art, vanity, and weakness, and loved principally for his
sincerity, his modesty, and his unerring truth and probity. The preference he
gives to the high qualities named, over beauty, delirious passion, and sin, it
is hoped, will offer a lesson that can injure none. This portion of the book is
intentionally kept down, though it is thought to be sufficiently distinct to
convey its moral.
    The intention has been to put the sisters in strong contrast; one admirable
in person, clever, filled with the pride of beauty, erring, and fallen; the
other, barely provided with sufficient capacity to know good from evil,
instinct, notwithstanding, with the virtues of woman, reverencing and loving
God, and yielding only to the weakness of her sex, in admiring personal
attractions in one too coarse and unobservant to distinguish or to understand
her quiet, gentle feeling in his favor.
    As for the scene of this tale, it is intended for, and believed to be a
close description of the Otsego, prior to the year 1760, when the first rude
settlement was commenced on its banks, at that time only an insignificant
clearing near the outlet, with a small hut of squared logs, for the temporary
dwelling of the Deputy Superintendent of Indian affairs. The recollections of
the writer carry him back distinctly to a time when nine tenths of the shores of
this lake were in the virgin forest, a peculiarity that was owing to the
circumstance of the roads running through the first range of valleys removed
from the water side. The woods and the mountains have ever formed a principal
source of beauty with this charming sheet of water, enough of the former
remaining to this day to relieve the open grounds from monotony and tameness.
    In most respects the descriptions of scenery in the tale are reasonably
accurate. The rock appointed for the rendezvous between the Deerslayer and his
friend the Delaware still remains, bearing the name of the Otsego Rock. The
shoal on which Hutter is represented as having built his castle is a little
misplaced, lying, in fact, nearer to the northern end of the lake, as well as to
the eastern shore, than is stated in this book. Such a shoal, however, exists,
surrounded on all sides by deep water. In the dryest seasons a few rocks are
seen above the surface of the lake, and rushes, at most periods of the year,
mark its locality. In a word, in all but precise position, even this feature of
the book is accurate. The same is true of the several points introduced, of the
bays, of the