Book _ LX / (2^;^,i5^ ^yt!!^: - ^ WRW A^nptr ■\rT'RTTT-R -vn-p qto-kt THE HUDSON, HE WILDERNESS TO THE SEA. BENSON J. LOSSING. ILLUSTRATED BY THREE HUNDRED AND SIX EKGRAVIKGS OH WOOD, FROM DRAWINGS BY THE AUTHOR, AND A FRONTISPIECE ON STEEL. NEW YORK: VIHTUE AND YOESTON. filtered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, By VIETUE & yOESTON, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United Stales for the Scmtliern District of New York. PREFACE. HE pen and pencil sketclies of tlie Hudson River and its associations contained in this Volume, were made by the writer a few years ago, and were published in a series of numbers of the London Art- Journal (for which they were origi- nally prepared) during the years 1860 and 1861. They have been revised by the writer for publication in the present form, changes in persons and things requiring such revision. It is impossible to give in pictures so necessarily small as are those which illustrate this Volume, an adequate idea of the beauty and grandeur of the scenery of the Hudson River ; so, in the choice of subjects, the judgment was governed more by considera- tions of utility than of mere artistic taste. Only such objects have been delineated and described as bore relations to the history, traditions, and business life of the river here celebrated, whose course, from the Wilderness to the Sea, measures a distance of full three himdred miles. The reader will bear in mind that when the present tense is used, allusion is made to the beginning of the year 1866, at which time the revision of these sketches was made. B. J. L. PoUGHKKEPSlE, N.Y., March, 1866. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Initial Letter— The Cardinal Flower a Moosehead A Lodge in the Wilderness... Eaquette River Tenants of the Upper Hudson Forests Camp Helena Sabattis Hendrick Spring Swamp Travel Catlin Lake First Clearing on the Hudson i First Saw-Mill on the Hudson Elephant Island Lumber Dam and Sluice Initial Letter— The Wayside Fountain Eapids at the Head of Harris's Lake Sandford Lake The Iron Dam Adirondack Village Departure for Tahawus First Bridge over the Hudson Bark Cabin at Calamity Pond Henderson's Monument Fall in the Opalescent Eiver Climbing Tahawus Spring on the Peak of Tahawus Hospice on the Peak of Tahawus Initial Letter— A Sap Trough The Loon Lake Golden Outlet of Henderson Lake Trees on Boulders Adirondack, or Indian Pass Henderson's Lake Out of the Wilderness Moose Horns Outlet of Paradox Lake Isola Bella Stimip-Machine View at Warrensbm-g Confluence of the Hudson and Suarron Fort WilUam Henry Hotel Initial Letter— Cavern at Glen's Falls Falls at Luzerne Masque Alonge Luzerne Lake Confluence of the Hudson and Sacandaga . Kah-che-bon-cook, or Jesup's Great Falls . The Hudson near the Queensbury Line ... The Great Boom Glen's Falls Below the Bridge at Glen's Falls Baker's Falls Ground-plan of Fort Edward The Jenny M'Crca Tree ... Bahn-of-Gilead Tree View at Fort Edward "Cob-Money" Fort Miller Rapids Initial Letter— Canal Bridge and Boat ... Canal Bridge across the Hudson above the Saratoga Dam Confluence of the Hudson and Batten-Kill Di-on-on-deh-o-wa, or Great Falls of the Batten-KiU The Reidesel House Cellar of Reidesel House Eapids of the Fish Creek, at Schuylerville The Schuyler Mansion Scene of Burgoyne's Surrender Gates's Head-quarters Eope Ferry Burgoyne's Encampment (from a Print published in London, in 1779) House in which General Fraser died Eraser's Burial-iilace Neilson's House, Bemis's Heights Eoom occupied by Major Acklaud Relics from the Battle Field DeiTick Swarfs House at Stillwater Viaduct of the Vermont Central Railwaj' . Waterford and Lansingburgh Bridge View at Cohoes Falls Lock at State Dam, Troy Vanderheyden House Rensselaer and Saratoga Railway Bridge . View of Troy from Mount Ida United States Arsenal at Watei-vliet Schuyler House at the Flats Van Rensselaer Manor House PAGE . 62 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE Van Rensselaer Arms 121 Old Dutch Church in Albany 122 Street View in Ancient Albanj' 124 A'anderheyden Palace 125 Fort Frederick 127 General Schuj-ler's Mansion in Albany ... 129 Staircase in Schuyler's Mansion 131 The State Capitol 133 Canal Basin at Albany ... 134 The Dudley Observatory 137 Greenbush Kailway Station 139 View near the Overslagh 1-12 Coxsakie 144 Fishing Station— Sturgeon, Shad, Bass ... 14-t View from the Promenade, Hudson 147 Athens, from the Hudson Iron Works ... 148 View at Katz-Kill Landing 149 Entrance to the Katzbergs 1.51 Rip Van Winkle's Cabin 153 Mountain House, from the Road 1.56 View from South Mountain 1.59 Katers-Kill Falls 162 The Fawn's Leap 164 Scene at the Katers-Kill, near Palensville 165 OldClei-mont 167 Clermont 168 View at De Koven's Bay 170 The Clermont 170 Livingston's Mansion at Tivoli 171 Mouth of Esopus Creek, Saugerties 172 St. Stephen's College 173 Montgomery Place 174 The Katzbergs from Montgomery Place ... 1 75 Rokeby 176 Beekman's House 177 Ellerslie 17S A'iew from Wildercliff 179 Kingston 182 Rondont Creek 184 Placentia 186 Poughkeepsie, from Lewisbiu-g 187 Van Kleek House 189 The Highlands, from Poughkeepsie 190 Locust Grove 191 Milton Ferry and Hor.se-Boat 192 New Hamburg Tunnel 193 The Arbor Vitis 194 Marlborough, from the Lime-Kilns 195 Mouth of Wappingi's Creek 196 Washington's Head-quarters at Newburgh 199 Interior of Washington's Head-quarters ... 2n0 Lite-Guard Mommient 201 Newburgh Bay 202 Fishkill Landing and Newburgh 203 Idlewild from the Brook 204 In the Glen at Idlewild 205 Upper Entrance to the Highlands 207 PAGE At the Foot of the Stoi-m King 209 " The Powell " off the Storm King Valley 210 .Scene off the Storm King Valley 211 Highland Entrance to Newburgh Bay Nortliern View from tlie Storm King ... 214 Southern View from the Storm King ... 216 Kidd's Plug Cliff 217 Crow's Nest 218 Cadet's Monument 221 Cold Spring, from the Cemetery 222 West Point, from the Cemetery 223 Fort Putnam, from the West 224 View from Fort Putnam 225 Lieutenant-Colonel Wood's Mommient ... 226 View from the Siege Battery ... The Great Chain 228 Western View, from Roe's Hotel 229 The Parade 230 Kosciuszko's Monument 231 Dade's Command's Monument 232 Kosciuszko's Garden 233 View from Battery Knox 234 The Beverly House „. ... 236 The Staircase of the Robinsons' House ... 240 1 he Indian Falls 241 View South from Dutilh's 242 Indian Brook 243 View from Rossiter's Mansion 245 West Point Foundrj' Undercliff 218 Ruins of Batter}' on Constitution Island ... 250 View at Garrison's 251 Cozzens's 252 Church of the Holy Innocents ... 253 The Road to Cozzens's Dock 254 Buttermilk Falls 2.55 Upper Cascades, Buttermilk Falls 256 Beverly Dock Lower Entrance to the Highlands, fiom Peek's KUl Falls in Fort Jlontgomery Creek Scene in Fort Montgomery Creek Lake Sinnipink Anthony's Nose and the Sugar Loaf, from the Ice Depot Tunnel at Antliony's Nose The Brocken Kill Rattlesnake Tunnel at Flat Point lona, from the Railway Donder Berg Point The Peek's Kill Skaters on Peek's Kill Bay Winter Fishing Fishermen, from the Old Lime-Kilns Tomkins's Lime-Kilns and Quarry .. Stony Point .. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. vii PAGE PAGE Stony Point Lighthouse and Fog-Bell 28:J Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb 380 Verplanck's Point, from Stony Point Audubon s Residence 382 Lighthouse 2S5 View in Trinity Cemetery 385 Grassy Point and Torn Mountain 286 Manhattanville, from Claremon t 386 Smith's House on Treason Hill 288 Claremont 387 Meeting-place of Andre and Arnold 292 View on Bloomingdale Road Sleigh Riding on the Hudson 296 Asylum for the Insane 390 Croton Aqueduct at Sing Sing 297 Elm Park in 1861 391 State Prison at Sing Sing 299 Orphan Asylum 394 State Prisoners 300 Harlem Plains 395 Crolon Point, from Sing Sing 304 View in Central Park 396 Rockland, or Slaughterer's Landing 305 The Terrace Bridge and Mall 399 RockhuKl Lake 306 A Squatter Village 400 Mouth of the Croton 307 Provoost's Tomb -Jones's Woods 401 Croton Dam 309 View near Hell-Gate 403 Ventilators 310 The Beekman Mansion 406 High Bridge over the Croton 311 Turtle Bay and BlackweU's Island 407 Van Cortlandt Manor House 312 The Reservoir, Fifth Avenue 408 View from Prickly Pear Hill 316 Fifth Avenue Hotel, Madison Park 409 The Porpoise 317 Worth's Monument 412 General Ward's Mansion 318 Union Park 415 Ancient Dutch Church 320 Stuyvesant Pear Tree 416 Sleepy Hollow Bridge 321 Stuyvesant's House 417 Ining's Grave 324 St. Mark's Chtu'ch and Historical Society Phihpse's Mill-Dam 327 ■ House 413 Philipse Castle 328 Bible House, Cooper Institute, and Clinton Distant View at Tarrytown 329 HaU 419 View on the Po-can-te-co from Irving Washington's Residence as it ai^ipeared in Park ■ 330 1850 421 Monument at Tarrytown 331 Franklin Squai-e 423 Washington's Head-quarters at Tappan ... 336 Broadway at St. Paul's 424 Andi-e's Pen and Ink Sketch 338 Soldiers' Monument in Trinity Churchyard 426 Andre's Monument 339 Seals of New Amsterdam and New York... 427 Paulding Manor 340 Dutch Mansion and Cottage in New Am- Sunnyside ... 342 sterdam 423 Ining's Study 343 The Bowling Green and Fort George in 1783 429 The Brook at Sunnyside 346 The Bowling Green in 1861 431 The Pond, or " Mediterranean Sea " 347 The Battery and Castle Garden 432 Wolfert's Boost when Irving purchased it 350 Old Federal HaU 433 View at Irvington 354 Hudson River Steamers leaving New York 434 Nevis 355 View near- Nyack 436 View at Dobbs's Ferry 356 View from Fort Lee 433 View near Hastings 357 Bull's Ferry 440 Livingston Mansion 353 Duelling Ground, Weehawk 448 The Palisades 359 View at the Elj^sian Fields 450 Philipse Manor Hall 363 Stevens's Floating Battery 451 The "Half-Moon" 363 Jersey City and Cunard Dock 453 Font Hill 365 Brooklyn Feny and Heights 454 Mount St. Vincent Academy 366 Navy Yard, Brooklyn 455 Spy t den Duyvel Creek 367 S3dvan Water, Greenwood 456 The Centm-y House Governor's and Bedloe's Islands 457 The High Bridge 372 The Narrows, from Quarantine 458 The Harlem River, from the Morris House 373 Fort Lafayette 459 The Morris Mansion 374 Fort Hamilton 460 The Grange 375 Surf Bathing, Coney Island 461 View on Washington Heights 378 Sandy Hook, from the Ship Channel 463 Jeffery's Hook 379 Sandy Hook, from the Lighthouses 463 THE HUDSON, FROM THE WILDERNESS TO THE SEA. CHATTEll T. T is proposed to present, in a series of sketclies witli pen and pencil, pictures of the Hud- soa lliver, from its birth among th(^ mountains to its marriage with the ocean. '^ff 'IM It is by far the most interesting river in *'' ' America, considering the beauty and mag- nificence of its scenery, its natural, political, and social history, the agricultural and mineral treasures of its vicinage, the com- mercial wealth hourly floating upon its bosom, and the relations of its geography __ and topography to some of the most im- portiint events in the history of the Western hemisphere. High upon the walls of the governor's room in the Xew York City Hall is a dingy painting of a broad-headed, short-haired, sparsely-bearded man, with an enormous ruffle about his neck, and bearing the impress of an intellectual, courtly gentleman of the days of King James the First of England. By whom it was painted nobody knows, but conjecture shrewdly guesses that it was delineated by the hand of Paul Van Soraeren, the skilful Flemish artist who painted the portraits of many persons of distinction in Amsterdam and London, in the reign of James, and died in the British capital four years before that monarch. We are THE HUDSON. ■u'ell assured that it is the portrait of an eminent navigator, who, in that remarkable year in the history of England and America, one thousand six hundred and seven, met "certains worshippeful merchants of London," in the parlour of a son of Sir Thomas Gresham, in Bishopsgatc Street, and bargained concerning a proposed voyage in search of a north-east passage to India, between the icy and rock-bound coasts of Nova Zembla and Spitzbergcn. That navigator was Henry Hudson, a friend of Captain John Smith, a man of science and liberal views, and a pupil, perhaps, of Drake, or Probisher, or Grenville, in the seaman's art. On May-day morning he knelt in tlic church of St. Ethelburga, and partook of the Sacrament ; and soon afterward he left the Thames for the circumpolar waters. During two voyages he battled the ice-pack manfully off the Korth Cape, but with- out success : boreal frosts were too intense for the brine, and cast impene- trable ice-barriers across the eastern pathway of the sea. His employers praised the navigator's skill and courage, but, losing faith in the scheme, the undertaking was abandoned. Hudson went to Holland with a stout heart ; and the Dutch East India Company, then sending their uncouth argosies to every sea, gladly employed "the bold Englishman, the expert pilot, and famous navigator," of whose fame they had heard so much.