Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 8).djvu/135

 the debates. Upon one occasion a serious legal question, long agitated in the neighbourhood, was introduced; and being a limb of the law, I involuntarily made an observation upon it. Bets soon began to run high, and the Pedestrian was appointed umpire.

It is unpleasant for one to speak of himself.—Many anecdotes, which would be interesting to my friends, must be omitted.

In the course of a few days after leaving Waterloo, I passed through many towns, the principal of which are Romulus, Ovid, Hector, Ulysses, and Geneva; also Canandaigua, the two Bloomfields and Lima; and in addition to these Avon, Caledonia and Batavia.[17] Some of these towns, especially the two Bloomfields and Lima, constitute a remarkably handsome and rich tract of country.

Canandaigua is situated at the north of the lake of this name; and many of the buildings of this place are large and elegant. The lake is about eighteen or twenty miles long, and two or three miles broad.

But it would have been in order first to speak of Seneca lake, which lies east of lake Canandaigua. Seneca lake is about thirty-five miles long, and about two miles wide. The numerous lakes in the interior of the state of New-York, are admirably calculated to promote her inland commerce. Whilst they furnish by their numbers, and their positions the means of connecting her resources, and promoting the trade and intercourse of her people, they are not so large as to occupy an unnecessary portion of her territory. Every thing, in relation to New-York, is conspiring to render her a wonderfully powerful State.

{33} Whilst in Canandaigua the court was sitting; and