The Hudson - Three Centuries of History, Romance and Invention

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Title: The Hudson - Three Centuries of History, Romance and Invention
Author: Bruce, Wallace, 1844-1914
Language: English
As this book started as an ASCII text book there are no pictures available.

*** Start of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "The Hudson - Three Centuries of History, Romance and Invention" ***

by Cornell University Digital Collections)

[Transcriber's Note: Each page of this book contained, as a footer, a
stanza of poetry, or a prose quotation, which, although pertinent to
the text, were not part of it.

I have retained these, moving them to a suitable location between
paragraphs, and enclosing them in short markers: * * * ....* * *. Any
poetry not enclosed within short * * * markers is an integral part of
the text.

The list of typos and corrections is at the end of the book.]

* * * * *

THE HUDSON

Three Centuries of
History, Romance and Invention

BY WALLACE BRUCE

Centennial Edition

Published by
BRYANT UNION COMPANY
NEW YORK

CONTENTS.

CENTENNIAL GREETING.
PAGE

HISTORY, ROMANCE AND INVENTION 9-39
An Open Book 10
The Hudson and the Rhine 11
The Half Moon 12
Its Discovery 15
First Description 16
Names of the Hudson 18
Hills and Mountains 19
Sources of the Hudson 19
First Settlement 20
The West India Company 21
Original Manors and Patents 23
The Dutch and the English 24
New Amsterdam 25
New York 26
Sons of Liberty 28
Greater New York 30
Hudson River Steamboats 31
Day Line Steamers 34
The Old Reaches 38
Five Divisions of the Hudson 39

NEW YORK TO ALBANY.

DESBROSSES STREET PIER TO FORTY-SECOND STREET 41-43
Historic River Front 41
A Great Panorama 41
Statue of Liberty--Stevens Castle 42

FORTY-SECOND TO ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-NINTH 43-48
Weehawken, Hamilton and Burr 43
Riverside Drive and Park 45
Columbia University 46
General Grant's Tomb 46

ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-NINTH ST. TO YONKERS 49-50
Washington Heights 49
The Palisades 52
Island of Manhattan 56
Spuyten Duyvel Creek 57
Yonkers 58

YONKERS TO WEST POINT 59-96
Hastings and Dobbs Ferry 60
Tappan Zee and Piermont 61
Irvington and "Sunnyside" 62
Washington Irving 63
The Headless Horseman 66
Tarrytown and Tappan 67
Sleepy Hollow 70
Nyack 72
Ossining 73
Croton River and Reservoir 74
Haverstraw 75
Stony Point 77
Peekskill 79
Story of Captain Kidd 80
The Highlands 81
Dunderberg 82
Anthony's Nose 83
Fort Clinton and Fort Montgomery 84
Beverley House 87
Arnold's Flight 88
Buttermilk Falls 91
West Point Military Academy 92
Plateau Buildings and Memorials 93-94
Fort Putnam 95

WEST POINT TO NEWBURGH 97-103
Northern Gate of Highlands 98
"Undercliff" 99
Storm King 100
Cornwall and "Idlewild" 102

NEWBURGH TO POUGHKEEPSIE 104-128
Washington's Headquarters 104
Refusing the Crown 105
Suffering of Soldiers 106
Cessation of Hostilities 107
Marquis de Lafayette 109
Centennial Celebration 110
Fishkill 113
Duyvel's Dans Kammer 118
"Locust Grove" 119
The Storm Ship 120
Poughkeepsie 121

POUGHKEEPSIE TO KINGSTON 129-146
Hyde Park 130
Mount Hymettus 130
Rhinecliff 135
City of Kingston 136
The Senate House 138
The Southern Catskills 142

KINGSTON TO CATSKILL 147-168
Montgomery Place 147
Story of Steam Navigation 149
Robert Fulton 151
The "Clermont" 152
Tivoli 154
Saugerties 156
The Livingston Country 157
The "Shad Industry" 158
Germantown 160
Man in the Mountain 161
New York City Water Supply 162
The Clover Reach 163
Catskill 164
Otis Elevating Railway 165

CATSKILL TO HUDSON 169-172
Hudson 169
Columbia Springs 170
Claverack and Hillsdale 171

HUDSON TO ALBANY 173-185
Athens 173
The Ice Industry 173
Anthony Van Corlear 176
The Mahican Tribe 177
The Mahicans, Delawares and Iroquois 178
The Old Van Rensselaer House 180
Albany 181

THE UPPER HUDSON.

ALBANY TO SARATOGA 186-191
Saratoga 187
Historic Saratoga 189
Mount McGregor 190

SARATOGA TO THE ADIRONDACKS 191-201
Saratoga to Lake George 192

LAKE GEORGE TO THE ADIRONDACKS 197-201
Ticonderoga 198
Bluff Point 199
Plattsburgh and the Saranacs 201

SOURCE OF THE HUDSON 202-210
The Tahawas Club 202
The Upper Ausable 203
Haystack and Camp Colden 204
The Deserted Village 205
Indian Pass 206
Tahawas 210

GEOLOGY, TIDES AND CONDENSED POINTS 211-224
Geological Formation 211-215
The Hudson Tide 215
Condensed Points--New York to Albany 216-224

[Illustration: ROBERT FULTON'S "CLERMONT" 1807]

1907--1909

_CENTENNIAL GREETING_

_Hendrick Hudson and Robert Fulton are closely associated in the
history of our river, and more particularly at this time, as the dates
of their achievements unite the centennial of the first successful
steamer in 1807, with the tri-centennial of the discovery of the river
in 1609. In fact, these three centuries of navigation, with rapidly
increasing development in later years, might be graphically
condensed--_

"_Half Moon_," _1609_; "_Clermont_," _1807_;

"_Hendrick Hudson_," _1906_.

_Singularly enough the discovery of Hendrick Hudson, and the invention
of Robert Fulton are also similar in having many adverse claimants who
forget the difference between attempt and accomplishment._

_Everyone knows that Verrazano entered the Narrows and harbor of
our river in 1524, and sailed far enough to see the outline of the
Palisades; that Gomez visited its mouth in 1525; Cabot still earlier
in 1498; and various Norsemen, named and nameless, for several
centuries before them, coasted along the shore and indenture of the
"River of the Manhattoes," but failed to acquire or transmit any
knowledge of the river's real course or character, and it was left for
Hendrick Hudson to be its first voyager and thereby to have and to
hold against all comers the glory of discovery._

* * *

A century vast of Hudson-fame
Which Irving's fancy seals;
Whose ripples murmur Morse's name
And flash to Fulton's wheels.

_Wallace Bruce._

* * *

_So Robert Fulton had several predecessors in the idea of applying
steam to navigation--John Fitch in 1785, William Symington in 1788 and
many others who likewise_ coasted along the shore and indenture of a
great idea, _marked by continual failure and final abandonment. It was
reserved for Fulton to complete and stamp upon his labor the seal of
service and success, and to stand, therefore, its accepted inventor._

_In addition to the invention of Fulton who has contributed so much
to the business and brotherhood of mankind, the telegraph of Morse
occupies a prominent page of our Hudson history, and it is said that
Morse left unfinished a novel, the incidents of which were associated
with the Highlands, in order to work out his idea which gave the
Hudson a grander chapter._

_Fulton's and Morse's inventions are also happily associated in this,
that the steamboat was necessary before the Atlantic cable, born of
Morse's invention, could be laid, and, singularly enough, the laying
of the cable, largely promoted by Hudson River genius and capital,
by Field, Cooper, Morse and others on August 5, 1857, marks the very
middle of the centennial which we are now observing._

* * *

A cycle grand with wonders fraught
That triumph over time and space;
In woven steel its dreams are wrought,
The nations whisper face to face.

_Wallace Bruce._

* * *

[Illustration: _Hendrick Hudson's "Half Moon_."]

THE HUDSON

Among all the rivers of the world the Hudson is acknowledged queen,
decked with romance, jewelled with poetry, clad with history, and
crowned with beauty. More than this, the Hudson is a noble threshold
to a great continent and New York Bay a fitting portal. The traveler
who enters the Narrows for the first time is impressed with wonder,
and the charm abides even with those who pass daily to and fro amid
her beauties. No other river approaches the Hudson in varied grandeur
and sublimity, and no other city has so grand and commodious a harbor
as New York. It has been the privilege of the writer of this handbook
to see again and again most of the streams of the old world "renowned
in song and story," to behold sunrise on the Bay of Naples and sunset
at the Golden Gate of San Francisco, but the spell of the Hudson
remains unbroken, and the bright bay at her mouth reflects the
noontide without a rival. To pass a day in her company, rich with
the story and glory of three hundred years, is worth a trip across a
continent, and it is no wonder that the European traveler says again
and again: "to see the Hudson alone, is worth a voyage across the
Atlantic."

* * *

A very good land to fall in with and a pleasant land to see!

_Hendrick Hudson_

* * *

How like a great volume of history romance and poetry seem her bright
illumined pages with the broad river lying as a crystal book-mark
between her open leaves! And how real this idea becomes to the Day
Line tourist, with the record of Washington and Hamilton for its
opening sentence, as he leaves the Up-Town landing, and catches
messages from Fort Washington and Fort Lee. What Indian legends
cluster about the brow of Indian Head blending with the love story of
Mary Phillipse at the Manor House of Yonkers. How Irving's vision of
Katrina and Sleepy Hollow become woven with the courage of Paulding
and the capture of Andre at Tarrytown. How the Southern Portal of the
Highlands stands sentineled by Stony Point, a humble crag converted by
the courage of Anthony Wayne into a mountain peak of Liberty.

How North and South Beacon again summon the Hudson yeomen from harvest
fields to the defense of country, while Fort Putnam, still eloquent in
her ruins, looks down upon the best drilled boys in the world at West
Point. Further on Newburgh, Poughkeepsie and Kingston shake fraternal
hands in the abiding trinity of Washington, Hamilton and Clinton,
while northward rise the Ontioras where Rip Van Winkle slept, and woke
to wonder at the happenings of twenty years.

What stories of silent valleys told by murmuring streams from the
Berkshire Hills and far away fields where Stark and Ethan Allen
triumphed. What tales of Cooper, where the Mohawk entwines her fingers
with those of the Susquehanna, and poems of Longfellow, Bryant and
Holmes, of Dwight, of Halleck and of Drake; ay, and of Yankee
Doodle too, written at the Old Van Rensselaer House almost within a
pebble-throw of the steamer as it approaches Albany. What a wonderful
book of history and beauty, all to be read in one day's journey!

* * *

Roll on! Roll on!
Thou river of the North! Tell thou to all
The isles, tell thou to all the Continents
The grandeur of my land.