} At the middle of March, 1609, Heudrick, as the Dutch called him, sailed from Amsterdam in a yacht of ninety tons, named the Half -Moon, manned with a choice crew, and turned his prow, once more, toward Nova Zembla. Again ice, and fogs, and fiei'ce tempests, disputed his passage, and he steered westward, passed Cape Farewell, and, on the 2nd of July, made soundings upon the banks of Newfoundland. He sailed along the coast to the fine harbour of Charleston, in South Carolina, in search of a north-west passage " below Yirginia," spoken of by his friend Captain Smith. Disappointed, he turned northward, discovered Delaware Bay, and on the 3rd of September anchored near Sandy Hook. On the 11th he passed through the Narrows into the present bay of New York,- and from his anchorage beheld, with joy, wonder, and hope, the waters of the noble Mahicannituck, or Mohegan Eiver, flowing from the high blue hills on the north. Toward evening the following day he entered the broad stream, and with a full persuasion, on account of tidal currents. THE HUDSON. that the river upon which he was borne flowed from ocean to ocean, he rejoiced in the dream of being the leader to the long-sought Cathay. But when the magnitieeut liighlands, fifty miles from tlie sea, were passed, and the stream narrowed and the water freshened, hope failed him. Eut the indescribable beauty of the virgin land through which he was voyaging, filled his heart and mind with exquisite pleasure ; and as deputations of dusky men came from the courts of the forest sachems to visit him, in wonder and awe, he seemed transformed into some majestic and mysterious hero of the old sagas of the Nortli. The yacht anchored near the shore where Albany now stands, but a boat's crew, accompanied by Hudson, went on, and beheld the waters of the Mohawk foaming among the rocks at Cohoes. Then back to New York Bay the navigator sailed ; and after a parting salutation with the chiels of the Manhattans at the mouth of the river, and taking formal possession of the country in the name of the government of Holland, he departed for Europe, to tell of the glorious region, filled with fur-bearing animals, beneath the parallels of the North Virginia Charter. He landed in England, but sent his log-book, charts, and a full account of his voyage to his employers at Amsterdam. King James, jealous because of the advantages which the Dutch might derive from these discoveries, kept Hudson a long time in England ; but tlie Hollanders had all necessary information, and very soon ships of the company and of private adventurers were anchored in the waters of the Mahicannituck, and receiving the wealth of the forests from the wild men who inhabited them. The Dutchmen and the Indians became friends, close-bound by the cohesion of ti'ade. The river was named Mauritius, in honour of the Stadtholder of the Netherlands, and the seed of a great empire was planted there. The English, in honour of their countryman who discovered it, called it Hudson's River, and to the present time that title has been maintained; but not without continual rivalry with that of North Eivei-, given it by the early Dutch settlers after the discovery of the Delaware, which was named South Eiver. It is now as often called North Eiver as Hudson in the common transactions of trade, names of corporations, &c. ; but these, with Americans, being convertible titles, produce no confusion. For one hundred and fifty years after its discovery, the Hudson, above THE HUDSON. Albany, was little kuowu to Avhite men, excepting hunters and trappers, and a few isolated settlers ; and the knowledge of its sources among lofty alpine ranges is one of the revelations made to the present century, and even to the present generation. And now very few, excepting the hunters of that region, have personal knowledge of the beauty and wild grandeur of lake, and forest, and mountain, out of which spring the fountains of the river w^e are about to describe. To these fountains and their forest courses I made a pilgrimage toward the close of the summer of 1859, accompanied by Mrs. Lossing and Mr. S. M. Buckingham, an American genth;man, formerly engaged in mercantile business in Man- chester, England, and who has travelled extensively in the East. Our little company, composed of the minimum in the old prescription for a dinner-party — not more than the Muses nor less than the Graces — left our homes, in the pleasant rural city of Poughkeepsie, on the Hudson, for the Avildernesss of northern New York, by a route which we are satisfied, by experience and observation, to be the best for the tourist or sportsman bound for the head waters of that river, or the high plateau northward and westward of them, where lie in solitary beauty a multitude of lakes filled with delicious fish, and embosomed in primeval forests abounding with deer and other game. We travelled by railway about one hundred and fifty miles to "Whitehall, a small village in a rocky gorge, where Wood Creek leaps in cascades into the head of L-ikc Cham- plain. There we tarried until the following morning, and at ten o'clock embarked upon a steamboat for Port Kent — our point of departure for the wild interior, far down the lake on its western border. The day was fine, and the shores of the lake, clustered with historical associations, presented a series of beautiful pictures ; for they were rich with forest verdure, the harvests of a fruitful seed-time, and thrifty villages and farmhouses. Behind these, on the east, arose the lofty ranges of the Green Mountains, in Vermont ; and on the west were the Adirondacks of New York, whither we were journeying, their clustering peaks, distant and shadowy, bathed in the golden light of a summer afternoon. Lake Champlain is deep and narrow, and one hundred and forty mile in length. It received its present name from its discoverer, the eminent French navigator, Samuel Champlain, who was upon its waters the same THE HUDSON. year when Hudson sailed up tlie river -which bears his name. Champlaiu came from the north, and Hudson from the south ; and they penetrated the -wilderness to points within a hundred miles of each other. Long before, the Indians had given it the significant title of Can-i-a-de-ri Qua- run-te, the Door of the Country. The appropriateness of this name will be illustrated hereafter. It was evening when we arrived at Port Kent. We remained until morning with a friend (Winslow C. AVatson, Es(i., a descendant of Governor Winslow, who came to New England in the 3IaijfIotrer), Avhoso personal explorations and general knowledge of the region we were about to visit, enabled him to give us information of much value in our subsequent course. With himself and family we visited the walled banks of the Great Au Sable, near Keeseville, and stood with wonder and awe at the bottom of a terrific gorge in sandstone, rent by an earthquake's power, and a foaming river rushing at our feet. The gorge, for more than a mile, is from thirty to forty feet in width, and over one hundred in depth. This was our first experience of the wild scenery of the north. The tourist should never pass it unnoticed. Our direct route from Keeseville lay along the picturesque valley of the Great An Sable Iliver, a stream broken along its entire course into cascades, draining about seven hundred square miles of mountain country, and falling four thousand six hundred feet in its passage from its springs to Lake Champlain, a distance of only about forty miles. We made a detour of a few miles at Keeseville for a special purpose, entered the valley at twilight, and passed along the margin of the rushing waters of the Au Sable six miles to the Forks, where we remained until morning. The day dawned gloomily, and for four hours we rode over the mountains toward the Saranac Iliver in a drenching rain, for which we were too well prepared to experience any inconvenience. At Franklin Falls, on the Saranac, in the midst of the wildest mountain scenery, where a few years before a forest village had been destroyed by fire, we dined upon trout and venison, the common food of the wilderness, and then rode on toward the Lower Saranac Lake, at the foot of which we were destined to leave roads, and horses, and industrial pursuits behind, and live upon the solitary lake and river, and in the almost unbroken woods. 6 THE HUDSON. The clouds were scattered early in the afternoon, but lay in heavy masses upon the summits of the deep blue mountains, and deprived us of the pleasure to be derived from distant views in the amphitheatre of everlasting hills through which we were journeying. Our road was over a high rolling country, fertile, and in process of rapid clearing. The log- houses of the settlers, and the cabins of the charcoal burners, were frequently seen ; and in a beautiful VitUey, watered by a branch of the Saranac, we passed througli a pleasant village called Bloomingdale. Toward evening we reached the sluggish outlet of the Saranac Lakes, and at a little before sunset our postilion reined up at Eaker's Inn, two miles from the Lower Lake, and fifty-one from Port Kent. To the lover and student of nature, the artist and the philosopher, the country through w^hich we had passed, and to which only brief allusion may here be made, is among the most inviting spots upon the globe, for magnificent and picturesqi,?"' ■• scenery, mineral wealth, and geological wonders, abound on every side. "' At Baker's Inn every comfort for a reasonable man was found. Tliere we piocured guides, boats, and provisions for the wilderness; and at a little pai^t noon on the following day we were fairly beyond the sounds of the settlements, upon a placid lake studded with islands, the sun shining in unclouded splendour, and the blue peaks of distant mountains looming above the dense forests that lay in gloomy grandeur between lis and their rugged acclivities. Our party now consisted of five, Uxo guides having been added to it. One of them was a son of Mr. Baker, the otlier a pure-blooded Penobscot Indian from the slate of Maine. Each had a light boat — so light that he might carry it upon his shoulders at portages, or the intervals between the navigable portions of streams or lakes. In one of these was borne our luggage, provisions, and Mr. Buckingham, and in the other Mrs. Lossing and myself. The Saranac Lakes are three iu uumbir, and lie on the south-eastei'u borders of Franklin County, north of Mount Seward. They are known as the Upper, Bound, and Lower. The latter, over which we first voyaged, is six miles in length. From its head we passed along a winding and narrow river, fringed with rushes, lilies, and moose-head plants, THE HUDSON. almost to the central or Eoiind Lake, where we made a portage of a few rods, and dined beneath a towering pine-tree. While there, two deer- hounds, whose voices we had heard in the forest a few minutes before, came dashing up, dripping with the lake water through which they had been swimming, and, after snuffing the scent of our food wistfully for a moment, disappeared as suddenly. We crossed Eouud Lake, three and a half miles, and went up a narrow river about a mile, to the falls rj \Mi r I 1 Npi'- at the outlet of the Tipper Saranac. Here, twelve miles from our embarkation, was a place of entertainment for tourists and sportsmen, in the midst of a small clearing. A portage of an eighth of a mile, over which the boats and luggage were carried upon a waggon, brought us to the foot of the Upper Lake. On this dark, wild sheet of water, thirteen miles in length, we embarked toward the close of the day, and just before sunset reached the lodge of Corey, a hunter and guide well known in all that region. It stood near the gravelly shore of a beautiful bay with a large island in its bosom, heavily wooded with evergreens. It was Saturday evening, and here, in this rude house of logs, whei-e we had THE HUDSON. been pleasantly received by a modest and genteel young woman, we resolved to spend the Sabbath. Kor did we regret our resolution. ^Yc found good wilderness accommodations ; and at midnight the hunter came with his dogs from a long tramp in the woods, bringing a fresh-killed deer upon his shoulders. Our first Sabbath in the wilderness was a delightful one. It was a perfect summer-day, and all around us were freshness and beauty. We were alone with God and His works, far away from the abodes of men ; and when at evening the stars came out one by one, they seemed to the communing spirit like diamond lamps hung up in the dome of a great cathedral, in which we had that day worshipped so purely and lovingly. It is profitable, as Eryant says, to " Go abroad Upon the paths of Nature, and, when all Its voices whisper, and its silent things Are breathing the deep beauty ' Our entrance into the Raquette was so quiet and unexpected, that we EAQlliTTK EIVKR. were not aware of the change until we were fairly upon its broader bosom. It is the most beautiful river in all that wild interior. Its * This superb plant is found from July to October along the shores of the lakes, rivers, and rivulets, and in swamps, all over northern New York. It is perennial, and is borne upon an erect stem, from two to three feet in height. The leaves are long and slender, with a long, tapering base. The flowere are large and very sliowj'. Corolla bright scarlet ; the tube slender ; segments of the lower lip oblong- lanceolate ; filaments red; anthers blue ; stigma tlu-ee-lobed, and at length protruded. It grows readily when transplanted, even in dry soil, and is frequently seen in our gardens. A picture of this plant forms a portion of the design around the initial letter at the head of this chapter. 10 THE HUDSON. shores are generally low, and extend back some distance in wet prairies, upon wliieli grow the soft maple, the aspen, alder, linden, and other deciduous trees, interspersed with the hemlock and pine. These fringe its borders, and standing in clumps upon the prairies, in the midst of rank grass, give them the appearance of beautiful deer parks ; and they are really so, for there herds of deer do pasture. We saw their fresh tracks all along the shores, but they are now so continually hunted, that they keep away from the waters whenever a strange sound falls upon their cars. In the deep wilderness through which this dark and rapid river flows, and ai-ound the neighbouring lakes, the stately moose yet lingers ; Tr>\MS or iiir 1 1 1 rr nii,'. and upon St. Regis Lake, north of the Saranac group, two or three families of the beaver — the most rare of all the tenants of these forests — might then be found. The otter is somc^vhat abundant, but the panther has become almost extinct ; the wolf is seldom seen, except in winter ; and the black bear, quite abundant in the mountain ranges, was shy and invisible to the summer tourist. The chief source of the Eaquette is in Raqucttc Lake, toward the western part of Hamilton County. Around it the Indians, in the ancient days, gathered on snow-shoes, in winter, to hunt the moose, then found THE HUDSOX. 