Pike County press. (Milford, Pa.) 1895-1925, 1903-05-22

After a season s task work, come to
one Of these brooks, and in an hour
the cares and quarrels of a jostling
world seem
"Gone like a wind that blew,
A thousand years agol"
All wildwood, gently barbaric ele-
ments within us assert themselves ;
the primitive man peers out. and
one feels n world to be we'll lost for
the natural life, the health, the
savagery of the forest and stream.
The Vandermark and Sawkill flow
through the village of Milford low
er down, and at intervals of a league
are the Raymondskill, Adams, Ding
mans and the Bushkill, each with
attractions peculiar to itself. The
Sawkill Falls are somewhat widely
known their grace IS the despair Of
the painter and delight of young
and old. Sawkill Glen is another
beauty-spot, in the heart Of Milford,
directly behind Fanny Dimmick's S
hotel. Upon the Adams Brook the
underwoods are dark and romantic,
and there are terrific gorges and
countless falls, between the mountain
and river roads. This stream is
stocked with noble trout, but is
so difficult of access that only the
elect frequent it. Among these is
the poet Boxer, who made it his
resort during a season among the
hills. l warrant that now, though
he may be sitting cross-legged upon
silk divan, in all the Incidence of
oriental life, he sometimes has
picture in his mind of the lunching-
rock, at the foot of the hlgh-fall,
upon the dear old Adams Brook,
five thousand miles away.
But the Raymondskill is the ao
knowledged monarch of our Milford
fluyiarchy. 1t rises miles above
them all, in a vast wilderness,
where the springs outlast Che sum-
mer drouth and winter cold, aud
yield a constant torrent for its
craggy bed. 1 have never fished
upward to its source, choosing rather
to think of the wild wood as per
pet ual, stretching into trackless
westering regions, the cover of
mysteries and snares. Certes, it is
the ranging-ground of copperheads,
rattlesnakes, and other such small
deer, and I am told that veDison and
bears meat, even, repay the hunter,
who strike boldly out from Blooming
Grove Park at fall. tide OF the year.
But let my reader make his first
acquaintance with the Raymondskill
where it is a swift, full stream,
coursing through farmers meadows
on the upper plateau. Drive thither
at sunrise of a bright June morning
and spend a golden day, angling
if you like, along its banks. Should
the water be of the right depth and
color, you will fill your ereel with
! handsome fish otherwise the beauty
of the tramping-ground must be
your reward. In an hour You may
reach the cataract and ruined dam
at "Goosey's below which series
of the loveliest swift waters and
miniature cascades will tempt you,
by another hours journey within
sight Of the spray and sound of the
roar of the greater Raymondskin
Falls.
Here is a cleft in the mountain,
wide and deep, where the brook
takes its grandest leaps from the
higher to the lower world. The
upper fall is a double cataract as
represented in the last of Mr.. Per-
kins truthful sketches, and higher
ia fact, than the broad, magnificent
fall which is the subject of our
frontispiece. The two are so near
each other as to form one picture to
the eye do not know the exact
height of the upper or lower fall,
but the proportions are we'll indicat-
ed by the figure in the drawing of
the latter, and it is not the dimen-
sions of a cataract that make it
poetical and inspiring All these
matters ara. relative and, for one,
I have had more pleasure IN gazing
at the Raymondskill Falls than at
Niagara itself.
From the cliff, on the left of the
dark pool below. is shaken down the
flmy, transparent Bridal Veil. -
Every waterfall has a Bridal Veil,
but this is the Laureate's veritable
housekeeping veil Of the thinnest
lawn, " as one can see by its counter
felt presentment. Here I viii leave
my angler 60 mediate awhile, and
drink his fiji Of that beauty ia which
Weir and Beard and Whittrege have
loved to dip their pencils He has
still before him a mile of devious
windings-filled with such witching
hooks as that which stretches its
tranquil, dreamy length across this
page-ere he can gain the riverside,
and set his feet toward Milford.
May his days luck be proportionate
to his deserts as an angler, aud his
appreciation of the poets and paint