rious plants fwept from the fhores it had paffed by. The centre of the island, which was much higher than the fides, produced with a flight degree of culture the most abundant crops of wheat, hay, and flax. At the end of this ifland, which was exactly oppofite to the family manfion, a long fand-bank extended; on this was a very valuable fishing place, of which a confiderable profit might be made. In fummer, when the water was low, this narrow stripe (for fuch it was). came in fight, and furnished an amufing fpectacle; for there the bald or white-headed eagle (a large picturefque bird, very frequent in this country), the ofpray, the heron, and the curlew, used to stand in great numbers in a long row, like a military arrangement, for a whole fummer day, fifhing for perch and a kind of fresh-water herring which abounded there. At the fame feafon a variety of wild ducks, who bred on the fhores of the island, (among which was a fmall white diver of an elegant form), led forth their young to try their first excurfion.

VOL. I.

H

curfion. What a scene have I beheld on a calm fummer evening! There indeed were "fringed banks" richly fringed, and wonderfully variegated; where every imaginable fhade of colour mingled, and 'where life teemed prolific on every fide. The river, a perfect mirror, reflecting the pinecovered hills oppofite; and the pliant shades that bent without a wind, round this enchanting ifland, while hundreds of the white divers, faw-bill ducks with fcarlet heads, teal, and other aquatic birds, fported at once on the calm waters. At the discharge of a gun from the fhore, thefe feathered beauties all difappeared at once, as if by magic, and in an inftant rofe to view in different places.

How much they feemed to enjoy that life which was fo new to them; for they were the young broods first led forth to fport upon the waters. While the fixed attitude and lofty port of the large birds of prey, who were ranged upon the fandy fhelf, formed an inverted picture in the fame clear mirror, and were a pleafing

contrast

contrast to the playful multitude around. These they never attempted to difturb, well aware of the facility of efcape which their old retreats afforded them. Such of my readers as have had patience to follow me to this favourite ifle, will be, ere now, as much bewildered as I have often been myfelf on its luxuriant fhores. To return to the fouthward, on the confines of what might then be called an interminable wild, rofe two gently floping eminences, about half a mile from the fhore. From each of thefe a large brook defcended, bending through the plain, and having their course marked by the fhades of primæval trees and fhrubs left there to shelter the cattle when the ground was cleared. On these eminences, in the near neighbourhood and full view of the manfion at the Flats, were two large and well built dwellings, inhabited By Colonel Schuyler's two younger fons, Peter and Jeremiah. To the eldest was allotted the place inhabited by his father, which, from its lower fituation and level furface,

was called the Flats. There was a custom prevalent among the new fettlers fomething like that of gavelkind; they made a pretty equal division of lands among their younger fons. The eldest, by pre-eminence of birth, had a larger fhare, and generally fucceeded to the domain inhabited by his father, with the flaves, cattle, and effects upon it.

This, in the prefent inftance, was the lot of the eldest son of that family whofe poffeflions I have been defcribing. His portion of land on the fhore of the river was fcarcely equal in value to thofe of his brothers, to whofe poffeffions the brooks I have mentioned formed a natural boundary, dividing them from each other, and from his. To him was allotted the coftly furniture of the family, of which paintings, plate, and china conftituted the valuable part; every thing elfe being merely plain and useful. They had alfo a large houfe in Albany, which they occupied occafionally.

I have neglected to defcribe in its right place the termination or back ground of

the

the landscape I have fuch delight in recol lecting. There the folemn and intermi nable forelt was varied here and there by rifing grounds, near ftreams where birch and hiccory, maple and poplar, cheered the eye with a lighter green, through the prevailing fhade of dufky pines. On the border of the wood, where the trees had been thinned for firing, was a broad fhrubbery all along, which marked the edges of the wood above the poffeffions of the brothers as far as it extended.

This was formed of Shumack, a fhrub with leaves, continually changing colour through all the varieties, from blending green and yellow to orange tawney, and adorned with large lilac-fhaped clusters of bright fcarlet grains, covered with pungent duft of a fharp flavour, at once faline and acid. This the Indians ufe as falt to their food, and for the dyeing of different colours. The red glow, which was the general refult of this natural border, had a fine effect, thrown