_William Wallace._

* * *

The Hudson has often been styled "The Rhine of America." There is,
however, little of similarity and much of contrast. The Rhine from
Dusseldorf to Manheim is only twelve hundred to fifteen hundred feet
in breadth. The Hudson from New York to Albany averages more than five
thousand feet from bank to bank. At Tappan Zee the Hudson is ten times
as wide as the Rhine at any point above Cologne. At Bonn the Rhine is
barely one-third of a mile, whereas the Hudson at Haverstraw Bay is
over four miles in width. The average breadth of the Hudson from New
York to Poughkeepsie is almost eight thousand feet.

The mountains of the Rhine also lack the imposing character of
the Highlands. The far-famed Drachenfels, the Landskron, and the
Stenzleburg are only seven hundred and fifty feet above the river;
the Alteberg eight hundred, the Rosenau nine hundred, and the great
Oelberg thirteen hundred and sixty-two. According to the latest United
States Geological Survey the entire group of mountains at the northern
gate of the Highlands is from fourteen hundred to sixteen hundred and
twenty-five feet in height, not to speak of the Catskills from three
thousand to almost four thousand feet in altitude.

It is not the fault of the Rhine with its nine hundred miles of
rapid flow that it looks tame compared with the Hudson. Even the
Mississippi, draining a valley three thousand miles in extent, looks
insignificant at St. Louis or New Orleans contrasted with the Hudson
at Tarrytown. The Hudson is in fact a vast estuary of the sea; the
tide rises two feet at Albany and six inches at Troy. A professor of
the Berlin University says: "You lack our castles but the Hudson is
infinitely grander." Thackeray, in "The Virginians," gives the Hudson
the verdict of beauty; and George William Curtis, comparing the Hudson
with the rivers of the Old World, has gracefully said: "The Danube
has in part glimpses of such grandeur, the Elbe has sometimes such
delicately penciled effects, but no European river is so lordly in its
bearing, none flows in such state to the sea."

* * *

I have been up and down the Hudson by water. The entire river is
pretty, but the glory of the Hudson is at West Point.

_Anthony Trollope._

* * *

Baedeker, a high and just authority, in his recent Guide to the United
States says: "The Hudson has sometimes been called the American Rhine,
but that title perhaps does injustice to both rivers. The Hudson,
through a great part of its extent, is three or four times as wide
as the Rhine, and its scenery is grander and more inspiring; while,
though it lacks the ruined castles and ancient towns of the German
river, it is by no means devoid of historical associations of a more
recent character. The vine-clad slopes of the Rhine have, too, no
ineffective substitute in the brilliant autumn coloring of the
timbered hillsides of the Hudson."

* * *

A stately stream around which as around
The German Rhine hover mystic shapes

_Richard Burton_

* * *

What must have been the sensation of those early voyagers, coasting a
new continent, as they halted at the noble gateway of the river and
gazed northward along the green fringed Palisades; or of Hendrick
Hudson, who first traversed its waters from Manhattan to the Mohawk,
as he looked up from the chubby bow of his "Half Moon" at the massive
columnar formation of the Palisades or at the great mountains of the
Highlands; what dreams of success, apparently within reach, were his,
when night came down in those deep forest solitudes under the shadowy
base of Old Cro' Nest and Klinkerberg Mountain, where his little craft
seemed a lone cradle of civilization; and then, when at last, with
immediate purpose foiled, he turned his boat southward, having
discovered, but without knowing it, something infinitely more valuable
to future history than his long-sought "Northwestern Passage to
China," how he must have gazed with blended wonder and awe at the
distant Catskills as their sharp lines came out, as we have seen
them many a September morning, bold and clear along the horizon, and
learned in gentle reveries the poetic meaning of the blue _Ontioras_
or "Mountains of the Sky." How fondly he must have gazed on the
picturesque hills above Apokeepsing and listened to the murmuring
music of Winnikee Creek, when the air was clear as crystal and the
banks seemed to be brought nearer, perfectly reflected in the glassy
surface, while here and there his eye wandered over grassy uplands,
and rested on hills of maize in shock, looking for all the world like
mimic encampments of Indian wigwams! Then as October came with tints
which no European eye had ever seen, and sprinkled the hill-tops
with gold and russet, he must indeed have felt that he was living an
enchanted life, or journeying in a fairy land!

How graphically the poet Willis has put the picture in musical prose:
"Fancy the bold Englishman, as the Dutch called Hendrick Hudson,
steering his little yacht the 'Haalve Maan,' for the first time
through the Highlands. Imagine his anxiety for the channel forgotten,
as he gazed up at the towering rocks, and round the green shores, and
onward past point and opening bend, miles away into the heart of the
country; yet with no lessening of the glorious stream before him and
no decrease of promise in the bold and luxuriant shores. Picture him
lying at anchor below Newburgh with the dark pass of the Wey-Gat
frowning behind him, the lofty and blue Catskills beyond, and the
hillsides around covered with lords of the soil exhibiting only less
wonder than friendliness."

If Willis forgot the season of the year and left out the landscape
glow which the voyager saw, Talmage completed the picture in a rainbow
paragraph of color: "Along our river and up and down the sides of the
great hills there was an indescribable mingling of gold, and orange
and crimson and saffron, now sobering into drab and maroon, now
flaring up into solferino and scarlet. Here and there the trees looked
as if their tips had blossomed into fire. In the morning light the
forests seemed as if they had been transfigured and in the evening
hours they looked as if the sunset had burst and dropped upon the
leaves. It seemed as if the sea of divine glory had dashed its surf to
the top of the crags and it had come dripping down to the lowest leaf
and deepest cavern."

* * *

So fair yon haven clasped its isles, in such a sunset gleam,
When Hendrick and his sea-worn tars first sounded up the stream.

_Robert C. Sands._

* * *

On such a day in 1883 it was the privilege of the writer to stand
before 150,000 people at Newburgh on the occasion of the Centennial
Celebration of the Disbanding of the Army under Washington, and, in
his poem entitled "The Long Drama," to portray the great mountain
background bounding the southern horizon with autumnal splendor:

October lifts with colors bright
Her mountain canvas to the sky,
The crimson trees aglow with light
Unto our banners wave reply.

Like Horeb's bush the leaves repeat
From lips of flame with glory crowned:--
"Put off thy shoes from off thy feet,
The place they trod is holy ground."

Such was the vision Hendrick Hudson must have had in those far-off
September and October days, and such the picture which visitors still
compass long distances to behold.

"It is a far cry to Loch Awe" says an old Scottish proverb, and it
is a long step from the sleepy rail of the "Half Moon" to the
roomy-decked floating palaces--the "Hendrick Hudson," the "New York"
and the "Albany." Before beginning our journey let us, therefore,
bridge the distance with a few intermediate facts, from 1609, relating
to the discovery of the river, its early settlement, its old reaches
and other points essential to the fullest enjoyment of our trip, which
in sailor-parlance might be styled "a gang-plank of history," reaching
as it does from the old-time yacht to the modern steamer, and spanning
three hundred years.

* * *

The prow of the "Half-Moon" has left a broadening wake whose
ripples have written an indelible history, not only along the
Hudson's shores, but have left their imprint on kingdoms over the
sea.

_William Wait._

* * *

=Its Discovery.=--In the year 1524, thirty-two years after the
discovery of America, the navigator Verrazano, a French officer,
anchored off the island of Manhattan and proceeded a short distance up
the river. The following year, Gomez, a Portuguese in the employ of
Spain, coasted along the continent and entered the Narrows. Several
sea-rovers also visited our noble bay about 1598, but it was reserved
for Hendrick Hudson, with a mixed crew of eighteen or twenty men in
the "Half Moon," to explore the river from Sandy Hook to Albany, and
carry back to Europe a description of its beauty. He had previously
made two fruitless voyages for the Muscovy Company--an English
corporation--in quest of a passage to China, _via_ the North Pole and
Nova Zembla.

In the autumn of 1608 he was called to Amsterdam, and sailed from
Texel, April 5, 1609, in the service of the Dutch East India Company.
Reaching Greenland he coasted southward, arriving at Cape Cod August
6th, Chesapeake Bay August 28th, and then sailed north to Sandy Hook.
He entered the Bay of New York September the 3d, passed through the
Narrows, and anchored in what is now called Newark Bay; on the 12th
resumed his voyage, and, drifting with the tide, remained over night
on the 13th about three miles above the northern end of Manhattan
Island; on the 14th sailed through what is now known as Tappan Zee and
Haverstraw Bay, entered the Highlands and anchored for the night near
the present dock of West Point. On the morning of the 15th beheld
Newburgh Bay, reached Catskill on the 16th, Athens on the 17th,
Castleton and Albany on the 18th, and sent out an exploring boat as
far as Waterford. He became thoroughly satisfied that this route did
not lead to China--a conclusion in harmony with that of Champlain,
who, the same summer, had been making his way south, through Lake
Champlain and Lake George, in quest of the South Sea.

* * *

O mighty river of the North! Thy lips meet ocean here, and in deep
joy he lifts his great white brow, and gives his stormy voice a
milder tone.

_William Wallace_

* * *

There is something humorous in the idea of these old mariners
attempting to sail through a continent 3,000 miles wide, seamed with
mountain chains from 2,000 to 15,000 feet in height. Hudson's return
voyage began September 23d. He anchored again in Newburgh Bay the
25th, arrived at Stony Point October 1st, reached Sandy Hook the 4th,
and returned to Europe.

=First Description of the Hudson.=--The official record of the voyage
was kept by Robert Juet, mate of the "Half Moon," and his journal
abounds with graphic and pleasing incidents as to the people and their
customs. At the Narrows the Indians visited the vessel, "clothed in
mantles of feathers and robes of fur, the women clothed in hemp; red
copper tobacco pipes, and other things of copper, they did wear about
their necks." At Yonkers they came on board in great numbers. Two were
detained and dressed in red coats, but they sprang overboard and swam
away. At Catskill they found "a very loving people, and very old men.
They brought to the ship Indian corn, pumpkins and tobaccos." Near
Schodack the "Master's mate went on land with an old savage, governor
of the country, who carried him to his house and made him good
cheere." "I sailed to the shore," he writes, "in one of their canoes,
with an old man, who was chief of a tribe, consisting of forty men and
seventeen women. These I saw there in a house well constructed of oak
bark, and circular in shape, so that it has the appearance of being
built with an arched roof. It contained a large quantity of corn and
beans of last year's growth, and there lay near the house, for the
purpose of drying, enough to load three ships, besides what was
growing in the fields. On our coming to the house two mats were spread
out to sit upon, and some food was immediately served in well-made
wooden bowls."

"Two men were also dispatched at once, with bows and arrows in quest
of game, who soon brought in a pair of pigeons, which they had shot.
They likewise killed a fat dog, (probably a black bear), and skinned
it in great haste, with shells which they had got out of the water."

* * *

Down whose waterways the wings of poetry and romance like magic
sails bear the awakened souls of men.

