Note 75 — PETER KALM’s TRAVELS. (continued 3)

June the 21st. About five o’clock in the afternoon we left Albany, and proceeded towards Canada. We had two men with us, who were to accompany us to the first French place, which is Fort St. Frederick, or, as the English call it, Crown Point. For this service each of them was to receive five pounds of New York currency, besides which I was to provide them with victuals. This is the common price here, and he that does not choose to conform to it, is obliged to travel alone. We were forced to take up with a canoe75, as we could get neither battoes, nor boats of bark; and as there was a good road along the west side of the river Hudson, we left the men to row forwards, in the canoe, and we went along it on the shore, that we might be better able to examine it, and its curiosities, with greater accuracy. It is very incommodious to row in these canoes; for one stands at each end and pushes the boat forwards. They commonly keep close to the shore, that they may be able to reach the ground easily. Thus the rowers are forced to stand upright, whilst they row in a canoe. We kept along the shore all the evening, towards the river, it consisted of great hills, and next to the water grew the trees, which I have above mentioned76, and which likewise are to be met with on the shores of the isle, in the river, situate below Albany. The easterly shore of the river is uncultivated, woody, and hilly; but the western is flat, cultivated, and chiefly turned into corn-fields, which had no drains, though they wanted them in some places. It appeared very plainly here, that the river had formerly been broader. For there is a sloping bank on the corn-fields, at about thirty yards distance from the river, with which it always runs parallel. From this it sufficiently appears, that the rising ground formerly was the shore of the river, and the corn-fields its bed. As a further proof, it may be added, that the same shells which abound on the present shore of the river, and are not applied to any use by the inhabitants, ly plentifully scattered on these fields. I cannot say whether this change was occasioned by the diminishing of the water in the river, or by its washing some earth down the river, and carrying it to its sides, or by the river’s cutting deeper in on the sides.