82 THE ST. REGIS AND SARANACS. 



hivislily, to that end; but all to no purpose. The wrecks 

 are scattered here and there, monuments of ill-directed 

 energy, and warnings against any future endeavor of the 

 kind without the use of such modern api>liances as shall 

 absolutely conquer the stern resistance of this region to all 

 attacks upon its treasures. 



In our journeying, before we reached the dense forest, 

 we touched upon the edge and saw the desolate home of 

 one of these latter romances, in the town of Duane. And 

 it will do to be briefly historical, perhaps, — since in that 

 consists the principal pail of the romance. 



There lived in the city of New York during the Revo 

 lution, and long after, James Duane, — a lawjer and states- 

 man, useful, influential and famous in his daj% and 

 honored l\v President Washington with an appointment as 

 the first United States Judge of the District of New York. 

 He performed the rare act, as he became old, of voluntaril}^ 

 laying off the robes of office. Upon his resignation, he 

 removed to Schenectady, and there died inFebrunry, 1797, 

 leaving one son and four daughters. His grandson, James 

 Duane, having acquired, by marriage with a daughter of 

 William Constable, a large tract of territory in the then 

 named town of Malone, (from which the town of Duane 

 was afterwards formed,) removed thither from Schenectad}' 

 with his famil}' in 1825, and made his home nearl}' ten 

 miles from his nearest neighbor, the most remote settler in 

 the forest in all that region. He and others entered upon 

 tbe project of iron manufacturing in 1828, built the neces- 



