THE REFERENDUM 



185 



and a great resort for picnic parties from 

 neighboring summer hotels and camps. 



The Bald Mountain house, popularly 

 known as "Barrett's," is on the left. From 

 here the trail leads to the summit of Bald 

 Mountain, a visit to which should certainly 

 he paid, for the way is not difficult, takes but 

 a short twenty minutes to cover, and the out- 

 look from the top is exceptionally fine. 



As you face east, on your right, you see 

 the vanishing foothills of the lower Adiron- 

 dacks, stretching away to the beautiful Mo- 

 hawk valley; on your left, the higher peaks 

 of the Adirondack's, — range upon range, peak 

 overtopping peak, even to the giants cluster- 

 ing about Mt. Seward and Mount Ampersand, 

 with a dim suggestion of Mt. Marcy in the 

 extreme back ground. In front, and at your 

 very feet, the first four lakes of the Fulton 

 Chain are spread out, like links in a neck- 

 lace, and beyond them you can catch the 

 sparkle of a stray sunbeam upon dancing 

 water, betraying the presence of other lakes, 

 among them Limekiln, and Little Moose. 



Descending the mountain, and getting 

 afloat once more, a short paddle through a 

 narrow winding channel brought us to 

 Fourth Lake. This is the largest link in 

 the chain, and is in the shape of a gigantic 

 bow or new moon, the northern tip curving 

 off tow r ards the cast. Here we made our 

 first camp. 



Fourth Lake is, comparatively speaking, 

 densely populated. Hundreds of cottages and 

 camps line the forest-fringed shores, canoes 

 and guide-boats are numerous, and the 

 ''chug-chug'' of the irrepressible steam or 

 naphtha launch (locally known as "put-puts") 

 is constantly in the air. 



As to temporary camping sites, both here 

 and in other parts of the voyage, a word may 

 not be amiss. While unauthorized camping 

 on private ground is forbidden, the places 

 are few and far between where a one night's 

 camp will be disturbed, and little trouble 

 should be anticipated in the selection of 

 camp sites. 



Fourth Lake is nine miles in length. At 

 Eagle Bay. the head of the lake, we turned 

 to the left into the Inlet, a mile of which 

 leads us to Fifth Lake, a mere pond, with the 

 beginning of our first carry directly in front 

 of us. This portage is over a sandy, hilly 

 road, and three-quarters of a mile long, 

 leading to Sixth Lake, which is rather deso- 

 late and marsh}-, and two miles in length. A 

 short inlet brought us to Seventh Lake, a 

 somewhat larger body of w r ater, two miles 

 long, and heavily wooded along the shores. 

 From the head of the lake there was a port- 

 age of a mile and a half to Eighth Lake, and 

 two miles up this, keeping to the right bank, 

 we struck the Brown's Tract Carry, two 

 miles and a half through the woods and the 

 longest portage during the entire trip. 



Four miles and a half of the tortuous and 

 narrow windings of the sluggish Brown's 



Tract inlet, Raquette lake, the largest of 

 the woodland water-ways, where you can 

 spend a week at the very least without half 

 covering the ground. Two miles straight- 

 away northeast from the mouth of the Inlet 

 is the beginning of the Marion river. 

 Paddling up this five miles, a short carry of 

 one-eighth mile over the tracks of a summer 

 railroad we come to Utowana Lake, which 

 extends two and a half miles to Eagle Lake. 

 A mile on Eagle lake leads us into Blue 

 Mountain lake, and here we took a day off 

 to climb Blue mountain, for the famous pan- 

 orama to be seen from the summit. 



From Blue Mountain Lake village, on the 

 south shore of the lake, we had our whole 

 outfit carried over to Long lake, eight miles 

 by mountain roads, for the small sum of 

 three dollars. We loitered along the fifteen 

 miles of the latter lake, fishing until we 

 reached the mouth of the Raquette river at 

 the outlet of the lake. After another fifteen 

 miles of travel, made easy by the swift cur- 

 rent with but one carry of a mile and three- 

 quarters at Raquette falls, we came to the 

 mouth of the Ampersand or Stony creek, on 

 the right as you descend the river. Two 

 miles of this rapid, shallow, winding, and 

 narrow stream and we crossed the three 

 Stony Creek ponds in rapid succession (they 

 are less than a mile in their total breadth), 

 arriving at the Indian Carry, near the Hi- 

 awatha Lodge, which portage is one mile in 

 length, we paddled to Rustic Lodge on Upper 

 Saranac lake. 



From here you have your choice of several 

 routes — all equally alluring to the canoeist. 

 Go, as we did. down the Saranac river to 

 Round pond, or [Middle Saranac, and thence 

 continue on down the river to Lower Sara- 

 nac, with its many beautiful islets, its moun- 

 tainous environs and magnificent hotels, re- 

 turning by the same route to L'pper Saranac 

 lake, a total distance of twenty-four miles. 

 From Rustic Lodge you have at least three 

 methods of reaching Tupper lake, your next 

 objective. 



You can traverse the entire length of Up- 

 per Saranac to Saranac Inn, and thence 

 through a winding succession of tiny lake- 

 lets, streams and ponds, with frequent port- 

 ages, to Big Tupper lake. Or four miles 

 over the Sweeney Carry from the Waubeek 

 Hotel will bring you to the Raquette river 

 once more. Or else two miles over the Axton 

 Carry, the route we took, brings you to the 

 Cornell Forestry School at Axton, and you 

 can reach Tupper via the Raquette river, a 

 long and dreary journey of nearly thirty 

 miles. We would advise the canoeist to avoid 

 this stretch of country, if possible. It was 

 the only disappointing section of our trip. 

 The ravages of the lumbermen are painfully 

 apparent, the river is practically a mere 

 lumber drive, and the desolation and monot- 

 ony of the journey is almost unbearable. 

 Big Tupper lake, especially in its upper 



