[Illustration: "Dr. Watson's Electrical Machine"

In 1768, when this picture, reproduced here from the First Edition
of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, was published, only the most
elementary principles of electricity had been discovered. Benjamin
Franklin's discovery, made with the aid of a kite, that lightning
is an electrical phenomenon, was the greatest advance in
electrical science up to that time. "Electrical machines," such as
that shown, were, designed to produce frictional or "static"
electricity, of which the quantity is usually small, and is
therefore now produced chiefly for laboratory experiments. When
the wheel at the left was turned sufficient electricity was
generated to cause a spark to jump between the two hands at the
right. This machine paved the way for the invention of the dynamo
electric machines for which Schenectady is world famous.]

We now cross the Mohawk River, and Erie Canal, and our route ascends the
valley of the Mohawk as far as Rome. To the south the Catskill Mts. are
visible in the distance, and the outline of the Adirondack Mts. can be
faintly seen to the north.

This beautiful group of mountains was once covered, all but the
highest peaks, by the Laurentian glacier, whose erosion, while
perhaps having little effect on the large features of the region,
has greatly modified it in detail, producing lakes and ponds to
the number of more than 1,300 and causing many falls and rapids
in the streams. In the Adirondacks are some of the best hunting
and fishing grounds in the United States, which are so carefully
preserved that there are quantities of deer and small game in the
woods, and black bass and trout in the lakes. Some 3,000,000
acres are preserved. The scenery is wonderfully fine and the air
so clear that many sanatoriums have been established for
tuberculosis patients.

175 M. AMSTERDAM, Pop. 33,524. (Train 51 passes 12:15p; No. 3, 1:12p;
No. 41, 5:20p; No. 25, 6:30p; No. 19, 9:52p. Eastbound: No. 6 passes
5:07a; No. 26, 5:39a; No. 16, 11:10a; No. 22, 1:03p.)

[Illustration: Sir William Johnson (1715-1774)

Sir William was a remarkable figure in early N.Y. history. He is
said to have been the father of 100 children, chiefly by native
mothers, either young squaws or wives of Indians who thought it an
honor to surrender them to the king's agent. According to