Western Wanderings: a record of Travel in the Evening Land, etc. Illustrated

Front matter

WESTERN WANDERINGS LONDON : PRINTED BY SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW- STREET SQUARE AND PARLIAMENT STREET NIAGARA FALLS.— Whirlpool Rapids, 1' -11 WESTERN WANDERINGS A RECORD OF TEAYEL IN THE EVENING LAND BY J. W. BODDAM-WHETHAM ILLUSTRATED LONDON RICHARD BENTLEY AND SON llublisfccrs in drbwarjj lo |tr Itajestg The following sketches of Wanderings in the Far West are presented to the Public, not so much as having pretensions to literary merit, as possessing, possibly, some degree of interest for those who have I never visited the Evening Land ; and affording some hints and information to those Avho may be intending to journey in that direction, and may care to diverge occasionally from the beaten track. May the truthfulness of the record atone for its defects. J. W. B.-W. CONTENTS.

Chapter I. Across The Atlantic

PAGE The poetry of motion — A growl — Rough weather — Fellow-passengers — A new-fashioned honeymoon — Emigrants — Life on the ocean-wave — An arrival — The pilot-boat — The Harbour 1

Chapter II. New York To Niagara

Civil service — A free country — Street-cars — Hotels — Cookery — Sight-seeing — Billiards — Central Park — Flowers — A naval engagement — The Hudson — A ' Pullman ' car — The old lady and her luggage — Susquehanna — An express train — Buffalo City 7

Chapter III. Niagara To Chicago

The Cataract House— Proffers of assistance — A soliloquy — The Falls — Tolls — A want of caution — Curiosities — An elevator — Birds- Over the Falls — A 'Sleeping-car' — Tobacco-chewing — Snoring — Lake Michigan 20

Chapter IV. Chicago To Omaha

Trials — Enterprise — A moving story — Pig-sticking — New version of one of the Labours of Hercules — Hotel life versus home life — To the Mississippi — Reserve — Tower — Farmers' Granges — A bad track— Council Bluffs— Baths— The Missouri . . . .32 CONTENTS. PAGE 47 120

Chapter V. Omaha To Salt Lake City

Up the Missouri— Snakes— Nebraska— Indians— Prairie— Buffalo— Eating-stations— Prairie dogs— Denver— Bedrocks— Indian races —Agates— Indian battle— Sheep mountain — A storm — Echo Canon— The Devil's Slide— Salt Lake City

Chapter VI. Salt Lake City To Virginia City

Early days— The Tabernacle— A vision — Mormons — Ann Eliza — ■ Brigham Young — Mormon shops — American Fork Canon — Salt Lake — A pageant — The Theatre — Mormonism — The Great American Desert — Euchre — Tricksthat are vain — Nevada — Train-robbers — Americanisms — Reno ....... 72

Chapter VII. Virginia City To Stockton

Politicians — A silver mine — Sutro Tunnel — A commercial crisis — Geysers — Lake Tahoe — Shakespeare — Donner Lake — The old traveller — Two American forces — Cape Horn — Alabaster Cave — Sacramento — Mosquitoes — The pedlar boy — The poor man's carriage — Gold currency — Wages 89

Chapter VIII. Stockton To The Yosemite Valley

Stockton — Dust — Gophers — Quails — Staging — Tarantulas — Hydraulic mining — Mammoth Trees — A curious flower — A theory — Table mountain — Deserted villages — Chinese Camp — Wine — The Siamese Twins — Manzanita — The summit .... 103

Chapter IX. The Yosemite Valley

The descent — A patient steed — The Valley — The Hotel — A philosopher — Riding astride — The Yosemite Falls — Mirror Lake — A legend — Bridal-veil Fall — Glacier Point and Sentinel Dome — The Nevada and Vernal Falls — A rapid — The Cosmopolitan — Improvements — Impressions — Digger Indians — Departure CONTENTS. IX PAGE 187 214

Chapter X. To San Francisco

Stage jokes — The Golden City— Site — Vegetation — Dust— Overwork — Lone mountain — Seal rocks — Mission Dolores — Bits — Bars — Free lunch — Julep — A character— Architecture — Chinese — High wages — Hoodlums — Chinese facetiæ — Visit to the bad Chinese quarter — Chinese superstitions and troubles . . . 143

