Postcards From the Delaware

Photos by John Albright of a recent trip to the upper Delaware River.

"Trout Fishing, Sullivan County, N.Y." by Francis L. Waddell

"Along the Delaware, Spring" by Galen Mercer

Come wander with me to the hemlock hills,

Where romance dwells by the laurelled rills;

For the stag, in the balmy month of June,

Cools his panting sides in the Callicoon,

And the eagle kens the morning beam,

As it glittering smiles on the silver stream,

While there in the wild and silent wood,

Where feet of the hunter scarce intrude,

The speckled trout in frolicsome play

Are sporting their mirthful holiday

In thousands, crowd each limpid brook,

Unheeding the sportsman's wily hook.

What a treat with a line and rod to creep,

When the finny tribe in the shadows sleep,

By the sloping bank of the crystal tide,

And cunningly in the long grass hide,

Then wait till a large trout passes by,

Or cautiously play the barbed fly;

And when takes hold the foolish trout,

With angler's triumph pull him out.

Published in the American Turf Register and Sporting Magazine, June 1835.

Callicoon Creek enjoyed a reputation at the time equal to that of the Beaverkill and Willowemoc.