Page:Historic highways of America (Volume 14).djvu/31

 water ran, on the average, a foot and a half deep—the river then having the least water running "within the memory of the eldest person." The night of the twenty-second was spent at John Fonda's, seventeen and three-fourths miles up the river; in this distance were five sharp rapids and many small rapids with shallow water, as at Sir William Johnson's "first settlement," eight and one-half miles above Mabey's. The night of the twenty-third was spent at Mr. Nellis's, nineteen and three-fourths miles on; one mile above Fonda's was "Caughnawaga rift, deep, incommoded with large rocks;" nine miles onward, lay Kettar's rapid, and two and a half miles on was Colonel John Fry's. A journey of four miles the next day brought the examiners to Fort Hendrick, four and a half miles below Little Falls. "From the landing at the foot [of Little Falls], to the landing at the head of the Falls, is about three-quarters of a mile, the height thirty-nine feet two inches, the ground stony, rocky and rough." It will be seen that this was not the old-time portage over which boats were drawn on sleds. Two