St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1880-08-13
Among the Adirondacks.
Loon LAKE, July 81, 1880.


horse and drive. Thus two OF us have
started for the Adiron dacks. We take
one, and sometimes two meals day oy
the roadside, when the weather Is
pleasant, replenishing our lunch box
with bread from bakers cart or a no.
tel kitchen, and our milk can from a
farm house dairy; giving the horse his
oats and rest in embarrassed leisure at
our own meal time.
Twenty-Five miles take us in one af-
ternoon to South Hardwick; twenty
eight miles the next day to Bakersfield
twenty Fl We the next, to Swanton; TWEEN
ty-two the next, to Champlain, N. Y. /;
eight the next to MOOers, where we take
our Sunday rest.
We note that the crops which line
the Vermont roadsides are exuberant.
Grass, corn, oats, wheat, potatoes 1.-THE
bug at last conquered for the season),
are looking their very best. Neither
sunshine, rain, nor mans care, in boun-
tiful measure, has been spared. The
climatic value of Lake Champlain is no.
ticeable i'll the greater forwardness of
the crops in its bordering towns. Corn
that on the Passumpsic was barely
three feet high at its best, was in tassel
and baby ears along the lake. Water
ing trOughs forsoOk the road with the
Vermont hills, and only came in sight
again at the Ausable river. A we'll is
now and then located near the road,
from which by an old fashioned sweep,
or hooked pole, possibly pump,
water may be raised for man or beast.
Guideboards disappeared at the YER
mont line, and we have neither seen
them since nor expect to see them till
we reach Vermont again.
By a sail-boat ferry an arm of Lake
Champlain about a mile wide is crossed
to the peninsula of Alburgh. A crook
ed seven miles drive across it, and an
other mile-wide ferry across the outlet
of the lake, and we are at Rouse's
Point, on New York soil. A stone for
LITIGATION looms at the north end of the
town, whose early history is somewhat
remarkable. The United States Gov
eminent selected the site as an eligible
one for a fort to command the river,
and commenced building it. Before its
completion, however, it was discovered
to be on Canadian soil 1t was there
upon christened Fort Blunder and
abandoned. A generous change of
boundary gave the land to the United
States, and the fort was completed and
named Fort Montgomery.
Champlain, four miles west, on the
Ogdensburg and Lake Champlain R. R.,
is beautiful village, for its shady
streets and fine residences. But its
chief interest to stranger just now is
"The Island" A year or two since that
was but two or three acre lot of wild
land, in the midst of mill stream in
the heart of the village, partly a swamp
and hardly above the reach of freshets.
The citizens suddenly saw a park in it,
and set about its renovation. There
was already grove of fine trees on it.
The undeTbrush was cleared away,
bridges, and 9a9rihorS were built, settees
placed, a pavilion erected for social en-
tertainments, swampy swail that led
conveniently through the island cleared
out, and by dam made to afford two
feet of fall and keep an eight-foot un-
dershot water wheel flashing red sun
shine and pumping water for several
fountain jets. A bath-house was also
built below the wheel, through which
the waste water PUSHES bubbing, the
little mills tail thus furnishing the rare
treat of cold baths in boiling water, to
which may be added the shower varie-
ty by signaling to an overhanging sieve
that has ultimate relations with the
power pump outside. The spot would
soon have been an eyesore. 1t is now
destined to become to Champlain what,
through DR.. Bushnell's taste, like I'M
canDy locality in the heart of Hartford
became to the capital of Connecticut.
From Mooers to Plattsburg,- the best
part of the way was in sight of the
lake and the scene of MacDonongh's
novel victory of Sept. 8, 6l4,-with
the Green Mountains looming beyond,
is drive of twenty miles,-enough for
showery Monday, and road much of
the way sandy. Tuesday afternoon
found us twelve miles from Plattsburg,
at Ausable Chasm, wild wonder of
scenery, worth the whole ride to see,
even if the ride were work instead of
play. The Ausable is about the size of
the Passumpsic. Five miles back from
Lake Champlain, leaving its tree-bor-
dered, boulder-paved bed, it drops alb
ruptly into a gorge like canal lock.
Thence for some two miles, through a
cutting made by the waters that have
run here for ages, it gldes, sweeps,
umbles, between sandstone walls in
places seventy-fve feet high, and from
fifty to more than hundred feet apart.
The rock is grayish and cream colored
sandstone, gritty and resembling the
Berea grindstones. 1t lies in thin stra-
ia. of varying hardness. The elements.
crumbling the softer layers, have
scooped out caverns, opened wide side
assures, and carved the walls into fan
tastic shapes. A forest above creeps to