184 
RURAL HOURS. 
a smooth, rounded fragment, about four feet high ; the waters 
sometimes, in very warm seasons, leave it nearly dry, but they 
have never, I believe, overflowed it. There is nothing remarka- 
ble in the rock itself, though it is perhaps the largest of the few 
that show themselves above the surface of our lake ; but .this 
stone is said to have been a noted rallying-point with the In- 
dians, who were in the habit of appointing meetings between dif- 
ferent parties at this spot. From the Mohawk coimtry, from the 
southern hunting-grounds on the hanks ot the Susquehannah, and 
from the Oneida region, they came through the wilderness to this 
common rendezvous at the gray rock, near tlie outlet of the lake. 
Such is the tradition ; probably it is founded in tnith, for it has 
prevailed here since the settlement of the country, and it is of a 
nature not likely to have been thought of by a white man, who, 
if given to inventing anything of the kind, would have attempted 
something more ambitious. Its very simplicity gives it weiglit, 
and it is quite consistent with the habits of the Indians, and their 
nice obsenAtion ; for the rock, though unimportant, is yet the 
largest in sight, and its position near the outlet would make it a 
very natural waymark to them. Such as it is, this, moreover, is 
the only tradition, in a positive form, connected with the Indians 
preserved among us ; with this single exception, the red man has 
left no mark here, on hill or dale, lake or stream. 
From tradition we step to something more positive ; from the 
dark ages we come to the dawn of history. On the bank of the 
river are found the ruins of a bridge, the first made at this point 
by the white man. Among the mountain streams of the Old 
World are many high, narrow, arches of stone, built more than a 
thousand years since, still standing to-day in different stages of 