Chapter XI. San Francisco

Peculiarities — Quacks — Farallone Islands — Woodward's Gardens — Eucalyptus — Suicide and murders — Schools — American politics — The labouring class — Shoddy — Refinement — Literature — The Press — Advertisements — Side-walks — Street-cars — Occupations — A critic . 1*66

Chapter XII. San Francisco To Mount Shasta

The Bay — Education of turkeys — The sparrow — Larks — Golden grain — Stubble — Bad farming — Fruit — Marysville — Bank robbery — A humming-bird fight — Staging — Companions — Highwaymen — Scenery — No grumbling — ' You bet ' — Making oneself popular — Grizzlies — Spiritualism — Castle Rocks — Soda Springs

Chapter XIII. Mount Shasta

Game — Foliage — Barrenness — Night — Morning — Clouds — The Crater — Boiling Springs — View— -Sunset — Red snow — 'Sisson's — Play of colour — Packing — The trail— Our first deer — American deer — Destruction of game out of season 204

Chapter XIV. Camping Out

A frying-pan— Castle Lake— Famine — Fishing— Dinner— A song — Fresh quarters— Deer-hunting — Ambush — Mountain-sides — Bears — Wild flowers— Home— Camp life— A duel— Woodpeckers- Maternal love a CONTENTS. X

Chapter XV. From Yreka To The Lava Beds

PAGB Eaten by a bear— Forest fires— A desert— Sage-hens -Mountain-sheep— Modocs— Indians— Belief— Cost of Indians— a liberal Government— Indian Agents— Present policy— Reservations- Issuing rations to Indians— Santanta and Big Tree— Red Cloud- War Department 226

Chapter XVI. The Modocs

Treachery — Treaties — War — Murders — Modoc success— Peace Commission—Captain Jack— An interview— Warning — Murder of the Peace Commissioners — Marvellous escape— Lower Klamath Lake The camp— The Lava Beds— Panic— Savage squaws— Warm Spring Indians — Surrender— Execution — Pelicans — Graves — After dark 239

Chapter XVII. Fort Klamath To The Mystic Lake

A custom — Fort Klamath — The Agency — Dead Indian country — The Lake of the Woods — An Indian workshop — A canon — Snow-fields — The crater's rim — A snow-camp — An alarm — O-po-coninne — Mystic Lake — A canoe — The medicine-man — The island — Law of death — Midnight — Internal fires— Surmises . ■ . 253

Chapter XVIII. From Jacksonville To The Columbia River

Oregon forests — The Umpqua Canon — A poultry fancier — A female hermit — Willamette Valley — Eugene City — The Three Sisters — The Mackenzie River— Oregon City — Falls of the Willamette- Portland — The Columbia River — Scenery — The Multenomah Falls— Castle Rock — Cape Horn — The Cascades — A portage — Coffin Rock — Dalles — A Sahara — Catching salmon — Great Salmon Falls — Fish-eagles — A crane story CONTENTS. XI PAGE 282 296

Chapter XIX. Kalama To Victoria

A tedious journey — A terrible threat — An epithet— Olympia — Puget Sound — Snokomish City — An Indian cemetery — Flat-heads — Use of Indians — American diplomacy — Washington Territory — Salmon not taking a fly — San Juan — Victoria — Dull times — Terminus — A view — Climate — Roads — Esquimalt Harbour — Sport — Indians — A red admiral — Superstition — Hospitality .

Chapter XX. Up The Fraser

New Westminster — Stumps— Halcyon days — Fishing — A panther — Ferns — Sal-lal — Burrard Inlet — Steam saw-mills — Up the Fraser — Anonymous gifts — Providence — Wood-cutters — Hope — A silver-mine — Rapids — Yale — Hudson's Bay Company — Christianised Indians — Missionaries — A waggon road — A trail — Fatal accident— Hell's Gate — Suspension-bridge — Scenery to Boston Bar — Indian larders — Salmon — Fishing establishments — Boundary line — Haro Straits — The Driard House — British Columbia .