_Richard Burton._

* * *

The well-known hospitality of the Hudson River valley has, therefore,
"high antiquity" in this record of the garrulous writer. At Albany the
Indians flocked to the vessel, and Hudson determined to try the chiefs
to see "whether they had any treachery in them." "So they took them
down into the cabin, and gave them so much wine and _aqua vitae_ that
they were all merry. In the end one of them was drunk, and they could
not tell how to take it." The old chief, who took the _aqua vitae_,
was so grateful when he awoke the next day, that he showed them all
the country, and gave them venison.

Passing down through the Highlands the "Half Moon" was becalmed near
Stony Point and the "people of the Mountains" came on board and
marvelled at the ship and its equipment. One canoe kept hanging under
the stern and an Indian pilfered a pillow and two shirts from the
cabin windows. The mate shot him in the breast and killed him. A boat
was lowered to recover the articles "when one of them in the water
seized hold of it to overthrow it, but the cook seized a sword and cut
off one of his hands and he was drowned." At the head of Manhattan
Island the vessel was again attacked. Arrows were shot and two more
Indians were killed, then the attack was renewed and two more were
slain.

It might also be stated that soon after the arrival of Hendrick Hudson
at the mouth of the river one of the English soldiers, John Coleman,
was killed by an arrow shot in the throat. "He was buried," according
to Ruttenber, "upon the adjacent beach, the first European victim of
an Indian weapon on the Mahicanituk. Coleman's point is the monument
to this occurrence."

The "Half Moon" never returned and it will be remembered that Hudson
never again saw the river that he discovered. He was to leave his name
however as a monument to further adventure and hardihood in Hudson's
Bay, where he was cruelly set adrift by a mutinous crew in a little
boat to perish in the midsummer of 1611.

* * *

The sea just peering the headlands through
Where the sky is lost in deeper blue.

_Charles Fenno Hoffman._

* * *

=Names of the Hudson.=--The Iroquois called the river the "Cohatatea."
The Mahicans and Lenapes the "Mahicanituk," or "the ever-flowing
waters." Verrazano in 1524 styled it Rio de Montaigne. Gomez in 1525
Rio San Antonio. Hudson styled it the "Manhattes" from the tribe at
its mouth. The Dutch named it the "Mauritius," in 1611, in honor of
Prince Maurice of Nassau, and afterwards "the Great River." It has
also been referred to as the "Shatemuck" in verse. It was called
"Hudson's River" not by the Dutch, as generally stated, but by the
English, as Hudson was an Englishman, although he sailed from a Dutch
port, with a Dutch crew, and a Dutch vessel. It was also called the
"North River," to distinguish it from the Delaware, the South River.
It is still frequently so styled, and the East River almost "boxes the
compass" as applied to Long Island Sound.

=Height of Hills and Mountains.=--It is interesting to hear the
opinions of different people journeying up and down the Hudson as to
the height of mountains along the river. The Palisades are almost
always under-estimated, probably on account of their distance from
the steamer. It is only when we consider the size of a house at their
base, or the mast of a sloop anchored near the shore, that we can
fairly judge of their magnitude. Various guides, put together in a day
or a month, by writers who have made a single journey, or by persons
who have never consulted an authority, have gone on multiplying
blunder upon blunder, but the United States Geological Survey
furnishes reliable information. According to their maps the Palisades
are from 300 to 500 feet in height, the Highlands from 785 to 1625,
and the Catskills from 3000 to 3885 feet.

* * *

Beneath the cliffs the river steals
In darksome eddies to the shore,
But midway every sail reveals
Reflected on its crystal floor.

_Henry T. Tuckerman._

* * *

THE PALISADES.

At Fort Lee 300 feet.
Opposite Mt. St. Vincent 400 "
Opposite Hastings 500 "

THE HIGHLANDS.

Sugar Loaf 785 feet.
Dunderberg 865 "
Anthony's Nose 900 "
Storm King 1368 "
Old Cro' Nest 1405 "
Bull Hill 1425 "
South Beacon 1625 "

THE CATSKILLS.

North Mountain 3000 feet.
Plaaterkill 3135 "
Outlook 3150 "
Stoppel Point 3426 "
Round Top 3470 "
High Peak 3660 "
Sugar Loaf 3782 "
Plateau 3855 "

=Sources of the Hudson.=--The Hudson rises in the Adirondacks, and
is formed by two short branches. The northern branch (17 miles in
length), has its source in Indian Pass, at the base of Mount McIntyre;
the eastern branch, in a little lake poetically called the "Tear of
the Clouds," 4,321 feet above the sea under the summit of Tahawus,
the noblest mountain of the Adirondacks, 5,344 feet in height. About
thirty miles below the junction it takes the waters of Boreas River,
and in the southern part of Warren County, nine miles east of Lake
George, the tribute of the Schroon. About fifteen miles north of
Saratoga it receives the waters of the Sacandaga, then the streams of
the Battenkill and the Walloomsac; and a short distance above Troy its
largest tributary, the Mohawk. The tide rises six inches at Troy and
two feet at Albany, and from Troy to New York, a distance of one
hundred and fifty miles, the river is navigable by large steamboats.

* * *

Of grottoes in the far dim woods,
Of pools moss-rimmed and deep,
From whose embrace the little rills
In daring venture creep.

_E.A. Lente._

* * *

The principal streams which flow into the Hudson between Albany and
New York are the Norman's Kill, on west bank, two miles south of
Albany; the Mourdener's Kill, at Castleton, eight miles below Albany,
on the east bank; Coxsackie Creek, on west bank, seventeen miles below
Albany; Kinderhook Creek, six miles north of Hudson; Catskill Creek,
six miles south of Hudson; Roeliffe Jansen's Creek, on east bank,
seven miles south of Hudson; the Esopus Creek, which empties at
Saugerties; the Rondout Creek, at Rondout; the Wappingers, at New
Hamburgh; the Fishkill, at Matteawan, opposite Newburgh; the Peekskill
Creek, and Croton River. The course of the river is nearly north and
south, and drains a comparatively narrow valley.

It is emphatically the "River of the Mountains," as it rises in the
Adirondacks, flows seaward east of the Helderbergs, the Catskills, the
Shawangunks, through twenty miles of the Highlands and along the base
of the Palisades. More than any other river it preserves the character
of its origin, and the following apostrophe from the writer's poem,
"The Hudson," condenses its continuous "mountain-and-lake-like"
quality:

O Hudson, mountain-born and free,
Thy youth a deep impression takes,
For, mountain-guarded to the sea,
Thy course is but a chain of lakes.

=The First Settlement of the Hudson.=--In 1610 a Dutch ship visited
Manhattan to trade with the Indians and was soon followed by others
on like enterprise. In 1613 Adrian Block came with a few comrades and
remained the winter. In 1614 the merchants of North Holland organized
a company and obtained from the States General a charter to trade in
the New Netherlands, and soon after a colony built a few houses and
a fort near the Battery. The entire island was purchased from the
Indians in 1624 for the sum of sixty guilders or about twenty-four
dollars. A fort was built at Albany in 1623 and known as Fort Aurania
or Fort Orange. From Wassenaer's "Historie van Europa," 1621-1632, as
translated in the 3d volume of the Documentary History of New York, a
castle--Fort Nassau--was built in 1624, on an island on the north side
of the River Montagne, now called Mauritius. "But as the natives there
were somewhat discontented, and not easily managed, the projectors
abandoned it, intending now to plant a colony among the Maikans
(Mahicans), a nation lying twenty-five miles (American measure
seventy-five miles) on both sides of the river, upwards." In another
document we learn that "The West India Company being chartered, a
vessel of 130 lasts, called the 'New Netherland' (whereof Cornelius
Jacobs, of Hoorn, was skipper), with thirty families, mostly Walloons,
was equipped in the spring of 1623."

* * *

Where Manhattan reigned of old
Long before the age of gold
In the fair encircled isle
Formed for beauty's warmest smile.

_William Crow_

* * *

In the beginning of May they entered the Hudson, found a "Frenchman"
lying in the mouth of the river, who would erect the arms of the King
of France there, but the Hollanders would not permit him, opposing it
by commission from the Lord's States General and the Directors of the
West India Company, and "in order not to be frustrated therein, they
convoyed the Frenchman out of the rivers." This having been done, they
sailed up the Maikans, 140 miles, near which they built and completed
a fort, named "Orange," with four bastions, on an island, by them
called "Castle Island." This was probably the island below Castleton,
now known as Baern Island, where the first white child was born on the
Hudson.

In another volume we read that "a colony was planted in 1625 on
the Manhetes Island, where a fort was staked out by Master Kryn
Fredericke, an engineer. The counting-house is kept in a stone
building thatched with reed; the other houses are of the bark of
trees. There are thirty ordinary houses on the east side of the river,
which runs nearly north and south." This is the description of New
York City when Charles the First was King.

* * *

Behold the natural advantages of our State; the situation
of our principal seaport; the facility that the
Sound affords for an intercourse with the East, and the
noble Hudson which bears upon its bosom the wealth
of the remotest part of the State.

_Robert R. Livingston._

* * *

[Illustration: OLOFFE VAN KORTLANDT'S DREAM.]

Moreover, we should not forget that Communipaw outranks New York in
antiquity, and, according to Knickerbocker, whose quiet humor is
always read and re-read with pleasure, might justly be considered the
Mother Colony. For lo! the sage Oloffe Van Kortlandt dreamed a dream,
and the good St. Nicholas came riding over the tops of the trees,
and descended upon the island of Manhattan and sat himself down
and smoked, "and the smoke ascended in the sky, and formed a cloud
overhead; and Oloffe bethought him, and he hastened and climbed up to
the top of one of the tallest trees, and saw that the smoke spread
over a great extent of country; and, as he considered it more
attentively, he fancied that the great volume assumed a variety of
marvelous forms, where, in dim obscurity, he saw shadowed out palaces
and domes and lofty spires, all of which lasted but a moment, and then
passed away." So New York, like Alba Longa and Rome, and other cities
of antiquity, was under the immediate care of its tutelar saint. Its
destiny was foreshadowed, for now the palaces and domes and lofty
spires are real and genuine, and something more than dreams are made
of.

* * *

Below the cliffs Manhattan's spires
Glint back the sunset's latest beam;
The bay is flecked with twinkling fires;
Or is it but "Van Kortlandt's dream?"

_Wallace Bruce_

* * *

=The Original Manors and Patents.=--According to a map of the Province
of New York, published in 1779, the Phillipsburg Patent embraced a
large part of Westchester County. North of this was the Manor of
Cortland, reaching from Tarrytown to Anthony's Nose. Above this
was the Phillipse Patent, reaching to the mouth of Fishkill Creek,
embracing Putnam County. Between Fishkill Creek and the Wappingers
Creek was the Rombout Patent. The Schuyler Patent embraced a few
square miles in the vicinity of Poughkeepsie. Above this was the
purchase of Falconer & Company, and east of this tract what was known
as the Great Nine Partners. Above the Falconer Purchase was the Henry
Beekman Patent, reaching to Esopus Island, and east of this the Little
Nine Partners. Above the Beekman Patent was the Schuyler Patent. Then
the Manor of Livingston, reaching from Rhinebeck to Catskill Station,
opposite Catskill. Above this Rensselaerwick, reaching north to a
point opposite Coeymans. The Manor of Rensselaer extended on both
sides of the river to a line running nearly east and west, just above
Troy. North and west of this Manor was the County of Albany, since
divided into Rensselaer, Saratoga, Washington, Schoharie, Greene and
Albany. The Rensselaer Manor was the only one that reached across the
river. The west bank of the Hudson, below the Rensselaer Manor, is
simply indicated on this map of 1779 as Ulster and Orange Counties.

