One of the most interesting features about the vlaie is the fact, that a little knoll or table of hard land elevated some ten or twelve feet, extends into it toward the upper or western end. It is oblong in shape, level upon the top and gently sloping all round. It lies about northwest and southeast, the summit being some 600 feet long by 150 in breadth; and containing in the whole say ten or fifteen acres of very good land. This tongue of land is called Summerhouse point, from the fact that Sir William Johnson erected a beautiful cottage in the center of it in 1772, and there spent much of his time in the summer for several seasons. From Johnstown to this point, which is just fourteen miles, the Baronet opened a carriage road. While this road was surveying, a large tree was marked at the end of every mile, and numbered from the Hall. The one denominated Nine-mile free, a large pine, was standing within twenty-five years, and was by the late Gen. Henry Fonda designated to several persons, who have kept vigilance of its locality. The stump of this tree, which has for seventy years been a landmark, is still standing a little east of James Lasher's dwelling in the town of Mayfield.

Summerhouse point is approached from the westerly end, upon a strip of arable land, which in very high water is covered, making an island of the point. The Sacondaga patent embraced all or very nearly all of the vlaie. The point which lies in Broadalbin, was embraced in the Sacondaga patent, which conveyed 28,000 acres of land, Dec. 2, 1742, to Lendert Ganesvoort, Cornelius Ten Brock, Douw Fonda, Anna J. Wendell and ten others. Of some of the original patentees or then owners, Sir William not only bought the point, but many of the lands in and contiguous to Fish House, in which village the Northampton and Sacondaga, patents unite.

The cottage erected on Summerhouse point stood precisely in its centre. It was a tasty one story building, fronting the south, upon which side was its front entrance. The roof sloped north and south. A piazza supported by square columns extended around the side and east end, with a promenade upon the top nearly as high as the eaves. It had a gable window at each end on the first floor, and two windows at each end on the second. A hall ran across the building in the centre, with a square room upon each side of it, handsomely finished, well furnished, and each room lighted by two front windows. It had a nice cellar kitchen, the entrance to which was on the west end which room was always occupied in the summer season by Nicholas and Flora, a pair of the Baronet's slaves, who were there to keep every thing in order, and minister to his comfort during his visits. The cottage was painted white, with the comers, doors, window casings and columns painted green, as was the English taste of the times-the whole contrasting beautifully with the wild scenery around.

A large garden was cultivated on the point, two cows kept there, and when the Baronet was there two horses also; as he usually rode there in a carriage. He planted fruit trees there, and two antiquated apple trees of a dozen or more are still standing. The stone of which the cellar and well were made, were brought from Fish House in a boat, and as stone were scarce on the sandy lands contiguous, early settlers with sacrilegious propensity have carried off and converted them to other uses. The plow has removed all traces of the well, which was on the verge of the knoll south of the house, and has nearly filled the cellar, a small cavity only remaining. A log house and well were built on the south side of the point toward the western end just after the revolution, but the dwelling is now gone, and most of the stone which were used in that cellar. The nearest house now to the point, is that known as the Brown place, where Samuel Brown, an old pensioner, lived and died.

I have said that the Kennyetto coursed through the vlaie. It enters a narrow strip of it southwest of the point, and runs along the latter upon its southerly side, where it is some two rods wide, and usually three or four feet deep. The Mayfield creek, a millstream about two-thirds as large as the Kennyetto, runs through that part of the marsh in Mayfield, and sweeping its north margin, unites with the latter stream at the extremity of the point. The Brown farm lies between the two strips of the marsh named, and near where they approximate. Besides those named, several other streams enter the marsh. On the north side at Cranberry point, a mile from Summerhouse point, Cranberry creek runs in, and nearly loses itself before reaching Vlaie creek, as the stream is called after it receives Mayfield creek. On the south side two mill streams run in, in Broadalbin, one nearly opposite Cranberry creek, called formerly Frenchman's creek, and the other a mile below called Han's creek; and yet so great is the natural process of absorption and evaporation constantly going on here, that the creek, where it issues from the vlaie and enters the Sacondaga at Fish House, discharges but little if any more water than passes Summerhouse point, in the Kennyetto; indeed, it is said by some of the observing citizens near its mouth, that less water issues from the marsh than did formerly.

Frenchman's creek is so called, because a Frenchman named Joseph DeGolier located at an early day upon its shores about five miles from its mouth. It has since been called McMartin's creek, after Duncan McMartin, Esq., who established himself and erected mills upon it many years ago. McMartin was a surveyor and laid out most of the roads in and around Broadalbin. He was a man of wealth and respectability, and was appointed a judge of the common pleas in 1818-was a master in chancery, &c., &c.; and as an evidence of his enterprise, erected a substantial brick edifice upon his farm, some few years before his death. This same stream has also been called Factory creek, from the fact that a woolen manufactory was established upon it near the residence of Mr. McMartin, as early as 1812 or 1814. It is still in operation. Han's creek got its name from the following circumstance: Some few years before his death, Sir William Johnson and John Conyne were fishing for trout in the mouth of this stream, when as Conyne was standing up, an unexpected lurch of the boat sent him out floundering in the water. He shipped a sea or two, as the sailor would say, before he was rescued by the helping hand of his companion from a watery grave. My informant heard the Baronet relate the circumstance at Johnson Hall to a large circle of friends soon after, with his usual gusto for such adventures. He not only had a hearty laugh over it then, but often afterwards when telling how Conyne plunged into the water to seek for trout. Hans being the Dutch of John, and the familiar name by which Sir William called his companion in relating the incident; hence the name for the stream.

There is now along the sides and lower end of Summerhouse point, a stunted growth of alder and swamp willow, but when occupied by Sir William Johnson, the bushes were all cut off, and the margin of the stream kept clean. He had a beautiful boat there, in which he used to go down to the Fish House, four miles distant, sometimes with company, for he entertained numerous distinguished guests, and at other times attended only by a few servants, or possibly by his faithful Pontioch, who rowed the boat while he sat in the stem and steered it. His greatest time for hunting and fishing was in the spring and fall. When the marsh was flooded, a boat would pass over it any where, the water rising at Summerhouse point, from six to eight feet above low water mark. At such times the prospect was grand from the promenade of his cottage, access to which was gained by an outside stairway, near the hall door. Thousands upon thousands of ducks and wild geese were then floating upon the waters, at which time his double-barreled gun was in almost constant requisition. Some twenty-five years ago, ducks used to breed about the vlaie. They are sometimes caught in nets there, and taken to market.

In company with Dr. William Chambers, Marcellus Weston, Esq., my patriotic old friends Jacob Shew, Col. John 1. Shew his son and little Haydn Shew, I visited Summerhouse point on the 29th day of August, 1849, and well was I compensated for the journey. It is a most delightful place, divested of all historic associations, but clothed with them, it is one of the most interesting spots imaginable. Recreating in fancy the white cottage with green facings, I could almost hear the notes of Billy's old fiddle, as his greatest skill was taxed to please the car of some fastidious city guest; and at some witticism of the happy host, I seemed to hear peal after peal of merry laughter, and now and then an Indian whoop, as in former days they rang out upon the gentle breeze. The fairy craft of some forest son seemed once more to be gliding along the grass-hidden stream with its blanket-dad navigator standing erect as of yore, and bound for Sacondaga. Imagination pictures Pontioch caressing his favorite steeds, and calling on Nicholas to aid a black driver in rubbing them dry; and as I passed the entrance to Flora's department, to look at the noble animals. I seemed to see upon one side of it scores of pigeons and wild ducks, with the saddle of a deer; and on the other a large heap of golden trout, to supply the cottage larder and feed its guests.