THE WINOOSKI,

by Ralph N. Hill '39.Rinehart & Cos., 1949; 304 pages; $3-50.

The Rivers of America series is a notoriously uneven one. In many of the thirty-eight volumes the river serves only as a thin thread around which the author rehashes often in a childish, always in a popular, fashion, local history. In few of the books does the reader feel the sweep of the river itself, the flow of water, and the way the river has influenced the lives of those who live along its banks. In few is their any sense of humor or any coherent point of view. Exceptions come to mind: Beston's The St. Lawrence, Cabell's The St. Johns, Carmer's The Hudson, and Burt's Powder River. Ralph Hill's is one of the best though his suffers a little with the rest by the restrictions imposed by the series itself.

The Winooski (the Onion) in Vermont is only ninety miles long but a lot of New England and United States history flows along and around it, and its people are most representative of New England at its best and worst.

Mr. Hill has done a painstaking and excellent job of investigation. He writes clearly and well with a balanced and light touch, willing at times even to laugh at his fellow Vermonters and now and then to unearth, for all the world to see, a family skeleton or two. The result is a most entertaining and readable book.

Vermont treated Ira Allen badly; so, too, the doings of one Charles Paine who became governor appear dubious. Here you will find depicted the independence of Vermonters (as goes Maine so goes Vermont), the machinations of the native Indians, Ira, Levi, and Ethan Allen, the amazing one-eyed Tom Chittenden, "Crazy" Dow who had a way with him, the Morgan horse, the saga of "The Rock of Ages" (advt.), skiing as an industry as well as a way of life, the business of maple syrup, the strange boy Zerah Colburn whose fate it was the more he learned the less he knew, and through it all the winding Winooski which went on a terrible rampage in 1927 ably described by the author.

The illustrations by George Daly are singularly appropriate.

There is a transposed line on page 209 which should be changed before the second printing.

Ralph Hill is in the way of becoming the best historian the state of Vermont has ever had.