is
injured by too many allusions to incidents that are not at all suited to satisfy
the just expectations of the general reader. One of these events is slightly
touched on, in the commencement of this chapter.
    More than thirty years since, a very near and dear relative of the writer,
an elder sister and a second mother, was killed by a fall from a horse, in a
ride among the very mountains mentioned in this tale. Few of her sex and years
were more extensively known, or more universally beloved, than the admirable
woman who thus fell a victim to the chances of the wilderness.
 
16 All this was literally true.
 
17 Of all the fish the writer has ever tasted, he thinks the one in question the
best.
 
18 The probability of a fire in the woods, similar to that here described, has
been questioned. The writer can only say that he once witnessed a fire in
another part of New York that compelled a man to desert his wagon and horses in
the highway, and in which the latter were destroyed. In order to estimate the
probability of such an event, it is necessary to remember the effects of a long
drought in that climate, and the abundance of dead wood which is found in a
forest like that described. The fires in the American forests frequently rage to
such an extent as to produce a sensible effect on the atmosphere at the distance
of fifty miles. Houses, barns, and fences are quite commonly swept away in their
course.