its neighbour, Onota ; 

 and Stockbridge Bowl, which even the proximity of 

 civilisation and architecture cannot quite spoil ; and 

 Lake Buel, and Lake Garfield, and Long Pond, and 



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