* * *

  Afar the misty mountains piled,
    The Adirondacks soaring free,
  The dark green ranges lone and wild,
    The Catskills looking toward the sea.

  Benjamin F. Leggett.

* * *

No wonder, with these mountain ranges to get through, that the subject was agitated year after year, and it was only when the Delaware and Hudson Company placed their powerful shoulder to the wheel, that the work began to go forward.  For these mountains meant tunnels, and rock cuts, and bridges, and cash.  Leaving Whitehall, we enter a tunnel near the old steamboat landing, cross a marsh, which must have suggested the beginning of the Pilgrim’s Progress, for it seemed almost bottomless, and pass along the narrow end of the lake, still marked by light-houses, where steamers once struggled and panted “like fish out of water,” fulfilling the Yankee’s ambition of running a boat on a heavy dew.  Then winding in and out along the shore, we proceed to—­

=Ticonderoga=, 23 miles from Whitehall.  Here terminates the first range of the Adirondacks, to which we have already referred, viz.:  Mount Defiance.  Steamers connect with the train at this point on Lake Champlain, also with a railroad for Lake George.  Near the station we get a view of old Port Ticonderoga, where Ethan Allen breakfasted early one morning, and said grace in a brief and emphatic manner.  The lake now widens into a noble sheet of water; we cross the Lake George outlet, enter a deep rock-cut, which extends a distance of about 500 feet, and reach Crown Point thirty-four miles north of Whitehall.  Passing along the shore of Bulwagga Bay we come to—­

=Port Henry=, 40 miles from Whitehall.  A few miles further the railroad leaves the lake at Mullen Brook, the first departure since we left Whitehall, and we are greeted with cultivated fields and a charming landscape.

=Westport=, 51 miles from Whitehall, is the railroad station for—­

=Elizabethtown=, the county seat of Essex.  It is about eight miles from the station, nestled among the mountains.  A county consisting mostly of mountain scenery could have no happier location for a head-centre.  Elizabethtown forms a most delightful gateway to the Adirondacks either by stage route or pedestrian tour.

* * *

  A health to Ethan Allen and our commander Gates;
  To Lincoln and to Washington whom every Tory hates;
  Likewise unto our Congress, God grant it long to reign,
  Our country’s right and justice forever to maintain.

  Saratoga Revolutionary Ballad.

* * *

A short distance north of Westport we enter the well-cultivated Bouquet Valley, and after a pleasant run come to Wellsboro Falls, where we enter seven miles of rock cutting.  The road is about 90 feet above the lake, and the cuts in many places from 90 to 100 feet high.  After leaving Red-Rock cut, we pass through a tunnel 600 feet long.  Crossing Higby’s Gorge and rounding Tremblau Mountain, we reach—­