Chapter XXI. Return To Nanaimo

Miners — Difficulties and dangers — Good and bad luck — Gulf of Georgia — Calculating birds — Nanaimo — Duck-shooting — An Indian guide — The beaver-dam — Fishing — A river — Stars — Merit — An entertainment — The coast 314

Chapter XXII. British Columbia

Game in British Columbia — Grouse — Mud Bay — A day's shooting — Raccoons — No woodcocks — Summer ducks — Bears — Indians of British Columbia — Carving — Canoes — Chinook— Indian houses — Burials — Door-posts — Smuggling — Civilised and Christianised Indians — The ' Prince Alfred ' — The coast — Grumbling settlers — A Bohemian— Sunset— The Golden Gate CON TENTS. XII PAGE

Chapter XXIII. San Francisco To The Geysers

The race fortheblue riband — ' Coasting' — Games in America — To the Geysers — Calistoga — The Petrified Forest — Foss — The Summit- Speed— The Geyser Hotel— The Devil's Canon— The Witches' Cauldron — The Pulpit— Indian legend — Indian duns — The Indian bath — Quicksilver mines — Quails — Return 337

Chapter XXIV. Concluding Remarks

Ilealdsburg —Porters— Jewellery — An art — Rainy season — Catarrh — San Diego — The abalona-hunter — Shooting— Hotel mania — Americans abroad — The West ....... LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Niagara Falls — Whirlpool Rapids .... frontispiece Niagara Falls — Entrance to Cave of the Wind . ' to face p. 23 Witch Rocks, Utah „ 47 Devil's Slide — Front View ., 71 Big Tree — Mother of the Forest „ 103 Father of the Forest „ 112 General View of the Valley from Prospect Point . ., 120 Sea Birds — Cormorants, &c ,, 109 SoriH Farallone Island ,, 186 Mount Shasta >, -04 View on the Columbia River ,, 27 273 Vulcan's Steam Works > 34G Erratum. Page 47, line 10, for Yauhton read Yancton.

Chapter I. Across The Atlantic

The poetry of motion — A growl— Rough weather — Fellow-passengers — A new-fashioned honeymoon — Emigrants — Life on the ocean-wave— An arrival — The pilot-boat — The harbour. At the present day the voyage to NeAV York is of as little importance and, generally, as devoid of interest as the trip between Dover and Calais. In fact, I think the latter, being shorter, has the more interest and variety of the two. Theoretically, hancr ing over the side of the gallant shijo — a ship is always gallant till she comes to grief — and watching the blue waves as they dance in the sunlight, or shimmer Avith a phosphoric gleam under the pale moonbeams, is all very nice and poetic ; but, practically, the stricken one seldom realises the poetry of his position, and his thoughts, if he has any, are apt to be very prosaic.

Will it ever be discovered that the safety of a ship is not incompatible with sj:>ace, ventilation, and clean liness, and the general comfort of its passengers ? I! People often say, ' Oh, it's no use grumbling ; we are on board ship, and must put up with it.' Now, I cannot help thinking that a great many improvements, both on board ship and on land, are due to a little good-natured grumbling. But whilst I have been indulging in a quiet groAvl over the confined arrange ments of my cabin — yclept ' state-room ' — the ship has weighed anchor, and Ave are already some distance from the shore. In the morning a bright April sun was shining, a favourable breeze blowing, and there was every prospect of a speedy end to our troubles. But on returning to the deck to enjoy the sea-air and the conversation of my felloAv passengers, Iioav changed the scene !

The brightness of the morning has vanished, and a thick mist, evidently fresh from Scotland, shuts us out from the laud. The Avaves are beginning to heave in an unpleasant manner, and it requires a pair of sea legs — which at present I am not possessed of — to pace the deck with a gait which has any pretensions to grace. Rain, too, begins to fall. No sign is there here of a human being, save myself, and some tAvo or three of the creAv, ominously Avrapped in huge tarpaulins. Not caring to occupy the deck ' alone in my glory,' I make the dreariness of the scene an excuse for a descent, more rapid than elegant, to the regions below. ACROSS THE ATLANTIC. 3 The next day broke more propitiously. Acquaint ances were formed, and even friendships, destined to last nine or ten days — that is, if nothing untoward should happen in the interval.

We had amongst us no professional celebrities on their Avay to fortune, and had, therefore, to content ourselves Avith the companionship of beings of commoner clay. These consisted of some four or five merchants ; tAvo or three invalids ; au old Californian, avIio told me he had never had a day's illness in his life, but avIio Avas as yellow as a guinea — a fact which set me speculating whether the inhabitants of that land gradually change into gold-dust ; several children ; a thin Methodist preacher, avIio was going out to improve the Pintes ; and a very smart military gentleman, from Illinois. I never exactly ascertained the rank of this gallant son of Mars. Sometimes I heard him addressed as Captain, sometimes as General, but he Avas familiarly knoAvn as ' the Colonel.' He informed us that he Avas returning from Nice, Avhere he had been passing his honeymoon.

