read newspapers; to talk on political subjects; to manage the affairs of the nation and neglect their own; to profess themselves infidels; to seem to know every thing, and plainly to care nothing about religion; to array themselves against its ministers, its friends, and its interests; and to be "wiser in their own conceit, than seven men, who can render a reason;" are strong features of the character of such men.

Another peculiar characteristic, found in many of the inhabitants in such settlements, is a bold spirit of commercial adventure. They chiefly come together for the purposes of trade; and generally have neither the capital, skill, experience, nor caution, which are indispensable to success in business of this nature. With a full conviction of their competency, they contract debts, and trust their property to persons whom they have never seen, without fear, and almost without thought. They, therefore, bargain with every body, who will bargain with them. Their darling object is to have the reputation of doing a great deal of business; and the question, whether it is done with advantage or not, seems to give them little anxiety. You will not wonder, that many of them speedily become bankrupts.

Another trait in the character of such settlers is expensiveness. To be like the inhabitants of great cities, they feel that they must in some measure resemble them in show. This spirit displays itself in dress, buildings, furniture, and modes of living; and is often the gulf which swallows up the property and ruins the family.

The road from Claverack to Kaatskill is disagreeable; wandering through a solitary country, composed chiefly of rough and barren hills, and containing a very few indifferent houses.

At the ferry we were obliged to wait a long time; and what was worse, were compelled during this time to hear two men, mere brutes, professedly talking, and actually swearing and cursing, about politics and religion. Of these subjects neither of them knew any thing except a few words, to which each attached no other signification, except that some of these were the words of his own party or sect, and the remainder words of that which he opposed. Our passage was in other respects safe and pleasant.

Kaatskill is a town, built on a creek or mill-stream of the same name. It contains about one hundred houses; almost all built on a single street, near and parallel with the creek, and in a direction from south-east to north-west. Several of the houses are built of brick. These, and some others which are of wood, are good buildings. A high and steep hill rises in the north-east at a small distance, leaving an easy slope at the bottom, of sufficient breadth for this street and its appendages. The soil is clay; in wet seasons very muddy, and in dry very dusty. Naturally it is cold and barren; but capable, with good husbandry, of producing plentiful crops. Many of the grounds, heretofore enclosed, are now suffered to lie waste; a decisive proof, that they are of little value.

The business done at Kaatskill is considerable; consisting principally in the importation of foreign commodities from New-York and elsewhere, and in the exportation of wheat, flour, and lumber. Much of this business is done in the way of barter*; and is attended with all the evils incident to those modes of exchanging property, in which there is no settled standard of dealing. One of the chief benefits of money is, that it furnishes the parties in all contracts with a known rule of estimation; by which they can determine the value and price of their commodities, and understand perfectly the nature of their bargains.

Kaatskill, i. e. the creek which bears this name, is navigable into the heart of the town for vessels drawing nine or ten feet of water. The channel of the Hudson is here one third of a mile distant from this shore. An island, bordering upon the channel, formed probably by the slime of the creek, is connected with the shore by a beach formed in the same manner. On this beach the inhabitants have begun to build a causey, which is to unite the island with the main, and to give them access to the channel of the Hudson. This work, an honourable proof of enterprise in these inhabitants, has since been completed; and an opening made from Kaatskill to the ocean for mercantile vessels of any burthen.

Kaatskill contains two congregations, an Episcopal and a Presbyterian. The Episcopalians, aided by the funds of Trinity church in the city of New-York, have erected a neat

* 1804.

church. The Presbyterians meet in the court-house*. There are here a few Baptists, and a smaller number of Methodists. There are in the township, also, two Dutch churches, one five miles north, and the other four miles west of the town. There are two academies in this town; one of them incorporated.

The prospects from the high grounds, near the village, all present two very interesting objects, the Hudson and the Kaatskill mountains. Otherwise they are dull and discouraging, destitute of the fine scenes of nature and the pleasing traces of art.

Kaatskill is the shire town of the county of Greene, which contains also the townships of Coxackie, Greenville, Freehold, Canton, Durham, New-Baltimore, and Windham. The Kaatskill mountains, so far as they are entitled to any distinction, have their whole course in this county. The number of its inhabitants, in 1800, was 12,584. It then contained four townships. In 1810, its inhabitants amounted to 19,536. The township of Kaatskill contained, in the year 1790, 1,980 inhabitants; in the year 1800, 2,408; and, in 1810, 4,245.