=New Amsterdam.=--For about fifty years after the Dutch Settlement the
island of Manhattan was known as New Amsterdam. Washington Irving, in
his Knickerbocker History, has surrounded it with a loving halo and
thereby given to the early records of New York the most picturesque
background of any State in the Union.

* * *

The city bright below, and far away
Sparkling in golden light his own romantic Bay.

_Fitz-Greene Halleck._

* * *

Among other playful allusions to the Indian names he takes the word
Manna-hatta of Robert Juet to mean "the island of manna," or in other
words a land flowing with milk and honey. He refers humorously to the
Yankees as "an ingenious people who out-bargain them in the market,
out-speculate them on the exchange, out-top them in fortune, and run
up mushroom palaces so high that the tallest Dutch family mansion has
not wind enough left for its weather-cock."

What would the old burgomaster think now of the mounting palaces of
trade, stately apartments, and the piled up stories of commercial
buildings? In fact the highest structure Washington Irving ever saw in
New York was a nine-story sugar refinery. With elevators running two
hundred feet a minute, there seems no limit to these modern mammoths.

=The Dutch and the English.=--From the very beginning there was a
quiet jealousy between the Dutch Settlement on the Hudson and the
English Settlers in Massachusetts. To quote from an old English
history, "it was the original purpose of the Pilgrims to locate near
Nova Scotia, but, upon better consideration, they decided to seat
themselves more to the southward on the bank of Hudson's River which
falls into the sea at New York."

To this end "they contracted with some merchants who were willing
to be adventurers with them in their intended settlement and were
proprietors of the country, but the contract bore too heavy upon them,
and made them the more easy in their disappointment. Their agents in
England hired the Mayflower, and, after a stormy voyage, 'fell in with
Cape Cod on the 9th of November. Here they refreshed themselves about
half a day and then tacked about to the southward for Hudson's River.'

"Encountering a storm they became entangled in dangerous shoals and
breakers and were driven back again to the Cape." Thus Plymouth became
the first English settlement of New England. Another historian says
that it was their purpose "to settle on the Connecticut Coast near
Fairfield County, lying between the Connecticut and Hudson's River."

* * *

Before his sight
Flowed the fair river free and bright,
The rising mist and Isles of Bay,
Before him in their glory lay.

_Robert C. Sands._

* * *

From the very first the Dutch occupation was considered by the English
as illegal. It was undoubtedly part of the country the coasts of which
were first viewed by Sebastian Cabot, who sailed with five English
ships from Bristol in May, 1498, and as such was afterwards included
in the original province of Virginia. It was also within the limits of
the country granted by King James to the Western Company, but, before
it could be settled, the Dutch occupancy took place, and, in the
interest of peace, a license was granted by King James.

The Dutch thus made their settlement before the Puritans were planted
in New England, and from their first coming, "being seated in Islands
and at the mouth of a good river their plantations were in a thriving
condition, and they begun, in Holland, to promise themselves vast
things from their new colony."

Sir Samuel Argal in 1617 or 1618, on his way from Virginia to New
Scotland, insulted the Dutch and destroyed their plantations. "To
guard against further molestations they secured a License from
King James to build Cottages and to plant for traffic as well as
subsistence, pretending it was only for the conveniency of their ships
touching there for fresh water and fresh provisions in their voyage
to Brazil; but they little by little extended their limits every way,
built Towns, fortified them and became a flourishing colony."

"In an island called Manhattan, at the mouth of Hudson's River, they
built a City which they called New Amsterdam, and the river was called
by them the Great River. The bay to the east of it had the name of
Nassau given to it. About one hundred and fifty miles up the River
they built a Fort which they called Orange Fort and from thence drove
a profitable trade with the Indians who came overland as far as from
Quebec to deal with them."

The Dutch Colonies were therefore in a very thriving condition when
they were attacked by the English. The justice of this war has been
freely criticised even by English writers, "because troops were sent
to attack New Amsterdam before the Colony had any notice of the war."

* * *

On his view
Ocean, and earth, and heaven burst before him,
Clouds slumbering at his feet and the clear blue
Of summer's sky in beauty bending o'er him.

_Fitz-Greene Halleck._

* * *

The "Encyclopædia Britannica" thus briefly puts the history of those
far-off days when New York was a town of about 1500 inhabitants: "The
English Government was hostile to any other occupation of the New
World than its own. In 1621 James I. claimed sovereignty over New
Netherland by right of 'occupancy.' In 1632 Charles I. reasserted the
English title of 'first discovery, occupation and possession.' In 1654
Cromwell ordered an expedition for its conquest and the New England
Colonies had engaged their support. The treaty with Holland arrested
their operations and recognized the title of the Dutch. In 1664
Charles the Second resolved upon a conquest of New Netherland. The
immediate excuse was the loss to the revenue of the English Colonies
by the smuggling practices of their Dutch neighbors. A patent was
granted to the Duke of York giving to him all the lands and rivers
from the west side of the Connecticut River to the east side of
Delaware Bay."

"On the 29th of August an English Squadron under the direction of Col.
Richard Nicolls, the Duke's Deputy Governor, appeared off the Narrows,
and on Sept. 8th New Amsterdam, defenseless against the force, was
formally surrendered by Stuyvesant. In 1673 (August 7th) war being
declared between England and Holland a Dutch squadron surprised New
York, captured the City and restored the Dutch authority, and the
names of New Netherland and New Amsterdam. But in July, 1674, a treaty
of peace restored New York to English rule. A new patent was issued to
the Duke of York, and Major Edmund Andros was appointed Governor."

=New York.=--On the 10th of November, 1674, the Province of New
Netherland was surrendered to Governor Major Edmund Andros on behalf
of his Britannic Majesty. The letter sent by Governor Andros to the
Dutch Governor is interesting in this connection: "Being arrived
to this place with orders to receive from you in the behalf of his
Majesty of Great Britain, pursuant to the late articles of peace with
the States Generals of the United Netherlands, the New Netherlands and
Dependencies, now under your command, I have herewith, by Capt. Philip
Carterett and Ens. Cæsar Knafton, sent you the respective orders from
the said States General, the States of Zealand and Admirality of
Amsterdam to that effect, and desire you'll please to appoint some
short time for it. Our soldiers having been long aboard, I pray you
answer by these gentlemen, and I shall be ready to serve you in what
may lay in my power. Being from aboard his Majesty's ship, 'The
Diamond,' at anchor near. Your very humble servant. Staten Island this
22d Oct., 1674." After nineteen days' deliberation, which greatly
annoyed Governor Andros, New Amsterdam was transferred from Dutch to
English authority.

* * *

All white with sails thy keel-thronged waters flee
Through one rich lapse of plenty to the sea.

_Knickerbocker Magazine._

* * *

"In 1683 Thomas Dongan succeeded Andros. A general Assembly, the first
under the English rule, met in October, 1683, and adopted a Charter
of Liberties, which was confirmed by the Duke. In August, 1684, a new
covenant was made with the Iroquois, who formally acknowledged the
jurisdiction of Great Britain, but not subjection. By the accession of
the Duke of York to the English throne the Duchy of New York became a
royal province. The Charters of the New England Colonies were revoked,
and together with New York and New Jersey they were consolidated into
the dominion of New England. Dongan was recalled and Sir Edmund Andros
was commissioned Governor General. He assumed his vice regal authority
August 11, 1688. The Assembly which James had abolished in 1686 was
reestablished, and in May declared the rights and privileges of
the people, reaffirming the principles of the repealed Charter of
Liberties of October 30, 1683."

* * *

"Queen of all lovely rivers, lustrous queen
Of flowing waters in our sweet new lands,
Rippling through sunlight to the ocean sands."

_Anonymous._

* * *

From this time on to the Revolution of 1776 there is one continual
struggle between the Royal Governors and the General Assembly. The
Governor General had the power of dissolving the Assembly, but
the Assembly had the power of granting money. British troops were
quartered in New York which increased the irritation. The conquest of
Canada left a heavy burden upon Great Britain, a part of which their
Parliament attempted to shift to the shoulders of the Colonies.

A general Congress of the Colonies, held in New York in 1765,
protested against the Stamp Act and other oppressive ordinances and
they were in part repealed.

=A Page of Patriotism.=--During the long political agitation New York,
the most English of the Colonies in her manners and feelings, was in
close harmony with the Whig leaders of England. She firmly adhered to
the principle of the sovereignty of the people which she had inscribed
on her ancient "Charter of Liberties." Although largely dependent upon
commerce she was the first to recommend a non-importation of English
merchandise as a measure of retaliation against Britain, and she was
the first also to invite a general congress of all the Colonies.
On the breaking out of hostilities New York immediately joined the
patriot cause. The English authority was overthrown and the government
passed to a provincial congress.

* * *

The union of lakes--the union of lands--
The union of States none can sever--
The union of hearts--the union of hands--
And the Flag of our Union forever.

_George P. Morris._

* * *

=New York Sons of Liberty.=--In 1767, in the eighth year of the reign
of George III. there was issued a document in straightforward Saxon,
and Sir Henry Moore, Governor-in-Chief over the Province of New York,
offered fifty pounds to discover the author or authors. The paper read
as follows: "Whereas, a glorious stand for Liberty did appear in
the Resentment shown to a Set of Miscreants under the Name of Stamp
Masters, in the year 1765, and it is now feared that a set of Gentry
called Commissioners (I do not mean those lately arrived at Boston),
whose odious Business is of a similar nature, may soon make their
appearance amongst us in order to execute their detestable office:
It is therefore hoped that every votary of that celestial Goddess
Liberty, will hold themselves in readiness to give them a proper
welcome. Rouse, my Countrymen, Rouse! (Signed) _Pro Patria_."

In December, 1769, a stirring address "To the Betrayed Inhabitants of
the City and County of New York," signed by a Son of Liberty, was
also published, asking the people to do their duty in matters pending
between them and Britain. "Imitate," the writer said, "the noble
examples of the friends of Liberty in England; who, rather than be
enslaved, contend for their rights with king, lords and commons;
and will you suffer your liberties to be torn from you by your
Representatives? tell it not in Boston; publish it not in the streets
of Charles-town. You have means yet left to preserve a unanimity
with the brave Bostonians and Carolinians; and to prevent the
accomplishment of the designs of tyrants."

