WARWICK WOODLANDS. 15 



the shocks of maize stood fair and frec^ueut; and west- 

 ward of the road, which, diving down obliquely to the 

 bottom, loses itself in the woods of the opposite hill-side, 

 and only becomes visible again when it emerges to cross 

 over the next summit — the loveliest sheet of water my 

 eyes has ever seen, varying from half a mile to a mile in 

 breadth, and about five miles long, with shores indented 

 deeply with the capes and promontories of the wood- 

 clothed hills, which sink abruptly to its very margin. 



"That is the Greenwood Lake, Frank, called by the 

 monsters here Long Pond ! — ^'he fiends receive their souls 

 therefor,' as Walter Scott says — in my mind prettier than 

 Lake George by far, though known to few except chance 

 sportsmen like myself! Full of fish, perch of a pound in 

 weight, and yellow bass in the deep waters, and a good 

 sprinkling of trout, towards this end! Ellis Ketchum 

 killed a five-pounder there this spring ! and heaps of sum- 

 mer-duck, the loveliest in plumage of the genus, and the 

 best too, me jiidice, excepting only the inimitable canvass- 

 back. There are a few deer, too, in the hills, though they 

 are getting scarce of late j'ears. There, from that head- 

 land, I killed one, three summers since; I was placed at a 

 stand by the lake's edge, and the dogs drove him right 

 down to me; but I got too eager, and he heard or saw me, 

 and so fetched a turn ; but they were close upon him, and 

 the day was hot, and he was forced to soil. I never saw 

 him till he was in the act of leaping from a bluff of ten 

 or twelve feet into the deep lake, but I pitched up my 

 rifle at him, a snap shot ! as I would my gun at a cock in 

 a summer brake, and by good luck sent my ball through 

 his heart. There is a finer view yet when we cross this 

 hill, the Bellevale mountain : look out, for we are just 

 upon it; there! Now admire!" 



And on the summit he pulled up, and never did I see 

 a landscape more extensively magnificent. Ridge after 

 ridge the mountain sloped down from our feet into a vast 

 rich basin ten miles at least in breadth, by thirty, if not 

 more, in length, girdled on every side by mountains — the 

 whole diversified with wood and water, meadow, and 

 pasture-land, and cornfield — studded with small white 

 villages — with more than one bright lakelet glittering like 

 beaten gold in the declining sun. and several isolated hills 

 standing up boldly from the vale! 



