contains chambers ample for all the de- partments and business of the government, besides housing the magniflcent State Library, with its one hundred and fifty thousand volumes and its collection of priceless manuscripts and documents relative to the history of the State. In these few notes upon the history and the legends of a fascinating old city we have hardly opened the subject. The records are so full and rich, the tradi- tions so abundant and so varied, that it is with deep regret and the sense of a pleasant task left uncom- pleted that the chronicler closes this chapter. Albany has, within comparatively a short time, taken a new start, and in public improvements and new Digitized by Microsoft® An Old Dutch Town 549 buildings, as well as in a marked increase in business, gives evidence of having commenced with the new century a new epoch in its life. Among the causes suggested for the rapid increase in population is an improved water supply. New life has been infused into a formerly inactive chamber of commerce, and whereas a few years ago business enterprise was in many quarters somewhat conspicuous by its absence, now there is evidence of more stirring activity. The first change in Albany's life occurred when the New England element came in and began to mingle with the Dutch and " the dogs began to bark in broken Eng- lish." The second period ended with the appearance of the river steamboat: the third seems to have given place to a fourth, the cause or causes yet unknown. Digitized by Microsoft® Chapter XXXII Above Tide-Water TROY and the Trojans were primarily of New- England origin, and this difference in blood has perhaps been the cause of not a little of the lack of affiliation between the city that rests on Mount Ida and Mount Olympus and its neighbour of Dutch descent, six miles to the south. ALONG THE RIVER BELOW TROY Troy is the capital of Rensselaer County, tne head of tide-water in the Hudson, the site of the State dam and of various manufacturing concerns. It is a busy place and 'owes much of its prosperity to the Erie, Hudson, and Champlain canals. Its shipping is con- siderable, and, with the neighbouring towns of Cohoes, Lansingburg, etc., its population reaches about the figure at which the census fixes that of Albany. Its first proprietor was one Vander Heyden, who re- 550 Digitized by Microsoft® Above Tide-Water 551 ceived it from the Patroon Van Rensselaer in 1720. About 1787 the site of the future city was laid out in town lots. At West Troy — or Watervliet — in 1813, the United States Government purchased ground upon which was estabHshed an arsenal, near the present east bank of the Erie Canal. Several widely known educa- tional estabhshments add interest to a city that is not devoid of beauty, though lacking the charm of many a Hudson River town. For many years the Poestenkill and Wynant's Kill, which enter the river at this place, have furnished a great deal of the water-power for the local mills. The largest of the Hudson's tributaries, the Mohawk, adds its volume to our river a few miles above Troy. The course of the Hudson above tide- water may be briefly outlined here. Its north branch rises in Indian Pass, at the foot of Mount Mclntyre, in the Adiron- dacks; and the east branch has its source in the lake called "Tear of the Clouds," above which rises Mount Tahawas, fifty -four hundred feet in height. The stream takes in, first, the Boreas River and the Schroon, and fifteen miles north of Saratoga receives the water of the Sacandaga. South of that the Batten- kill is added to it, and, between the Battenkill and the Mohawk, the Walloomsac. It will be noticed that these streams, with two exceptions, have Indian names, and this recalls the prophecy of a dying chief, who, while chanting his death-song, surrounded by his enemies, foretold the disappearance of his race, but Digitized by Microsoft® 552 The Hudson River promised that the streams should retain the Indian names, to keep his people in remembrance for ever. In his admirable Reminiscences of Saratoga, Mr. William L. Stone quotes the " Interesting narrative of a visit to the ' High Rock Spring ' in 1 789, a little more than twenty years after Sir William Johnson's visit . . . taken down from the lips of Mrs. D wight, by .taf^- .V LOOKING DOWN RIVER, NEAR TROY her son, the Hon. Theodore Dwight." This account of the condition of Saratoga and the route thither is so graphic that our only apology in making the following excerpts is that we cannot quote it entire: Our party originally consisted of five, three gentlemen