MOUNT MORRIS, FROM TUPPER LAKE, ADIRONDACKS.
BUTTERMILK FALLS, ADIRONDACKS.
Those who visit the Adirondacks in search of the wildest beauties of nature will not make the trip in vain. Within this district there are said to be no less than 1000 lakes, and 500 mountain peaks, several of which rise to the height of 5000 feet. It is the Switzerland of America, in the same degree that America is greater and grander in all respects than any of the countries of the Old World.
ADIRONDACK LODGE AND CLEAR LAKE.
Some of the loftiest peaks are Mounts Morris, Marcy, White-Face, Seward, Pharoah, Dix and Snowy Mountain, and of the lakes there are Tupper, Saranac, Long, Avalanche, Clear, Henderson, Raquette, Newcomb, Pleasant, and many others scarcely less in size and famous for the game-fish that swarm in their transparent waters. As a hunting-ground the Great North Wilderness, as it is often called, is probably the best now to be found anywhere in the United States, abounding as it does in deer, bear, panther, wolf, wolverene, and immense numbers of smaller game, so that whether lost or found, a man with a loaded gun need never go hungry in the Adirondacks.
It is not surprising that a region noted for its mountains, lakes and dense forests, should abound with features magnificently picturesque; and those who visit the Adirondacks in search of the wildest beauties of nature will not make the trip in vain. It is the Switzerland of America, equaling the best scenery of that country, and exceeding it in some respects, notably its intricate chain of lakes, its flaming chasms, and the solitudes of its deep wildernesses, so tangled and intricate that more than two-thirds remain yet to be explored. Night in these fastnesses is inexpressibly doleful and at times fearful. The Black Forest of Germany is not nearly so lonely, nor is the Brocken so ominous with its colossal specter as the mountain summits of the Adirondacks, clothed with evergreens and groves of birch, maple, beech, ash and cedar, in which the bear, wolf and wild-cat have their lairs. In these wild seclusions, the recesses of dark valleys and the dreary isolation of soaring peaks, darkness is enthroned and veiled by shadows, amid which savage animals and dusky night-birds hold their carnivals. The catamount sets up a chilling wail that brings response from the deep-voiced loon that keeps his lonely watch on a lake far below; then across a stretch of deep wood falls the hooting echo of a solemn owl, whose complainings excite condolement of whip-poor-will and katydid, and the chorus thus begun is taken up and joined in by a thousand whimpering, screeching, strident and wailing things that make the lonesome forest their assembling place.