The Delaware, above the Lackawaxen, flows between massive cliffs in a
deeply-cut gorge through the flagstones. At Mast Hope, years ago, was
got the biggest pine tree ever cut on the Delaware for a vessel's
mast. The "Forest Lake Association," another hunting- and fishing-club
near here, has an extensive estate covering the high ridge between the
Delaware and the Lackawaxen. At Big Eddy the river makes a sort of
lake two miles long, of pure spring water, the widest and deepest part
of the Delaware beyond tidewater. Stupendous cliffs contract the river
above at the Narrows, where the village of Narrowsburg is built, and
this region and the neighboring lake-strewn highlands of Sullivan
County, New York, were the chief scenes of Cooper's novel, _The Last
of the Mohicans_. As we advance through its upper canyon, the Delaware
grows gradually smaller, but the enclosing ridges recede and leave a
broad and fertile valley. Here are the villages of Damascus and
Cochecton, connected by a bridge, and having together probably a
thousand inhabitants. The original Indian village was Cushatunk,
meaning the "lowlands," and from this Cochecton is derived. It was the
sad scene of various Indian forays and massacres before and during the
Revolution. For many years lumbering and tanning were great industries
in this region, but they have almost entirely passed away.
We are coming to the headwaters of the Delaware. At Hancock, elevated
about nine hundred feet above tide, the Delaware divides. The
Popacton, or east branch, comes in, the Mohock, or western branch,
however, being the larger stream, and making the boundary between
Pennsylvania and New York above their junction. These two branches,
after flowing nearly parallel for a long distance across Delaware
County, New York, separated by a broad mountain ridge about eleven
miles wide, unite around the base of a great dome-like hill at
Hancock, the spot having been appropriately named by the Indians
Sho-ka-kin, or "where the waters meet." Thirteen miles above is
Deposit, at the New York boundary, where Oquaga Creek comes down from
the mountains to the westward. This was formerly an important "place
of deposit" for lumber, awaiting the spring freshets to be sent down
the Delaware, and hence its name. High hills surround Deposit, the
river makes a grand sweeping bend, and nearby is the beautiful
mountain lake of Oquaga, of which Taylor writes: "If there is a more
restful place than this, outside 'God's acres,' I have failed to find
it;" adding, "The mountain road to the lake is picturesque enough to
lead to Paradise." The headwaters of the Delaware rise upon the
western slopes of the Catskill Mountains in Delaware and Schoharie
Counties, New York. The source is about two hundred and seventy miles
almost directly north of Philadelphia. In a depression on the western
slope of the Catskill range, at an elevation of eighteen hundred and
eighty-eight feet above tidewater, is the head of the Delaware, Lake
Utsyanthia, a secluded little sheet of the purest and most transparent
spring water. It is also called Ote-se-on-teo, meaning the "beautiful
spring, cold and pure." It is a mirror of beauty in a wooded
wilderness, its surroundings being most wild and picturesque. From
this little lakelet flows out the Mohock, winding down its romantic
valley, and receiving many brooks and rills, passing a village or two,
and bubbling along for forty miles to Deposit, and thence onward as
the great river Delaware to the ocean. Thus Tennyson sings of the
Brook:
"I chatter, chatter, as I flow
To join the brimming river,
For man may come, and man may go,
But I go on forever."