242 THE ADIRONDACK. 



one to dispute his domain. The log dwellings of the 

 settlers have all rotted away — the mills fallen in upon 

 the mill stones, and the forge upon the hammers. 

 One house alone, which formerly belonged to the 

 agent, remains standing ; and in this Arnold and his 

 family reside. Boonville, twenty miles distant, is 

 the nearest settlement. Yet here he lives contented, 

 year after year, with his family of thirteen children — 

 twelve girls and one boy — ^by turns trapping, shooting 

 and cultivating his fields. The agricultural part, 

 however, is performed mostly by the females who 

 plow, sow, rake, bind, &c., equal to any farmer. Two 

 of the girls threshed alone, with common flails, five 

 hundred bushels of oats in one winter, while their 

 father and brother were away trapping for marten. 

 Occupying such a large tract of land, and cultivating 

 as much as he chooses, he is able to keep a great 

 many cattle, and has some excellent horses which 

 these girls of his ride with a wildness and recklessness 

 that makes one tremble for their safety. You will 

 often see five or six of them, each on her own horse, 

 some astraddle, and some sideways, yet all " bare 

 back :" i. e, without any saddle, racing it like mad 

 creatures over the huge common. They sit (I was 