11 there iu large droves ; and from that circumstance they named it " Kaquet," the equivalent in Preuch for snow-shoe in English."^' tSeven miles from our entrance upon the Raquette, we came to the " Falls," where the stream rushes in cascades over a rocky bed for a mile. At the foot of the rapids we dined, and then walked a mile over a lofty, thickly-wooded hill, to their head, where we re-embarked. Here our guides first carried their boats, and it was surprising to see with what apparent ease our Indian took the heaviest, weighing at least 160 lbs., and with a dog-trot bore it the whole distance, stopping only once. The boat rests upon a- yoke, similar to tliose which water-carriers use in some countries, fitted to the neck and shoulders, and it is thus borne with the ease of the coracle. At the head of the rapids we met acquaintances — two clergymen in hunting costume — and after exchanging salutations, we voyaged on six miles, to the foot of Long Lake, through Avhich the Eaquette flows, like the Rhone through Lake Geneva. This was called by the Indians Inca- pali-chow^ or Linden Sea, because the forests upon its shores abounded with the bass-wood or American linden. As we entered that beautiful sheet of water, a scene of indescribable beauty opened upon the vision. The sun was yet a little above the western hills, whose long shadows lay across the wooded intervals. Before us was the lake, calm and trans- lucent as a mirror, its entire length of thirteen miles in view, except where broken by island^ the more distant appearing shadowy in the purple light. The lofty mountain ranges on both sides stretched away into the blue distance, and the slopes of one, and the peak of another, were smoking like volcanoes, the timber being on fire. N'ear us the groves upon the headlands, solitary trees, rich shrubbery, graceful rushes, the clustering moose-head and water-lily, and the gorgeous cloud-pictures, were perfectly reflected, and produced a scene such as the mortal eye seldom beholds. The sun weut down, the vision faded ; and, sweeping around a long, marshy point, we drew our boats upon a pebbly shore at * This is the account of the origiu of its name, given by the French Jesuits who first explored that region. Otliers say that its Indian name, Ni-ha-na-wa-te, means a racket, or noise — noisy river, and spell it liacket. But it is no more noisy than its near neigliboiu', the Grass River which flows into the St. Lawrence from the bosom of the same wilderness. 12 THE HUDSON. twilight, at the foot of a pine-bluff, and proceeded to erect a camp for the night. No human habitation was near, excepting the bark cabin of Bowcn, the " Hermit of Long Lake," wliose history we have not space to record. Our camp was soon constructed. The g-uides selected a pleasant spot near the foot of a lofty pine, placed two erotched sticks perpendicularly in the ground, about eight feet apart, laid a stout pole horizontally across CAJIP UELEXA. them, placed others against it in position like the rafters of half a roof, one end upon the ground, and covered the whole and both sides with the boughs of the hemlock and pine, leaving the front open. The ground was then strewn with the delicate sprays of the hemlock and balsam, making a sweet and pleasant bed. A few feet from the front they built a huge fire, and prepared supper, which consisted of broiled partridges THE HUDSON. 13 (that were shot on the shores of the Eaquette by one of the guides), bread and butter, tea and maple sugar. We supped by the light of a birch-bark torch, fastened to a tall stick. At the close of a moonlight evening, our fire burning brightly, we retired for the night, wrapped in blanket shawls, our satchels and their contents serving for pillows, our heads at the back part of the "camp," and our feet to the fire. The guides lying near, kept the wood blazing throughout the night. We named the place Cam}) Helena, in compliment to the lady of our party. The morning dawned gloriously, aud at an early hour we proceeded up the Inca-pah-chow, in the face of a stiff breeze, ten miles to the mouth of a clear stream, that came down from one of the burning mountains which we saw the evening before. A walk of half a mile brought us to quite an extensive clearing, and Houghton's house of entertainment. There we dismissed our Saranac guides, and despatched on horseback the one who had joined us on the Spectacle Ponds to the home of Mitchell Sabattis, a St. Francis Indian, eighteen miles distant, to procure his services for our tour to the head waters of the Hudson. Sabattis was by far the best man in all that region to lead the traveller to the Hudson waters, aud the Adirondack Mountains, for he had lived in that neighbourhood from his youth, and was then between thirty and forty years of age. He was a grandson of Sabattis mentioned in history, who, with Natanis, be- friended Colonel Benedict Arnold, svBAins. while on his march through the wilderness from the Kennebeck to the Chaudiere, in the autumn of 1775, to attack Quebec. Much to our delight and relief, Sabattis returned with our messenger, for the demand for good guides was so great, that we were fearful he might be absent on duty with others. Thick clouds came rolling over the mountains from the south at 14 THE HUDSON. evening, presaging a storm, and the night fell intensely dark. The burning hill above us presented a magnificent appearance in the gloom. The fire was in broken points over a surface of half a mile, near the summit, and the appearance was like a city upon the lofty slope, brilliantly illuminated. It was sad to see the fire sweeping away whole acres of fine timber. But such scenes are frequent in that region, and every bald and blackened hill-top in the ranges is the record of a conflagration. We were detained at Houghton's the following day by a heavy rain. On the morning after, the clouds drifted away early, and with our new and excellent guides, Mitchell Sabattis and "William Preston, we Avent down the lake eight miles, and landed at a " carry " — as the portages are called — on its eastern shore, within half a mile of Hendrick Spring (so named in honour of Hen- drick Hudson), the most re- mote source of the extreme western branch of our noble river. To reach water navig- able witli our boats, we were compelled to walk through forest and swamp about two miles. That was our first really fatiguing journey on foot, for to facilitate the pas- sage, we each carried as much luggage as possible. "We found Hendrick Spring in the edge of a swamp— cold, shallow, about five feet in diameter, shaded by trees, shrubbery, and vines, and fringed with the delicate brake and fern. Its waters, rising within half a mile of Long Lake, and upon the same summit level, flow southward to the Atlantic more than three hundred miles ; while those of the latter flow to the St. Lawrence, and reach the same Atlantic a thousand miles away to the far north-east. A few years ago. Professor G. "W. Benedict HEIriI,I, OS THK HUDSON. respects, than any we had visited. Eroni its southern shore Goodenow Mountain rises to an altitude of about fifteen hundred feet, crowned by a rocky knob. Near the foot of the lake is a wooded peninsula, whose low isthmus, being covered at high water, leave.T it an island. It is called Elephant Island, because of the singular resemblance of some of the lime- THE HUDSON. 19 stone formation that composes its bold shore to portions of that animal. The whole rock is perforated into singularly-formed caves. This, and ELEPHANT ISLAND. another similar shore a few miles below, were the only deposits of lime- stone that we saw in all that region. At the outlet of Rich's Lake were the ruins of a dam and lumber LUMBER DAM AND SLUICE sluicj, similar in construction and intended use to that of Professor Benedict at Fountain Lake. The object of such structures, which occur 20 THE HUDSON. on the Upper Hudson, is to gather the logs that float from above, and then, by letting out the accumulated waters by the sluice,* give a flood to the shallow, rocky outlets, sufficient to carry them all into the next lake below, where the process is repeated. These logs of pine, hemlock, cedar, and spruce, are cut upon the borders of the streams, marked on the ends by a single blow with a hammer, on the face of which is the monogram of the owner, and then cast into the waters to be gathered and claimed perhaps at the great boom near Glen's Falls, a hundred miles below. We shall again refer to this process of collecting lumber from the mountains. i^T^rL ^M^ CHAPTER II. ^N the old settlement of Pendleton, in the town of Newcomb, Essex County, we spent our second Sabbath. ' That settlement is between the head of Eich's Lake and the foot of Harris's Lake, a distance of five or six miles along their *^^ southern shores. It derives its name from Judge Nathaniel Pendleton, who, about fifty years ago, made a clearing there, and built a and grist, and saw-mill at the foot of Eich's where the lumber dam and sluice, before men- tioned, weie afterwards made. Here was the home of babattis, oui Indian guide, who owned two hundred and forty acres of land, with good improvements. His wife was a fair German Avomau, mother of several children, unmistakably marked with Indian blood. It was Friday night when we arrived at the thrifty Pendleton settle- ment, and we resolved to spend the Sabbath there. "We found excellent accommodation at the farmhouse of Daniel Bissell, and, giving Preston a furlough for two days to visit his lately-married wife at his home, nine miles distant, we all wont in a single boat the next day, manned by Sabattis alone, to visit Harris's Lake, and the confluence of its outlet with the Adirondack branch of the Hudson, three miles below Bissell' s. That lake is a beautiful sheet of water, and along the dark, sluggish river, above the rapids at its head, we saw the cardinal flower upon the banks, and the rich moose-head ••' in the water, in great abundance. * This, in the books, is called Pickerel Weed (Pontederia cordata of LiniiiEUs), but Ihe guides call it moose-head. The stem is stout and cylindrical, and bears a spear-shaped leaf, somewhat cordate at the base. The flowers, which appear in July and August, are composed of dense spikes, of a rich blue colour. A picture of the moose-head is seen in the water beneath the initial letter at the head of Chapter I. 22 THE HUDSON. The rapids at the head of Harris's Lake arc very picturesque. Look- ing up from them, Goodenow Mountain is seen in the distance, and still more remote arc glimpses of the "Windfall range. "We passed the rapids upon boulders, and then voyaged down to the confluence of the two streams just mentioned. From a rough rocky bluff a mile below that point, we obtained a distant view of three of the higher peaks of the Adirondacks — Tahawus or Mount Marcy, Mount Golden, and Mount M'Intyre. We returned at ' evening beneath a canopy of magnificent clouds ; aud that night was made strangely luminous by one of the most HVllUo Ar IHL HEAD OF H\RK1S'S LAKE. splendid displays of the Aurora Eorcalis ever seen upon the continent. It was observed as far south as Charleston, in South Carolina. Sabattis is itn active Methodist, and at his request (their minister not having arrived) Mr. Buckingham read the beautiful liturgy of the Church of England on Sunday morning to a congregation of thirty or forty people, in the school-house on our guide's farm. In the afternoon we attended a prayer-meeting at the same place ; and early the next morning, while a storm of wind and heavy mist was sweeping over the country, started with our two guides, in a lumber waggon, for the Adirondack Mountains. "Wc now left our boats, in which and on foot we had travelled, from the THE HUDSON. 23 lower Saranac to Harris's Lake, more than seventy miles. It was a tedious journey of twenty-six miles, most of the way over a "corduroy" road — a causeway of logs. On the way we passed the confluence of Lake Delia with the Adirondack branch of the Hudson, reached M'Intyre's Inn (Tahawus House, at the foot of Sandford Lake) toward noon, and at two o'clock were at the little deserted village at the Adirondack Iron Works, between Sandford and Henderson Lakes. "We passed near the margin of the former a large portion of the way. It is a beautiful body of water, nine miles long, with several little islands. From the road along its INDFORD LAKE. shores we had a fine view of the three great mountain peaks just mentioned, and of the Wall-face Mountain at the Indian Pass. At the house of Mr. Hunter, the only inhabitant of the deserted village, we dined, and then prepared to ascend the Great Tahawus, or Sky-piercer. The little deserted village of Adirondack, or M'Intyre, nestled in a rocky valley upon the Upper Hudson, at the foot of the principal moun- tain barrier which rises between its sources and those of the Au Sable, and in the bosom of an almost unbroken forest, appeared cheerful to us weary wanderers, although smoke was to be seen from only a solitary 24 THE HUDSON. chimney. The hamlet — consisting of sixteen dwelling-houses, furnaces, and other edifices, and a building with a cupola, used for a school and public worship — was the offspring of enterprise and capital, which many years before had combined to develop the mineral wealth of that region. That wealth was still there, and almost untouched— for enterprise and capital, compelled to contend with geographical and topographical impediments, have abandoned their unprofitable application of labour, and left the rich iron ores, apparently exhaustless in quantity, to be quan-ied and transformed in the not far-off future. The ores of that vicinity had never been revealed to the eye of civilised man until the year 1826, when David Henderson, a young Scotchman, of Jersey City, opposite I^ew York, while standing near the iron-works of his