While he makes frequent allusion to his residence at Kensselaerswyck, there is no special mention of that part of the country where his own patroonship was located-- our County of Westchester,-- a circumstance which may reasonably be taken to indicate that he never had made it his habitation for any length of time. Some of the statements which appear in Van der Donck's pages belong to the decidedly curious annals of early American conditions. For example, he relates that in the month of March, 1647, "two whales, of common size, swam up the (Hudson) river forty (Dutch) miles, from which place one of them returned and stranded about twelve miles from the sea, near which place four others also stranded the same year. The other ran farther up the river and grounded near the great Chahoes Falls, about forty-three miles from the sea. This fish was tolerably fat, for, although the citizens of Bensselaerswyck broiled out a great quantity of train oil, still the whole river (the current being rapid) was oily for three Aveeks, and covered with grease." His accounts of the native animals of the country, excellent for the most part, become amusing in places where he relies not upon his individual knowledge but upon vague stories told him by the Indian hunters of strange creatures in the interior. Thus, he makes New Netherland the habitat of the fabled unicorn. " I have been frequently told by the Mohawk Indians," says he, " that far in the interior parts of the country there were animals, which were seldom