two churches in the village, a Congregational and Methodist, one newspaper establishment, and the "Barnstable Bank," with a capital of $150,000. South Yarmouth is situated about four miles south of the north village. In this place the salt-works are very extensive, and cover a tract of ground about a mile in length and one fourth in width. In 1837, there were in the town 52 establishments for making salt, and 365,200 bushels were manufactured; 13 vessels were employed in the cod and mackerel fishery; 4,300 quintals of cod-fish, and 2,287 barrels of mackerel taken.

As late as the year 1779, there was a cluster of wigwams about a mile from the mouth of Bass river, in the south-eastern part of the town, inhabited by the remains of the Pawkunnawkut Indians. About this time the small-pox was prevalent, and the most of them died. A little to the south-west of this Indian town, is a pond called Swan's Pond: on its north-eastern side, just above a spring, about eighty years ago, there stood an Indian meeting-house. Some anecdotes are preserved of Joseph Nauhaught, a very pious and worthy Indian deacon, of which the following appears to be well authenticated:

"Deacon Nauhaught was once attacked by a number of large black snakes. Being at a distance from any inhabitants, he was, to be sure, in a very precarious situation; for, unfortunately, he had not even a knife about him for his defence. To outrun them, he found utterly impossible; to keep them off, without any weapon, was equally so. He therefore came to the determination to stand firm on his feet. They began winding themselves about him; in a little time, one of them had made his way up to the Indian's neck, and was trying to put his black head into his mouth. Nauhaught opened it immediately. The black serpent thrust in his head, and Nauhaught, putting his jans together, bit it off in a moment! As soon as the blood, streaming from the behead. ed, was discovered by the rest of the snakes, they left their intended prey with great precipitation, and Nauhaught was liberated from the jaws of impending death."

Colonel Joseph Thacher, who died in this town in 1763, was a popular character, and through his influence principally a company of forty, thirteen of which were Indians, was raised, all except six or eight, in Yarmouth, his native town, to go on the

Cape Breton expedition, in 1745. A condition of their embarking in this bold enterprise was, that Mr. Thacher should be their captain. It is remarkable that of the Indians, three only lived to return, two having been killed by the enemy, and eight, probably in consequence of a mode of living to which they had not been accustomed, dying of disease; and that the rest of the company, though exposed to great hardships, were providentially all spared to see their native places again, and to participate with their fellow-countrymen in the joy which pervaded the land, on the reduction of the strongest fortress in America. The following anecdote is related of him, by Mr. David Matthews, one of Thacher's company, who is still living. It exhibits the unfeeling_disposition of the American savage. Through the treacherous conduct of a certain Frenchman, a party of twenty provincial soldiers had been ambuscaded, nineteen of which were killed. The Frenchman was taken, and at first was given up to the Indians, to be destroyed by them as they might see proper. Isaac Peck, a blood-thirsty Indian, began immediately to sharpen his knife, and, thinking it too good for the traitor to die at once, said he was going to begin with his fingers, and would cut off one joint first, then another, and so on till he had separated all his bones, from head to foot. He would probably have executed his purpose, had not the criminal been rescued from his hands. One of Thacher's Indians, hired by Colonel Vaughan, for a bottle of brandy, was the first of the provincials who entered the grand battery at Louisburg. He crawled in at an embrasure, and opened the gate, which Vaughan immediately entered, the enemy having withdrawn from this battery, though, at the time, this circumstance was not known.”—Alden's Collec

tion.

BERKSHIRE

COUNTY.

THE County of Berkshire is the western part of the state of Massachusetts, and extends entirely across it from north to south. It originally belonged to the county of Hampshire, or to what was designated the "Old county of Hampshire," until its divison in 1812 into the three counties of Franklin, Hampshire, and Hampden. It was separated, and made a distinct county, by an act of the general court of the province at their May session in 1761, in the first year of the reign of George the Third. According to the report of the survey of the boundary line between this state and that of New York, the west line of the county is 50 miles 41 chains and 79 links in length. The width of the county on the north is 14 miles, and on the south 24. This county is rough and hilly in many parts, but there is a considerable quantity of fine land, mostly in the interval of the Housatonic. It produces much wool, and all sorts of grain, and exports great quantities of pork, beef, butter, cheese, &c. It is the most elevated county in the state. The Green and Taconic mountains cross it from N. to S., the average height of which is about 1200 feet above the level of the sea. The Housatonic and Hoosic are the two principal rivers in the county; the former empties into Long Island, between Milford and Stratford, in Connecticut, and the latter into the Hudson, about ten miles north of Troy, N. Y.

The county possesses in rich and inexhaustible abundance three very important articles of commerce, iron, marble, and lime, and its wood and water power are sufficient to enable it to fit them for useful purposes. The following is a list of the towns in this county, which are 30 in number :

The population of this county by the census of 1800 was 33,835; in 1810 it was 35,797; in 1820 it was 35,720; in 1830 it was 37,825; and in the official returns in 1837 it was 39,101.

ADAMS.

THE tract comprehended in this township was formerly called East Hoosic. It was explored and surveyed, and the limits traced, by a committee appointed by the general court of Massachusetts in 1749, and was laid out 7 miles in length from north to south and five in breadth. In 1750, Col. Williams, the founder of Williams College, obtained from the general court a grant of 200 acres, on condition that he should reserve 10 acres for the use of the fort, and build a grist mill and saw mill, and keep them in repair 20 years for the use of the settlers. On the 2d day of June, 1762, nine townships in the north-west corner of the state were sold at auction by authority of the general court. Of these, East Hoosac was No. 1. It was purchased by Nathan Jones, Esq., for the sum of £3,200, who after the purchase admitted Col. Elisha Jones and John Murray, Esq., as joint proprietors.

