Vlll INTRODUCTORY. 



ing in quiet beauty in their forest beds, surrounded 

 by primeval woods, overlooked by rugged hills, and 

 their placid waters glowing in the sunlight. 



It is a high region, from which numerous rivers 

 take their rise to wander away through gorges and 

 narrow valleys, sometimes rushing down rapids, 

 plunging over precipices, or moving in deep sluggish 

 currents, some to Ontario, some to the St. Lawrence, 

 some to Champlain, and some to seek the ocean, 

 through the valley of the Hudson. The air of this 

 mountain region in the summer is of the purest, 

 loaded always with the freshness and the pleasant 

 odors of the forest. It gives strength to the system, 

 weakened by labor or reduced by the corrupted and 

 debilitating atmosphere of the cities. It gives 

 elasticity and buoyancy to the mind depressed by 

 continued toil, or the cares and anxieties of business, 

 and makes the blood course through the veins with 

 renewed vigor and recuperated vitality. 



The invalid, whose health is impaired by excessive 

 labor, but who is yet able to exercise in the open air, 

 will find a visit to these beautiful lakes and pleasant 

 rivers, and a fortnight or a month's stay among them, 

 vastly more efficacious in restoring strength and tone 

 to his system than all the remedial agencies of the 

 most skillful physicians. I can speak understand- 



