PREFACE. 



IF the reader will lay before him a map of the counties 

 of Clinton, Franklin, St. Lawrence and Essex, and begin- 

 ning at the Chazy lake, run his eye along thence to Brad- 

 ley's Lake, then to the Chateaugay, then west to Ragged 

 Lake and Indian Lake, and so down through the series of 

 small lakes, to the St. Regis, and then to the Saranacs, 

 and down along again through three small lakes to the 

 Racquette river, and then down that beautiful watercourse 

 to Tupper's Lake, and to Long Neack, he will note a broad 

 sweep of country, containing millions of acres, which, when 

 the following pages were written, was a perfect wilderness. 

 He can trace out a circle of some two hundred miles in 

 circumference, enclosing natural scenery the most wild 

 and romantic, lakes and rivers the most beautiful imagin- 

 able. I was out there several weeks in the woods, along 

 the streams, and floating on those beautiful lakes, and saw 

 during that time no face of a white man, save that of my 



