A century and a half ago an unbroken wilderness stretched between the
Hoosac and Taconic ranges. The mountains rose by steady degrees from the
hills of Connecticut to Mount Mansfield, in Vermont, 4,400 feet above
the level of the sea. The valley, however, dotted with hundreds of
hills, reached its greatest elevation, 1,100 feet, at the foot of
Greylock, fourteen miles north of Pittsfield; thence it sloped
irregularly north and south. The forests contained deer in plenty for
fifty years longer. A few bears, with rather more wolves and Indians,
constituted the remainder of the larger movable objects of the
landscape. The soil was well fitted for agriculture: numerous small
streams were ready to offer their service to settlers.

[Illustration: LAKE ONATA.]

This region remained uninhabited, however, for many years later than
would ordinarily have been the case; not so much from fear of hardships
or Indian troubles as on account of the uncertainty of the land tenures
which could be acquired. Massachusetts, by reason of the Royal Charter
of 1691, claimed to the west as far as the Province of Connecticut
extended. New York, on the other hand, maintained that the eastern
boundary of Connecticut was meant: moreover, that the western boundary
had been agreed upon for special reasons; furthermore, that her own
territory, as successor to the rights granted the Duke of York in 1674,
reached from the Connecticut River to Delaware Bay. Thereupon
Massachusetts referred to the old Charter in force in 1674, which made
the Atlantic and Pacific her eastern and western limits. In return,
attention was called to the clause in that Charter, excepting lands in
the possession of any other Christian State. Now, in consequence of the
discovery of the Hudson in 1608, the Dutch had occupied the country as