are of local
use, and others quite peculiar to the particular class of men to which
the character belongs. In the present instance, the scout uses the word
with immediate reference to the salt, with which his own party was so
fortunate as to be provided.

[13] Glenn's Falls are on the Hudson, some forty or fifty miles above
the head of tide, or the place where that river becomes navigable for
sloops. The description of this picturesque and remarkable little
cataract, as given by the scout, is sufficiently correct, though the
application of the water to the uses of civilized life has materially
injured its beauties. The rocky island and the two caverns are well
known to every traveller, since the former sustains a pier of a bridge,
which is now thrown across the river, immediately above the fall. In
explanation of the taste of Hawkeye, it should be remembered that men
always prize that most which is least enjoyed. Thus, in a new country,
the woods and other objects, which in an old country would be maintained
at great cost, are got rid of, simply with a view of "improving," as it
is called.

[14] The meaning of Indian words is much governed by the emphasis and
tones.

[15] Mingo was the Delaware term for the Five Nations. Maquas was the
name given them by the Dutch. The French, from their first intercourse
with them, called them Iroquois.

[16] It has long been a practice with the whites to conciliate the
important men of the Indians, by presenting medals, which are worn in
the place of their own rude ornaments. Those given by the English
generally bear the impression of the reigning king, and those given by
the Americans that of the president.

[17] Many of the animals of the American forests resort to those spots
where salt springs are found. These are called "licks" or "salt licks,"
in the language of the country, from the circumstance that the quadruped
is often obliged to lick the earth, in order to obtain the saline
particles. These licks are great places of resort with the hunters, who
waylay their game near the paths that lead to them.

[18] The scene of the foregoing incidents is on the spot where the
village of Ballston now stands; one of the two principal watering-places
of America.

[19] Some years since, the writer was shooting in the vicinity of the
ruins of Fort Oswego, which stands on the shores of Lake Ontario. His
game was deer, and his chase a forest that stretched with little
interruption, f