101 
French fort, lying on an elevated cape, which commands the 
navigation of the lake. From the ruins we saw that it was a 
square with four small bastions and three ravelins, the scarp, 
and the counterscarp being covered with strong stone-work; the 
bastion contains casemates as well as the curtain of the eastern 
front. Several massive buildings stood in the fort so that it must 
have had but little room. About three hundred paces east of the 
fort, on the extremity of the cape,’ stands a small pentagonal re¬ 
doubt, which communicated with the fort by means of a covered 
way. The cape is connected with the main land of New York by 
means of a neck of land, which was cut off by a crownwork, 
consisting of earth. The eminence on which this crownwork 
lies, in some measure commands the fort, and an entrenched 
camp seems to have been located here. Between the fort and 
crownwork we remarked the remains of two square redoubts. On 
the same shore, south of the fort, but separated from it by an in¬ 
let of the lake, lies Mount Defiance, which commands the fort in 
a great degree, and from which, in July, 1777, the English, un¬ 
der General Burgoyne, bombarded the fort, which was too quickly 
evacuated by the Americans, under General St. Clair. On the 
eastern shore of the lake, opposite Ticonderoga, lies another 
hill, Mount Independence, of the same height as the fort on 
which the Americans had formed their works at that time, under 
the protection of which they passed the lake after the evacuation 
of the fort. This was afterwards destroyed by the English.. In 
July, 1758, when the fort still belonged to the French, the Eng¬ 
lish attacked it, but were repulsed with a loss of eighteen hundred 
men. 
From Ticonderoga we went in a stage three miles further to 
Lake George, through a very hilly country. The level of this 
lake is about three hundred feet higher than that of Lake Cham¬ 
plain; the stream which flows from the former into the latter lake, 
forms a succession of small cascades, and turns several saw-mills. 
We arrived at the northern point of Lake George, and entered 
the steam-boat Mountaineer, which was ready to depart; it was 
ninety feet long with a machine of sixteen horse-power. 
Lake George resembles the Scottish lakes. It is thirty-six 
miles long, and never more than five miles broad. The shores 
are very hilly, the heights are all covered with trees, and are not, 
as it seems to me, above eight hundred feet high. There are se¬ 
veral islands in the lake, generally covered with wood. A single 
one, called Diamond Island, on account of the handsome crystals 
which are found in it, is inhabited. The inhabitants consist of 
an Indian family, which lives in a small house, and maintains itself 
by selling these crystals. About five o’clock in the evening, we 
arrived at the southern point of the lake. The scenery is very 