Another proclamation, offering a reward of fifty pounds, was
published by the "Honorable Cadwalader Colden, Esquire, His Majesty's
Lieutenant-Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Province of New York
and the territories depending thereon in America," with another "God
Save the King" at the end of it. But the people who commenced to write
Liberty with a capital letter and the word "king" in lower case type
were not daunted. Captain Alexander McDougal was arrested as
the supposed author. He was imprisoned eighty-one days. He was
subsequently a member of the Provincial Convention, in 1775 was
appointed Colonel of the first New York Regiment, and in 1777 rose to
the rank of Major-General in the U. S. Army. New York City could well
afford a monument to the Sons of Liberty. She has a right to emphasize
this period of her history, for her citizens passed the first
resolution to import nothing from the mother country, burned ten boxes
of stamps sent from England before any other colony or city had made
even a show of resistance, and when the Declaration was read, pulled
down the leaden statue of George III. from its pedestal in Bowling
Green, and moulded it into Republican bullets.

* * *

And not a verdant glade or mountain hoary,
But treasures up within the glorious story.

_Charles Fenno Hoffman._

* * *

In 1699 the population of New York was about 6,000. In 1800, it
reached 60,000; and the growth since that date is almost incredible.
It is amusing to hear elderly people speak of the "outskirts of the
city" lying close to the City Hall, and of the drives _in the country_
above Canal Street. In the Documentary History of New York, a map of
a section of New York appears as it was in 1793, when the Gail, Work
House, and Bridewell occupied the site of the City Hall, with two
ponds to the north--East Collect Pond and Little Collect Pond,--sixty
feet deep and about a quarter of a mile in diameter, the outlet of
which crossed Broadway at Canal Street and found its way to the
Hudson.

=Greater New York.=--In 1830, the population of Manhattan was 202,000;
in 1850, 515,000; in 1860, 805,000; in 1870, 942,000; in 1880,
1,250,000; in 1892, 1,801,739; and is now rapidly approaching three
million. Brooklyn, which in 1800 had a population of only 2,000, now
contributes, as the "Borough of Brooklyn," almost two million. So that
Greater New York is the centre of about six million of people within a
radius of fifteen miles including her New Jersey suburbs with almost
five millions under one municipality.

=Brooklyn.=--In June, 1636, was bought the first land on Long Island;
and in 1667 the Ferry Town, opposite New York, was known by the name
"Breuckelen," signifying "broken land," but the name was not generally
accepted until after the Revolution. Columbia Heights, Prospect Park,
Clinton Avenue, St. Mark's Place and Stuyvesant Heights are among the
favored spots for residence.

* * *

Behind us lies the teeming town
With lust of gold grown frantic;
Before us glitters o'er the bay
The peaceable Atlantic.

_Charles Mackay_

* * *

=Jersey City= occupies the ground once known as Paulus Hook, the farm
of William Kieft, Director General of the Dutch West India Company.
Its water front, from opposite Bartholdi Statue to Hoboken, is
conspicuously marked by Railroad Terminal Piers, Factories, Elevators,
etc. Bergen is the oldest settlement in New Jersey. It was founded in
1616 by Dutch Colonists to the New Netherlands, and received its name
from Bergen in Norway. Jersey City is practically a part of Greater
New York, but state lines make municipal union impossible.

=Hudson River Steamboats.=--An accurate history of the growth and
development of steam navigation on the Hudson, from the building of
the "Clermont" by Robert Fulton to the building of the superb steamers
of the Hudson River Day Line would form a very interesting book. The
first six years produced six steamers:

Clermont, built in 1807 160 tons
Car of Neptune, built in 1809 295 "
Hope, built in 1811 280 "
Perseverance, built in 1811 280 "
Paragon, built in 1811 331 "
Richmond, built in 1813 370 "

It makes one smile to read the newspaper notices of those days. The
time was rather long, and the fare rather high--thirty-six hours to
Albany, fare seven dollars.

_From the Albany Gazette, September, 1807._

"The North River Steamboat will leave Paulus Hook Ferry on Friday
the 4th of September, at 9 in the morning, and arrive at Albany
at 9 in the afternoon on Saturday. Provisions, good berths, and
accommodation are provided. The charge to each passenger is as
follows:

To Newburg Dols. 3, Time 14 hours.
Poughkeepsie " 4, " 17 "
Esopus " 5, " 20 "
Hudson " 5½, " 30 "
Albany " 7, " 36 "

For places apply to Wm. Vandervoort, No. 48 Courtland street, on
the corner of Greenwich street, September 2d, 1807."

* * *

The wind blew over the land and the waves
With its salt sea-breath, and a spicy balm,
And it seemed to cool my throbbing brain,
And lend my spirit its gusty calm.

_Richard Henry Stoddard._

* * *

_Extract from the New York Evening Post, October 2, 1807._

Mr. Fulton's new-invented steamboat, which is fitted up in a neat
style for passengers, and is intended to run from New York to
Albany as a packet, left here this morning with ninety passengers,
against a strong head wind. Notwithstanding which, it is judged
that she moved through the waters at the rate of six miles an
hour.

_Extract from the Albany Gazette, October 5th, 1807._

Friday, October 2d, 1807, the steamboat (Clermont) left New York
at ten o'clock a.m., against a stormy tide, very rough water, and
a violent gale from the north. She made a headway beyond the most
sanguine expectations, and without being rocked by the waves.

Arrived at Albany, October 4th, at 10 o'clock p.m., being detained
by being obliged to come to anchor, owing to a gale and having one
of her paddle wheels torn away by running foul of a sloop.

* * *

But see! the broadening river deeper flows,
Its tribute floods intent to reach the sea.

_Park Benjamin._

* * *

The following was recently recopied in the _Poughkeepsie Eagle_, as an
old time reminiscence:

=To Poughkeepsie from New York in Seventeen Hours.=

--The first steamboat on the Hudson River passed Poughkeepsie
August 17th, 1807, and in June, 1808, the owners of the boat
caused the following advertisement to be published in prominent
papers along the river:

=STEAMBOAT.=

FOR THE INFORMATION OF THE PUBLIC.

The Steamboat will leave New York for Albany every Saturday
afternoon exactly at 6 o'clock, and will pass:

West Point, about 4 o'clock Sunday morning.
Newburgh, 7 o'clock Sunday morning.
Poughkeepsie, 11 o'clock Sunday morning.
Esopus, 2 o'clock in the afternoon.
Red Hook, 4 o'clock in the afternoon.
Catskill, 7 o'clock in the afternoon.
Hudson, 8 o'clock in the evening.

She will leave Albany for New York every Wednesday morning exactly
at 8 o'clock, and pass:

Hudson, about 3 in the afternoon.
Esopus, 8 in the evening.
Poughkeepsie, 12 at night.
Newburgh, 4 Thursday morning.
West Point, 7 Thursday morning.

As the time at which the boat may arrive at the different places
above mentioned may vary an hour, more or less, according to the
advantage or disadvantage of wind and tide, those who wish to
come on board will see the necessity of being on the spot an hour
before the time. Persons wishing to come on board from any other
landing than these here specified can calculate the time the boat
will pass and be ready on her arrival. Innkeepers or boatmen who
bring passengers on board or take them ashore from any part of the
river will be allowed one shilling for each person.

PRICES OF PASSAGE--FROM NEW YORK.

To West Point $2 30
To Newburgh 3 00
To Poughkeepsie 3 50
To Esopus 4 00
To Red Hook 4 50
To Hudson 5 00
To Albany 7 00

FROM ALBANY.

To Hudson $2 00
To Red Hook 3 00
To Esopus 3 50
To Poughkeepsie 4 00
To Newburgh and West Point 4 50
To New York 7 00

All other passengers are to pay at the rate of one dollar for
every twenty miles, and a half dollar for every meal they may eat.

Children from 1 to 5 years of age to pay one-third price and to
sleep with persons under whose care they are.

Young persons from 5 to 15 years of age to pay half price,
provided they sleep two in a berth, and the whole price for each
one who requests to occupy a whole berth.

Servants who pay two-thirds price are entitled to a berth; they
pay half price if they do not have a berth.

Every person paying full price is allowed sixty pounds of baggage;
if less than full price forty pounds. They are to pay at the rate
of three cents per pound for surplus baggage. Storekeepers who
wish to carry light and valuable merchandise can be accommodated
on paying three cents a pound.

* * *

By palace, village, cot, a sweet surprise
At every turn the vision looks upon;
Till to our wondering and uplifted eyes
The Highland rocks and hills in solemn grandeur rise.

_Henry T. Tuckerman._

* * *

=Day Line Steamers.=--As the cradle of successful steam navigation was
rocked on the Hudson, it is fitting that the Day Line Steamers should
excel all others in beauty, grace and speed. There is no comparison
between these river palaces and the steamboats on the Rhine or any
river in Europe, as to equipment, comfort and rapidity. To make
another reference to the great tourist route of Europe, the distance
from Cologne to Coblenz is 60 miles, the same as from New York to
Newburgh. It takes the Rhine steamers from seven to eight hours (as
will be seen in Baedeker's Guide to that river) going up the stream,
and from four and a half to five hours returning with the current. The
Hudson by Daylight steamers en route to Albany make the run from New
York to Newburgh in three hours; to Poughkeepsie in four hours, making
stops at Yonkers, West Point and Newburgh. Probably no train on the
best equipped railroad in our country reaches its stations with
greater regularity than these steamers make their various landing.
It astonishes a Mississippi or Missouri traveler to see the captain
standing like a train-conductor, with watch in hand, to let off the
gang-plank and pull the bell, at the very moment of the advertised
schedule.

* * *

Southward the river gleams--a snowy sail
Now gliding o'er the mirror--now a track
Tossing with foam displaying on its course
The graceful steamer with its flag of smoke.

_Alfred B. Street._

* * *

One of the most humorous incidents of the writer's journeying up and
down the Hudson, was the "John-Gilpin-experience" of a western man who
got off at West Point a few years ago. It was at that time the first
landing of the steamer after leaving New York.

As he was accustomed to the Mississippi style of waiting at the
various towns he thought he would go up and take a look at the "hill."
The boat was off and "so was he"; with wife and children shaking their
hands and handkerchiefs in an excited manner from the gang-plank. Some
one at the stern of the steamer shouted to him to cross the river and
take the train to Poughkeepsie.

Every one was on the lookout for him at the Poughkeepsie landing, and,
just as the steamer was leaving the dock, he came dashing down Main
street from the railroad station, but too late. Then not only wife
and children but the entire boat saluted him and the crowded
deck blossomed with handkerchiefs. Some one shouted "catch us at
Rhinebeck." After leaving Rhinebeck the train appeared, and on passing
the steamer, a lone handkerchief waved from the rear of the platform.
At Hudson an excited but slightly disorganized gentleman appeared
to the great delight of his family, and every one else, for the
passengers had all taken a lively interest in the chase. "Well," he
says, "I declare, the way this boat lands, and gets off again, beats
anything I ever see, and I have lived on the Mississippi nigh on to a
quarter of a century."

