GREAT TROUT-STREAM.

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un-exacting forest, and his welcome, though simple as the nod of a tree to the wind, was hearty and agreeable. My friend had been here before, and, while the horses were being saddled, he asked a question or two, which drew the hunting-talk out of Alderson in graphic bits of description, but we had not the time to get him fairly into a story. I was sorry, for he is a famous narrator, and has had, they say, many a strange experience in his long life of adventure.

We forded the Delaware at a rift opposite Alderson's, and, ascending to the summit, struck into the woods. The Cadosia once found, its bank was our guide, but the untrodden wilderness is a rough pathway for a horse. Tangled thickets to pierce, rocks to climb over, fallen trees to leap, bogs to risk the plunging and wading, drooping limbs to dodge and ride under, kept us constantly on the alert at least, and our progress was necessarily slow. At the end of about six miles, we came to a rude log cabin, where the hunters, when they are all out, meet to divide their game and cut up their deer and bears, and this being at a pretty turn of the brook, we dismounted for a lunch. With a leaning-tree for an easychair, a large bass-wood leaf for a table-cloth, and my kneepan for a table, I luxuriated upon a sandwich and a certain excusable drink, with an appetite I would compromise to have always. If you read this with the summer smell of a city street in your nostrils, dear Morris, you may think of a dinner in those fragrant woods; and, for the sigh that it costs you, quote my full authority!

We came out upon the Delaware a little after sunset, having been six hours in travelling the twelve mile course of the Cadosia. Of course we had loitered at will, and our two companions, who had cut poles and fished as they came along, arrived, an hour after us, with a hundred trout strung upon birch rods. When the plank road is finished through here, for another summer's use, this bright brook, so overruning with this delicious fish, will be a great haunt for sportsmen. I trust that, by that time, there will be some comfortable accommodation for summer visitors at Walton-airy rooms, mattresses to sleep upon, cooking simple and clean, and willing attendance-all of which are necessities not as commonly provided for as would seem natural - - and it I will soon be known as the most desirable of secluded resorts for metropolitans.

E

I have not heard my whip-poor-will for the last half hour, and I presume, therefore, that I am at liberty to go to bed. My goose-quill has out-vigil'd him, I believe. Good night. Yours, &c.

LETTER FROM FORK OF THE DELAWARE.

Chehocton, Fork of the Delawares.

MY DEAR MORRIS:-I had a feeling of vexation, just now, at seeing the rail-train go by, loaded with people—the impression of this romantic neighborhood, upon a traveller whirling past it in one of those rapid cars, being necessarily so erroneous and imperfect, compared with what he would receive from it with a day's halt and ramble! One longs to call back the train with its careless passengers, and make every intelligent man go up one of the mountain sides, near by, and look about to see what he was losing.

The two branches of the Delaware (known to the Indians as the two separate rivers, Coquago and Popacton) try hard to meet, on the very spot where stands the Railroad Depôt. After separate courses for forty or fifty miles, they here rush point blank at each other, and come within a hundred rods of an embrace; but lo! a mountain puts down its immovable foot in opposition. Fretting slightly at the sudden arrest of their career, they gracefully part again, go round the opposing mountain and meet beyond it :—as pretty a type of most marriages as mocking Nature could well have given in her pleasant volume of hieroglyphics.

On the instep of this twain-dividing mountain-a gracefullyshaped green knoll within a rod or two of the Depôt of Chehocton-you may stand and look up the two Branches of the Delaware, with the Coquago on your left and the Popacton on your right, and there are few more admirable commanding points of scenery. The village below is small and almost entirely new-but of this I have a description better stored with facts than would be one of my own. An intelligent old gentleman residing here gives me the following sketch of Chehocton, and, as describing one of the thousand available treasures of location laid open by the Erie Railroad, I think its information valuable ::

"Chehocton, or, as nearer the original name of the primitive_red man, Chehawkan or Shehowking, is situate on the New York and Erie Railroad, in the town of Hancock, in the county of Delaware, one hundred and seventy miles from the city of New York. This present village and railroad depôt are on a narrow neck of land where the two branches of the Delaware approach to within the distance of one hundred rods, and again receding, so as to embrace Fork Mountain, an elevation of some three hundred feet, pass on to their confluence one and a half miles below. The name is said to have imported, in the Indian tongue, the marriage, or wedded union of the waters, and if so, does not strictly apply to the present village. Whereas this place was, until the making of the railroad, one of the most isolated in the state, being seldom visited except by lumbermen, or farmers furnishing supplies; it is now coming into notice as likely to become one of the most important depôts for many miles on the route. For this, Nature has done much, the make of the country, embracing almost all of the valley of East Branch, and also that of the West Branch, from its source to the distance of eight or ten miles below Walton, being such as to secure to Chehocton nearly the entire business of the inhabitants of an area of land embracing a surface of over two thousand square miles. The question may readily occur, inasmuch as Deposit is fourteen miles up the West Branch-why should the West Branchers come to the railroad at Chehocton? In order to understand this, it is only necessary to inspect the map of Delaware county. It will there be perceived that the two Branches of the Delaware have their rise near each other in the north-east part of the county, and run their tortuous course south-westerly fifty or sixty miles, alternately approaching and receding, until, the West Branch having reached Deposit, it turns and runs towards the south-east, to approach its fellow to within the distance of one hundred rods at Chehocton neck, then passing southward; and the two Branches receding, so as to embrace Fork Mountain, an elevation of about three hundred feet, they pass on to their wedded union, one and a half miles below-the twain thus becoming one. Now, it is worthy of notice, that, while in the almost entire course of the branches there is a high dividing mountain ridge between the heads of the streams running into either, yet, almost in a line between Chehocton and Walton, there is an exception, insomuch that the entire elevation of the summit at the head of Cadosia brook is little over three hundred and fifty feet above the West Branch, eight miles below Walton. Through the Cadosia valley, and passing this low dividing ridge through a deep cut, apparently purposely left by dame Nature, having a high mountain on either hand, a plank road is now in progress of being made. The distance hence to Walton twenty miles, with no grade over one hundred feet to the mile. The distance from Walton to Deposit, over Walton Mountain, is twenty-two milesfollowing the windings of the river, probably not less than twenty-five miles. In addition to the business which will thus, almost necessarily, come here from the valleys of both Branches of the Delaware, the people of Mount Pleasant, Carbondale and neighborhood, contemplate a turnpike to terminate here; thus, in connection with existing

