hills and the more distant mountains were clothed with forests. This cleared and fertile intervale, set in its forest frame, was due to the volume of water which in the spring freshets pours down the river. Three miles east of the city its channel is crossed by great ledges of shale rock, through which the river has cut its way, which still remains too narrow for the immediate passage of its waters when greatly swollen. These, overflowing and enriching the bottom-lands above, also denude them of their forest growth.
The Indian name of the place was Schonowe, the first syllable pronounced much like the Dutch "schoon,"—beautiful. Some of the Dutch, sharing Van Curler's idea of the beauty of the place, wished to call it Schoon, beautiful, achten, esteemed, del, valley,—Schoonachtendel. The Indian name and the Dutch substitute were combined and confounded in a various and perplexing orthography which remains to us in the deeds, wills and other papers of that time, from which the name Schenectady was finally evolved.
Although Van Curler was attracted thus early by this beautiful land, it was long before he could realize his purposes. He married
