The Connecticut River. By E. M. Bacon. (g. P. 'tstnasn'a
?ono. netaa-The Dutch discovered the 99emectieut and its beautiful valley in 1614, and its history at once hews. interesting, and continued so for three hundred years. The Dutch occupation, their "House of Elope," soon gave way to that of the Pilgrims, and the "New Netherland" became "New Englaml." The process in the main was as peaceful sas it wa$ The Dutch made their bid for the new country, eleiming all hetweell Virginia and Canada, but wen gayer able to confirm it by sufficient settlement; and simultaneously the English were preparing to claim, and eventually did claim in the patent of 1020, all this coast, and Canada as well; The valley of the Connecticut is famous for its bread and ample beauty. Its wag* and rico:Will, advantages bred a strong and stable internal administration, its eecial and intellectual force was early to the fore, and the great Republic owes many of its statesmen to the old homesteads founded by the Pilgrims and their descendants, Much of the earlier history of the settlemeut, incheliag the Pequot 'Ware, is somewhat gruesome reading, English and Indians wiped each other out, Men, women, and children, with a premeditated purpose that, in the ease of the English, even the 'Israel temper 'of the times scarcely excuses. The settlers had to live, q4 they laft tegaey which bore trait its the nineteenth cautery. But we may well forget this in following the fortunes of the valley dwellers during the final French Wars, the march of the Dersfield captives to Canada, and the struggles, first ever the New Hampshire grants, and finally over the State boundaries. It is a story replete with interest, and it is well told by Mr. Bacon, with full detail. Of perhaps even more interest to travellers is the appreciative description of the three hundred miles of the river scenery and its towns. The upper reaches round Lancaster and the Connecticut reaches of the river are perhaps its best- known features. The Green Mountains have figured in fiction, anal so have the old settlements of the lower reaches and their associations with such names as Pynchon and Uncas ; and who has not heard of its famous elms Some excellent photographs do justice to river scenery and historical buildings.
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