roads, opening a communication with the valley of Wyoming, through which will be an easy route of travel from Albany to Harrisburgh. Additional business will come from the south and east, so that a thriving agricultural and manufacturing population, inhabiting a surface of nearly three thousand square miles, will contribute to the growth and importance of Chehocton. Nor does the growth and importance of Chehocton depend alone on its location. Its water-power, within a few rods of the railroad depôt, is such as would alone insure its rapid growth. With little cost, any required quantity of the water of the East Branch can be so managed as that with a water head of eight or ten feet, it will afford sufficient power for various manufactories. For the tanning business, few situations, if any, can excel it. Hemlock bark is abundant and easy to be obtained, while the railroad offers cheap transportation to and from New York. Can it be doubted that these advantages will soon be brought into use? That this will be a place of great resort for the care-worn and business-worn inhabitants of New York and other places on the Hudson, for relaxation, and of the infirm in pursuit of health, its romantic mountain scenery, pure air and water, and a medicinal spring of approved medicinal efficacy, render highly probable. Our streams and ponds, well stocked with fish, and the woods with game, will be strong attractions for the angler and sportsman.

"Our plank road will be a further attraction, as affording the means for pleasant excursions hence to Walton, and other thriving villages in the valley of the West Branch. If any have a true taste and relish for the sublime, the grand, the beautiful in uncultivated nature, let them come here and they may enjoy a feast."

The hills in Europe being invariably bald at the top, one of the first exclamations of a foreigner is at the fullness of the foliage on the younger heads of American mountains. About Chehocton, the horizon is completely outlined with summits of such clustering luxuriance that it seems a circle of Nature's healthiest and finest children. The traveller should, at least, step out of the cars at this place, and take a glance at the formation of the country around him; and if, by chance, he should be delayed at Chehocton, or choose to stop there for rambling or trouting, he must get the kind landlord, Mr. Falkner, to drive him, as he drove me, to the meeting of the Delawares below. Pennsylvania and New York here glance across the river at each other, and, by their respective best looks, with a mutual intention to make a favourable impression.

On my way from New York hither, I saw several openingsin of valleys upon the route, where it was evident, that, to follow up stream or down, would disclose new and separate accesses to exquisite rural beauty. All of these I intend to stop and explore in my coming excursions; but, just now, as

BEAUTIFUL SCENERY.

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some of our readers may wish for earlier guidance, I will close my letter with a simple programme of the features of the route as they first struck me.

The Erie Company's boat reaches Piermont in an hour and twenty minutes, and the train thence winds almost immediately in among the mountains. The first lovely scenery begins with the valley of the Ramapo, and I should think, that, to stop at Suffern and explore for a few miles around on horseback "would pay." Ramapo, Sloatsburg, and New Hampton are all picturesque neighbourhoods, and would furnish most desirable sites for residences to those who wish not to go beyond an easy distance from New York. Hence onward to Goshen, the country is only beautiful from its fertility and high cultivation. The attractive points between this and Port Jervis are the Shoholy Creek, Narrowsburgh and Calocoon, and at Port Jervis you come to the Delaware, which is a beginning of an uninterrupted extent of splendid scenery for a hundred miles. The road follows the bank of the river eighty or ninety miles, to Deposit, and this has been the extent of my progression on the present trip. Between Port Jervis and Deposit one's eyes are wanted on both sides of the track, and, like Gibbon, who said of his powers of illustration, after writing one or two books, that his millinery was exhausted," the traveller wishes for some new way to say "how beautiful !”

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You are "under bond" to excuse all abruptness in this my work of idleness, dear General, so- -Yours, &c.

LETTER FROM THE EAST BRANCH OF THE
DELAWARE.

Hundred Miles between Dinner and Tea-Broadway lined with Funerals-Daily Losses of Sunrise-Falls of the Sawkill-Delaware Ferryman-Milford and its Character-Search for the Falls-Underground Organ-River on End-Likeness of General Cass in the Rock - Bare-toed Hostess, etc.

Port Jervis, on the Delaware, July, 1849. MY DEAR MORRIS,-A hundred miles betwixt dinner and bed, sounds like hard travel and late hours: but I dined in New York yesterday, at my usual hour, and, at half-past ten,