SPORTING FACILITIES. 17 



littered with rotten wood, in all stages of decom- 

 position, emitting a damp, mouldy odor, and send- 

 ing forth countless millions of flies, gnats, and mos- 

 quitoes to prey upon you. Now, no number of 

 deer, no quantities of trout, can entice me to such 

 a locality. He who fancies it can go ; not I. In 

 the Adirondack Wilderness you escape this. There 

 the lumberman has never been. No axe has 

 sounded along its mountain-sides, or echoed across 

 its peaceful waters. The forest stands as it has 

 stood, from the beginning of time, in all its maj- 

 esty of growth, in all the beauty of its unshorn 

 foliage. No fires have blackened the hills ; no 

 logs obstruct the rivers ; no saw-dust taints and 

 colors its crystal waters. The promontories which 

 stretch themselves half across its lakes, the islands 

 which hang as if suspended in their waveless and 

 translucent depths, have never been marred by 

 the presence of men careless of all but gain. You 

 choose the locality which best suits your eye, and 

 build your lodge under unscarred trees, and upon 

 a carpet of moss, untrampled by man or beast. 

 There you live in silence, unbroken by any sounds 

 save such as you yourself may make, away from 

 all the business and cares of civilized life. 



Another reason of my preference for the Adiron- 

 dack region is based upon the mode and maniier in 

 which your sporting is done. Now I do not plead 

 guilty to the vice of laziness. If necessary, I can 



B 



