PREFACE 



The letters in this volume embrace two different sum- 

 mers which I spent in the forest. An attack on the brain 

 first drove me from the haunts of men to seek mental 

 repose and physical strength in the woods. The deci- 

 sion of an able physician, which was that I " must go 

 where a printed page could not meet my eye, and I should 

 be forced to take constant exercise in the open air, or 



■ " impelled me to undertake at first what 



two years after I prosecuted with pleasure. 



Thus much for the reasons which first induced me to 

 penetrate the pathless and unknown wilderness of central 

 New York. 



I publish the results of my two trips, because I wish 

 to make that portion of our State better known ; for it 

 bears the same relation to us that the Highlands do to 

 Scotland, and the Oberland to Switzerland. That rela- 



