CHAPTER XXXI. 



No serious work, like the present, is complete without at 

 least one didactic chai^ter. The opportune moment and 

 page have arrived, when and where I propose to give some 

 hints and suggestions, which old campers are refjuested to 

 omit as not being needed hy them, but which all neophytes 

 are invited to read. 



The term "Adirondacks, ' in popular use is applied to 

 that north-eastern portion of the State of New York which 

 is still almost an unbroken wilderness , and being parts of the 

 counties of St. Lawrence, Franklin, Clinton, Essex, War- 

 ren, Hamilton, Herkimer and Lewis. Across this wilder- 

 ness, east and west, the distance is about eighty miles, — 

 north and south, about one hundred miles. It has a 

 wonderful water-s3'stem of lakes and rivers whicli enables 

 the adventurer to exphjre its iimermost recesses; whih: the 

 mountains, in ranges and groups, are grand and majestic. 



The entire region is skirted by rail-roads distant lioiu its 

 borders about ten to twenty-tive miles, the intervening 

 s])ace gradually shading oil" into primitive forest. These 

 rail-roads are, on the south, the N. Y. C. and II. H. K. K. 

 from Schenectady to Utica; on the west, the Utica and 

 Black River R. R. to Carthage and Philadelphia, and the 

 Rome, Watertown and Ogdensburg R. R. from Phihidel- 

 phia to Potsdam Junction; on the north, the Vermont 