As the bride had not yet made her appearance, some one remarked that he Avas afraid she AAras suffering a great deal from sea-sickness ; to which ' the Colonel ' replied that she had been spared that misery, as he had lest her at Chicago. I wonder Avhether this mode of enjoying a honeymoon is common Avith Americans? 8 For the first feAv days I fancied we had none but saloon passengers on board, but I was afterwards in formed that Ave carried over eight hundred emigrants. The capacity they exhibited for living down below Avas something really wonderful. I hardly eATer saw a dozen of them on deck ; and how they managed to reach NeAv York alive Avill ever remain a mystery to me. Our amusements were not of a very varied description. There AA7as only one complete set of chessmen, and to obtain this it Avas necessary to get up before daybreak, so great was the rush for it ; and the amount of misery thereby entailed Avas hardly com pensated by the most brilliant check-mate.

Then there Avas an old jangling piano in the saloon, and upon this one lady, as ' the Colonel ' said, ' played considerable ;' and two elderly spinsters, avIio said they delighted in music, once favoured us with a duet, beginning with the appropriate words, ' Oh ! ye voices "one.' Whist and euchre whiled aAvay a feAv hours for most of us, but the latter game absorbed ' the Colonel's ' every spare moment. He was indefatigable ; morning, noon, and night he played. And to some purpose too, for I never entered the smoking-room Avithout seeing there a victim to his rapacity. The ' Heathen Chinee ' was a joke to him, and the ACROSS THE ATLANTIC. 5 only man I ever saw beat him Avas the Methodist preacher. Life on board ship is very prosaic. At sea one day is far more like another than on land, and the smallest incidents assume there vast importance.

Speaking with another ship is an event to be remembered, and the sight of a shoal of porpoises causes as much excitement as a pack of hounds running their fox through a country toAvn on a market-day. Time, however, passed aAvay pleasantly enough, in spite of sea tea, cracked piano, and narrow berths. As regards the berths, I am sure that walking the plank can be nothing to sleeping in one of them, and that their invention can only be due to the fertile brain of an ancient Inquisitor or that of a modern shipbuilder. Our only event of any importance was the arrival one stormy night of a fresh passenger. Nobody could understand how it was possible for him to have come on board in such weather, and nobody remembered our stopping. Some of the ladies thought we might, perhaps, have picked up a shipwrecked mariner, but anxiety and conjecture were soon set at rest by the information that ' both mother and child were doing well.' There was much discussion as to the nationality of the infant, and I do not know that the question Avas eventually satisfactorily settled.

On the eleventh day a pilot-boat hove in sight, and was the signal for numerous wagers amongst the betting-men ; the number of the boat, and whether the pilot would first place his right or left foot on deck, causing as much interest as the running of a Derby favourite. I believe if anyone had remarked that the pilot would not stand on his head Avhen he came on board, some one Avould have been willing to bet that he Avould. One of the signs that we were approaching our destination was a change in the kind of beverage in re quest on board. No longer did you hear pale ale or claret called for, but mixed drinks — ' cock-tails,' 'juleps,' 'smashes' &c. — were the order of the day ; and the quantity and variety of these concoctions con sumed by my Yankee felloAv-passengers might have as tonished me, had I not always heard that ' the bar ' Avas a great and favourite Institution Avith the Americans.

We had a glorious day for entering the harbour, and the view was superb. Hills covered with trees, and dotted Avith picturesquely pretty white houses ; forts, celebrated in history, Staten Island, Brooklyn, and the great city stretching away in the distance on its low level island, formed a picture as striking as it was novel ; whilst the river, with its numerous monster ferry-boats, and crafts of all shapes and sizes, gave the traveller a very fair idea of the busy active life he might expect to witness in the city itself.

Chapter II. New York To Niagara

Civil service — A free country — Street-cars — Hotels — Cookery — Sight-seeing — Billiards — Central Park — Flowers — A Daval engagement — The Hudson — A ' Pullman ' car — The old lady and her luggage — Susquehanna — An express train — Buffalo City. About two hundred years ago the site of the City of New York was bought from the Indians for the sum of twenty dollars, or its equivalent ; at the present day that is the amount exacted by the Custom-house myr midons from every four or five individuals avIio have the privilege of landing there. The ' feeing system ' is certainly the only well-organised arrangement in the Custom-house department. For, unless you Avould have your portmanteaus opened and their contents scattered over the floor, and are satisfied also to under go a great deal of annoyance and badgering, called ' civil service,' it is absolutely necessary to slip five dollars into the expectant grasp of one of the rapacious officers.

