Books Should Be Free Loyal Books Free Public Domain Audiobooks & eBook Downloads |
|
Lost Pond By: Henry Abbott (1850-) |
---|
![]()
By
HENRY ABBOTT NEW YORK
1915 Copyright 1915
by
HENRY ABBOTT LOST POND "Lost Pond" was a tradition, a myth. It had never been seen by any
living person. Two dead men, it was alleged, had visited it on
several occasions while they were yet living. Wonderful tales were told about that pond for which many persons had
hunted, but which no one of the present generation had ever been able
to find. Every guide in Long Lake township talked about Lost Pond and repeated
the legends, which through the passing years had probably lost none
of their original enticements. Many of these guides had even got the
stories at first hand from Captain Parker and Mitchel Sabattis. Captain Parker, a famous hunter and trapper, had died about ten years
ago at the good old age of ninety four years. Mitchel Sabattis, an
Indian, who had married a white woman and had brought up a family of
husky half breeds, was the first settler in the Long Lake country. He
was a highly respected citizen, and a mountain and a United States
post office had been named after him. Sabattis lived to be a very old
man. Many believed him to be past a hundred years when he died, but
the family Bible was not available to prove the date of his birth. Now, all of the natives knew that Lost Pond was somewhere on Seward
Mountain, and they apparently believed that the best fishing place in
the State was right in that pond. "By Mighty! that pond was just
alive with speckled trout big ones. You could catch all you wanted
there in a few minutes. The water fairly boiled with the jumping
fish. Now, if we could only find it," etc. To the layman it would seem, possibly a difficult, but certainly not
an impossible task, to find that lost pond; and if it was such a
remarkable fishing and hunting place as tradition painted it, why had
not some one combed out that mountain and recovered the pond? Seward Mountain, seen from a distance of ten or fifteen miles, looked
like a hogback ridge. A nearer view disclosed the fact that it
included several peaks and ridges, and really covered a lot of
ground. The highest peak was perhaps not more than twenty five
hundred feet above the lake. But if one could draw a straight line
through its base eastward from Raquette River to the foot of Sawtooth
Mountain, the line would measure about twelve miles. If a similar
line could be stretched northward from Cold River to Ampersand Lake,
it would be about eight miles. One cannot, however, always go through a mountain. It is usually
necessary to go over or around it; and following up and down the
ridges, through ravines and around swamps and other obstacles, the
travel distances above named might be doubled, and then some. The
mountain was covered with forest, and there was not a human
habitation on it or within many miles of it in any direction. Some
lumbering had been done along Cold River and several of its tributary
creeks, but the higher portions were untouched and the heavy spruce
and hemlock cover looked black from up the lake. Giving proper consideration to these facts and knowing the Long Lake
guides as well as I did, I could readily understand that it might be
less strenuous to tell the marvelous stories about Lost Pond than it
would be to go up in the Seward country and search out the pond. Then
there was always the possibility that too much investigation might
spoil a good story. Ever since childhood I have possessed that very human characteristic
of wanting that which is forbidden, longing for what is just out of
reach; and when a thing is said to be impossible, I at once have an
intense desire to undertake to do that thing. Now, there was good trout fishing in many of the ponds and streams
tributary to Long Lake which were comparatively easy to reach; but
this lost pond which I had heard so much about was so "impossible to
find" that I was possessed with an irresistible longing to find it,
to see what it looked like, to fish in it. So I discussed the matter
with Bige, who, with some show of reluctance, agreed to assist... Continue reading book >>
|
eBook Downloads | |
---|---|
ePUB eBook • iBooks for iPhone and iPad • Nook • Sony Reader |
Kindle eBook • Mobi file format for Kindle |
Read eBook • Load eBook in browser |
Text File eBook • Computers • Windows • Mac |
Review this book |
---|