A few small settlements confined to the fertile valleys of the streams, lie within these boundaries, while in many places the ancient woods stretch down beyond them to the very shores of the surrounding lakes and rivers, and cast their shadows over the great routes of travel.

The wilderness comprises greater or lesser parts of eleven counties of the state, and is quite the size of the whole state of New Jersey, or the state of Vermont or New Hampshire. To compare it with European countries, it is three-fourths as large as the kingdom of Holland or Belgium, or the republic of Switzerland, whose Alpine character it so much resembles.

The Great Wilderness of Northern New York is an upland region of a mean height of almost two thousand feet above the level of the sea. It is traversed by five distinct ranges of mountains, with well-defined intervening valleys. It contains within its borders more than a thousand lakes, and from its heights run numberless rivers and streams in every direction. Over it all is spread a primeval forest, "covering the land as the grass covers a garden lawn, sweeping over hill and hollow in endless undulation, burying mountains in verdure, and mantling brooks and rivers from the light of day." In this forest there is only here and there a feeble settlement to break the monotony of its almost interminable sweep.

This region has always been and will always be under the dominion of Nature. Its altitude renders its climate cold and forbidding, while its rugged surface and light soil render it in a great measure unfit for cultivation. While the tide of emigration has rushed around it for almost a century, and filled the West with people for thousands of miles

beyond it, this region, although lying along the borders of some of the oldest settlements in the New World, may still be said to be

waters.

"A waste land where no one comes,

Or has come since the making of the world."

But it is not without its important uses in the economies of the civilization that surrounds it, and which has tried in vain to subdue it. It is a vast reservoir of pure living The state and city of New York, and the cities and villages that throng the borders of Northern New York, are all indebted to the superabundant waters of this wilderness reservoir for their canals and water courses, which are the perennial sources of their growth and prosperity. And doubtless in the not distant future the cities of the Mohawk and the Hudson even down to the sea will need these waters for their daily use, and will extend their aqueducts into the wilderness, to draw them from the living springs. among the mountains.

III.

THE ADIRONDAK PARK.

In this wilderness lies a natural park or pleasure ground, the grandest in the world. Nowhere else do five thousand square miles of such grand old woods lie all unbroken so near the most busy haunts of men.

The city of New York has lately rescued a part of her territory from the tyranny of pavements-from the rule of brick and mortar, and placed it under the milder dominion of shaded walks and flower-covered lawns, and Central Park is the city's pride and crowning glory.

Nature herself has here formed a park that only needs preserving to be to the state all that Central Park is to the city. Let the state preserve that which Nature has so kindly bestowed with a lavish hand, as a breathing place for the sick and weary of her swarming population, and the Ad-i-ron-dak Park of Couch-sach-ra-ge will be her pride and glory.

IV.

GRAND DIVISIONS OF THE WILDERNESS.

The Wilderness of Northern New York may properly be divided into three natural grand divisions or belts, which extend across it diagonally from north-east to south-west. These natural divisions may be called the Mountain Belt, the Lake Belt, and the Level Belt. Each of these great belts comprises about one-third part of the Wilderness, and each is strongly marked by the distinguishing characteristics which suggest its name.

The Mountain Belt, whose greatest width is about forty miles, extends across the south-eastern part of the wilderness, from the southern half of Lake Champlain and Lake George to the middle valley of the Mohawk River. It is a wild, weird region, crowded to fullness with mountains and mountain masses of hypersthene and other of the upper Laurentian system of rocks. These stupendous mountain masses are surmounted with towering rocky peaks almost numberless and nameless. A bright lake or a fair mountain meadow sleeps in every valley between them, and a wild torrent dashes and foams through every gorge. This Mountain Belt of the wilderness is the Switzerland of the New World.

The Lake Belt is about thirty miles wide, and stretches centrally through the wilderness from the northern half of Lake Champlain one hundred and fifty miles to the head waters of the Black River in the northern part of Oneida county. This belt is a rugged region, by no means free from mountain masses and lofty peaks, but mainly consists of a depression in the rocky groundwork of the wilderness, forming a sort of valley, which runs parallel with the ranges of the Mountain Belt. It is dotted all over with a thousand lakes, each in its own wild way a gem of beauty, and it is navigable, with the exception of a few short carrying places, by canoes from one end to the other. The Lake Belt of the Wilderness is a belt spangled with jewels.

The Level Belt comprises the remaining north-western part of the wilderness, which slopes gradually off from the Lake Belt to the great plains that border the St. Lawrence. This belt is not altogether level, as its name indicates, but is only comparatively so when contrasted with the more rugged Lake and Mountain Belts. Its whole surface is covered with low, rolling, forest crowned hills, and studded with immense bare boulders, all composed of the granite and gneiss of the lower Laurentian system of rocks. Around these hills and huge bare rocks, countless streams wind through interminable woods. Like the other great belts, this is also filled with lakes and mountain meadows, some of which are of great size and beauty. The Level Belt of the Wilderness is a complete forest Arcadia—a hunter's paradise.

CHAPTER V.

MOUNTAINS OF THE WILDERNESS.

Why to yon mountain turns the musing eye,
Whose sun-bright summit mingles with the sky?
Why do those cliffs of shadowy tint appear,
More sweet than all the landscape smiling near?
-Campbell's Pleasures of Hope.

I.

THE LAURENTIDES.

The underlying rocky strata of the highlands of the Wilderness belong to the Laurentian system of Canada.

The great Canadian Laurentian mountain chain extends from the coast of Labrador along the northern shore of the St. Lawrence river to a point near the city of Quebec. From this point it recedes from the river inland for some thirty miles or more, until it crosses the Ottawa river above Montreal.

After crossing the Ottawa, the chain again bends southerly toward the St. Lawrence, and a spur of it crosses the great river at the Thousand Islands into Northern New York.

After thus, by its rugged broken character, forming the Thousand Islands in crossing the St. Lawrence, this great spur of the Laurentides spreads easterly to Lake Champlain and the Upper Hudson, southerly to the valley of the Mohawk, and westerly to the Black river, forming the whole rocky groundwork of the great upland region of the Wilderness.