* * *

While drinking in the scene, my mind goes back upon
the tide of years, and lo, a vision! On its upward
path the "Half-Moon" glides.

_Alfred B. Street._

* * *

=The "Hendrick Hudson."= In these centennial days of discovery
and invention, a description of the steamers will be of interest,
furnished by the Hudson River Day Line. The "Hendrick Hudson" was
built at Newburgh by the Marvel Company, under contract with the W.
& A. Fletcher Company of New York, who built her engines, and under
designs from Frank E. Kirby. Her principal dimensions are: length, 400
feet; breadth over all, 82 feet; depth of hold, 14 feet 5 inches, and
a draft of 7 feet 6 inches. Her propelling machinery is what is
known as the 3-cylinder compound direct acting engine, and her power
(6,500-horse) is applied through side wheels with feathering buckets,
and steam is supplied from eight boilers.

Steel has been used in her construction to such an extent that her
hull, her bulk-heads (7 in all), her engine and boiler enclosures, her
kitchen and ventilators, her stanchions, girders, and deck beams, and
in fact the whole essential frame work of the boat is like a great
steel building. Where wood is used it is hard wood, and in finish
probably has no equal in marine work.

Her scheme of decoration, ventilation and sanitation is as artistic
and scientific as modern methods can produce, and at the same time
her general lay out for practical and comfortable operation is the
evolution of the long number of years in which the Day Line has been
conducting the passenger business.

A detailed account of this steamer would be a long story, but some of
the salient features are as follows: She carries the largest passenger
license ever issued, namely: for 5,000 people; on her trial trip she
made the fastest record through the water of any inland passenger ship
in this country, namely: 23.1 miles per hour. Her shafts are under the
main deck. Her mural paintings represent prominent features of the
Hudson, which may not be well seen from the steamer. Her equipment far
exceeds the requirements of the Government Inspection Laws.

* * *

We hear the murmur of the sea,--
A monotone of sadness,
But not a whisper of the crowd,
Or echo of its madness.

_Charles Mackay._

* * *

=The "New York."= The hull of the "New York" was built at Wilmington,
Del., by the Harlan & Hollingsworth Co., in 1887, and is, with the
exception of the deck-frame, made of iron throughout. During the
winter of 1897 she was lengthened 30 feet, and now measures 341 feet
in length, breadth over all 74 feet, with a tonnage of 1975 gross
tons. The engine was built by the W. & A. Fletcher Co. of New York.
It is a standard American beam engine, with a cylinder 75 inches in
diameter and 12 feet stroke of piston, and develops 3,850 horse power.
Steam steering gear is used. One of the most admirable features of
this queen of river steamers is her "feathering" wheels, the use of
which not only adds materially to her speed but does away with the
jar or tremor common to boats having the ordinary paddle-wheels. The
exterior of the "New York" is, as usual, of pine, painted white and
relieved with tints and gold. The interior is finished in hard-wood
cabinet work, ash being used forward of the shaft on the main deck,
and mahogany aft and in the dining-room. Ash is also used in the grand
saloons on the promenade deck. One feature of these saloons especially
worthy of note, is the number and size of the windows, which are so
numerous as to almost form one continuous window. Seated in one of
these elegant saloons as in a floating palace of glass, the tourist
who prefers to remain inside enjoys equally with those outside the
unrivalled scenery through which the steamer is passing. The private
parlors on the "New York" are provided with bay windows and are
very luxuriantly furnished. In the saloons are paintings by Albert
Bierstadt, J. F. Cropsey, Walter Satterlee and David Johnson. The
dining-room on the "New York" is located on the main deck, aft; a
feature that will commend itself to tourists, since while enjoying
their meals they will not be deprived from viewing the noble scenery
through which the steamer is passing. While the carrying capacity of
the "New York" is 4,500 passengers, license for 2,500 only is applied
for, thus guaranteeing ample room for all and the absence from
crowding which is so essential to comfort.

* * *

Thy fate and mine are not repose,
And ere another evening close
Thou to thy tides shall turn again
And I to seek the crowd of men.

_William Cullen Byrant._

* * *

=The "Albany"= was built by the Harlan & Hollingsworth Co., of
Wilmington, Del., in 1880. During the winter of 1892, she was
lengthened thirty feet and furnished with modern feathering wheels
in place of the old style radial ones. Her hull is of iron, 325 feet
long, breadth of beam over all 75 feet, and her tonnage is 1,415 gross
tons. Her engine was built by the W. & A. Fletcher Co., of New York,
and develops 3,200 horse power. The stroke is 12 feet, and the
diameter of the cylinder is 73 inches. On her trial trip she ran from
New York to Poughkeepsie, a distance of 75 miles, in three hours and
seven minutes. Steam steering gear is used on the "Albany," thus
insuring ease and precision in handling her. The wood-work on the main
deck and in the upper saloons is all hard wood; mahogany, ash and
maple tastefully carved. Wide, easy staircases lead to the main saloon
and upper decks. Rich Axminster carpets cover the floors, and mahogany
tables and furniture of antique design and elegant finish make up the
appointments of a handsomely furnished drawing room.

* * *

Lose not a memory of the glorious scenes,
Mountains and palisades, and leaning rocks.

_William Wallace._

* * *

=The Old Reaches.=--Early navigators divided the Hudson into fourteen
"reaches" or distances from point to point as seen by one sailing up
or down the river. In the slow days of uncertain sailing vessels these
divisions meant more than in our time of "propelling steam," but they
are still of practical and historic interest.

The Great Chip Rock Reach extends from above Weehawken about eighteen
miles to the boundary line of New York and New Jersey--(near
Piermont). The Palisades were known by the old Dutch settlers as the
"Great Chip," and so styled in the Bergen Deed of Purchase, viz, the
great chip above Weehawken. The _Tappan_ Reach (on the east side of
which dwelt the Manhattans, and on the west side the Saulrickans and
the Tappans), extends about seven miles to Teller's Point. The
third reach to a narrow point called _Haverstroo_; then comes the
_Seylmaker's_ Reach, then _Crescent_ Reach; next _Hoge's_ Reach, and
then _Vorsen_ Reach, which extends to Klinkersberg, or Storm King,
the northern portal of the Highlands. This is succeeded by _Fisher's_
Reach where, on the east side once dwelt a race of savages called
Pachami. "This reach," in the language of De Laet, "extends to another
narrow pass, where, on the west, is a point of land which juts out,
covered with sand, opposite a bend in the river, on which another
nation of savages--the Waoranecks--have their abode at a place called
Esopus. Next, another reach, called _Claverack_; then _Backerack;_
next _Playsier_ Reach, and _Vaste_ Reach, as far as Hinnenhock; then
_Hunter's_ Reach, as far as Kinderhook; and Fisher's Hook, near Shad
Island, over which, on the east side, dwell the Mahicans." If these
reaches seem valueless at present there are

=Five Divisions of the Hudson=--which possess interest for all, as
they present an analysis easy to be remembered--divisions marked by
something more substantial than sentiment or fancy, expressing five
distinct characteristics:--

1. THE PALISADES, an unbroken wall of rock for fifteen
miles--GRANDEUR.

2. THE TAPPAN ZEE, surrounded by the sloping hills of Nyack,
Tarrytown, and Sleepy Hollow--REPOSE.

3. THE HIGHLANDS, where the Hudson for twenty miles plays "hide and
seek" with "hills rock-ribbed and ancient as the sun"--SUBLIMITY.

4. THE HILLSIDES for miles above and below Poughkeepsie--THE
PICTURESQUE.

5. THE CATSKILLS, on the west, throned in queenly dignity--BEAUTY.

* * *

On the deck
Stands the bold Hudson, gazing at the sights
Opening successive--point and rock and hill,
Majestic mountain-top, and nestling vale.

_Alfred B. Street._

* * *

=SUGGESTIONS.=

From the Hurricane Deck of the Hudson River Day Line Steamers can
be seen, on leaving or approaching the Metropolis, one of the most
interesting panoramas in the world--the river life of Manhattan,
the massive structures of Broadway, the great Transatlantic docks,
Recreation Piers, and an ever-changing kaleidoscope of interest. The
view is especially grand on the down trip between the hours of five
and six in the afternoon, as the western sun brings the city in strong
relief against the sky. If tourists wish to fully enjoy this beautiful
view they should remain on the Hurricane Deck until the boat is well
into her Desbrosses Street slip.

=The Brooklyn Annex.=--The Brooklyn tourist is especially happy in
this delightful preface and addenda to the Hudson River trip. The
effect of morning and evening light in bringing out or in subduing the
sky-line of Manhattan is nowhere seen to greater advantage. In the
morning the buildings from the East River side stand out bold and
clear, when lo! almost instantaneously, on turning the Battery, they
are lessened and subdued. On the return trip in the evening, the
effect is reversed--a study worth the while of the traveler as he
passes to and fro on the commodious "Annex" between Desbrosses
Street Pier and Brooklyn. Surely no other city in the world rises so
beautiful from harbor line or water front as "Greater New York," with
lofty outlines of the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn reminding one
of Scott's tribute to Edinburgh:

"Piled deep and massy, close and high,
Mine own romantic town!"

* * *

Down at the end of the long, dark street,
Years, years ago,
I sat with my sweetheart on the pier,
Watching the river flow.

_Richard Henry Stoddard._

* * *

[Illustration: STATUE OF LIBERTY]

=NEW YORK TO ALBANY.=

=Desbrosses Street Pier to Forty-Second Street.=

Our historic journey fittingly begins at Desbrosses Street, for here,
near the old River-front, extending from Desbrosses along Greenwich,
stood the Revolutionary line of breastworks reaching south to the
Grenadier Battery at Franklin Street. Below this were "Jersey,"
"McDougall" and "Oyster" batteries and intervening earthworks to Port
George, on the Battery, which stood on the site of old Fort Amsterdam,
carrying us back to Knickerbocker memories of Peter Stuyvesant and
Wowter Van Twiller. The view from the after-deck, before the steamer
leaves the pier, gives scope for the imagination to re-picture the
far-away primitive and heroic days of early New York.

=Desbrosses Street Pier.=--On leaving the lower landing a charming
view is obtained of New York Harbor, the Narrows, Staten Island, the
Bartholdi Statue of Liberty, and, in clear weather, far away to the
South, the Highlands of Nevisink, the first land to greet the eye
of the ocean voyager. As the steamer swings out into the stream the
tourist is at once face to face with a rapidly changing panorama.
Steamers arriving, with happy faces on their decks, from southern
ports or distant lands; others with waving handkerchiefs bidding
good-bye to friends on crowded docks; swift-shuttled ferry-boats, with
hurrying passengers, supplying their homespun woof to the great warp
of foreign or coastwise commerce; noisy tug-boats, sombre as dray
horses, drawing long lines of canal boats, or proud in the convoy of
some Atlantic greyhound that has not yet slipped its leash; dignified
"Men of War" at anchor, flying the flags of many nations, happy
excursion boats _en route_ to sea-side resorts, scows, picturesque
in their very clumsiness and uncouthness--all unite in a living
kaleidescope of beauty.

