The chasm rapidly deepens and narrows below Elbow Falls, and becomes a wild gorge of intricate mightiness at a point called the Oven. The walls are lifted so high above the stream, with their crenated fronts exhibiting so many quaintly distorted and terribly jagged projections that the effect is most bewildering, while in places they are opposed with only a few feet between, giving to the passage the oppression of a prison. Hell Gate is not inappropriately named, because it is in a way begirt with difficulties that render boating dangerous. The river is here greatly compressed, but the channel is not sufficiently deep to hide the sharp-pointed rocks that split the stream and convert it into a rapid, but by means of stairs this interrupted water-way may be passed, and below are boats in which the pleasant passage may be continued through Grand Flume. This is the loveliest part of the chasm, the most picturesque section of this wonderful river, sublime in its grandeur, yet idyllic in its poetic and dreamy beauty, where the Oreads might have sported while Diana pursued the deer that have for ages made these mountain fastnesses their favorite haunts, for “Here were her orchards, walled on every side, To lawless sylvans all access denied.” From Ausable station, which may be reached by rail, a road leads southward through Ausable Forks, by White-Face Mountain, and thence into the very heart of the Adirondacks. This remarkable tract lies principally between Lakes Champlain and George, and covers an area of nearly 5,000 square miles, with one arm reaching northward to the St. Lawrence and another southward as far as Saratoga. Within this district there are said to be no less than 500 mountain peaks, several of which are 5,000 feet high, measured above the sea level, and as many as 1,000 lakes. Owing to the ruggedness of the country, its dense forests, numerous water-ways and prodigious chasms, the region was a comparatively unexplored wilderness forty years ago, and until its vast lumber interest attracted the attention of capitalists. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration: MOUNT MORRIS, FROM TUPPER LAKE, ADIRONDACKS.] [Illustration: 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. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration: ADIRONDACK LODGE AND CLEAR LAKE.]