Colonel: exquisitely beautiful it was, and though the haunt I most delighted in, it is not in my power to describe it. Imagine a little Egypt, yearly overflowed, and of the most redundant fertility. This charming spot was at first covered with wood, like the rest of the country, except a long field in the middle, where the Indians had probably cultivated maize: round this was a broad, shelving border, where the grey and the weeping willows, the bending osier, and numberless aquatic plants, not known in this country, were allowed to flourish in the utmost luxuriance, while within, some tall sycamores and wild fruit-trees, towered above the rest. Thus was formed a broad belt, which, in winter, proved an impenetrable barrier against the broken ice, and in summer, was the haunt of numberless birds and small animals, who dwelt in perfect safety, it being impossible to penetrate it. Numberless were the productions of this luxuriant spot: never was a richer field for a botanist; for though the ice was kept off, the turbid waters of the spring flood overflowed it annually, and not only deposited a rich sediment, but left the seeds of various plants swept from the shores it had passed by. The centre of the island, which was much higher than the sides, produced with a slight degree of culture, the most abundant crops of wheat, hay, and flax. At the end of this island, which was exactly opposite to the family mansion, a long sand-bank extended; on this was a very valuable fishing place, of which a considerable profit might be made. In summer, when the water was low, this narrow stripe, (for such it was,) came in sight, and furnished an amusing spectacle; for there the bald or white-headed eagle, (a large picturesque bird, very frequent in this country,) the osprey, the heron, and the curlew, used to stand in great numbers, in a long row, like a military arrangement, for a whole summer day, fishing for perch and a kind of fresh-water herring, which abounded there. At the same season, a variety of wild ducks, who bred on the shores of the island, (among which was a small, white diver, of an elegant form,) led forth their young to try their first excursion. What a scene have I beheld on a calm, summer evening! There, indeed, were “fringed banks” richly fringed, and wonderfully variegated; where every imaginable shade of colour mingled, and where life teemed prolific on every side. The river, a perfect mirror, reflecting the pine-covered hills opposite—and the pliant shades that bend without a wind, round this enchanting island, while hundreds of the white divers, saw-bill ducks, with scarlet heads, teal, and other aquatic birds, sported at once on the calm waters. At the discharge of a gun from the shore, these feathered beauties all disappeared at once, as if by magic, and in an instant rose to view in different places. Footnote 2: Miss Schuyler was born in the year 1701.