IN THE CATSKILLS 



miles below, the rain set in, keeping up a lazy, 

 monotonous drizzle till the afternoon. 



The clearing was quite a recent one, made mostly 

 by barkpeelers, who followed their calling in the 

 mountains round about in summer, and worked in 

 their shops making shingle in winter. The Biscuit 

 Brook came in here from the west, a fine, rapid 

 trout stream six or eight miles in length, with plenty 

 of deer hi the mountains about its head. On its 

 banks we found the house of an old woodman, to 

 whom we had been directed for information about 

 the section we proposed to traverse. 



" Is the way very difficult," we inquired, " across 

 from the Neversink into the head of the Beaver- 

 kill?" 



" Not to me; I could go it the darkest night ever 

 was. And I can direct you so you can find the way 

 without any trouble. You go down the Neversink 

 about a mile, when you come to Highfall Brook, the 

 first stream that comes down on the right. Fol- 

 low up it to Jim Reed's shanty, about three miles. 

 Then cross the stream, and on the left bank, pretty 

 well up on the side of the mountain, you will find a 

 wood-road, which was made by a fellow below here 

 who stole some ash logs off the top of the ridge last 

 winter and drew them out on the snow. When the 

 road first begins to tilt over the mountain, strike 

 down to your left, and you can reach the Beaverkill 

 before sundown." 



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