father-in-law, Archibald M'lntyre, at North Elba, in Essex County, was approached by a St. Francis Indian, known in all that region as a brave and skilful hunter — honest, intelligent, and, like all his race, taciturn. The Indian took from beneath his blanket a piece of iron ore, and handed it to Henderson, saying, "You want to see 'um ore? Me fine plenty — all same." When asked where it came from, he pointed toward the south-west, and said, "Me himt beaver all 'lone, and fine 'um where water run over iron-dam." An exploring party was immediately formed, and followed the Indian into the deep forest. They slept that night at the base of the towering cliff of the Indian Pass. The next day they reached the head of a beautiful lake, which they named " Henderson," and followed its outlet to the site of Adirondack village. There, in a deep-shaded valley, they beheld with wonder the "iron dam," or dyke of iron ore, stretched across a stream, which was afterward found to be one of the main branches of the Upper Hudson. They at once explored the vicinity, and discovered that this dyke was connected with vast deposits of ore, which formed rocky ledges on the sides of the narrow valley, and presented beds of metal adequate, appa- rently, to the supply of the world's demand for centuries. It is believed that the revealer of this wealth was Peter Sabattis, the father of our Indian guide. The explorers perceived that all around that vast deposit of wealth in the earth was an abundant supply of hard wood, and other necessary THE HUDSON. ingredients for the manufacture of iron ; and, notwithstanding it was thirty miles from any highway on land or water, with an uninterrupted sweep of forest between, and more than a hundred miles from any market, the entire mineral region — comprising more than a whole township — was purchased, and preparations were soon made to develop its resources. A pnrtnei'ship Avas formed between Archibald M'lntyre, Archibald Eobert- ''r'^V)",''*kftl^&c Tin; inoN p\^[. son, and David Henderson, all related by marriage ; and^Avith slight aid from the State, they constructed a road through the wilderness, from the Siarron [Schroon] Yalley, near Lake Champlain, to the foot of Sandford Lake, halfway between the head of which and the beautiful Henderson Lake Avas the " iron dam." There a settlement was commenced in 1834. A timber dam was constructed upon the iron one, to increase the fall of water, and an experimental furnace was built. Rare and most valuable E THE HUDSON. iron was produced, equal to any from the best Swedish furnaces ; and it was afterward found to be capable of being wrought into steel equal to the best imported from England. The proprietors procured an act of incorporation, under the title of the ''Adirondack Iron and Steel Company," with a capital, at first, of $1,000,000 (£200,000), afterward increased to !il;3,000,000 (£600,000), and constructed another furnace, a forge, stamping-mill, saw and grist mill, machine-shops, powder-house, dwellings, boarding-house, school- house, barns, sheds, and kilns for the manufacture of charcoal. At the foot of Sandford Lake, eleven miles south from Adirondack village, they also commenced a settlement, and named it Tahawus, where thev erected AniROHnACK MLLACtF a dam seventeen hundred feet in length, a saw-mill, >\arehouses, dwell- ings for workmen, &c. And in 1854 they completed a blast furnace near the upper village, at the head of Sandford Lake, at an expense of $43,000 (£8, GOO), capable of producing fourteen tons of iron a-day. They also built six heavy boats upon Sandford Lake, for the transportation of freight, and roads at an expense of §10,000 (£2,000). Altogether the proprietors spent nearly half a million of dollars, or £100,000, Meanwhile the project of a railway from Saratoga to Sackett's Harbour, on Lake \ Ontario, to bisect the great wilderness, was conceived. A company was formed, and forty miles of the road were put under contract, and actually graded. It would pass within a few miles of the Adirondack THE HUDSON. Works, aucl it was estimated that, with a connecting branch road, the iron might be conveyed to Albany for two dollars a ton, and compete profitably witli other iron in the market. A plank road was also projected from Adirondack \-illagc to Preston Pouds, and down the Cold Eiver to the Eaquette, at the foot of Long Lake. But the labour on the road was suspended, the iron interest of the United States became depressed, the Adirondack Works were rendered not only unprofitable, but the source of heavy losses to the owners, .and for five years their fires had been extinguished. In August, 1856, heavy rains in the mountains sent roaring floods down the ravines, and the Hudson, only a brook when we were there, was swelled to a mighty river. An upper dam at Adirondack gave way, and a new channel for the stream was cut, and the great dam at Tahawus, with the saw-mill, Avas demolished by the rushing waters. All was left a desolation. Over scores of acres at the head and- foot of Handford Lake (overflowed when the dam was constructed) we saw white skeletons of trees which had been killed by the flood, standing thickly, and heightening the dreary aspect of the scene. The workmen liad all departed from Adirondack, and only llobert Hunter and his family, who had charge of the property, remained. The original proprietors were all dead, and the property, intrinsically valuable but immediately unproductive, was in the possession of their respective families. But the projected railway will yet be constructed, because it is needful for the develop :;icnt and use of that immense mineral and timber region, and again that forest village will be vivified, and the echoes of the deep l)reathings of its furnaces will be heard in the neigh- bouring mountains. At Mr. Hunter's Ave prepared for the rougher travel on foot through the mountain forests to Tahawus, ten miles distant. Here we may properly instruct the expectant tourist in this region in regard to such preparation. Every arrangement should be as simple as possible. A man needs only a stout flannel hunting shii-t, coarse and trustworthy trousers, woollen stockings, large hea^-y boots well saturated with a com- position of beeswax and tallow, a soft felt hat or a cap, and strong buck- skin gloves. A Avoman needs a stout flannel dress, over shortened crinoline, of short dimensions, with loops and buttons to adjust its length ; THE HUDSON. a hood and cape of the same material?, made so as to euvelop the head and bust, and Icuvc the arms free, woollen stockings, stont calfskin boots that cover the legs to the knee, well saturated with beeswax and tallow, and an india-rubber satchel for necessary toilet materials. Provisions, also, should be simple. Tlie hunters live chiefly on bread or crackers. DEl'AUTfKE FOK TAUAWLS. and maple sugar. The usual preparation is a sufficient stock of Eoston crackers, pilot-bread, or common loaf-bread, butter, tea or coffee, pepper and salt, an ample quantity of maple sugar,--' and some salted pork, to use in frying or broiling fish, birds, and game. The utensils for cooking are a short-handled frying-pan, a broad and shallow tin pan, tin tea or coffee- * Tlie h-M\\, or Sugar Maple (Acer saccharinum), abounds in all parts of the State of New York. It is a beautiful tree, often found from fifty to eighty feet in height, and the trnnk from two to three feet in diameter. From the sap, which flows abundantly in the f>pring, delicious sj-rup and excellent sugar are made. In the Upper Hudson region, the sap is procured by making a smaU incision with an axe, or a hole with an augur, into the body of the tree, into which a small tube or gutter is fttstened. From thence the sap flows, and is caught in rough trouglis, dug out of small logs. [See the initial letter at the liead of Chapter HI.] It is collected into tubs, and boiled in caldron kettles. The syrup remains in buckets from twelve to twenty-four hours, and settles before straining. To make sugar it is boiled carefully over a slow fire. To cleanse it, the white of one egg, and one gill of milk, are used for every 30 lbs. or 40 lbs. of sugav. Some settlers manufacture a considerable (quantity of sugar everj' year, as much as from 300 lbs. tj 6U01bs. THE HUDSON. 29 pot, tiu plates and cups, knives, forks, and spoons. These, with sha-\vls or overcoats, and india-rubber capes to keep off the rain, the guides will carry, with gnu, axe, and fishing-tackle. Sportsmen who expect to camp out some time, should take with them a light tent. The guides will fish, hunt, work, build "camps," and do all other necessary service, for a moderate compensation and their food. It is proper here to remark that the tourist should never enter this wilderness earlier than the middle of August. Then the files and moscpitoes, the intolerable pests of the Ibrests, are rapidly disappearing, and fine weather may be expt'cted. The sportsman must go in June or July for trout, and in October for deer. Well prepared with all necessaries excepting flannel over-shirts, we set out from Adirondack on the afternoon of the oOth of August, our guides BHIUGE OVEll THE HUDSOX. "with their packs leading the way. The morning had been misty, but the atmosphere was then clear and cool. We crossed the Hudson three-fourths of a mile below Henderson Lake, upon a rude bridge, made our way through a clearing tangled with tall raspberry shrubs full of fruit, for nearly half a mile, and then entered the deep and solemn forest, composed of birch, maple, cedar, hemlock, spruce, and tall pine trees. Our way was over a level for three-fourths of a mile, to the outlet of Calamity I'ond. We crossed it at a beautiful cascade, and then commenced ascend- 30 THE HUDSON. ing by a sinuous mountaiu path, across whicli many a huge tree had been cast by the wind. It was a weary journey of almost four miles (notwith- standing it lay along the track of a lane cut through the forest a few years ago for a special purpose, of which we shall presently speak), for in many places the soil was hidden by boulders covered with thick moss, over which we Avere compelled to climb. Towards sunset we reached a ideasant little lake, embosomed in the dense forest, its low wet margin fringed with brilliant yellow tiowers, beautiful in form but Avithout perfume. At the head of that little lake, Avhere the inlet comes flowing U, ^''^*4:.^v>/, /;,,^r^f:i^-* J ARK CABIN AT C'.U-AM[TY P0> sluggishly fruni a dark ravine scooped from tlie mountain 4ope, we built a bark cabin, and encamped for the night. That tiny lake is called Calamity Pond, iu commemoration of a b-ad circumstance that occurred near the spot where we erected our cabin, in September, 1845. Mr. Henderson, of the Adirondack Iron Companj-, already mentioned, was there with his son and other attendants. Kear the margin of the inlet is a flat I'ock. On this, as he landed from a scow, Mr. Henderson attempted to lay his pistol, holding the muzzle in his hand. It discharged, and the contents entering his body, wounded him mortally : he lived only half-an-hour. A rude bier Avas constructed of THE HUDSON. 31 boughs, on which his body "was carried to Adirondack village. It was taken down Sandford Lake in a boat to Tahawus, and from thence again carried on a bier through the wilderness, fifteen miles to the western termination of the road from Scarron valley, then in process of construc- tion. From thence it was conveyed to his home at Jersey City, and a few years afterward his family erected an elegant monument upon the rock wheio he lost his life. It is of the light jS^ew Jersey sandstone, eight feet in height, and l)ears the following inscription: — "This monument was erected by filial aftVctioii tn the momorv of Dvvrn HENnF.r.soy, who lost itn^¥^ HENDERSON'S MOXl^MENl his life on this spot, 3rd September, 184-5." Beneath the inscription, in high relief, is a chalice, book, and anchor. The lane through the woods just mentioned was cut for the purpose of allowing the transportation of this monument upon a sledge in winter, drawn by oxen. All the way the road was made passable l)y packing the snow between the boulders, and in this lal)our several days were con- sumed. The monument weighs a ton. While Preston and myself Avere building the bark cabin, ia a manner similar to the bush one already described, and Mrs. Lossing was preparing a place upon the clean grass near the fire for our supper, Mr. Buckingham and Sabattis went out upon the lake on a rough raft, and caught over two 32 THE HUDSON. dozen trout. Upon these we supped and breakfasted. The night was cold, and at early dawn we found the hoar-frost lying upon every leaf and blade around us. Beautiful, indeed, was that dawning of the last day of summer. Prom the south-west came a gentle breeze, bearing upon its wings light vapour, that flecked the whole sky, and became roseate in hue when tlie sun touched with purple light the summit of the hills westward of us. These towered in grandeur more than a thousand feet above the surface of the lake, from which, in the kindling morning light, went up, in myriads of spiral threads, a mist, softly as a spirit, and melted in the first sunbeam. At eight o'clock we resumed our journey over a much rougher way than we had yet travelled, for there was nothing but a dim and obstructed hunter's trail to follow. This we pursued nearly two miles, when we struck the outlet of Lake Golden, at its confluence with the Opalescent Eiver, that comes rushing down in continuous rapids and cascades from the foot of Tahawus. The lake was only a few rods distant. Intending to visit it on our return, we contented ourselves with brief glimpses of it through the trees, and of tall Mount Coldcn, or JNlount M'^Iartin, tliat rises in magnificence from its eastern shore. The drought that still prevailed over northern Xew York and Xew England had so diminished the volume of the Opalescent Kiver, that we walked more than four miles in the bed of the stream upon boulders which fill it. We crossed it a hundred times or more, picking our way, and sometimes compelled to go into the woods in passing a cascade. The stream is broken into falls and swift rapids the whole distance that we followed it, and, when full, it must present a grand spectacle. At one place the river had assumed the bed of a displaced trap dyke, by which the rock has been intersected. The walls are perpendicular, and only a few feet apart — so near that the branches of the trees on the summits interlace. Through this the water rushes for several rods, and then leaps into a dark chasm, full fifty feet perpendicular, and emerges among a mass of immense boulders. The Indians called this cascade She-gwi-en-daivhwe, or the Hanging Spear. A short distance above is a wild rapid, which they called Kas-kongshadi, or Broken Water. The stones in this river vary in size, from tiny pebbles to boulders THE HUDSON. 