A SUMMER DRIVE IN THE LAKE COUNTRY. 223 



ville it is like a mountain brook, some of the way dash- 

 ing down dechvities among the rocks, and then again 

 flowing gently through fertile fields. At Portage it 

 enters a deep and rocky gorge, then within a few miles 

 leaps three noted falls ; from these falls to Mount Mor- 

 ris the stream lies deep in a wooded and rocky canon, 

 and for miles its waters are inaccessible from either 

 shore. At Mount Morris it again emerges into an open 

 country and flows quietly through the richest valley of 

 the State, till reaching Rochester it tumbles over 

 rapids and down the upper and lower falls and enters a 

 five-mile gorge, which for picturesqueness is a minia- 

 ture of the lower [Niagara. 



Silver Lake is well named, as the contour of the sur- 

 rounding hills is such as to give its waters a peculiarly 

 silver appearance in the sunlight, and its surface is 

 often entirely unruflied. What a travesty on this 

 peaceful lake to make it the home of the monster ser- 

 pent, which for a season was the " seven days' wonder " 

 of the world. I remember one i^ew York reporter 

 wrote of this harmless, manufactured automaton ; 

 "Each morning and evening this water-devil can be 

 seen lashing the waters into such a fury that for rods 

 away they become a seething, boiling cauldron of fiery 

 foam." The Walker House, in the grove, is an excel- 

 lent hotel, and is presided over by a genial host and 

 hostess. The long, deep piazza, overhung with vines, 

 and overlooking the lake, is an inviting place to while 

 away the hot summer days, and many who have 

 enjoyed it for a brief time this season have booked it 



