204 BOONEVTLLE TO SARATOGA. 



with primitive Nature herself, that were very grateful and 

 satisfying. 



There is a single carry of half a mile, much traveled and 

 easy, between Raquette and Utowana lakes the only one 

 we were obliged to cross that day. The journey through 

 dtowana and Eagle lakes was charming. On the northern 

 shore of the latter, is a comfortable farm-house and a rudely 

 conducted farm of forty or tifty acres. \\<->aw a number of 

 cow>- feediniHn a jiastnre sloping down to the shoiv. - a 

 sight which savored so highly of civili/al ion that I involnn 

 tarily attempted to adjust my neckerchief, which had 

 wandered around under my woolen shirt collar from one 

 shoulder in the other at its own free will, all the way from 

 Old Forge. We saw Ned Buntline's old home. "The 

 Eagle's Nest, " a substantial little house of hewn logs, which 

 stands near the shore and in from of the neat, white tar 

 mer's cottage of later growth. 



Pushing and winding our narrow way up the shallow 

 and rocky inlet, we entered Blue Mountain Lake, and ga/.ed 

 upon a water view of surpassing loveline^. This, among 

 smaller lakes, is what the Raquette U among the larger. It is 

 three miles long and two wide. Says one author, in endeav- 

 oring to convey some idea of its beauty : " Numerous Nets 

 and islands of various forms and aspects, some frowning 

 with adamantine sternness, others smiling in robes of charm- 

 ing green, lie in its waters of translucent purity like agates 

 and emeralds in settings of burnished silver. To traverse 

 the winding water-courses formed by these picturesque 

 groups, is to penetrate a labyrinth of intricate and bewil 



