covet this sylvan retreat in the wilds of the American forest as her favorite home, and he so named it in her honor.

IV.

JOSEPH BONAPARTE.

In 1828, Joseph Bonaparte, under the assumed name of Count de Survilliers, built a hunting lodge on the bank of the lake. The same year he made a small clearing and built a summer house on the outlet where the village of Alpina now stands. He also built a summer house, with bullet-proof sleeping rooms, at Natural Bridge on the Indian River, seven miles south of the lake, which is still standing. For several summers in succession he visited his forest possessions. Joseph was living during this time in great splendor at Point Breeze, near Bordentown, New Jersey. In going from Bordentown up the banks of the Hudson, and through the Mohawk valley, to his summer retreat in the forest wilds of the Black River country he went in great state, accompanied by a large retinue of friends and attendants. His journeys on such occasions were not unlike those made by the French kings from Fontainebleau to Blois during the last century under the old régime. When on his way, he cut a road through the forest and often went in to his lake in his coach drawn by six horses, with great pomp and ceremony. Dressed in his elegant green velvet hunting suit with gilded trappings to match, he seemed indeed a prince among the hunters.

Upon these excursions he was often accompanied by the

friends of his better days, who, like himself, were then in exile. Sometimes in going and returning, he would stop by the wayside to dine under the shade of the primeval pines, and his sumptuous repasts were served on golden、 dishes with regal splendor.

In his journeys Joseph often stopped at Carthage, on the Black River, where a long reach of still water extends up the river for forty miles, which is navigable for small steamers. On this part of the stream Joseph would launch an elegant six-oared gondola, such as he had been accustomed to use on the waters of Italy when he was king of Naples. This gondola he transported overland and also launched it upon his beautiful lake of the wilderness, where, with liveried gondoliers and gay trappings it floated gracefully upon its waters.

Joseph was the favorite brother of Napoleon, and resembled him in person more than the others. By his courtly but pleasing manners he won the esteem and respect of all the neighboring hunters and settlers, and became endeared to many of them by his uniform kindness and timely generosity. In 1835 he sold his wild lands to John La Farge, the rich merchant of New York. As the forest home of exiled royalty in the New World a romantic interest now attaches to this enchanting lake.

"Brother of him whose charmed sword

Clove or created kingdoms fair,

Whose faith in him was as the word

Writ in the Memlook's scimeter.

Here he forgot La Granja's glades,
Escurial's dark and gloomy dome,
And sweet Sorrento's deathless shades,
In his far-off secluded home."

CHAPTER XXVII.

THE LEGEND OF THE DIAMOND ROCK.

"He that sounds them has pierced the heart's hollows,
The place where tears are and sleep,

For the foam flakes that dance in life's shallows

Are wrung from life's deep."

-Fugitive Poem.

I.

The village of Lansingburgh is pleasantly situated upon the east bank of the Hudson directly opposite the point where the Mohawk, coming in from the westward and striking the valley of the Hudson, separates into three or four "sprouts," and soon mingling its troubled waters with the more placid tide of the larger river, rests from its labors

The valley of the Hudson at this point, along its easterly bank, is not more than half a mile in width, and terminates in a range of hills running parallel with the river, which rise somewhat abruptly to the height of two or three hundred feet. Between this range of high hills and the river our village nestles in a complete forest of shade trees. Troy, its younger sister, but three miles below it, swelling into the pomp and pride of a city, long since absorbed the business growth of our village, and left it a retreat for quiet homes. The city has drawn away from the village its counting-houses, its warehouses,-in a word its more sordid interests, but has left to the village its schools, its churches, its firesides, around which cluster, after all, life's dearest hopes and most enduring joys.

II.

High up on the brow of the hill overlooking the village, a huge mass of calciferous sand rock of the Quebec group crops out near the bordering strata of Hudson River slate and shale, and terminates in a peak rising some sixty feet above the surrounding surface, with jagged, sloping sides, extending over an area of half an acre or more of ground. This rock, throughout its whole structure, is filled with beautiful shining quartzose crystals, and its surface glitters in the sunlight as if it were covered all over with sparkling gems. Hence it is known far and near as the Diamond Rock.

This rock can be seen from every part of the village, rising up against the eastern sky like a miniature mountain peak, and is often pointed out by the villagers to the tourist and stranger as an object of interest well worthy of a visit. From its summit can be seen the whole upper valley of the Hudson, from the Catskills on the south to the Adirondacks on the north-a sweep of view extending more than a hundred miles along the river. No fairer scene anywhere on earth greets the human vision.

While this valley was under the dominion of the red man, so prominent a natural object as this rock was, of course, regarded as a land-mark. Situated as it was, overlooking the confluence of two important rivers, which then, as well as now, marked out the great highways of travel westward to the great lakes, and northward to the great river leading from them to the ocean, this rock was a beacon to the wanderer. From its top could be seen far off in the

distance the camp-fire of the northern invader, as well as the welcome signal of the western ally coming to the res

cue.

III.

In the summer of 1858, while spending a few weeks in the great northern wilderness of New York, in company with some friends,* I heard from the lips of an old Indian, a legend of this Diamond Rock. We were encamped upon a little island on the northern shore of the Raquette Lake, opposite the mouth of the Marian River. From this point it was our practice to make excursions to the different points of interest around the lake. Upon a sultry day in August we all started upon a trip to the summit of the Blue Mountain, which lies twenty miles to the eastward, and can be seen from all parts of the lake, looming grandly up against the sky.

Our course was up the Marian River, and through the Eckford chain of lakes, the last one of which, its waters clear as crystal, sleeps at the mountain's base. We expected to be absent from our camp two or three days, so we proceeded leisurely upon our journey. In the skiff with myself were two others of the party, and our little craft, for some reason or other, was far in advance of all the rest. Toward night-fall we entered a small lake, and while pad

* Prof. Samuel W. Johnson, of New Haven, Rev. William H. Lockwood of Eau Claire, Wis., Leonard C. Davenport and W. Hudson Stephens of Lowville, were of this party, with Amos Spofford and Al. Higby as guides. While at the Raquette we encamped on Osprey Island, since then the camping ground of Rev. Mr. Murray, of Adirondack fame. While we were there, Prof. Agassiz, Prof. Benedict, Mr. Longfellow, and Mr. Thoreau were occupying the Philosopher's Camp," on the Saranac.