Nothing less Avill satisfy these harpies ; but from the moment their wants are appeased your way is clear, and though your boxes may be filled with WESTERN WANDERIAGS. 8 silks, laces, and other excisable articles, what is that to them ? A friend of mine, who had weakly offered a five-franc piece, thinking to save himself the trouble of opening his luggage, Avas coolly informed by the in specting officer that if he had no other money about him he Avould be happy to wait on him at his hotel the next morning. This piece of condescension my friend did not avail himself of, and consequently, though he had nothing subject to duty, he was soon surrounded by the contents of his portmanteau and hat-box. The drive to our hotel was another five dollars. In England it Avould have been half-a-crown ; but then Ave were not in England, as the driver very cleverly explained to us.

But we quickly perceived we were in a free country ; that cabby was evidently free to charge Avhat he liked, and we, as we liked, free to accept his services or not. The excessively high rate of fares for carriages in New York entirely precludes the general use of them. But there are plenty of street-cars ; and the amusing scenes constantly to be Avitnessed in them, and the necessity for a steady look-out that your pockets are not picked, are as stimulating for the mental poAvers as the jolts, jerks and struggles to obtain a seat are for the bodily ones. New York is undoubtedly great in three thino-s hotels, oysters, and mixed drinks. In the first I was disappointed, with the second delighted, and astonished by the third. The hotels, magnificent externally, and sufficiently well-appointed, yet want a home-like air ; and the continual croAvd and bustle you find on entering some of the larger ones gives you the impression of being yet in the street.

They have a terrible habit in American hotels of serving at meals all the dishes at once, so that by the time one is finished the rest are perfectly cold. Covers, apparently, are unknown luxuries, and the same may be said of a sufficient supply of clean plates, knives and forks, &c. Mr. Henry Watterson, in a letter to the ' Louis ville Courier Journal,' makes the following complimen tary remarks on the English : ' The English are a gross, material people. They live on the coarsest food.' Noav, anyone A\dio has travelled in America must have noticed that at most of the hotels in large cities, and at all of them in small towns, coarse food and ex tremely bad cooking are invariably found The menu makes a grand display, but will not stand analysing ; and after a short sojourn in America you might easily, before arriving at any hotel in any town, Avrite out the bill of fare that Avill be found there.

Of course there are exceptions. At the Brevoort House, in NeAV York, as good food and as good cooking will be found as can be wished for ; but the charge for these unusual luxuries is most exorbitant. WESTERN WANDERINGS. 10 The hotel is conducted on the European plan, which for English travellers will be found far preferable to the American one. As for the Avines, they are generally good, especially in New York ; but the prices — I suppose on account of the heavy duties — are so enormous that milk, tea, and water entirely take the place of sherry, claret, and other light wines. It is the same with beer — a bottle of Bass costing four or five times its original price. Finding fault is a very ungracious task ; but hotels may be regarded as belonging to the travelling public. Besides, I have seen so many letters from Ameri cans in England to the different New York papers, constantly abusing ' English cookery,' that it is only fair that the subject of ' American cookery ' should be touched upon by an Englishman.

To the oyster-lover America ought to be a paradise. And to the great variety of those bivalves is added a still greater variety in the manner of preparing them for the table. The clams are not quite so good, and, as with olives, an acquired taste is necessary to appreciate them. When I first ate them I thought them like indiarubber boiled in brine. Everybody has heard of BroadAvay, as he has heard of the Rue Rivoli and of Regent Street. Length is its principal feature ; for the rest, it is ill-paved, badly lighted at night, and has very feAv shops, or stores, worth looking at. On the whole, Broadway is remarkable for little except the crowds that frequent it and their eager haste — each man, seemingly, being bent on making amends, as they say here, for having come into the world half-an-hour too late.

The inventor of boots with wheels, which enable the wearer to go as fast as on a bicycle, ought to make his fortune very rapidly in New York. The hare will never be beaten by the tortoise in America. Several of the New York churches are very beauti ful, and some of the great marble buildings stand as monuments of Avhat can be effected by the persevering industry of those who began life as penniless boys. As London has its East end and West end, so New York has its Bowery and Broadway. But instead of the innumerable squares and streets of the West end of London, the West end of New York is confined to Fifth Avenue and a few of the adjacent streets ; and just as Paris is the paradise which every good American hopes for when he dies, so, a house in Fifth Avenue is what he most covets in this life.

