in his social life and business transactions he often evinced strange caprices. At one time he planted a large vegetable garden at his mansion house, not far from the banks of the Independence, so late in the season that no mature crop could be expected from it. His remark was "that if the seeds sprouted well he should be satisfied, as that would prove the capacity of his land." He sometimes gave the most brilliant entertainments at his country seat above referred to, and was always a most welcome guest in the cultivated and refined social circles of the neighboring villages of the valley of the Black River.

But the memory of the loved and lost haunted him continually like a wild sweet passion, and his life was spent in violent fluctuations between the most lively and pleasurable excitement and the deepest despair. At length, in the year 1839, in a fit of the deepest melancholy, in which his gentle spirit seemed utterly beyond relief from any human sympathy, he ended his own life at the age of fifty years. Let us hope that he found his soul's idol on the other side of the river he so rashly crossed. His large tracts of land are still mostly covered by their original woods.

Upon the north-western border of the Level Belt of the Wilderness in the town of Diana, Lewis county, and near the St. Lawrence county line is the beautiful Lake Bonaparte. It covers about twelve hundred acres of surface; its shores are rugged and picturesque; it is studded with wild rocky islands, and its waters are as clear and bright as those of the Loch Lomond or the Loch Katrine so famous in Scottish story. This lake was named in honor of Joseph Bonaparte, ex-king of Naples and of Spain, the brother of the great Napoleon.

In the year 1815, Joseph, under the assumed name of Count de Survilliers, purchased a large tract of wild land of his friend Le Ray de Chaumont, for a summer hunting park, lying around and including this lake. The tract so purchased contained 150,260 acres. It is said that Napoleon at the time of the purchase intended to accompany his brother Joseph in his flight to America, and to settle upon these lands. The scheme of the Bonapartes was to found large manufacturing establishments in the valley of

the Black River, and thus become England's rival in her most important interests. This subject was once discussed at a dinner given by M. de Chaumont, at his château near the Black River, in honor of a son of Marshal Murat, then M. de Chaumont's guest. But Napoleon concluded to remain, and the valley of the Black River lost the honor of receiving an imperial visitor.

II.

COUNT DE CHAUMONT.

No man in its annals is more intimately associated with the settlement and development of Northern New York, except perhaps William Constable, than James Donatien Le Ray, Comte de Chaumont, of whom Joseph Bonaparte made this purchase. Le Ray de Chaumont belonged to the old nobility of France. When the war of the American Revolution broke out his father espoused the cause of the colonists with such ardor that he devoted the most of his large fortune to their interests. It was at the elegant château of the elder Count de Chaumont in his park at Passy that Franklin so long resided while he was our commissioner at the French Court.

Soon after the war James D. Le Ray de Chamount came to America to settle his father's accounts. While here he was induced by his friend, Gouverneur Morris, to purchase large tracts of land in Northern New York. M. de Chamount also bought, with his associate, the Count de la Forest, the Consul General of France, a smaller tract in Otsego county, to which they sent Judge Cooper, the father of J. Fennimore Cooper, the novelist, to be their agent.

At one time M. de Chamount owned thirty thousand seven hundred and fifty-eight acres of land in Franklin county, seventy-three thousand nine hundred and forty seven in St. Lawrence, one hundred and forty-three thousand five hundred in Jefferson, and one hundred thousand in Lewis county. About the year 1808 he came with his family to reside at his château at Le Rayville, near the Black River, some ten miles easterly of Watertown. This château, which may still be seen standing, was for many years the seat of a most refined and elegant hospitality. Kings, princes, courtiers and noblemen were his frequent guests. Thus a ray of sunshine from the most polished court in Europe had fallen suddenly among the shadowy pines of the old American forest. It was while traveling in France in the year 1815, that M. de Chamount heard that Joseph Bonaparte had arrived in his flight at the city of Blois. M. de Chaumont, who had known him intimately in his better days hastened to pay his respects to the fugitive king. He was invited by Joseph to dine with him. While at the table Joseph said suddenly to M. de Chaumont :

"Well I remember you spoke to me formerly of your great possessions in the United States. If you have them still, I should like very much to have some in exchange for a part of that silver I have there in those wagons, and which may be pillaged at any moment. Take four or five hundred thousand francs and give me the equivalent in land."

"I can not do so," replied M. de Chaumont. It is impossible to make a bargain when only one party knows what he is about."

"Oh," said the prince, "I know you well, and I rely more on your word than my own judgment."

This conversation led to the conditional purchase of a large tract of wild land. The tract so purchased lay much of it in the town of Diana, and included the lake within its boundaries. In December, 1818, a deed of this tract was executed to Pierre S. Duponceau, his confidential agent, in trust for Joseph.

III.

DIANA.

The name of Diana, the goddess of huntsmen, was conferred upon the town at Joseph's request. In Roman mythology, the Diana Venatrix, or goddess of the chase, is represented in painting and statuary as a huntress, tall and nimble, with hair partly tied up and partly flowing, with light flowing robe, legs bare to the knees, and feet in buskins, such as were worn by the huntresses of old. Sometimes she rode in a chariot drawn by two white stags with golden antlers, and sometimes upon a stag cross-legged. Her attributes were the spear, the bow, the quiver and arrows. Her attendants were Dryads, the nymphs of the woods and hunting hounds. She had a three-fold divinity, being styled Diana on earth, Luna, or the moon, in heaven, and Hecate, or Proserpine, in hell. She is the same as the Artemis of the Greeks, the daughter of Zeus and Leto, and twin sister of Apollo. The Arcadian Artemis was a goddess of the nymphs who hunted on the Taygetan mountains, and was drawn in a chariot by four stags with golden antlers.

The favorite pastime of the ex-king was hunting. With poetic fancy he imagined the goddess Diana herself might