164 BOONEVILLE TO SARATOGA. 



son-in-law of John Brown of Providence, Rhode Island, 

 after whom "John Brown's Tract" is named. Brown, in 

 1793, purchased 210, COO acres of the wild lands lying about 

 the head-waters of Moose River. Herreshoff cleared about 

 2000 acres, erected many buildings, gathered then- thirty or 

 forty families, built a dam and constructed a forge, under- 

 took tin* manufacture of iron, which effort proved a eo<tl\ 

 failure and blew his brains out. The wilderness is now 

 claiming its own and slowly creeping in upon the two 

 thousand acres once torn from it. The last house is in 

 ruins, itself the scene of a brutal murder: and only the 

 familiar swallows hovering about the deserted !>arn>, or 

 sUinnnin-j- over the grass-grown fields, with happy twitter. 

 in the bright sunshine, pleasantly remind the passer-by of 

 the life and activity and homes once existing there. 



It was a delightful change of scene that met our eyes as 

 we let down the bars and parsed through the garden en- 

 closure back of " Old Forge Hotel," a little way down tin- 

 river below First Lake. As our modest cavalcade wheeled 

 around in front of the hotel, the "old. old" smudge met 

 our ua/e. a party of Rochester sportsmen nodded pleas-mi ly 

 to us from the rude verandah, the small l>oy of the plaee. 

 with hands in his pockets, approached ;md stared ai Ned 

 as being an unaccustomed visitor and a congenial spirit, 

 and at length our host. Comstoek himself, emerged from 

 the kitchen where supper was brewing, and greeted his 

 newly arrived guests. The splint bottomed arm-chairs on 

 the verandah invited us to rest, and we sank into them with 

 the accumulated emphasis of our fourteen miles of pedest riaii 



