BIRCH BROWSINGS 159 
From this point through to Pennsylvania, a dis- 
tance of nearly one hundred miles, stretches the 
tract of which I speak. It is a belt of country from 
twenty to thirty miles wide, bleak and wild, and 
but sparsely settled. The traveler on the New 
York and Erie Railroad gets a glimpse of it. 
Many cold, rapid trout streams, which flow to 
all points of the compass, have their source in the 
small lakes and copious mountain springs of this 
region. The names of some of them are Mill 
Brook, Dry Brook, Willewemack, Beaver Kill, Elk 
Bush Kill, Panther Kill, Neversink, Big Ingin, 
and Callikoon. Beaver Kill is the main outlet on 
the west. It joins the Delaware in the wilds of 
Hancock. The Neversink lays open the region to 
the south, and also joins the Delaware. To the 
east, various Kills unite with the Big Ingin to form 
the Esopus, which flows into the Hudson. Dry 
Brook and Mill Brook, both famous trout streams, 
from twelve to fifteen miles long, find their way 
into the Delaware. 
The east or Pepacton branch of the Delaware } 
itself takes its rise near here in a deep pass between \ 
the mountains. I have many times drunk at a | 
copious spring by the roadside, where the infant : 
river first sees the light. A few yards beyond, the 
water flows the other way, directing its course | 
through the Bear Kill and Schoharie Kill into the | 
Mohawk. 
Such game and wild animals as still linger in the 
State are found in this region. Bears occasionally 
