ifty miles inland. Unexpectedly he came upon six or eight
ladders lying in the woods within a short distance of each other. They
were rudely made, and much decayed. Wondering what could have assembled
so many of these instruments in such a place, he sought an old man who
resided near for the explanation.

During the war of 1776 Fort Oswego was held by the British. An
expedition had been sent two hundred miles through the wilderness to
surprise the fort. It appears that the Americans, on reaching the spot
named, which was within a mile or two of the fort, first learned that
they were expected, and in great danger of being cut off. They threw
away their scaling-ladders, and made a rapid retreat. These ladders had
lain unmolested thirty years, in the spot where they had thus been cast.

[20] Baron Dieskau, a German, in the service of France. A few years
previous to the period of the tale, this officer was defeated by Sir
William Johnson of Johnstown, New York, on the shores of Lake George.
See Appendix, Note H.

[21] Evidently the late De Witt Clinton, who died governor of New York
in 1828.

[22] The powers of the American mocking-bird are generally known. But
the true mocking-bird is not found so far north as the State of New
York, where it has, however, two substitutes of inferior excellence; the
catbird, so often named by the scout, and the bird vulgarly called
ground-thresher. Either of these two last birds is superior to the
nightingale, or the lark, though, in general, the American birds are
less musical than those of Europe.

[23] The beauties of Lake George are well known to every American
tourist. In the height of the mountains which surround it, and in
artificial accessories, it is inferior to the finest of the Swiss and
Italian lakes, while in outline and purity of water it is fully their
equal; and in the number and disposition of its isles and islets much
superior to them all together. There are said to be some hundreds of
islands in a sheet of water less than thirty miles long. The narrows
which connect what may be called, in truth, two lakes, are crowded with
islands to such a degree as to leave passages between them frequently of
only a few feet in width. The lake itself varies in breadth from one to
three miles.

The State of New York is remarkable for the number and beauty of its
lakes. One of its frontiers lies on the vast sheet of Ontario, while
Champlain stretches nearly a hundred miles along an