forest stretching in every direction shrinks away, a dark, sunless circle that seems to hem in the road on every side. A boulder on the path catching the wheel would precipitate the coach a thousand feet to destruction; but the driver knows every turn and twist of the road, and every tree and stone which marks his route. The horses are as sure-footed as mules; they could find their way without a slip in the dark. One needs to be a good sailor to thoroughly enjoy stage-coaching; for the coach sways and pitches and rolls on its leathern springs, like a boat in a heavy sea; but there is no danger. The driver and his team have weathered a thousand such storms. Snap! snap! goes the whip, and the horses break into a sharp trot; there is an incline in the road caused by rough mending with tamarack boughs; the coach jerks violently forward, then falls heavily on its axles, and we plunge down the road, which turns like a circular puzzle, doubling on

sure.

at Elizabethtown.

No. Then there is positively no room for a passage; the coach takes up the whole width of the road. But to an Adirondack stage-driver all things are possible. ble. His skill is only approached by that of a London omnibus-driver, who transcends the Biblical puzzle of a camel passing through the eye of a needle. The coach is backed half-way up the embankment, among the rocks and trees, and the rig, with the two off wheels down the side of the mountain, and the two inside wheels clinging to the road, makes room. There is scarcely a hair's breadth between the hubs of the wheels. A cheery greeting passes between the drivers; the passengers breathe again; the long whip circles like a tongue of flame over the leaders' flanks; the wheelers are admonished with a "Git up thar, Jerry," "What are you doing, Sally?" the traces became taut again; and the journey is resumed.

L

ONELY, in ruins, but yet picturesque, the old Newgate prison of Connecticut, named for its London prototype of gloomy memory, stands upon a green hillside in the town of East Granby. Viewed with a glass from Bartlett's tower, a lofty observation point away across the Farmington River, it resembles an old castle, turreted, moated, bearing the unmistakable marks of age. This old mine-prison holds a unique place among the antiquities of New England. To-day, as one stands beside its crumbling and vine-covered walls and looks across the peaceful valley of the Farmington, with its quiet villages, it is not easy to realize that the place has a history written in blood and suffering. Only a descent into its subterranean caverns puts the visitor in the mood to feel the spirit of the stories which the place has to tell. Newgate has been successively a copper mine, a colonial prison, a military prison in the Revolution, and a state prison. The first chapter of its history opened in 1705, and the last chapter closed over sixty years ago, when the prisoners of the state were removed to better quarters in the new prison at Wethersfield. The amateur min

ing of its early history, conducted at first by clergymen, had a comic cast. The horrors of its later history were tragic, and through them we gain some insight into the ideas of penal discipline which ruled in the old "blue-law" colony.

Until 1786 Newgate was located in the old town of Simsbury. In that year it became a part of the possession of the new town of Granby, and since 1858 it has been within the borders of the still newer town of East Granby. The mining operations during a period of sixty-eight years, from 1705, when the thrifty people of Simsbury made up their minds to investigate the mineral wealth of their town, possess little interest, except for their amusing fertility and for some noteworthy names connected with them. They were generally carried on at a loss, easily accounted for in the first instance; for the landed proprietors of Simsbury, who formed the first company to work the mines, let out the contract for smelting the ore to three clergymen, brothers, by the name of Woodbridge, from Simsbury, Hartford, and Springfield. With due respect for the cloth, mining is a little outside the clerical field. We are not

surprised, therefore, to learn that profits failed to appear for the proprietors, whose contract with the town of Simsbury required them to pay ten shillings on each ton of copper produced, a part of this royalty to be used to support a schoolmaster in Simsbury, and a part to go to the "Collegiate School" at New Haven, known to history as Yale College.

