and a large block-house stood, Indian arrow-heads, bullets, and occasionally a piece of "cob-money," are sometimes upturned by the plough.

A picture of the village of Fort Edward, in 1820, shows only six houses and a church; now, as we have observed, it was a busy town with two

thousand inhabitants. Its chief industrial establishment was an extensive blast-furnace for converting iron ore into the pure metal. Upon rising ground, and overlooking the village and surrounding country, was a colossal educational establishment, called the Fort Edward Institute.

* The old silver coins occasionally found at Fort Edward are called "cobmoney" by the people. I could not ascertain the derivation of the name. The picture represents both sides of two pieces in my possession, the proper size. The larger one is a cross-pistareen, of the value of about sixteen cents; the other is a quarter fraction of the same. They are irregular in form, and the devices and dates, respectively 1741 and 1743, are imperfect. These Spanish coins formed the bulk of the specie circulated among the French in Canada a hundred years ago.

The building was erected, and its affairs were controlled, by the Methodist denomination, and it was widely known as one of the most flourishing institutions of its kind in the country. The building was five stories in height, and was surrounded by pleasant grounds. It is seen in our view at Fort Edward, which was taken from the end of the bridge that connects Rogers's Island with the western shore of the Hudson. The blastfurnace, and a portion of the Fort Edward dam, built by the State for the use of the Champlain Canal, is also seen in the picture.

A carriage-ride from Fort Edward down the valley of the Hudson,

especially on its western side, affords exquisite enjoyment to the lover of beautiful scenery and the displays of careful cultivation. The public road follows the river-bank nearly all the way to Troy, a distance of forty miles, and the traveller seldom loses sight of the noble stream, which is frequently divided by islands, some cultivated, and others heavily wooded. The most important of these, between Fort Edward and Schuylerville, are Munro's, Bell's, Taylor's, Galusha's, and Payne's; the third one containing seventy acres. The shores of the river are everywhere fringed.

M

with beautiful shade-trees and shrubbery, and fertile lands spread out on every side.

Seven miles below Fort Edward, on the western shore, is the site of Fort Miller, erected during the French and Indian war; and opposite, at the head of foaming rapids, which afford fine water-power for mills, is the village of Fort Miller, then containing between two and three hundred inhabitants. Not a vestige of the fort remains. The river here rushes over a rough rocky bed, and falls fifteen or twenty feet in the course of eighty rods. Here was the scene of another of Putnam's adventures during the old war. He was out with a scouting party, and was lying alone in a batteau on the east side of the river, when he was surprised by some Indians; he could not cross the river swiftly enough to escape the balls of their rifles, and there was no alternative but to go down the foaming rapids. He did not hesitate a moment. To the astonishment of the savages, he steered directly down the current, amid whirling eddies and over ragged and shelving rocks, and in a few moments his vessel had cleared the rushing waters, and was gliding upon the tranquil river below, far out of reach of their weapons. The Indians dared not make the perilous voyage: they regarded Putnam as Godprotected, and believed that it would be an affront to the Great Spirit to make further attempts to kill him with powder and ball.

CHAPTER V.

OR the twofold purpose of affording water-power for mills, and providing still water for the boats of the Champlain Canal to cross, the Saratoga Dam is constructed at Fort Miller, three miles below the rapids. The dam forms an elbow in the middle of the stream, and is about 1,400 feet in length. Below it are considerable rapids; just above it is a bridge, which has a carriage-way for the public use, and a narrower passage for the horses that draw the canal boats. These vessels float safely on the usually still

water of the river, but sometimes, when the

stream is very full, the passage is attended with some difficulty, if not danger, on account of the strong though sluggish current. When we visited the spot, a large-class boat lay wrecked in the rapids below, having gone over the dam the day before.

The country in this vicinity is beautiful: the valley is narrow, and the hills, on the eastern side especially, rise one above the other in the landscape, until the view is bounded by a broken mountain range beyond. Here we crossed the river upon the canal bridge, and rode down to the mouth of the Batten-Kill, near where it enters the Hudson, to visit the spot-on the plain just above its mouth-where the army of Burgoyne lay encamped, before he crossed the Hudson to engage in those conflicts at Bemis's Heights, which resulted in his discomfiture and captivity. There he established a slaughter-yard; and it is said that the fertility imparted to the soil by the blood and offal left there was visible in its effects upon the crops raised thereon for more than sixty years afterwards.

The Batten-Kill is a shallow and rapid stream, and one of the largest of the tributaries of the Hudson, flowing in from the eastward. It rises

in the State of Vermont, and, before leaving the borders of that commonwealth, receives the Roaring branch: its entire length is about fifty miles. Within two miles of its mouth are remarkable rapids and falls, which the tourist should never pass by unseen: the best point of view is from the bottom of a steep precipice on the southern side of the stream. The descent is fifty or sixty feet, very difficult, and somewhat dangerous. It was raining copiously when we visited it, which made the descent still more difficult, for the loose slate and the small sparse shrubbery were

very insecure. Under a shelving black rock on the margin of the abyss. into which the waters pour, we found a good place for observation. The spectacle was grand. For about three hundred feet above the great fall, the stream rushes through a narrow rocky chasm, roaring and foaming; and then, in a still narrower space, it leaps into the dark gulf which has been named the Devil's Caldron, in a perpendicular fall of almost forty feet. The Indians named these falls Di-on-on-deh-o-wa, the signification of which we could not learn.

From the Di-on-on-deh-o-wa we rode to Schuylerville, crossing the