33 of a thousand tons ; the smaller ones made smooth by rolling, the larger ones, yet angular and massive, persistently defying the rushing torrent in its maddest career. They are composed chiefly of the beautiful labradorite, or opalescent feldspar, which form the great mass of the A(/anus-chion, or Black Mountain range, as the Indians called this i^ ^ ^^^ ^g-^^^" , Adirondack group, because of the dark aspect which their sombre cedars, and spruce, and cliffs present at a distance. The bed of the stream is full of that exquisitely beautiful mineral. "We saw it glittering in splendoui', in pebbles and large boulders, when the sunlight fell full upon the shallow water. A rich blue is the predominant colour, some- times mingled with a brilliant green. Gold and bronze-coloured specimens have been discovered, and, occasionally, a completely iridescent piece may be found. It is to the abundance of these stones that the river is indebted for its beautiful name. It is one of the main sources of the Hudson, and falls into Sand- ford Lake, a few miles below Adirondack village. "We followed the Opalescent River to the foot of the Peak of Tahawus, on the borders of the high valley which separates that mountain from Mount Golden, at an elevation nine hundred feet above the highest peaks of the Cattskill range on the Lower Hudson. There the water is very cold, the forest trees are somewhat stunted and thickly planted, and the solitude complete. The silence was almost oppressive. Game-birds and beasts of the chase are there almost F 'ALL IN THE OP.\LESCENT EIVEB. 34 THE HUDSON. unknown. Tlie wild cat and wolreriue alone prowl over that lofty valley, where rises one of the chief fountains of the Hudson, and we hoard the voice of no living creature excepting the hoarse croak of the raven. It was noon when we reached this point of departure for the summit of Tahawus. We had been four hours travelling six miles, and yet in that pure mountain air we felt very little fatigue. There we found an excellent bark -'camp," and traces of recent occupation. Among them "^a^^^^ '■'^^' '^ 'S V'"'^ CI.TMDIXG TAIIAWI f. was part of a metropolitan newspaper, and light ashes. "We dined upon bread and butter and maple sugar, in a sunny spot in front of the cabin, and then commenced the ascent, lea\ang our provisions and other things at the camp, where we intended to repose for the night. The journey upward was two miles, at an angle of forty-five degrees to the base of the rocky pinnacle. "We had no path to follow. The guides "blazed" the larger trees (striking off chips with their axes), that they might with more ease find their way back to the camp. Almost the entire surface THE HUDSON. 35 was covered witli Loulders, shrouded in the most beautiful alpiue mosses. Prom among these shot up dwarfing pines and spruces, which diminished in height at every step. Through their thick horizontal branches it was difficult to pass. Here and there among the rocks was a free spot, where the bright trifoliolate oxalis, or wood-sorrel, flourished, and the shrub of the wild curi'ant, and gooseberry, and the tree-cranberry appeared. At length we reached the foot of the open rocky pinnacle, where only thick mosses, lichens, a few alpine plants, and little groves of dwarfed balsam, are seen. The latter trees, not more than five feet in height, arc, most of them, centenarians. Their stems, not larger than a strong man's wrist, exhibited, when cut, over one hun- dred concentric rings, each of which indicates the growth of a year. Our ' , -Si journey now became still more diffi- cult, at the same time more interest- ing, for, as we emerged from the forest, the magnificent panorama of mountains that lay around us burst upon the vision. Along steep rocky slopes and ledges, and around and beneath huge stones a thousand tons in weight, some of them apparently poised, as if ready for a sweep down the mountain, we made our way cautiously, having at times no other support than the strong moss, and occasionally a gnarled shrub that sprung from the infrequent fissures, where the dwarf balsams grow. Upon one of these, within a hundred feet of the summit, we found a spring of very cold water, and near it quite thick ice. This spring is one of the remote sources of the Hudson. It bubbles from the base of a huge mass of loose rocks (which, like all the other portions of the peak, are composed of the beautiful labrado- rite), and sends down a little stream into the Opalescent Eiver, from whose bed we had just ascended. Mr. Buckingham had now gained SPRING ON THE PEAK OF TAHAWUS. "We rested upon small terraces, 30 THE HUDSON. tlie summit, and waved his hat, iu token of triumph, and a few minutes later we were at his side, forgetful, in the exhilaration of the moment, of every fatigue and danger that we had encountered. Indeed it was a triumph for us all, for few persons have ever attempted the ascent of that mountain, lying in a deep wilderness, hard to penetrate, the nearest point of even a bridle path, on the side of our approach, being ten miles from the base of its peak. Especially difficult is it for the feet of woman to reach the lofty summit of the Sky-piercer — almost six thousand feet above the sea — for her skirts form great impediments. Mrs. Lossing, we were afterwards informed by the oldest hunter and guide in all that HOSPICE ON THE PEAK OF TAHAWUS. region (John Cheney), is only the third woman who has ever accomplished the difficult feat. The summit of Tahawus is bare rock, about four hundred feet in length and one hundred in breadth, with an elevation of ten or twelve feet at the south-western end, that may be compared to the heel of an upturned boot, the remainder of the surface forming the sole. In a nook on the southern side of this heel, was a small hut, made of loose stones gathered from the summit, and covered with moss. It was erected the previous year by persons from ]S"ew York, and had been occupied by others a fort- THE HUDSON. night before our yisit. Within the hnt we found a piece of paper, on which was written : — " This hospice, erected by a party from New York, August 19, 1858, is intended for the use and comfort of visitors to Tahawus.— r. S. P.— M. C— F. M. N." Under this was written :— " This hospice was occupied over night of August 14, 1859, by A. G. C. and T. E. D. Sun rose fourteen minutes to five." Under this : — '< Tahawus House Eegistee, August 14, 1859, Alfred G. Compton, and Theodore E. Davis, New York. August 16, Charles Newman, Stamford, Connecticut; Charles Bedfield, Elizabeth Town, 'New York." To these we added our own names, and those of the guides. Our view from the summit of Tahawus will ever form one of the most remarkable pictures in memory ; and yet it may not properly be called a picture. It is a topographical map, exhibiting a surface diversified by mountains, lakes, and valleys. The day was very pleasant, yet a cold north-westerly wind was sweeping over the summit of the mountain. A few clouds, sufficient to cast fine shadows upon the earth, were floating not far above us, and on the east, when we approached the summit at three o'clock, an iridescent mist was slightly veiling a group of mountains, from their thick wooded bases in the valleys, to their bold rocky summits. Our stand-point being the highest in all that region, there was nothing to obstruct the view. To-war-loon-dah, or Hill of Storms (Mount Emmons), Ou-kor-lah, or Big Eye (Mount Seward), Wah-o-par-te-nie, or White-face Mountain, and the Giant of the Valley — all rose peerless above the other hills around us, excepting Coldcn and M'Intyre, that stood apparently within trumpet-call of Tahawus, as fitting companions, but over whose summits, likewise, we could look away to the dark forests of Franklin and St. Lawrence Counties, in the far north-west. Northward we could see the hills melting into the great St. Lawrence level, out of which arose the Eoyal Mountain back of the city of Montreal. Eastward, full sixty miles distant, lay the magnificent Green Mountains, that give name to the state of Ycrmont, and through a depression of that range, we saw distinctly the great Mount AYashington among the AVhite Hills of New Hampshire, one hundred and fifty miles distant. Southward the view was bounded by the higher peaks of the Cattskills, or Katzbergs, and westward by the mountain ranges in Hamilton and Herkimer 38 THE HUDSON. Counties. At our feet reposed the great wilderness of northern New York, full a hundred miles in length, and eighty in hreadth, lying in parts of seven counties, and equal in area to several separate smaller States of the Union. On every side bright lakes were gleaming, some nestling in unbroken forests, and others with their shores sparsely dotted with clear- ings, from which arose the smoke from the settler's cabin. We counted twenty-seven lakes, including Champlain — the Indian Can-i-a-de-ri Gua- rim-te, or Door of the Country — which stretched along the eastern view one hundred and forty miles, and at a distance of about fifty miles at tlie nearest point. We could see the sails of water-craft like white specks upon its bosom, and, with our telescope, could distinctly discern the houses in Burlington, on the eastern shore of the lake. From our point of view we could comprehend the emphatic significance of the Indian idea of Lake Champlain — the Boor of the Coimtry. It fills the bottom of an immense valley, that stretches southward between the great mountain ranges of New York and New England, from the St. Lawi ence level toward the valley of the Hudson, from which it is separated by a slightly elevated ridge. '^•- To tlie fierce Huron of Canada, who loved to make war upon the more southern Iroquois, this lake was a wide open door for his passage. Through it many brave men, aborigines and Europeans, have gone to the war-paths of New York and New England, never to return. Standing upon Tahawus, it required very little exercise of the imagi- nation to behold the stately procession of historic men and events, passing through that open door. First in dim shadows were the dusky warriors * In the introduction to hia published semion, preached at r'l3-moutli, in New England, in tlie year 1621 (and the first ever preached there), the Rev. Robert Cushraan, speaking of that country, says :— "So far as we can find, it is an island, and near about the quantity of England, being cut out from the mainland in America, as England is from the main of Europe, by a great ami of the sea [Hudson's River], which entereth in forty degrees, and runnetli up norlh-west and by west, and goeth out, either into the South Sea [Pacific Ocean], or else into the Bay of Canada [the Gulf of St. Lawrence]." The old divine was nearly right in his conjecture that New England was an island. It is a peninsula, connected to tlie main by a very narrow isthmus, the extremities of wliich are at the villages of Whitehall, on Lalce Champlain, and Fort Edward, on the Hudson, about twenty-five miles apart. The lowest portion of that isthmus is not more tlian fifty feet above Lake Champlain, whose waters are only ninety above the sea. This istlimus is made still narrower by the waters of Wood Creek, which flow into Lake Champlain, and of Fort Edward Creek, wliich empty into the Hudson. These are navigable for light canoes, at some seasons of the year, to within a mile and a-half of each other. The canal, which now connects the Hudson and Lake Champlain, really makes New England an island. THE HUDSON. 39 of the aute-ColuniLiau period, darting swiftly through ia thoir baik canoes, intent upon blood and plunder. Then came Champlain and his men [1609], with guns and sabres, to aid the Hurons in contests "with the Adirondacks and other Iroquois at Crown Point and Ticonderoga. Then came French and Indian allies, led by Marin [1745], passing swiftly through that door, and sweeping with terrible force down the Hudson valley to Saratoga, to smite the Dutch and English settlers there. Again French and Indian warriors came, led by Montcalm, Dieskau, and others [1755-1759], to drive the English from that door, and secure it for the house of Bourbon. A little later came troops of several nationalities, with Burgoyne at their head [1777], rushing through that door with power, driving \imerican republicans southward, like chaff before the wind, and sweeping victoriously down the valley of the Hudson to Saratoga and beyond. And, lastly, came another British force, with Sir George Prevost at their head [1814], to take possession of that door, but were turned back at the northern threshold with discomfiture. In the peaceful present that door stands wide open, and people of all nations may pass through it unquestioned. But the Indian is seldom seen at the portal. i^^#^^ CHAPTER III. 