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 a smiling face but Eletheer saw only—Shushan.

This extensive tract of land extended from the Rochester line to the "Low Right." Portions of it were capable of being converted into average, tillable land but the greater part was rough, hilly and barren. This latter condition especially applied to the eastern portion, which opposed the Shawangunk Mountains: bare, rocky walls rising in successive steps, brokenly dizzy cliffs over which the northeasters swept unobstructed, fit abode for the shades of departed warriors as they had been the scene of many an Indian ambush. True, there were some shady haunts of gigantic pine, hemlock and chestnut, but into this den of venomous serpents only the hardy dared penetrate, and these never more than once.

In the heart of this amphitheater boiled a spring so offensive as to have earned the name "Stinking Spring." The rocks from which it issued were blackened, denuded of all vegetation, and every living plant within reach of the fumes withered and died, but