Settling in a country where water-courses were so numerous, the early Dutch did most of their traveling on the North River or the Sound and its tributary streams. The periauger was in constant use for water transportation. Charlevoix calls it pirogue, a canoe formed of the trunk of a tree, while Cooper, in the "Water Witch," says: "It partook of a European and an American character ; it possessed the length, narrowness and clean bow of the canoe,

A DOCTOR OF THE OLDEN TIME.

from which its name was derived, and the flat bottom and lee boards of a boat constructed for the shallow waters of the low countries." Mrs. Van Cortlandt says: "Sloops did a great business in carrying passengers, their leisurely movements quite suiting the quiet tourists of those days."' "The very rich had for state occasions their coach drawn by four stout horses of Flemish blood, with coachman and outriders in appropriate liveries. Such equipages, however, were few in number and attracted great attention when upon the road. Box wagons, guiltless of springs, were owned by some farmers, but for easy travel a good horse was preferred, the man riding in front and the wife or daughter behind upon a pillion. Physicians needed and bestrode stout nags, always carrying saddle-bags and the few simple surgical instruments then known. The infallible lancet was stored in the l)ig ])ocket-book, as at least once a year, usually in the spring, 'a good bleeding' was deemed a necessity. Blooded horses were not scarce, for many of the gentry kept racing stables.