These proprietors, in October of the same year, employed a surveyor to lay out 48 settling lots, containing 100 acres each. A line was drawn through the length of the township, dividing the best of the land into two equal parts, and on each side of this line was laid out a range of lots. Each lot was 160 rods long from west to east, and 100 rods wide. These 48 lots, occupying the valley through its whole length, comprised the heart of the township. Four years after, Isaac Jones, Esq., who then resided in the township, was authorized to survey a further number of lots, not exceeding 20, of 100 acres each, and, as agent of the proprietors, to admit settlers to the number of 60. This number was mentioned because it was required by the conditions of settlement, fixed by vote of the general court, that when the actual settlers should amount to that number, they should build a meeting-house, and settle a "learned gospel minister." The rest of the land was laid out in 1768 into lots of 200 acres each, and divided among the proprietors according to their shares in the property of the township.

During the French wars, the Indians traversed this region, but they appear to have had no permanent habitation here. No remains of Indian settlements have existed within the remembrance of the earliest white inhabitants.

Most of the first settlers of this town were from Connecticut. Of these Abiel Smith, Gideon and Jacob, his sons, John Kilbourn, his son-in-law, and John McNeil, were from Litchfield; Reuben Hinman and Jonathan Smith came from Woodbury. There were also the names of Parker, Cook, and Leavenworth from Wallingford; and Rev. Samuel Todd, from Lanesborough, was previously from Woodbury. These people settled in the north village. The first settlers mostly disposed of their lands to purchasers from Rhode Island, many of whom belonged to the society of Friends, and the population gradually changed till nearly all had sold out and removed from the town. The settlements of Friends became extensive and prosperous. Several other families, also from Rhode Island, came in about the same time, and these two classes of inhabitants and their descendants have since occupied the greatest part of the town.

The first settlers formed themselves into a Congregational church and society. Their first minister was the Rev. Samuel Todd, from North Haven, Conn. The first meeting-house was built of logs, and was situated near the center of the town. The Friends' society was formed in the year 1781. David Anthony, Isaac Killy, Isaac Upton, Joshua Lapham, George Lapham, and Adam Hartness, with their families, constituted the society at its first organization. They worshipped in a log dwelling-house till about the year 1786, when they erected a meeting-house about half a mile north of the south village. The building lot, with land for a burying-ground, the whole containing about four and a half acres, was given to the society by Daniel Lapham. In 1819 the society numbered about 40 families. A Baptist church of 35 members was organized in 1808, under the ministry of Elder George Witherel. About 1785 a body of Methodists were located in the south part of the town. The society in the north village constructed their meeting-house in 1828. A second Baptist church was organized in 1826, in the south village, with 14 members, under the ministry of Elder Elnathan Sweet, of Cheshire. The present Congregational church was organized April 19, 1827. This town was incorporated October 15, 1778, and named Adams, in honor of Samuel Adams, afterwards governor of the state.

The natural bridge on Hudson's Brook in this town is a curiosity worthy the notice of travellers. The waters of this brook have worn a fissure from 30 to 60 feet deep, and 30 rods in length, through a body of white marble or limestone, and formed a bridge of that material 50 feet above the surface of the water. There is a cavern in this town containing a number of rooms, the longest of which, as far as it has been explored, is 30 feet long, 20 high, and 20 wide.

The following is a western view of the central part of North

Adams, taken from the western side of the south branch of the Hoosic river. The building appearing on the left, is the principal one connected with the Phenix factory. This manufacturing village is the largest in the county, containing, it is estimated, 2,000 inhabitants. It is surrounded by lofty hills and mountains in every direction, excepting the narrow interval through which the

Hoosic passes. It contains 3 churches: 1 Congregational, 1 Baptist, and 1 Methodist; the "Adams Bank," with a capital of $200,000, and a printing-office. This village is about three miles south from the Vermont line, 27 miles from Lenox, 5 from Williamstown, 34 from Greenfield, 40 from Troy, N. Y., and 120 from Boston. The village of South Adams is six miles south of the north village. It has 3 churches: 1 Baptist, 1 for Friends, and 1 for various denominations. This is also a manufacturing village, having 8 cotton mills. In 1837, there were in the town, 19 cotton mills, having 20,800 spindles, which consumed 799,536 lbs. of cotton; 4,752,567 yards of cotton goods, valued at $334,649, were manufactured; males employed, 194; females, 434; capital invested, $295,725. Four woollen mills, with 7 sets of machinery; wool consumed, 175,000 lbs. ; cloth manufactured, 215,000 yards; value, $137,000; males employed, 51; females, 41; capital invested, $86,000. Two calico print works, which printed 4,561,680 yards of calico, employing 93 hands. The population of the town exceeds any other in the county, being 4,191.

The following shows the appearance of Saddle Mountain, as seen from the Williamstown road about one and a half miles from North Adams village. The elevated peak seen on the left is called "Grey Lock," from its hoary aspect during winter. It is stated to be 3,580 feet above the tide water at Albany, and is the highest land in the state. The other peak of this mountain, seen on the right, is called the "Saddle Ball." The depression between the