The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1877-11-15
A Oatgkill Stream.

[JOhn Burroughs, in Scribner for Noyember.l
If there ever was a stream Graded
in the rocks, detained lovingly by
them, held and fondled in a rocky lap,
or tossed in rocky arms, that stream is
the R0nd0ut. Its course for several
miles from its head is over the strait
fed rock, and into this it has worn q
channel which presents most striking
and peculiar features. Now it comes
silently along on the top of the rock,
spread out and flowing over that thick,
dark green moss that is found only in
the coolest streams; then drawn into q
narrow canal only four or five feet
wide, through which it shoots black
and rigid, to be presently caught III q
deep basin with shelving, overhanging
rocks, beneath which the Phobe-bird
builds in security and upon which the
fisherman stands and casts his twenty
or thirty feet of line without fear of
being thWarted by the brush; then in
to black we'll like-pool ten or fifteen
feet deep, with a smooth, circular wall
Of rock on one side worn by the water
through long ages, or else into a deep,
Oblong pocket, into which and out Of
which the water glideS without rip
pie.
The surface rock is a coarse sand
stone superintendent upon a lighter
'cOlored conglomerate that looked like
ShaWangunk girts, when this latter
is reached by the water it seems to be
rapidly disintegrated by it, thus form
ing the deep excavations alluded to.
My eyes had never before beheld
such beauty in mountain stream.
The water was almost as transparent
as the air-Was, indeed, like liquid air;
and as it lay in these wells and pits
enVelOped III shadow, or lit up by a
chance ray Of the vertical sun, it was
a perpetual feast to the eye,-s0 cool,
SO deep, so pure; every reach and pool
like vast spring. You lay down and
drank or dipped the water up in your
cup and found it just the right degree
of refreshing GOODNESS. One is never
prepared for the clearness Of the wa
ter in these streams. 1t is always a
surprise. See them every year for
dozen years, and yet, when you first
come upon one, you will utter an eX-
clamatiOD; [ saw nothing like it in
the Adir0ndacks, nor have [ in any
other part Of the country [ have ever
visited. Absolutely without stain or
hint of impurity, it seems to magnify
like q Tense, SO that the bed of the
stream and the fish in it appear decep-
lively near. It is rare to find even a
trout stream that is not a little off
color" as they say of diamonds, but
the waters in the section of which [
am writing have the genuine ray; it is
the undimmed and untarnished dia-
mond.
Ii | were a trout, should ascend
every stream till I found the Rondout.
1t is the ideal brook. What homes
these fish have, what retreats under
the rocks, what paved or tagged courts
and areas, what crystal depths where
no net or snare can reach them!-no
mud, no sediment, but here and there
in the clefts and seams OF the rock
patches of white gravel spawning
beds ready-made.
The finishing touch is given by the
nlOSS Win when the rock is every
where carpeted. Even in the narrow
grooves or channels where the water
runs the sWiftest, the green lining is
unbroken. It sweeps down under the
stream and up again on the other side
like some firmly woven texture. It
softens every outline and cushions
every stone. At a certain depth in
the great basins and wells it of course
ceases, and only the smooth, swept
tagging Of the place-roek is visible.