ver the falls, up or down, which is a great inconvenience for those
who live above the Cahoos, at Schenectady and other places, although
when the country shall become more inhabited, and they shall have more
occasion, they will take means to remedy this difficulty. Through the
whole of that extensive country they have no fish, except some small
kinds peculiar to the streams, such as trout, sunfish, roach, pike,
etc.; and this is the case in all the creeks where there are falls.

[Footnote 366: Referring, but of course mistakenly, to Lake Champlain,
or Lakes Champlain and George.]

The North River abounds with fish of all kinds, throughout from the
sea to the falls, and in the branch which runs up to the lake. To
relate a single instance: some persons near Albany caught in a single
haul of a common seine between five and six hundred fine shad, bass,
perch, and other fish, and there were, I believe, over five hundred of
one kind. It is not necessary for those who live in the city [of New
York], and other places near the sea, to go to the sea to fish, but
they can fish in the river and waters inside; or even to the Great
Bay, except such as live upon it, and they can by means of _fuycks_ or
seines not only obtain fish enough for their daily consumption, but
also to salt, dry, and smoke, for commerce, and to export by shiploads
if they wish, all kinds of them, as the people of Boston do; but the
people here have better land than they have there, where they
therefore resort more for a living to the water.

There is much beautiful quarry stone of all kinds on this river, well
adapted for building purposes and for burning lime; and as fine cedar
wood as we have seen anywhere. Nevertheless, for suitableness of
navigation, and for rich land on both sides, all the way up, the South
River excels the North; but what gives the North River the preference,
and crowns it over the South River, is its salubrious climate; though
above Christina Creek the South River is healthy, and it is every day
becoming more so, along the whole of that river. On the North River,
however, one has not to wait and die before this improvement may take
place.

As soon as we arrived in the city, we resolved upon going to Long
Island, for the purpose of taking leave according to promise of the
kind acquaintances we had living there; and therefore on the

_9th, Thursday_, we started about ten o'clock. In crossing the ferry
we met Elbert, the father-in-law