'he cold increased every moment as the sun declined, and, after remaining on the summit of Tahawus only an hour, we descended to the Opalescent River, where we encamped for the night. To- ward morning there was a rain-shower, and the water came trickling upon us through the light bark roof of our " camp." But the clouds broke at sunrise, and, excepting a copious shower of small hail, and one or two of light rain, we had pleasant weather the remainder of the day. We de- scended the Opalescent in its rocky bed, as we went up, and at noon dined on the margin of Lake Golden, just after a slight shower had passed by. "We were now at an elevation of almost three thousand feet above tide water. In lakes Golden and Avalanche, which lie close to each other, there are no fishes. Only lizards and leeches occupy their cold waters. All is silent and solitary there. The bald eagle sweeps over them occasionally, or perches upon a lofty pine, but the mournful voice of the Great Loon, or Diver ( Colymhus glacialis), heard over all the waters of northern New York and Ganada, never awakens the echoes of these solitary lakes.* These waters lie in a high basin between the Mount Golden and Mount M'Intyre ranges, and have experienced great changes. Avalanche Lake, evidently once a part of Lake Golden, is about eighty feet higher than the latter, and more than two miles from it. They have been separated by, perhaps, a scries of avalanches, or mountain slides, which still occur in that region. From * Tlie water view in the distance. the picture of tlie Loon is a scene on Harris's Lake, with Goodenow Mountain THE HUDSON. 41 the top of Tahawus we saw the white glare of several, striping the sides of mountain cones. At three o'clock Ave reached our camp at Calamity Pond, and just before sunset emerged from the forest into the open fields near Adiron- dack village, where we regaled ourselves with the bountiful fruitage of the raspberry shrub. At Mr. Hunter's we found kind and generous entertainment, and at an early hour the next morning we started for the great Indian Pass, four miles distant. Half a mile from Henderson Lake we crossed its outlet upon a pictu- resque bridge, and following a causeway another half a mile through a clearing, we penetrated the forest, and struck one of the chief branches of the Upper Hudson, that comes from the rocky chasms of that Pass. Our journey was much more difficult than to Tahawus. The under- growth of the forest was more dense, and trees more frequently lay athwart the dim trail. We crossed the stream several times, and, as we ascended, the valley narrowed until we entered the rocky gorge between the steep slopes of Mount M'Intyre and the cliifs of Wall-face Mountain. There we encountered enormous masses of rocks, some worn by the abrasion of the elements, some angular, some bare, and some covered with moss, and many of them bearing large trees, whose roots, clasping 42 THE HUDSON. them on all sides, strike into the earth for sustenance. One of the masses presented a singular appearance ; it is of cubic form, its summit full thirty feet from its base, and upon it was quite a grove of hemlock and cedar trees. Around and partly under this and others lying loosely, apparently kept from rolling by roots and vines, we were compelled to clamber a long distance, when we reached a point more than one hundred AKE COLDKK. feet above the bottom of the goi'ge, where we could see the -famous pass in all its wild grandeur. Before us arose a perpendicular cliff, nearly twelve hundred feet from base to summit, as raw in appearance as if cleft only yesterday. Above us sloped M'Intyre, still more lofty than the cliff of "Wall-face, and in the gorge lay huge piles of rock, chaotic in position, grand in dimensions, and awful in general aspect. They appear THE HUDSON. 43 to have been cast in there by some terrible convulsion not very remote. "Within the memory of Sabattis, this region has been shaken by an earth- quake, and no doubt its power, and the lightning, and the frost, have hurled these masses from that impending cliff. Through these the waters of this branch of the Hudson, bubbling from a spring not far distant (close by a fountain of the Au Sable), lind their way. Here the head-waters of this river commingle in the Spiing season, and when they separate they find their way to the Atlantic Ocean, as we have observed, ^^'fiPh'S OUTLET OF HENDEESOX LAKE. at points a thousand miles apart. The margin of the stream is too rugged and cavernous in the Pass for human footsteps to follow. Just at the lower entrance to the gorge, on the margin of tlie little brook, we dined, and then retraced our steps to the village, stopping on the way to view the dreary swamp at the head of Henderson Lake, where the Hudson, flowing from the Pass, enters it. "Water, and not fire, has blasted the trees, and their erect stems and prostrate branches, white and ghost-like in appearance, make a. tangled covering over many acres. That night we slept soundly again at Mr. Hunter's, and in the morn- ing left in a waggon for the valley of the Scarron. During the past four days we had travelled thirty miles on foot in the tangled forest, camped 44 THE HUDSON. out two nights, and seen some of nature's wildest and grandest lineaments. These mountain and lake districts, which form the wilderness of northern New York, give to the tourist most exquisite sensations, and the physical system appears to take in health at every pore. Invalids go in with hardly strength enough to reach some quiet log-house in a clearing, and come out with strong quick pulse and elastic muscles. Every year the number of tourists and sportsmen who go there rapidly increases, and women begin to find more pleasure and health in that wilderness than at fashionable watering-places. No wild country in the world can offer IRi] & ON BOlLDi.H'. more solid attractions to those who desiie to spend a few weeks of leisure away from the haunts of men. Pure air and water, and game in abundance, may there be found, while in all that region not a venomous reptile or poisonous plant may be seen, and the beasts of prey are too few and shy to cause the least alarm to the most timid. The climate is deliglitful, and there are fertile valleys among those rugged hills that will yet smile in beauty under the cultivator's hand. It has been called by the uninformed the " Siberia of New York ;" it may more properly be called the " Switzerland of the United States." THE HUDSON. 45 The wind came from among- the mountaius in fitful gusts, thick mists were sweeping around the peaks and through the gorges, and there were frequent dashes of rain, sometimes falling like showers of gold, in the sunlight that gleamed through the hroken clouds, on the morning when we left Adirondack village. "We had hired a strong waggon, with three spring seats, and a team of experienced horses, to convey us from the lieart of the wilderness to the Scarron valley, thirty miles distant, and after breakfast we left the kind family of Mr. Hunter, accompanied by Sabattis and Preston, who rode with us most of the way for ten miles, in ADIRONDACK, OR INDIAN PASS. the direction of their homes. Our driver was the owner of the team — a careful, intelligent, good-natured man, who lived near Tahawus, at the foot of Sand ford Lake. But in all our experience in travelling, we never endured such a journey. The highway, for at least twenty-four of the thirty miles, is what is technically called corduroy — a sort of corrugated stripe of logs ten feet wide, laid through the woods, and dignified with the title of " The State road." It gives to a waggon the jolting motion of the " dyspeptic chair," and in that way we were " exercised " all day long, except Avhen dining at the Tahawus House, on some wild pigeons 46 THE HUDSON. shot by Sabattis on the way. That inn was upon the road, near the site of Tahawus village, at the foot of «Sandford Lake, and was a half-way house between Long Lake and Eoot's Inn in the Scarron valley, toward which we were travelling. There we parted with our excellent guides, after giving them a sincere assurance that we should recommend all tourists and hunters, who may visit the head waters of the Hudson, to procure their services, if possible. About a mile on our way from the Tahawus House, we came to the dwelling and i'arm of John Cheney, the oldest and most famous hunter and guide in all that regiou. He then seldom went far into the woods, for he was beginning to feel the effects of age and a laborious life. We called to pay our respects to one so widely known, and yet so isolated, and were disappointed. He was away on a short hunting excursion, for he loves the forest and the chase with all the enthusiasm of his young manhood. He is a slightly-built man, about sixty years of age. He was the guide for the scientific corps, who made a geological reconnoissance of that region many years before, and for a quarter of a century he had there battled the elements and the beasts with a strong arm and unflinch- ing will. Many of the tales of his experience are full of the wildest THE HUDSON. romance, and we hoped to hear the narrative of some adventure from his own lips. For many years John carried no other weapons than a huge jack-knife and a pistoL One of the most stirring of his thousand adventures in the Avoods is connected with the history of that pistol. It has been related by an acquaintance of the writer, a man of rare genius, and Avho, for many years, has been an inmate of an asylum for the insane, in a neigh- bouring State. John Cheney was his guide more than twenty years before our visit. The time of the adventure alluded to was winter, and the snow lay four feet deep in the woods. John went out upon snow- shoes, with his rifle and dogs. He wandered far from the settlement, and made his bed at night in the deep snow. One morning he arose to examine his traps, near which he would lie encamped for weeks in complete solitude. When hovering around one of them, he discovered a famished wolf, who, iinappalled by the hunter, retired only a few steps, and then, turning round, stood watching his movements. "I ought, by rights," said John, "to have waited for my two dogs, who could not have been far off, but the cretur looked so sassy, standing tliere, that though I had not a bullet to spare, I could not help letting into him with my rifle." John missed his aim, and the animal gave a spring, as he was in the act of firing, and turned instantly upon him before he could reload his piece. So effective was the unexpected attack of the wolf, that his fore-paws were upon Cheney's snow-shoes before he could rally for the fight. The forester became entangled in the deep drift, and sank upon his back, keeping the wolf at bay only by striking at him with his clubbed rifle. The stock of it was broken into pieces in a few moments, and it would have fared ill with the stark woodsman if the wolf, instead of making at his enemy's throat when he had him thus at disadvantage, had not, with blind fury, seized the barrel of the gun in his jaws. Still the fight was unequal, as John, half buried in the snow, could make use of but one of his hands. He shouted to his dogs, but one of them only, a young, untrained hound, made his appearance. Emerging from a thicket he caught sight of his master, lying apparently at the mercy of the ravenous beast, uttered a yell of fear, and fled howling to the woods again. "Had I had one shot left," said Cheney, " I would have given 48 THE HUDSON. it to that dog instead of dispatching the wolf with it." In the exaspe- ration of the moment John might have extended his contempt to the whole canine race, if a stauncher friend had not, at the moment, inter- posed to vindicate their character for courage and fidelity. All this had passed in a moment ; the wolf was still grinding the iron gun-harrel in his teeth — he had even once wrenched it from the hand of the hunter — when, dashing like a thunderbolt between the combatants, the other hound sprang over his master's body, and seized the wolf by the throat. " There was no let go about that dog when he once took hold," said John. "If the barrel had been red hot the wolf couldn't have dropped it quicker, and it would have done you good, I tell you, to see that old dog drag the cretur's head down in the snow, while I, just at my leisure, drove the iron into his skull. One good, fair blow, though, with a heavy rifle barrel, on the back of the head, finished him. The fellow gave a kind o' quiver, stretched out his hind legs, and then he was done for. I had the rifle stocked afterwards, but she would never shoot straight since that fight, so I got me this pistol, which, beiug light and handy, enables me more conveniently to carry an axe upon my long tramps, and make myself comfortable in the woods." Many a deer has John since killed with that pistol. "It is curious," said the narrator, " to see him draw it from the left pocket of his grey shooting-jacket, and bring down a partridge. I have myself witnessed several of his successful shots with this unpretending shooting-iron, and once saw him knock the feathers from a wild duck at fifty yards." Most of our journey toward the Scarron was quite easy for the horses, for we were descending the great Champlain slope. The roughness of the road compelled us to allow the team to walk most of the way. The country was exceedingly picturesque. For miles our track lay through the solitary forest, its silence disturbed only by the sound of a mountain brook, or the voices of the wind among the hills. The winding road was closely hemmed by trees and shrubs, and sentineled by lofty pines, and birches, and tamaracks, many of them dead, and ready to fall at the touch of the next strong wind. Miles apart were the rude cabins of the settlers, until we came out upon a high, rolling valley, surrounded by a magnificent amphitheatre of hills. Through that valley, from a little lake toward THE HUDSON. 