Between Albany and Saratoga. 279 



fturgeons in winter time, becaufe thefe 

 fifti go into the fea late in autumn, but 

 come up again in fpring and ftay in the 

 river all the fummer. They are faid to pre- 

 fer the /halloweft places in the river, which 

 agreed pretty well with our obfervations ; 

 for we never faw them leap out of the wa- 

 ter but in mallows. Their food is faid to 

 be fever al kinds of confervte, which grow 

 in plenty in fome places at ths bottom of 

 the river; for thefe weeds are found in their 

 bellies when they are opened. The Dutch 

 who are fettled here, and the Indians t fim 

 for fturgeons, and every night of our voy- 

 age upon this river, we obferved feveral 

 boats with people who ftruck them with 

 harpoons. The torches which they em- 

 ployed were made of that kind of pine, 

 which they call the black pine here. The 

 nights were exceedingly dark, though they 

 were now fhorteft, and though we were in 

 a country fo much to the South of Sweden. 

 The mores of the river lay covered with 

 dead fturgeons, which had been wounded 

 with the harpoon, but efcaped, and died 

 afterwards ; they occafioned an infupport- 

 able ftench curing the exceffive heat of the 

 weather. 



As we went further up the river we faw 



an Indian woman and her boy fitting in a 



S 4 boat 



