14 



THE ADIRONDACK. 



in keeping the other half from going out, is not, I am 

 convinced, the chief end of man — still, it must some- 

 times be done, and then the pathless woods, the 

 long and steady stretch up the mountain side and 

 the coarse fare, are better than all the "poppies and 

 mandrigoras" of the world to "medicine" not only 

 the body but the mind. Your Saratoga water and 

 Nahant bathing and Rockaway dinner tables will do, 

 perhaps, for healthy men, cripples and women. But 

 for the reduced system that needs tone and manliness 

 given it, strong physical exercise is demanded. 



I passed through Saratoga Springs without stop- 

 ping even to dine, but compensated for the neglect 

 over some trout at Grlen's Falls. Arriving at Lake 

 Greorge just before sunset, I engaged a man to carry 

 me on, some twenty miles farther that evening. "We 

 halted a few moments at twilight at a lonely tavern 

 on an elevated ridge, made still more desolate by 

 the self murder of the proprietor, the year before, 

 over whose grave a whip-poor-will was pouring its 

 shrill and rapid note. Soon after, we began to enter 

 the Spruce Mountain, where, for miles, not even a hut 

 appears to cheer the sight. In the meantime, the sky 

 became overcast, and night came down black and 