* * *

Rise, stately symbol! Holding forth
Thy light and hope to all who sit
In chains and darkness! Belt the earth
With watch-fires from thy torch uplit!

_John Greenleaf Whittier._

* * *

Across the river on the Jersey Shore are seen extensive docks of great
railways, with elevators and stations that seem like "knotted ends"
of vast railway lines, lest they might forsooth, untwist and become
irrecoverably tangled in approaching the Metropolis. Prominent among
these are the _Pennsylvania Railroad_ for the South and West; the
_Erie Railway_, the _Delaware, Lackawanna and Western_, and to the
North above Hoboken the _West Shore_, serving also as starting point
for the _New York, Ontario and Western_. Again the eye returns to
the crowded wharves and warehouses of New York, reaching from Castle
Garden beyond 30th Street, with forest-like masts and funnels of ocean
steamships, and then to prominent buildings mounting higher and higher
year by year along the city horizon, marking the course of Broadway
from the Battery, literally fulfilling the humor of Knickerbocker
in not leaving space for a breath of air for the top of old Trinity
Church spire.

=Stevens' Castle.=--About midway between Desbrosses Street and 42d
Street Pier will be seen on the Jersey Shore a wooded point with
sightly building, known as Stevens' Castle, home of the late Commodore
Stevens, founder of the Stevens Institute of Technology. Above this
are the Elysian Fields, near the river bank, known in early days as a
quiet resort but now greatly changed in the character of its visitors.
On the left will also be seen the dome and tower of St. Michael's
Monastery, and above this Union Hill.

=The Trap Rock Ridge=, which begins to show itself above the Elysian
Fields, increases gradually in height to the brow of the Palisades.
West of Bergen Heights and Union Hill flows the Hackensack River
parallel to the Hudson, and at this point only about two miles
distant.

* * *

How still with all her towers and domes
The city sleeps on yonder shore,--
How many thousand happy homes
Yon starless sky is bending o'er.

_Park Benjamin._

* * *

=Forty-Second Street to One Hundred and Twenty-Ninth.=

=The 42d Street Pier= is now at hand, convenient of access to
travelers, as the 42d Street car line crosses Manhattan intersecting
every "up and down" surface, subway or elevated road in the City,
as does also the Grand, Vestry and Desbrosses Street at the lower
landing. While passengers are coming aboard we take pleasure in
quoting the following from Baedeker's Guide to the United States: "The
Photo-Panorama of the Hudson, published by the Bryant Union Publishing
Co., New York City (price 50 cents), shows both sides of the river
from New York to Albany, accurately represented from 800 consecutive
photographs. This new and complete object-guide will be of service
to the tourist, and can be had at the steamers' news stands, head of
grand stairway, or it will be sent by publishers, postpaid, on receipt
of price."

=Weehawken= with its sad story of the duel between Hamilton and Burr
is soon seen upon the west bank. A monument once marked the spot,
erected by the St. Andrews Society of New York City on the ledge of
rock where Hamilton fell early in the morning of the eleventh of July,
1804. The quarrel between this great statesman and his malignant rival
was, perhaps, more personal than political. It is said that Hamilton,
in accordance with the old-time code of honor, accepted the challenge,
but fired into the air, while Burr with fiendish cruelty took
deliberate revenge. Burr was never forgiven by the citizens of New
York and from that hour walked its streets shunned and despised. Among
the many poetic tributes penned at the time to the memory of Hamilton,
perhaps the best was by a poet whose name is now scarcely remembered,
Mr. Robert C. Sands. A fine picture of Hamilton will be found in the
New York Chamber of Commerce where the writer was recently shown the
following concise paragraph from Talleyrand: "The three greatest men
of my time, in my opinion, were Napoleon Bonaparte, Charles James Fox
and Alexander Hamilton and the greatest of the three was Hamilton."

* * *

Where round yon capes the banks ascend
Long shall the pilgrim's footsteps bend,
There, mirthful heart shall pause to sigh,
There tears shall dim the patriot's eye.

_Robert C. Sands._

* * *

The plain marble slab which stood in the face of the monument is still
preserved by a member of the King family. It is thirty-six inches
long by twenty-six and a half inches wide and bears the following
inscription: "As an expression of their affectionate regard to his
Memory and their deep regret for his loss, the St. Andrew's Society of
the State of New York have erected this Monument."

Quite a history attaches to this stone (graphically condensed by
an old gardener of the King estate): "It stood in the face of the
monument for sixteen years, and was read by thousands, but by 1820 the
pillar had become an eyesore to the enlightened public sentiment of
the age, and an agitation was begun in the public prints for its
removal. It was not, however, organized effort, but the order of one
man, that at length demolished the pillar. This man was Captain Deas,
a peace-loving gentleman, strongly opposed to duelling and brawls,
and on seeing a party approaching the grounds often interposed and
sometimes succeeded in effecting a reconciliation. He became tired of
seeing the pillar in his daily walks, and, in 1820, ordered his men to
remove it and deposit the slab containing the inscription in one
of the outbuildings of the estate. This was done. But a few months
afterward the slab was stolen, and nothing more was heard of it until
thirteen years later, when Mr. Hugh Maxwell, president of the St.
Andrew's Society, discovered it in a junk shop in New York. He at once
purchased it and presented it to Mr. James G. King, who about this
time came into possession of the Deas property, where it has since
been carefully preserved."

This mansion of Captain Deas afterward known as the "King House on the
Cliff" was a stately residence where Washington Irving used to come
and dream of his fair Manhattan across the river. It was also the
head-quarters of Lafayette, after the battle of Brandywine.

* * *

I was an admirer of General Hamilton, and I sicken
when I think of our political broils, slanders and enmities.

_Washington Irving._

* * *

The gardener also said: "the river road beneath us is cut directly
through the spot. Originally it was simply a narrow and grassy shelf
close up under the cliffs, six feet wide and eleven paces long. A
great cedar tree stood at one end, and this sandbowlder, which we have
also preserved, was at the other. It was about twenty feet above
the river and was reached by a steep rocky path leading up from the
Hudson, and, as there was then no road or path even along the base
of the cliffs, it could be reached only by boats." The first duel at
Weehawken of which there is any record was in 1799, between Aaron Burr
and John B. Church (Hamilton's brother-in-law). The parties met and
exchanged shots; neither was wounded. The seconds then induced Church
to offer an apology and the affair terminated. The last duel was
fought there September 28, 1845, and ended in a farce, the pistols
being loaded with cork--a fitting termination to a relic of barbarism.

=Riverside Drive and Park.= Riverside Drive, on the east bank starting
at 72d Street, is pronounced the finest residential avenue in the
world. Distinguished among many noble residences is the home of
Charles M. Schwab at 73d Street, which cost two million dollars; built
on the New York Orphan Asylum plot for which he paid $860,000.

=The Soldiers and Sailors Monument=, 89th Street, a memorial to the
citizens of New York, who took part in the Civil War, a beautiful work
of art, circular in form, with Corinthian columns, erected by the city
at a cost of a quarter of million of dollars was dedicated May 30,
1902. The corner-stone was laid in 1900 by President Roosevelt, at
that time Governor. The location was well selected, and it presents
one of the most attractive features of the river front.

* * *

We celebrate our hundredth year
With thankful hearts and words of praise,
And learn a lasting lesson here
Of trust and hope for coming days.

_Wallace Bruce._

* * *

=Columbia University=, on Morningside Heights, has a fine outlook,
crowning a noble site worthy of the old college, whose sons have been
to the fore since the days of the Revolution in promoting the glory
of the state and the nation. President Low has happily styled
"Morningside," which extends from 116th to 120th Streets, "The
Acropolis of the new world." The Library Building which he erected to
his father's memory, is of Greek architecture and cost $1,500,000. It
contains 300,000 volumes and is open night and day to the public. It
also marks the battle ground and American victory of Harlem Heights in
1776.

=The Cathedral of St. John the Divine= (Protestant Episcopal), now in
process of erection, occupies three blocks from 110th Street to 113th
between Morningside Park and Amsterdam Avenue. The corner stone was
laid in 1892 to be completed about 1940 at a cost of $6,000,000. The
crypt quarried out of the solid rock has been completed and services
are held in it every Sunday. Near at hand will be seen the beautiful
dome of St. Luke's Hospital.

=Grant's Tomb=, Riverside Drive and 123d Street, has the most
commanding site of the Hudson River front of New York. The bluff rises
130 feet and still retains the name of Claremont. The apex of
the memorial is 280 feet above the river. Ninety thousand people
contributed to the "Grant Monument Association fund" which, with
interest, aggregated $600,000. The corner stone was laid by President
Harrison in 1892 and dedicated April 27, 1897, on the seventy-fifth
anniversary of Grant's birth, with a great military, naval and civil
parade. The occasion was marked by an address of President McKinley
and an oration of Gen. Horace Porter, president of the Grant Monument
Association.

An attempt to remove Grant's body to Washington was made in Congress
but overwhelmingly defeated. The speech by Congressman Amos Cummings
in the House of Representatives, was a happy condensation of the
facts. He fittingly said: "New York was General Grant's chosen home.
He tried many other places but finally settled there. A house was
given to him here in Washington, but he abandoned it in the most
marked manner to buy one for himself in New York. He was a familiar
form upon her streets. He presided at her public meetings and at all
times took an active interest in her local affairs. He was perfectly
at home there and was charmed with its associations. It was the spot
on earth chosen by himself as the most agreeable to him; he meant to
live and die there. It was his home when he died. He closed his career
without ever once expressing a wish to leave it, but always to remain
in it.

"Men are usually buried at their homes. Washington was buried there;
Lincoln was buried there; Garibaldi was buried there; Gambetta was
buried there, and Ericsson was buried, not at the Capital of Sweden,
but at his own home. Those who say that New York is backward in giving
for any commendable thing either do not know her or they belie her.
Wherever in the civilized world there has been disaster by fire or
flood, or from earthquake or pestilence, she has been among the
foremost in the field of givers and has remained there when others
have departed. It is a shame to speak of her as parsimonious or as
failing in any benevolent duty. Those who charge her with being
dilatory should remember that haste is not always speed. It took more
than a quarter of a century to erect Bunker Hill Monument; the ladies
of Boston completed it. It took nearly half a century to erect a
monument to George Washington in the City founded by him, named for
him, and by his act made the Capital of the Nation; the Government
completed it. New York has already shown that she will do far better
than this."

* * *

His glory as the centuries wide,
His honor bright as sunlit seas,
His lullaby the Hudson tide,
His requiem the whispering breeze.

