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Rh all Land Marks, and Picture the Face of the Country on his Mind." These were the words of Governor Pownall of the Massachusetts Bay colony, given in his A Topographical Description of the Middle British Colonies, written in 1776.

The lowland trails, as has been observed, suffered severely from floods and were, undoubtedly, completely lost, never again to be traversed as they once had been. The northern trails, also, were buried in snow. The records of the brave Catholic missionaries north of the great lakes are replete with testimony of trails buried deep in the snow, rendering traveling temporarily uncertain. "The roads," wrote one missionary, "were very difficult on account of the newly fallen snows, which obliterated the trails." Elsewhere one records, "There was everywhere three feet of snow; and no paths had yet been made." "We departed," wrote another Father, "therefore, on the 13th and reached home very late at night, after considerable