The theatres are mostly fine handsome buildings. They are well-managed, and you find there no dis agreeable people on the look-out for a fee for showing you to your seat or for handing a programme, as in our London playhouses. The acting, generally, is in- WE S TERN WA NDERINGS. 12 different, one ' bright particular star ' being the magnet to attract an audience. NeAv York must be a very musical city, judging from the immense number of piano stores. I should say they are about as numerous, in proportion to the population, as the drinking-bars — which are calculated at one to every hundred and twenty persons. Yet the charge for hiring a piano is more than double Avhat it is in Europe. However, as a shilling in Eng land, or a franc in France, goes as far as a dollar (four shillings) in America, I suppose this is not a charge to complain of.

We went one day to see a ' great billiard tourna ment ' between some of the champions of America ; and in spite of the wonderful play of Gamier and Dion, the champions, Ave found the American game much more tedious for spectators than the English one. Cannons are apt to become monotonous after the first hundred, even Avhen the stakes are silver cups and diamond cues. In the large billiard halls it is very amusing to watch the different players, and it is not difficult to estimate a man's character by his play. One player prefers ' folloAving strokes ; ' quietly and delicately coaxing the hard balls to do what he wants Avithout their being aware of it. Another, is always twisting and ' putting on side ' and scoring just where you do not expect it ; whilst another, by sheer straight forward play, drives the balls about with far-seeino combinations.

Then there is the cunning man, avIio gets the balls in a corner and keeps on scoring till the helpless opponent longs to hit him over the head Avith the butt-end of his cue. But let us get into the fresh air ; and the Central Park will be the very place to drive aAvay the effects of the hot billiard-room. This park, the pride of New York, is very picturesque ; it has a great variety of surface and ornamenta tion. But a short time ago it was a barren, bleak, miAvholesome stretch of land, a place of deposit for rubbish and old bricks, with here and there a marshy spot and a few stagnant pools. Noav, it is most admi rably laid out, planted with trees and shrubs, and diversified by hills, rocks, slopes, plains, and lakes ; arranged, too, by the hand of a master, and with a most thorough effect of natural scenery.

All sorts of means for elevating the surface and breaking the monotony of outline have been used. Doubtless, in future ages learned men Avill dig deep into some of the vast mounds and wonder how ATolcanic action could raise and collect in these spots such a wonderful assemblage of old Indian curiosities, in the shape of tin cans, oyster-shells, shoes, cast-off crinolines, and broken china. The prohibition to Avalk on the grass seems rather strange in a People's Park ; but perhaps during the hot dry summers the grass Avould be so soon Avorn away that the rule is necessary. At all events, the place is a source of immense enjoyment and benefit to everyone. In New York one misses very much the flowers and ' hanging gardens ' Avhich make London houses so gay. It is a pity that houses Avhose interiors are so lavishly adorned Avith works of art should not display ou their exteriors a feAv of the works of nature.

Whilst passing a feAv days at Rockaway, on Long Island, Ave witnessed a very curious naval engagement. There was a great noise one morning in front of the hotel, and on going out to ascertain Avhat Avas the matter avc saAv a number of large porpoises in hot pursuit of what are called ' drum-fish.' Such a noise ! such splashing ! the porpoises striking Avith their tails, and actually driving several of their enemies on shore. More than tAventy dead fish Avere taken out of the shallow water. They must have weighed on an aver age twenty or thirty pounds each. One old porpoise nearly stranded himself in his laudable endeavours to outdo his friends in this onslaught ; and he grunted terribly, and seemed quite put out when the battle was over. We had reserved the Hudson river for a bonne bouche, and very fortunately so, as we were thereby enabled to carry away with us more pleasing impressions of NeAv York than we otherwise should have done.

The banks of very few rivers display more beautiful and romantic scenery than do those of the magnificent stream Avhich Aoavs beneath the Palisades. From Hoboken to beyond West Point (the Staff College of America) objects of great interest, historical and legendary, present themselves at every turn ; whilst the natural beauty of the scenes, vieAved from the deck of most capitally-appointed steamers, combine to make this trip one of the most charming imaginable. In these river steamboats food for the body is not lost sight of in the intellectual treat, and in my re collections of the first ghmpse of Poughkeepsie there still lingers a reminiscence of the most delicious terra pene stew I ever tasted. To attempt any description of the beautiful river after one rapid journey up and down it would be absurd.