I found my expected companion, Professor D- of Yale college, and Mr. D of New-Haven, at Kaatskill. Here we spent our time very agreeably in a circle of good friends till Monday, September 24th, when we rode to Bristol in the county of Schoharie, through the townships of Canton and Freehold, as they were then named. You will observe, that the local divisions of this state are continually changing, especially in the more recent settlements. It is impossible for a traveller, therefore, to follow these changes, unless he were to have frequent recourse to the records of the state.

Our journey proceeded in a turnpike road, a branch of the Greenwoods' turnpike, from Hartford to Albany, commencing at Canaan in Connecticut, and passing to Wattles's ferry on the Susquehannah. Thence it is proposed to extend it to the county of Trumbull, on the southern shore of Lake Erie. The road is well made. After leaving Kaatskill, we passed by two hamlets, built on the creek, in one of which is the best mill-seat that I have met with. The dam is formed by a ledge of limestone, the front of which is perpendicular, and so high,

*They have since built a handsome church.

as to be on a level with the floor of the fourth story of the mill. This building stands on the side of the creek, in a spot perfectly safe; the water-wheels are overshot; and the whole expense laid out upon the dam is incurred by placing a single stick of timber upon the brow of the ledge, and by forming a flume, perhaps four or five feet in length. It cannot, I think, have exceeded ten dollars. The stream is abundant, and never failing. The interior furnishes immense quantities of wheat. Navigable water is scarcely four miles distant. More than thirty thousand barrels of flour are, or may easily be, manufactured here in a season.

Between these hamlets, and near the bank of the creek, there is a cave, said to extend, in a winding direction, thirty rods in length. The account must, I think, be conjectural; for the entrance is so ragged as to discourage effectually all investigation.

The country from Kaatskill through the township of Canton is a dull, dreary region. The ground is clay, the soil lean and filled with slate, the forests low and unthrifty, the houses few and miserable, and the cultivation wretched. Such of the inhabitants as we saw, corresponded in their appearance with all the particulars of this description. Few spots, within my knowledge, wear a more forbidding aspect. The dulness of the scene was, however, relieved by fine views of the Kaatskill mountains.

Canton, which since this journey has changed its name to Cairo, is a counterpart of the region already described. Its surface appeared to my eye as if it had been anciently and frequently burnt over by the Indians, and not unfrequently by those who succeeded them. The settlements, which we saw, were few, recent, and wretched.

From Canton we entered Freehold, passing through a settlement called New-Durham, and since incorporated into a township by the name of Durham. Here the face of the country changed in an instant. The surface became a succession of long, easy declivities on the north-eastern margin of the Kaatskill range, together with beautiful, open vallies lying between them. The soil, a mixture of loam and clay, is rich, and abundantly productive of both grass and wheat. The inhabitants have availed themselves of their advantages.

This

settlement, when we were on the ground, was of little more than twenty years standing; yet it was thoroughly cleared, well cultivated, and divided by good enclosures into beautiful farms. Indeed, every thing here wears the appearance of prosperity. Almost all the inhabitants are emigrants from Connecticut, and have preserved the habits of their native country. Of this we saw sufficient proof in their school-houses and their church. The congregation consists of two hundred families. Among them there has lately prevailed an extensive revival of religion, a rich reward for their efforts to establish the worship of God.

From Durham the road rises by a very easy and regular ascent to the ridge of the Kaatskill mountains, here divided into two arms, at the distance of more than twenty miles from the northernmost of the three principal summits. From the ridge at this place are seen the valley of the Hudson, Saddle Mountain, and the Taghkannuc and Green Mountain ranges. This valley is here at least forty-miles wide. Its extent northward and north-eastward is vast, exhibiting a remarkable specimen of the grandeur produced by amplitude, but is not ornamented, nor even relieved, by variegations of natural or artificial beauty. To the west, nothing was visible but huge piles of mountains, separated by deep and narrow vallies.

Into this valley our road descended very gradually along the declivity of the northern ridge. Here we found a few lonely plantations, recently begun upon the road. The southern ridge, or rather the south-western, is a rude and lofty mountain. At the bottom runs a sprightly mill-stream, winding in several places through rich intervals, a small number of them cleared, and covered with flourishing verdure. Occasionally we passed a cottage, and heard the distant sound of an axe, and of a human voice. All else was grandeur, gloom, and solitude. The mountains on either hand seemed to shut out the few inhabitants of the valley from the rest of mankind. If I can conjecture the feelings of a Swiss, and the habits which he must be supposed to derive from the circumstances of his native country, I should believe, that in this spot he might easily imagine himself to be still in Switzerland.

We reached our destined inn soon after sun-set. It was kept by a plain, but very friendly and obliging Dutchman,