49 the sources of the Au Sable, flows the cold and rapid Boreas River, one of the chief tributaries of the Tipper Hudson. The view was now grand : all around us stood the great hills, wooded to their summits, and over- looking deep valleys, wherein the primeval forest had never been touched by axe or fire ; and on the right, through tall trees, Ave had glimpses of an irregular little lake, called Cheney Pond. For three or four miles after passing the Boreas we went over a most dreary " clearing," dotted with blackened stumps and boulders as thick as hail, a cold north-west wind driving at our backs. In the midst of it is Wolf Pond, a dark Witter fringed with a tangled growth of alders, shrubs, and creepers, and made doubly gloomy by hundreds of dead trees, that shoot up from the chapparal. This was the "darkness just before daylight," for we soon struck a branch of the Scarron, rushing in cascades through a rocky ravine, along whose banks we found an excellent road. The surrounding country was very rugged in appearance. The rocky hills had been denuded by fire, and everything in nature presented a strong contrast to the scene that burst upon the vision at sunset, when, from the brow of a hill, we saw the beautiful Scarron valley smiling before us. In a few minutes we 50 THE HUDSON. crossed the Scarron River over a covered bridge, and found ourselves fairly out of the wilderness, at a new and spacious inn, kept by Russell Root, a small, active, and obliging man, well known all over that nortliern country. His house was the point of departure and arrival for those who take what may be called the lower route to and from the hunting and fishing grounds of the Upper Hudson, and the group of lakes beyond. Over his door a pair of enormous moose liorns formed an appropriate sign- board, for he was both quarter-master and commissary of sportsmen in MOOSii HORNS. that region. At his house everytliing necessary for the woods and waters might be obtained. The Scarron, or Schroon River, is the eastern branch of the Hudson. It rises in the heart of Essex County, and flowing southward into Warren county, receiving in its course the waters of Paradox and Scarron, or Schroon Lake, and a large group of ponds, forms a confluence, near Warrensburg, with the main waters of the Hudson, that come down from the Adirondack region. The name of Schroon for this branch is fixed in the popular mind, appears in books and on maps, and is heard upon every lip. It is a corruption of Scarron, the name given to the lake by French officers, who were stationed at Fort St. Frederick, on Crown Point, at the middle of the last century. In their rambles iij the wilderness on the western shore of Lake Champlain, they discovered a beautiful lake, and named it in gallant homage to the memory of the widow of the poet Scarron, who, as Madame de Maintenon, became the queen of Louis XIV. of France. The name was afterwards applied to the river, and tlie THE HUDSON. 51 modern corrupt orthography and pronunciation were unknown hefore the present century, at the beginning of which settlements were first com- menced in that region. In the face of legal documents, common speech, and maps, we may rightfully call it Scarron ; for the antiquity and respectability of an error arc not valid excuses for perpetuating it. From Root's we rode down the valley to the pleasant little village on the western shore of Scarron Lake. We turned aside to visit the beautiful Paradox Lake, nestled among wooded hills a short distance from the river. It is separated from Scarron Lake by a low alluvial drift, and is so nearly on a level with the river into which it empties, that when torrents from tlie hills swell the waters of that stream, a current flows back into Paradox Lake, making its outlet an Met for the time. Prom this circum- stance it received its name. We rode far up its high southern shore to enjoy many fine views of the lake and its surroundings, and returning, lunched in the shadows of trees at a rustic bridge that spans its outlet a few rods below the lake. Scarron Lake is a beautiful sheet of water, ten miles in length, and about a mile in average width. It is ninety miles north of Albany, and lies partly in Essex and partly in "Warren County. Its aspect is interest- 52 THE HUDSON. ing from every point of view. The gentle slopes on its western shore are well cultivated and thickly inhabited, the result of sixty years' settlement, but on its eastern shore are precipitous and rugged hills, which extend in wild and picturesque succession to Lake Champlain, fifteen or twenty miles distant. In the bosom of these hills, and several hundred feet above the Scarron, lies Lake Pharaoh, a body of cold water surrounded by dark mountains, and near it is a large cluster of ponds, all of Avhich find a receiving reservoir in Scarron Lake, and make its outlet a large stream. In the lake directly iu front of Scarron village is an elliptical island, containing about one hundred acres. It was purchased a few ycar.^ ago by Colonel A. L. Ireland, a wealthy gentleman of IS'ew York, Avho went there in search of health, and who spent large sums of money in subduing the savage features of the island, erecting a pleasant summer mansion upon it, and in changing the rough and forbidding aspect of the whole domain into one of beauty and attractiveness. Taste and labour had wrought wonderful eliangcs there, and its appearance justified the title it bore of Isola Bella — the Indian Cay-ira-noot. The mansion was cruciform, THE HUDSON. 53 and delightfully situated. lu front of it -were tastefully ornamented grounds, with vistas through the forest trees, that afforded glimpses of charming lake, landscape, and distant mountain scenery. Within were evidences of elegant refinement — a valuable library, statuary, bronzes, and some rare paintings. Among other sketches was a picture of Hale Hall, in Lancashire, England — the ancestral dwelling of Colonel Ireland, who is a lineal descendant of Sir John de Ireland, a Norman baron who accompanied William the Conqueror to England, was at the battle of Hastings, and received from the monarch a large domain, upon Avhich he built a castle. On the site of that castle, Hale Hall was erected by Sir Gilbert Ireland, who was a member of parliament, and lord-lieutenant of his county. Hale Hall remains in possession of the family. We were conveyed to Isola Bella in a skiff, rowed by two watermen, in the face of a stiff breeze that ruffled the lake, and it was almost sunset when we returned to the village of Scarron Lake. It was Saturday evening, and we remained at the village until Monday morning, and then rode down the pleasant A^alley to Warrensburg, near the junction of the Scarron and the west branch of the Hudson, a distance of almost tliiriy miles. It was a very delightful ride, notwithstanding we were menaced by a storm. Our road lay first along the cultivated western margin of the lake, and thence through a rolling valley, from which we caught occasional glimpses of the river, sometimes near and sometimes distant. The journey occupied a greater portion of the day. We passed two quiet villages, named respectively Pottersville and Chester. The latter, the larger of the two, is at the outlet of Loon and Friendship Lakes — good fishing places, a few miles distant. Both villages are points upou the State road, from which sportsmen depart for the adjacent woods and waters. An hour's ride from either place will put them Avithin tlie borders of the great wilderness, and beyond the sounds of the settlements. Warrensburg is situated partly upon a high plain and partly upon a slope that stoops to a bend of the Scarron, about two miles above its confluence with the west branch of the Hudson. It was a village of about seven hundred inhabitants, in the midst of rugged mountain scenery, the hills abounding with iron ore. As we approached it we came to a wide plain, over which lay — in greater perfection than any we had 54 THE HUDSON. yet seen — stump fences, which are peculiai' to the Upper Hudson country. They are composed of the stumps of large pine-trees, drawn from the soil by machines made for the purpose, and they are so disposed in rows, their roots interlocking, as to form an effectual barrier to the j)assage of any animal on whose account fences arc made. ' The stumps are full of sap (turpentine), and wc were assured, with all the confidence of experience, that these fences would last a thousand years, the turpcutine preserving the woody fibre. One of the stump-machines stood in a field near the road. It was a simple derrick, Avith a large wooden screw hanging from the apex, where its heavy matrix Avas fastened. In the lower end of the screw was a large iron bolt, and at the upper end, or head, a strong lever STlMl'-.VAimiNK. was fastened. The derrick is placed over a stump, and heavy chains are wound round and under the stump and over the iron bolt in the screw. A horse attached to the lever works the screw in such a manner as to draw the stump and its roots clean from the ground. The stump fences formed quite a picturesque feature in the landscape, and at a distance ha-^-e the appearance of masses of deer horns. It was toward evening when we arrived at Warrensburg, but before sunset we had strolled over the most interesting portions of the village, along the river and its immediate vicinity. Here, as elsewhere, the pre- vailing drought had diminished the streams, and the Scarron, usually a THE HUDSON. 55 wild, rushing river, from the village to its confluence Avith the Hudson proper, was a comparatively gentle creek, with many of the rocks in its bed quite bare, and timber lodged among them. The buildings of a large manufactory of leather skirted one side of the rapids, and at their head was a large dam and some mills. That region abounded with establish- ments for making leather, the hemlock-tree, whose bark is used for tanning, being very abundant upon the mountains. "We passed the night at Warrensburg, and early in the morning rode to the confluence of the Scarron and Hudson rivers, in a charming little VIEW AT WAREE>-SBr: valley which formed the Indian pass of Tco-ho-Kvii in the olden time, between the Thunder's Nest and other high hills. The point where the waters met was a lovely spot, shaded by elms and other spreading trees, and forming a picture of beauty and repose in strong contrast with the rugged hills around. On the north side of the valley rises the Thunder's Nest (which appears in our little sketch), a lofty pile of rocks full eight liundred feet in height \ and from the great bridge, three hundred feet long, which spanned the Hudson just below the confluence, there was a view of a fine amphitheatre of hills. THE HUDSON. From Tahawus, at the foot of Sandford Lake, to the confluence with the Scarron, at Warrensburg, a distance of about fifty miles by its course, the Hudson flows most of the way through an almost unbroken wilderness. Through that region an immense amount of timber is annually cast into the stream, to be gathered by the owners at the great boom near Glen's Falls. From "Warrcnsburg to Luzerne, at Jesup's Little Falls, the river is equally imintercstiug, and these two sections we omitted in our explo- rations, because they promised very small returns for the time and labour to be spent in visiting them. 80 at Warrensburg we left the river again. CONFLUENCE 01- THE HUDSON AND SCAREON. and took a somewhat circuitous route to Luzerne, that we might travel a good road. That route, by far the most interesting for the tourist, leads by the way of Caldwell, at the head of Lake George, through a moun- tainous and very picturesque country, sparsely dotted with neat farmhouses in the intervals between the grand old hills. The road is planked, and occasionally a fountain by the wayside sends out its clear stream from rocks, or a mossy bank, into a rude reservoir, such as is seen delineated THE HUDSON. in the picture at the head of Chapter II. While watering our horses at one of these, the ring of merry hiughter came up through the little valley near, and a few moments afterward we met a group of young people enjoying the pleasures of a pic-nio. At noon we reined up in front of the Fort William Henry Hotel, at the head of Lake George, where we dined, and then departed through tlie forest for Luzerne. That immense caravansera for the entertainment of summer visitors stands upon classic ground. It is upon the site of old Fort William Henry, erected by General William .lolinson in the autumn of 1755, and named in honour of two of the lloyal Family of England. At the same time the general changed the name of llie lake from that of the Holy Sacrament, given it by Father Jogue, a French priest, who reached the head of it on Corpus Christi day, to George — not in simple honour to his Mnjesty, then reigning monarch of England, but, as the general said, "to assert his undoubted dominion here." The Indians called it, Can-ai-de-ri-oit, or Tale of the Lake, it appearing as such appendage to Lake Champlain. I 58 THE HUDSON. Prom the broad colonnade of the hotel the eye takes in the lake and its shores to the Narrows, about fifteen miles, and includes a theatre of great historic interest. Over those waters came the Hurons to fight the Mohawks, and during the Seven Years' war, when French dominion in America was crushed by the united powers of England and her American colonies, those hills often echoed the voice of the trumpet, the beat of the drum, the roar of cannon, the crack of musketry, the savage yell, and tlie shout of victory. At the head of the lake, British and Gallic warriors fought desperately, early in September, 1755; and history has recorded the results of many battle-fields in that vicinity during the last century, before and after the colonists and the mother-country came to blows, after a long and bitter quarrel. At the head of Lake George, where another fort had been erected near the ruins of William Henry, the republicans, in the old War for Independence, had a military depot ; and until the surrender of Sir John Burgoyne, at Saratoga, on the Hudson, in 