BROOK TROUT 



temperature of the water. Excepting in those rare 

 years when all nature languishes in drought, the stream 

 is broad, deep, and copious. To the fly-caster it is the 

 ideal stream, as he can — after the spring " fresh " is 

 over — wade the entire stream, excepting at two or 

 three very deep pools and at the falls. And the wad- 

 ing, too, is comparatively easy ; after one has attempted 

 some of the Adirondack or Maine streams, strewn with 

 great square blocks of granite, the Beaverkill seems a 

 veritable boulevard. The water, naturally, is as clear 

 as crystal. John Burroughs says " there are no streams 

 liaving the brilliancy of the Catskill streams." The 

 stream, indeed, seems to possess every requirement 

 that a trout-stream should have. The bed of the 

 stream is generally broad, thus facilitating easy fly- 

 casting. The entire stream is a constant succession of 

 rifts and pools, following each other with singular reg- 

 ularity and affording a never-ending source of interest. 

 The head-water of the Beaverkill is Balsam Lake, over 

 on the western slope of Balsam Mountain. I imag- 

 ine it is a very wild country up that way, as it is 

 entirely out of the way of all travel. One day while 

 hanging around Bill Hardie's, waiting for the buck- 

 board to take me down stream, I fell in with a native 

 from that region. He had some things done up in a 

 bandana handkerchief and was tramping home ; he told 

 me it was " purty quiet and lonesome up there, and 

 considerable unhandy for getting things in and out, but 

 he felt that someone had to live up there, so he made 



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