We were glad to get out of our inconvenient quarters this morning and push off on our course. The first thing was to cross the river here which is done in a kind of ferry scow with a mast upon one side, from which hangs a large sail. It was very windy this morning and my Wife’s horror of water communications was strongly excited but we were quit for1 the uneasiness. Having reached the Stages which were ready to take us up we went on in them at a slow pace through a richly cultivated country, the fields loaded with hay which they were in the act of gathering in. I have rarely seen any thing pleasanter or more rural.

Here were also historical Associations. Here was Fort Ticonderoga, one of the strong posts of the old wars and of our Revolution. Here it was that Allen took possession by surprise and that Burgoyne again got possession. We stopped to look at the ruins, which bore clear marks of great labour. The ditch and counterscarp with the covered ways and magazines show that there was a deal of the military science of that era called into action here. I followed these traces with much interest for after all Burgoyne’s Expedition was the crisis of the War. His course pursued with greater energy might have decided the fate of the Country for that time.

Our ride was only of five miles but through so very hilly a region as to consume more than an hour, and then our delay for the purpose of dining was equally provoking. We killed two hours and a half here in a very heavy manner and were hardly compensated by a dinner of Salmon Trout fresh from Lake George, very fine. We were highly favored by the day which was one of the finest of the season, and took the boat from this point which is, I believe called Ticonderoga, for Caldwell, the other end of the Lake. It is a miserable Steamer very unfit to furnish much gratification to the traveller, but the scenery of Lake George is itself so beautiful and so peculiar that it is worth seeing in a cockboat. Here is a small sheet of the most transparent water imbedded in hills and mountains. Every side upon which the eye rests being wild and romantic and yet every side being different. The islands also are beautiful although presenting no traces of cultivation.

I would on no account have omitted this days trip as it pays better than places so much vaunted commonly do. The wind was so high, we were unable to judge of the much talked of glassiness of the water but from what I saw, I did not doubt at all. About sunset we reached Caldwell, where to my surprise there was a very nice house. I felt a sort of half regret I had not a day or two to devote to this. After tea, the water being quite placid we took the ladies out in a boat on the Lake and spent an hour charmingly. Miss Mary Peacock sung several of her prettiest songs, the scenery and the quiet rippling of the water, the skill with which the boatman kept the time and the delicious summer evening altogether produced an effect I shall long remember. Home and to bed.

We were roused very early this morning for the purpose of continuing our route. Having the opportunity of a returning barouche and four which brought up a party from Saratoga Springs yesterday, we were able to fix our own hour and consequently decided upon an early one in order to get out of the dust. Our vehicle was rather too small for the company as we were six, Mrs. Thresher proving in this case a slight inconvenience. We made good nine miles to breakfast at Glenn’s Falls and took a spare half hour to see the Falls. They are disfigured by factories and civilization, but are in themselves curious, particularly 49the variety of fissures in the slate rocks which formed caverns pointed out to us by the boys in the vicinity. There is a legend connected with them which Cooper has worked into his novel of the Pioneers but which I do not distinctly recollect.

Returned to breakfast and then off again. Our horses having so light a carriage found no difficulty in transporting us and the only inconvenience we had to put up with was the dust from these heaps of sand. At half past eleven we reached the Springs and established ourselves at Congress Hall. Here we received a letter from Boston.1 The first we have seen since leaving Niagara Falls, and therefore quite a source of gratification to us in the cheering intelligence it conveyed that all were well. We found here not many persons whom we knew but the facility of making acquaintances was greater than we had found it elsewhere. General Van Rensselaer and his daughter Mrs. Wilkins were here and old acquaintances, Mrs. Dudley of Albany, a Mr. and Mrs. Lewis from Louisiana and several others too numerous to mention. But the hotel in general could not be said to be very full.

After dinner we went out to walk and I looked in at the two other houses and found at the United States, Mr. and Mrs. Rollins of Boston with Miss Rollins and Mr. and Mrs. Sigourney. We had met them for a day at Niagara and they had come home in advance of us by avoiding Quebec. My Wife here heard of her friend, Miss Anne Carter’s engagement to be married to Mr. Seaver. We rambled about the ground and took a turn in the pleasure railway which is erected near the House to cheat people into exercise and out of money. This done and having drank a glass of the water from the Spring, which I like very well we returned to the House, to tea.

After tea, the society collected in the great room and there being a concert we felt ourselves in some measure bound to attend it. There were but about thirty persons present to here Mr. Trust perform upon the Harp, or rather execute for there is no great music beyond what is necessary for an accompaniment in a Harp, and Mr. Dempster sing several songs much out of tune. We were unable to remain through the performance, and indeed were not anxious to do so.

We had engaged to go over to a dance at the United States Hotel. The rooms are very large and handsome, but the number present was exceedingly small and of those few of our acquaintance. However we got through the evening as pleasantly as any of them, and returned home before midnight to bed.