1777, that lake was a minor theatre of war, where the respective adherents of the "Continental" and "Ministerial" parties came into frequent collisions. Since then a profound peace has reigned over all that region, and at the Fort "William Henry House and its neighbours are gathered every summer the wise and the wealthy, the noble, gay, and beautiful of many lands, seeking and finding health in recreation. CHAPTEE 1\ E started for Luzerne after an early dinner, crossing on our way the " Frencli field," whereon Dicskau disposed his troops for action. "VYe then entered the woods, and our route of eleven miles lay through a highly picturesque country, partially culti- vated, among the hills, and following the old Indian war-path from the Sacandaga to Lake George. As we approached Luzerne, the country spread into a high plain, as at "Warrensburg, on the southern margin of which, overlooked by lofty hills, lies Luzerne Lake. We passed it on our left, and then went down quite a steep and winding way into the village, on the bank of the Hudson, and found an excellent home at Eockwell's spacious inn. We have seldom seen a village more picturesquely situated than this. It is about seventy miles from the Adirondack village, and on the borders of the great wilderness, where game and fish abound, and for a quiet place of summer resoi't, can hardly be surpassed. It lies at the foot of a high blutf, down which fiows in cascades the outlet of Luzerne Lake, and leaps into the Hwdsou, which here makes a magnificent sweep before rushing, in narrow channel and foaming rapids between high rocky banks, to receive the equally turbulent waters of the Sacandaga, just below. That place the Indians called Tt'o-sa-ron-da, the "Meeting of the Waters." Twenty years ago, there were several mills at the head of these falls : a flood swept them away, and they have never been rebuilt. The rapids at Luzerne, which form a fall of about eighteen feet, bear the name of Jesup's Little Palls, to distinguish them from Jesup's Great 60 THE HUDSON. Fall?, five miles below, Loth being included in patents granted to Ebenezer Jesup, who, with a family of Fairchilds, settled there before the Revolu- tion, Avhen Luzerne Avas called Westfield. These settlers espoused the cause of the king, and because of their depredations upon their Whig neighbours, became very obnoxious. They held intercourse with the loyal Scotch Highlanders, who were under the influence of the Johnsons and other royalists in the Mohawk valley, and acted as spies and inforaiants for the enemies of republicanism. In the summer of 1777, ~»^^ FALLS AT LUZEKNE. while liurgoyue was making his way toward Albany, Colonel St„ Leger penetrated the upper Mohawk valley, and laid siege to Fort Schuyler. On one occasion he sent Indian messengers to the Fairchilds, who took the old trail through the Sacandaga valley, by way .of the Fish House, owned by Sir William Johnson. AVhen they approached Tio-sa-ron-da (Luzerne), they were discovered and pursued by a party of republicans, and one of them, close pressed, leaped the Hudson, at the foot of Jesup's Little Falls, the high wooded banks then approaching within twenty-five feet of each other. He escaped, took the trail to Lake George, and pushed on to Skeuesborough (now Whitehall), where he found Burgoyne. Soon after THE HUDSON. 61 this a small party of republican troops, sent by General Gates, not succeed- ing in capturing these royalists at Westfield, laid Avaste tbe settlement. Luzerne Lake, lying many feet above the village, is a beautiful little sheet of water, with a single small island upon its bosom. It is the larger of a series of four lakes, extending back to within five miles of Lake George. It abounds with fine fish, the largest and most delicious being the Masque alonge, a species of pike or pickerel, which is also found in the Upper Hudson, and all over northern New York. One was caught in the lake, and brought to Hockwell's, on the morning of our departure, Avhich weighed between five and six pounds. •'• On the northern shore of Luzerne Lake, Avhere the villas of Eenjamin C. Butler and J. Leati, Esqs. (seen in the picture), stood, was the ancient gathering place of the Indians in cou-ncil. Here was the fork of the great Sacandaga and Oneida trail, one branch extending to Lake George and the northern country, and the other to Port Edward and the more southern country. All around the lake and village are ranges of lofty hills, filled with iron ore. On the west is the Kayaderosseros range, extending from Ballston to the Adirondacks, and on the east of the * Tha Masque alonqe (Eiur estor) derivea its name from the peculiar foiination of its mouth and head. The French caUed it Masque alunge, or Long-face. It is the largest of the pickerel species. Some have been caught among the Thousand Islands in the St. Lawrence, in the vicinity of Alexandi-ia Bay, on its southern shore, weighing fifty pounds, and measuiing five feet in length. It is the most voracious of fresh-water fish. 62 THE HUDSON. Luzerne range, stretcliing from Saratoga Springs to the western shores of Lake George. Four miles north of the village is a hemispherical moun- I-UZERXE LAKE. tain, eight hundred feet in height, rocky and bald, which the Indians called Se-non-ffe-irah, the Great Upturned Pot. CONFLUENCE Oy 'lUE HUDSON AND S.iCANDAUA. The Sacandaga is the largest tributary of the Mohawk, and conies down seventy-five miles from the north-west, out of lakes and ponds in the THE HUDSON. 63 "wilderness of Hamilton County. Its confluence with its receptacle is at the head of a very beautiful valley, that terminates at Luzerne. It comes sweeping around the bases of high hills with a rapid current, and rushes swiftly into the Hudson, where the latter has become deep and sluggish after its commotion at the falls above. Down that valley we rode, with the river in view all the way to the village of Corinth, at the head of the long rapids above Jesup's Great Falls, the Kah-che-hon-cooh of the Indians. These were formerly known as the Hadley Palls. They were afterward called Palmer's Falls, the land on each side of the river KAII-C•^E-BO^-CoOh, OR JESIP'S GRl.Al F.SXLS. being in possession of Beriah Talmcr and others, who there constructed extensive works for manufacturing purposes. The water-power there, even at the very low stage of the river, as when we visited it, has been estimated to be equal to fifteen thousand horse-power. They had laid out a village, with a public square and fountain, and were preparing for industrial operations far greater than at any point so far up the Hudson. It is only sixteen miles north of Saratoga Springs. We followed a path down the margin of the roaring stream some distance, and, returning, took a rough road which led to the foot of the 64 THE HUDSON. Great Fall. From Jesup's landing to this point, a distance of more than a mile, the river descends abont one hundred and twenty feet, in some places rushing wildly through rocky gorges from eighty to one hundred feet in depth. The perpendicular fall is seventy-fiye feet. "\Ve did not see it in its grandeur, the river was so low. From its course back, some distance, the stream was choked with thousands of logs that had come down from the wilderness and lodged there. They lay in a mass, in every conceivable position, to the depth of many feet, and so filled the river as to form a safe, though rough bridge, for us to cross. Between this point and Glen's Falls, thirteen miles distant by the nearest road, the Hudson makes a grand sweep among lofty and rugged hills of the Luzerne range, and flows into a sandy plain a few miles above the latter village. "We did not follow its course, but took that nearest road, for the day was waning. Over mountains and through valleys, catching glimpses of the river here and there, we travelled that bright afternoon in early autumn, our eyes resting only upon near objects most of the time, until we reached the summit of a lofty hill, nine miles from Glen's Falls. There a revelation of beauty, not easily described, burst upon the vision. Looking over and beyond the minor hills through an opening in the Luzerne range, we saw the Green Mountains of Yermont in the far distance, bathed in shadowy splendour, and all the intervening country, with its villages and farm- houses, lay before us. The spires and white houses of Glen's Falls appeared so near, that we anticipated a speedy end to our day's journey. That vision was enjoyed but for a few moments, for we were soon again among the tangled hills. But another appeared to charm us. We had just commenced the descent of a mountain, along whose brow lies the dividing line between the towns of Luzerne and Queensbury, when a sudden turn in the road revealed a deep, narrow valley far below us, with the Hudson sweeping through it with rapid current. The sun's last rays had loft that valley, and the shadows were deepening along the waters as we descended to their margin. Twilight was drawing its delicate veil over the face of nature when we reached the plain just mentioned, and the night had closed in when we arrived at the village of Glen's Falls. We had hoped to reach there in time to visit the State Dam and the THE HUDSON. 65 Great Boom, which span the Hudson at separate points, a few miles above the falls, but were compelled to forego that pleasure until morning. "We were now fairly out of the wilderness in which the Hudson rises, and through which it flows for a hundred miles ; and here our little party was broken by the departure of Mr. Buckingham for home. Mrs. Lossing and myself lingered at Glen's Tails and at Fort Edward, five miles below, a day or two longer, for the purpose of visiting objects of interest in their vicinity, a description of which will be given as we proceed with our notes. A brief notice of the State Dam and Great Boom, just mentioned, seems necessary. The dam was about two and a-half miles above Glen's Falls. It had been constructed about fifteen years before, to furnish water for the feeder of the canal which connects the Hudson river and Lake Champlain. It was sixteen hundred feet in length ; and the mills near it have attracted a population sufiicicnt to constitute quite a \illage, named State Dam. About two miles above this dyke was the Great Boom, thrown across the river for the purpose of catching all the logs that come floating from above. It was made of heavy, hewn timbers, four of them bolted together K 66 THE HUDSON. raft- wise. The ends of the groups were conuected by chains, which worked over friction rollers, to allow the boom to accommodate itself to the motion of the water. Each end of the boom was secured to a heavy abutment by chains ; and above it were strong triangular structures to break the ice, to serve as anchors for the boom, and to opeiate as shields to prevent the logs striking the boom with the full speed of the current. At times, immense numbers of logs were collected above this boom, tilling the river for two or three miles. In the spring of 1859, at least half a million of logs were collected there, ready to be taken into small side- $;c^^^^^^tT^^m THE gki;at boom. booms, assorted by the owners according to their private murks, and seut down to Glen's Falls, Sandy Hill, or Fort Edward, to be sawed into boards at the former places, or made into rafts at the latter, for a voyage down the river. Heavy rains and melting snows filled the river to over- flowing. The great boom snapped asunder, and the half million of logs went rushing down the stream, defying every barrier. The country below was flooded by the swollen river ; and we saw thousands of the logs scattered over the valley of the Hudson from Fort Edward to Troy, a distance of about forty miles. THE HUDSON. 67 We have taken leave of the wilderness. Henceforth our path will he where the Hudson flows through cultivated plains, along the margins of gentle slopes, of rocky headlands, and of lofty hills ; hy the cottages of the humble, and the mansions of the wealthy ; by pleasant hamlets, through thriving villages, ambitious cities, and the marts of trade and commei'ce. Unlike the rivers of the elder world, famous in the history of men, the Hudson presents no grey and crumbling monuments of the ruder civilisa- tions of the past, or even of the barbaric life so recently dwelling upon its borders. It can boast of no rude tower or mouldering wall, clustered with historical associations that have been gathering around them for centuries. It has no fine old castles, in glory or in ruins, with visions of romance pictured in their dim shadows ; no splendid abbeys or cathedrals, in grandeur or decay, from which emanate an aura of religious memories. Nor can it boast of mansions or ancestral halls wherein a line of heroes have been born, or illustrious families have lived and died, generation after generation. Upon its banks not a vestige of feudal power may he seen, because no citadel of great wrongs ever rested there. The dead Past has left scarcely a record upon its shores. It is full of the living Present, illustrating by its general aspect the free thought and free action which are giving strength and solidity to the young and vigorous nation within whose bosom its bright waters flow. Yet the Hudson is not without a history — a history brilliant in some respects, and in all interesting, not only to the American, but to the whole ci^'ilised world. Prom the spot where we now stand — the turbulent Glen's Palls — to the sea, the banks of the beautiful river have voices innumerable for the ear of the patient listener ; telling of joy and woe, of love and beauty, of noble heroism, and more noble fortitude, of glory, and high renown, worthy of the sweetest cadences of the minstrel, the glowing numbers of the poet, the deepest investigations of the philosopher, and the gravest records of the historian. Let us listen to those voices. Glen's Palls consist of a series of rapi