In spite of the first failure, the mines drew a large share of attention, and the mining craze, which always seems to accompany the discovery of mineral deposits, went through the colony, giving rise to some curious legislation. The leases, under an act of 1709, "relating to the copper mines at Simsbury," refer to the "gold and silver ore and precious stones which from time to time and at all times hereafter shall happen to be found, gotten, had and obtained within the aforesaid demised premises or in any part or parcel thereof." Did the stipulators really expect to find such treasure in the black rock of Copper Hill, one wonders, or was this merely a formula to cover all possible contingencies? Apparently some rare finds were really looked for. It is certain, at least, that one-fifth part of the "gold and silver ore and

Jonathan Belcher, afterwards governor of the Massachusetts colony, took the mines and operated them for twenty-three years, at more cost than profit. Another Massachusetts worthy, Edmund Quincy, had men at work in Copper Hill at the outbreak of the Revolution. This practically ended the efforts at mining in the vicinity, though two or three times during the present century companies, which have accomplished nothing, have been formed for the purpose of working the old mines. The fact seems to be, that while the massive rock of which this range of hills is mainly composed yields some excellent specimens of copper ore, the deposit is not rich enough to be profitably operated.

An incident of the mining period was the stamping of the Higley or Granby coppers in 1737 and 1739, by one Higley, a blacksmith of some skill. These coins made from the native copper were among the earliest coins in the colonies, and obtained considerable celebrity. They were

The Eastern Front, with Sentry Box.

precious stones" so found was secured by these leases to "His Majesty, his heirs and successors."

It appears that business men who took hold of the mines had little better success than our ministerial seekers. In 1714, a Boston company, at the head of which was

quite common not many years

ago, but are now very rare and command good prices. The work of mining had made necessary the sinking of shafts and the excavating of chambers and passages in the hillside, and in 1773 the Connecticut legislators, with the happy faculty possessed by the Puritan of that period, of devising places of earthly punishment to correspond with

the future provided in his theology, casting about for a colonial prison, hit upon these ready-made dungeons, which seemed to meet all reasonable requirements of an earthly purgatory for the wicked. Hence, in May of that year, a committee of the assembly was appointed to explore the copper mines at Simsbury, with a view to their use as a place for confining and employing criminals, and to report on the probable expense of preparing them for such use. This committee reported that the place was eighteen miles from Hartford; that there was a shaft twenty-five feet deep and three and a half feet in diameter, from which a passage extended east eight feet to an opening ten rods long, six or seven rods wide, and five feet high; that near the south part was a shaft seventy feet deep, over a fine spring of water; and by it pure air was communicated. A lodging room, said the committee, might be made, sixteen feet square and twenty

the prison, the assembly being well satisfied with the report of its committee. The first commissioners appointed were William Pitkin, Erastus Wolcott, and Jonathan Humphrey; but Pitkin appears to have been soon succeeded by Josiah Bissell, if indeed he ever assumed the responsibility.

Among documents relating to Newgate, in the state library at Hartford, is a little memorandum slip of heads agreed upon by the commissioners, "to consider the use and improvement that may be made of the copper mines at Symsberry." Therein we have a clue to the crimes most rife in the colony and most vexatious to the people. The worthy commissioners agreed upon the following terms of punishment: Burglary and robbery - first offence, to be confined not exceeding ten years; second offence, perpetual. Counterfeiting bills of public credit, coins and currency first offence, imprisonment not exceeding ten years; second offence, per

From the recommendations in the committee's report it may be judged that the preparations made for the reception of prisoners were not elaborate. The first keeper of the prison was Captain John Viets, who lived on the opposite side of the road from the prison. The first prisoner, John Hinson, made his escape after a confinement of eighteen days; and the next three who were committed made their term almost equally short. The confident predictions that had been made of the absolute security of the caverns as places of confinement were thus early belied. The naïve report of the commissioners, Wolcott, Bissell, and Humphrey, on the escape of Hinson, is exceedingly amusing. It was made under date of Janu

if persons abroad can have free access to such prison standing at a distance from any dwellinghouse the prisoners will escape.

The commissioners then recommended securing both shafts, and building a house over the west shaft. This seemed so manifestly reasonable that it was done. These precautions renewed the confidence in Newgate's security, and it became a favorite place of confinement for truculent Tories during the Revolution. While it was so used many men of considerable parts and importance were confined there. In 1775 Washington sent several prisoners from Cambridge, and also forwarded a note to the Simsbury committee of safety, in which these prisoners were referred to as "such flagrant and atrocious villains that they cannot by any means be set at