ld have led to its ruin
in the face of a vigorous opposition. The Whig Party had disappeared
and the Republican Party had not reached a period when it could
command its forces. In 1856 the Know Nothing Party was yielding to
the Republican Party and Governor Gardner was accepted for a third term.

In the year 1854 I made a trip to the Adirondack woods and mountains.
The party was organized by Francis W. Bird, and it consisted of Mr.
Bird, Henry W. Pierce, D. W. Alvord, a Mr. Hoyt and myself. We left
our homes about the 20th of June and were absent about twenty days.
We entered the woods from Amsterdam, N. Y. From that place we
travelled by a wagon to Lake Pleasant, about fifty-four miles. We
remained there two or three days at a hotel kept by a man named John
C. Holmes, or rather by his wife, while Holmes retailed old stories to
the few guests. The chief topic was the large trout caught in the
lake and when and by whom. The ten largest of the season caught in
Lake Pleasant and Round Lake weighed in the aggregate 154-1/2 pounds.
A Mrs. Peters from New York was the champion; her prize having weighed
something over 16 pounds.

We started for the woods on a Thursday taking with us eight guides, a
donkey and a considerable quantity of provisions. As the protection
was insufficient, the bread, salt, pepper, etc., were soon ruined. The
salt pork was saved. At the end of three or four days we sent the
donkey and three men back to Lake Pleasant. On this trip I had my
first and indeed my only experience in sleeping on the ground. At
the small lakes we found the hunters' camps, which were made by
erecting poles and covering the scanty frame with the bark of cedar trees.

Saturday night we divided our force as the camp at the lake where we
intended to stop was too small for the accommodation of our whole
party. Consequently some of the guides went on about four miles to a
lake where there was another camp of larger size. Hoyt was the
enthusiast of the party, and it was his ambition to kill a deer,
although the inhumane act was prohibited at that season of the year.

Our leading guide was called Aaron Burr Sturgis. Thursday evening Hoyt
insisted upon going out deer hunting upon the lake. Burr took charge
of him. Hoyt had a shot, but missed the deer. Friday evening the
effort was renewed with the same result. Burr insisted that the game
was in sight at a reasonable distance, and that Hoyt was a victim of
the dis