THE OLD ADIRONDACKS 



Murray's book attracted its crowds, not because a 

 legion of uninitiated sportsmen and ambitious Amazons 

 stood waiting for the gates of some new paradise to 

 open, but because it presented the wilderness in new 

 aspects and fascinating colors. It showed how its 

 charms could be made enjoyable even for ladies. It 

 was a simple narrative of personal experience and 

 impressions, written c-on amore, with a vigor and fresh- 

 ness that touched a sympathetic chord in the hearts of 

 its readers. It aroused a latent impulse and provided 

 a new sensation for those who had become surfeited by 

 the weary round of watering-place festivities. And it 

 has accomplished much good by encouraging a taste 

 for field-sports and that health-giving exercise which 

 shall restore the bloom to faded cheeks and vigor to 

 attenuated valetudinarians. 



What though the door-posts of Adirondack hostel- 

 ries be pencilled o'er with names of those who fain 

 would seek renown among the list of mighty Nimrods ; 

 what though the wilderness blooms with radiant para- 

 sols, and pianos thrum throughout the realm; there 

 yet is ample room for the sportsman, and solitude suf- 

 ficient for the most sentimental lover of nature. The 

 very contour of the land makes roads impracticable. 

 It is everywhere broken up into mountain ranges, 

 groups, and isolated peaks, interspersed with innumer- 

 able basins and water-courses, nearly all connecting. 

 These are the heads and feeders of numerous rivers 

 that flow to every point of the compass, and after 



•71 



