rocks from the Cohoes fall, and an unlucky box of charcoal, which disinclination to toothache had induced me to carry along with me. A pleasant afternoon's work I had of it, as you may readily believe.

At four o'clock next morning, in darkness and rain, we resumed our seats and drove forward, leaving the course of the Mohawk by which we had hitherto travelled, and inclining more to the westward. The roads were now worse than ever. The horses could only advance at a slow walk, and the driver had to take his chance of the road, for in the ocean of mud before us, selection of one part rather than another was out of the question. Now and then the poor cattle were floundering almost up to the neck, and on one occasion the leaders plunged so deep that one got a mouthful of mud which nearly choked him.

After breakfast we passed through a village of the Oneyda Indians, and saw a few of the wretched descendants of that once powerful tribe. Both men and women presented a disheartening spectacle of squalidness and poverty, but fallen and degraded as they are the behaviour of the women was perfectly decorous; they shunned us as much as possible, and whenever we did meet unvariably drew their blankets completely round them, bringing them up on the face so as to leave only the upper part of it visible. They live in small log huts apparently without windows, and scattered at a consider

ONEYDA WOOD-AN OVERTURN.

13

able distance from each other. Part of the ground round their cottages was surrounded by rail fences, but I did not observe any other marks of cultivation.

Our course now lay through the Oneyda wood where the road ascended a pretty steep hill, and besides being as deep as that through which we had come, was encumbered with stumps of trees. The rain still fell, but as it was comparatively moderate and as there was a kind of foot path through the wood, we agreed to relieve the poor horses by walking. The footing was soft and slippery; occasionally we had to leap from one prostrate trunk to another, and again to make a circuit of considerable extent to avoid a quagmire. Had it been possible for an Oneyda warrior of former days to have looked down on our uncouth array, how scornfully would he have smiled at the white men, muffled in great coats, and skulking under umbrellas, feebly dragging their steps round every little pool of water, and turning out of the way to avoid a fallen tree, where he had been accustomed to chase the panther or the deer, with a foot as light as the animal's before him, dashing through opposing torrents, and bounding like an antelope over every obstruction!

Having overcome at length the difficulties of the wood, and begun to descend the opposite side of the hill, we resumed our seats. Scarcely had we begun to move forward when we descried the stage from the westward coming slowly up, with the passengers

straggling here and there around it. We learned on meeting that they had just recovered their feet after an upset, and the mud on their clothes sufficiently corroborated the statement; happily no one was hurt, the stage having opportunely turned over against a steep bank by the side of the road. They told us that our turn was coming, but we thought that the roads before us could hardly be worse than those behind, and that with patience and caution we might manage to get through.

About seven in the evening we reached Chittinengo, where we got tea. Off we again started, and while struggling up a very steep hill, our carriage descended into a gap with so violent a shock, that the bolt or pivot on which the front axle turned snapped in two, and the horses had nearly dragged the front wheels from under the body of the waggon. Our driver however was happily provided with a spare bolt, the passengers got out, a stout rail from the nearest fence was thrust under the carriage, and up to the ancles in mud, part on each side, we managed by dint of strength to sustain the waggon till the axle was replaced in its proper position, and the new bolt inserted. At nine o'clock we reached Manlius, but were compelled to jolt on for three hours longer; exactly at midnight we reached Onondago Hollow, and had the comfort to find that our twenty hours' work amounted to no more than fifty miles.

Before our weary frames were half refreshed the

AUBURN-PLEASURES Of a wooden BRIDGE. 15

periodical time of starting had come round, and at four o'clock in the morning we resumed our uncomfortable seats. No improvement had taken place in the roads, but the rain had ceased, and of course travelling was somewhat less disagreeable. At ten o'clock we reached Skeneateles, at the upper end of a lake of the same name, a distance of sixteen miles. About two o'clock we passed through the village of Auburn, which has every external appearance of prosperity, but in present circumstances it by no means appeared to us the ' loveliest village of the plain." About five in the afternoon we reached the Cayuga lake, which is here very nearly a mile in width, and is crossed by a wooden bridge supported upon piles. The wheels of our chariot rolled along the level platform, with a smoothness to which we had long been strangers; and so luxuriant seemed the contrast, that on getting to the farther end, some of the passengers proposed that we should turn the horses and enjoy it a second time!

Ascending the hill from the lake, the bolt in the front axle again gave way; but we had learned the remedy for such mishaps, and soon applied ourselves to the work with energy and success. A few miles farther we passed through the flourishing settlement of Waterloo, built upon the

A new penitentiary has been built here, for the State of New York; and a theological academy has been established, in connexion with the Presbyterian church.

bank of a creek which flows between the Cayuga and Seneca lakes. The situation is most romantic, but the stranger's astonishment is chiefly excited, by the rapidity with which this and many other settlements on this road have started into maturity. The first building was erected only three years ago, and already it possesses a Court House, hotel, and stores in abundance.

A new variety of American roads now commended itself to our attention. A wearisome swamp intervenes between Waterloo and the Seneca Lake, and a yet more wearisome log causeway, affords the means of crossing it. This substitute for a road is composed entirely of the trunks of trees, laid down layer above layer, till a solid but rugged platform is elevated above the level of the marsh. The logs are piled upon each other without any kind of squaring or adjustment, and the jolting of the wheels from one to another is perfectly horrible. Bad however in the superlative degree as such riding is, it was connected in the present instance with additional circumstances of annoyance, not usually attendant. By the heavy and long continued rains the swamp had been converted into a lake, which gradually rising in height had at last completely covered the wooden road. Night had sunk down upon us, and though there was a glimmering of moonlight, it had to struggle through a dense atmosphere of clouds; our charioteer, however, feeling secure in his knowledge of the chan