The favorite abode of this Manitou is still shown. It is a great rock or cliff on the loneliest part of the mountains, and, from the flowering vines which clamber about it, and the wild flowers which abound in its neighborhood, is known by the name of the Garden Rock. Near the foot of it is a small lake, the haunt of the solitary bittern, with water-snakes basking in the sun on the leaves of the pond-lilies which lie on the surface. This place was held in great awe by the Indians, insomuch that the boldest hunter would not pursue his game within its precincts. Once upon a time, however, a hunter who had lost his way, penetrated to the Garden Rock, where he beheld a number of gourds placed in the crotches of trees. One of these he seized and made off with it, but in the hurry of his retreat he let it fall among the rocks, when a great stream gushed forth, which washed him away and swept him down precipices, where he was dashed to pieces, and the stream made its way to the Hudson, and continues to flow to the present day; being the identical stream known by the name of the Kaaterskill. WILLIAM AUSTIN 1778–1841 William Austin was a Boston lawyer of literary tastes. He saw something of the world in his cruises (1799–1800) on the “Constitution” as chaplain, and of society during his eighteen months at Lincoln’s Inn. An account of his life and works is prefixed to the collective edition, now out of print, edited by his son, John Walker Austin (_The Literary Papers of William Austin_, Boston, 1890). This also reprints a large part of Col. T. W. Higginson’s “A Precursor of Hawthorne” (_Independent_, 29th March, 1888. A reference will also be found at pages 64 and 68 of Col. Higginson’s _Longfellow_). Of his few tales only _Peter Rugg_ has had any currency. Indeed, the significance of Austin’s narrative art is mainly negative. Even _Peter Rugg_ shows wherein what might have been a short story failed of its form. For all its undoubted quality, it is a short story _manqué_; and in this it is quite typical of its time. If artistic sense is apparent in the cumulation of foreshadowings, crudity of mechanism is equally apparent in the management of each through a different interlocutor. It is artistically right that Rugg should at last be brought home; it is artistically wrong that the conclusion should be so like a moralising summary. A conception much like Hawthorne’s is developed as it were by mere accumulation instead of being focused in a unified progression. (See also pages 10 and 12 of the Introduction.) PETER RUGG, THE MISSING MAN [_First part printed in Buckingham’s “New England Galaxy,” 10th September, 1824; several times reprinted entire, e. g., in the “Boston Book” for 1841; reprinted here from the standard collection noted above_] _From_ JONATHAN DUNWELL _of_ NEW YORK _to_ MR. HERMAN KRAUFF