_Wallace Bruce._

* * *

=The Thirteen Elm Trees=, about ten or fifteen minutes' walk from
General Grant's Tomb, were planted by Alexander Hamilton in his
door-yard, a century ago, to commemorate the thirteen original States.
This property was purchased by the late Hon. Orlando Potter, of New
York, with the following touch of patriotic sentiment: "These
famous trees are located in the northeast corner of One Hundred and
Forty-third street and Convent Avenue; or, on lots fourteen and
fifteen," said the auctioneer to the crowd that gathered at the sale.
"In order that the old property with the trees may be kept unbroken,
should the purchaser desire, we will sell lots 8 to 21 inclusive in
one batch! How much am I offered?" "One hundred thousand dollars,"
quietly responded Mr. Potter. A ripple of excitement ran through the
crowd, and the bid was quickly run up to $120,000 by speculators. "One
hundred and twenty-five thousand," said Mr. Potter. Then there were
several thousand dollar bids, and the auctioneer said: "Do I hear
one hundred and thirty?" Mr. Potter nodded. He nodded again at the
"thirty-five" and "forty" and then some one raised him $250. "Five
hundred," remarked Mr. Potter, and the bidding was done. "Sold for
$140,500!" cried the auctioneer. Mr. Potter smiled and drew his check
for the amount. "I can't say what I will do with the property," said
Mr. Potter. "You can rest assured, however, that the trees will not be
cut down."

* * *

Rest in peace by stately rivers martyred soldiers of the free,
Rest brave captain, at our threshold, where the Hudson meets the sea.

_Wallace Bruce._

* * *

=Edgewater=, opposite Grant's Tomb on the west bank, lies between
Undercliff on the north and Shadyside on the south. The latter place
was made historic by Anthony Wayne's capture of supplies for the
American army in the summer of 1780 which formed the basis of a
satirical poem by Major Andre, entitled ="The Cow Chase."=

The steamer is now approaching 129th street, and we turn again with
pride to the beautiful tomb of General Grant which fittingly marks one
point of a great triangle of fame--the heroic struggle of the American
soldiers in 1776, the home of Alexander Hamilton, and the burial place
of the greatest soldier of the Civil War.

* * *

Woodman, spare that tree!
Touch not a single bough!
In youth it sheltered me,
And I will protect it now.

_George P. Morris._

* * *

=One Hundred and Twenty-Ninth Street to Yonkers.=

This upper landing of the Hudson River Day Line has a beautiful
location and is a great convenience to the dwellers of northern
Manhattan. On leaving the pier the steel-arched structure of
Riverside Drive is seen on the right. The valley here spanned, in the
neighborhood of 127th Street, was once known as "Marritje Davids'
Fly," and the local name for this part of New York above Claremont
Heights is still known as "Manhattanville." The Convent of the Sacred
Heart is visible among the trees, and

=Trinity Cemetery's Monuments= soon gleam along the wooded bank. Among
her distinguished dead is the grave of General John A. Dix whose words
rang across the land sixty days before the attack on Fort Sumter:
"If any man attempts to pull down the American flag shoot him on the
spot." The John A. Dix Post of New York comes hither each Decoration
Day and garlands with imposing ceremonies his grave and the graves of
their comrades.

Near Carmansville was the home of Audubon, the ornithologist, and the
residences above the cemetery are grouped together as Audubon Park.
Near at hand is the New York Institute for the Deaf and Dumb, and
pleasantly located near the shore the River House once known as
West-End Hotel.

=Washington Heights= rise in a bold bluff above Jeffrey's Hook. After
the withdrawal of the American army from Long Island, it became
apparent to General Washington and Hamilton that New York would have
to be abandoned. General Greene and Congress believed in maintaining
the fort, but future developments showed that Washington was right.
The American troops, so far as clothing or equipment was concerned,
were in a pitiable condition, and the result of the struggle makes one
of the darkest pages of the war. On the 12th of November Washington
started from Stony Point for Fort Lee and arrived the 13th, finding
to his disappointment that General Greene, instead of having made
arrangements for evacuating, was, on the contrary, reinforcing Fort
Washington. The entire defense numbered only about 2000 men, mostly
militia, with hardly a coat, to quote an English writer, "that was not
out at the elbows." "On the night of the 14th thirty flat-bottomed
boats stole quietly up the Hudson, passed the American forts
undiscovered, and made their way through Spuyten Duyvil Creek into
Harlem River. The means were thus provided for crossing that river,
and landing before unprotected parts of the American works."

* * *

Faith's pioneers and Freedom's martyrs sleep
Beneath their shade: and under their old boughs
The wise and brave of generations past
Walked every Sabbath to the house of God.

_Henry T. Tuckerman._

* * *

According to Irving, "On the 15th General Howe sent a summons to
surrender, with a threat of extremities should he have to carry the
place by assault." Magaw, in his reply, intimated a doubt that General
Howe would execute a threat "so unworthy of himself and the British
nation; but give me leave," added he, "to assure his Excellency, that,
actuated by the most glorious cause that mankind ever fought in, I am
determined to defend this post to the very last extremity."

"Apprised by the colonel of his peril, General Greene sent over
reinforcements, with an exhortation to him to persist in his
defense; and dispatched an express to General Washington, who was at
Hackensack, where the troops from Peekskill were encamped. It was
nightfall when Washington arrived at Fort Lee. Greene and Putnam were
over at the besieged fortress. He threw himself into a boat, and had
partly crossed the river, when he met those Generals returning. They
informed him of the garrison having been reinforced, and assured him
that it was in high spirits, and capable of making a good defense. It
was with difficulty, however, they could prevail on him to return with
them to the Jersey shore, for he was excessively excited."

* * *

Hark! Freedom's arms ring far and wide;
Again these forts with beacons gleam;
Loud cannon roar on every side--
I start, I wake; I did but dream.

_Wallace Bruce._

* * *

"Early the next morning, Magaw made his dispositions for the expected
attack. His forces, with the recent addition, amounted to nearly three
thousand men. As the fort could not contain above a third of its
defenders, most of them were stationed about the outworks."

About noon, a heavy cannonade thundered along the rocky hills, and
sharp volleys of musketry, proclaimed that the action was commenced.

"Washington, surrounded by several of his officers, had been an
anxious spectator of the battle from the opposite side of the Hudson.
Much of it was hidden from him by intervening hills and forest; but
the roar of cannonry from the valley of the Harlem River, the sharp
and incessant reports of rifles, and the smoke rising above the
tree-tops, told him of the spirit with which the assault was received
at various points, and gave him for a time hope that the defense might
be successful. The action about the lines to the south lay open to
him, and could be distinctly seen through a telescope; and nothing
encouraged him more than the gallant style in which Cadwalader with
inferior force maintained his position. When he saw him however,
assailed in flank, the line broken, and his troops, overpowered by
numbers, retreating to the fort, he gave up the game as lost. The
worst sight of all, was to behold his men cut down and bayoneted by
the Hessians while begging quarter. It is said so completely to have
overcome him, that he wept with the tenderness of a child."

"Seeing the flag go into the fort from Knyphausen's division, and
surmising it to be a summons to surrender, he wrote a note to Magaw,
telling him if he could hold out until evening and the place could
not be maintained, he would endeavor to bring off the garrison in the
night. Capt. Gooch, of Boston, a brave and daring man, offered to be
the bearer of the note. He ran down to the river, jumped into a small
boat, pushed over the river, landed under the bank, ran up to the fort
and delivered the message, came out, ran and jumped over the broken
ground, dodging the Hessians, some of whom struck at him with their
pieces and others attempted to thrust him with their bayonets;
escaping through them, he got to his boat and returned to Fort Lee."

* * *

Up and down the valley of the Hudson the contending
armies surged like the ebbing and flowing of the tides.

_William Wait._

* * *

Washington's message arrived too late. "The fort was so crowded by
the garrison and the troops which had retreated into it, that it was
difficult to move about. The enemy, too, were in possession of the
little redoubts around, and could have poured in showers of shells and
ricochet balls that would have made dreadful slaughter." It was no
longer possible for Magaw to get his troops to man the lines; he was
compelled, therefore, to yield himself and his garrison prisoners of
war. The only terms granted them were, that the men should retain
their baggage and the officers their swords.

=Fort Lee=, directly across the river, had a commanding position, but
was entirely useless to the Revolutionary army after the fall of Fort
Washington. It was therefore immediately abandoned to the British, as
was also Fort Constitution, another redoubt near at hand.

It will be remembered that the American army after long continued
disaster in and about New York, retreated southward from Fort Lee and
Hackensack to the Delaware, where Washington with a strategic stroke
brought dismay on his enemies and restored confidence to his friends
and the Patriots' Cause.

=The Palisades, or Great Chip Rock=, as they were known by the old
Dutch settlers, present the same bold front to the river that the
Giant's Causeway does to the ocean. Their height at Fort Lee, where
the bold cliffs first assert themselves, is three hundred feet, and
they extend about seventeen or eighteen miles to the hills of Rockland
County. A stroll along the summit reveals the fact that they are
almost as broken and fantastic in form as the great rocks along the
Elbe in Saxon-Switzerland.

* * *

The Palisades in sterner pride
Tower as the gloom steals o'er the tide,
For the great stream a bulwark meet
That laves its rock-encumbered feet.

_Robert C. Sands._

* * *

As the basaltic trap-rock is one of the oldest geological formations,
we might still appropriately style the Palisades "a chip of the old
block." They separate the valley of the Hudson from the valley of the
Hackensack. The Hackensack rises in Rockland Lake opposite Sing Sing,
within two or three hundred yards of the Hudson, and the rivers flow
thirty miles side by side. Some geologists think that originally they
were one river, but they are now separated from each other by a wall
more substantial than even the 2,000 mile structure of the "Heathen
Chinee."

It might also be interesting to note Prof. Newberry's idea that in
pre-glacial times this part of the continent was several hundred feet
higher than at present, and that the Hudson was a very rapid stream
and much larger than now, draining as it did the Great Lakes: that the
St. Lawrence found its way through the Hudson Channel following pretty
nearly the line of the present Mohawk, and the great river emptied
into the Atlantic some 80 miles south of Staten Island. This idea is
confirmed by the soundings of the coast survey which discover the
ancient page of the Hudson as here indicated on the floor of the sea
far out where the ocean is 500 feet in depth. A speculation of what a
voyager a few million years ago would have then seen might, however,
as Hamlet observes, be "to consider somewhat too curiously" for
ordinary up-to-date tourists. But even, granting all this to be true,
the Palisades were already old, thrown up long ages before, between
a rift in the earth's surface, where it cooled in columnar form.
The rocky mould which held it, being of softer material, finally
disintegrated and crumbled away, leaving the cliff with its peculiar
perpendicular formation.

A recent writer has said: "The Palisades are among the wonders of the
world. Only three other places equal them in importance, but each of
the four is different from the others, and the Palisades are unique.
The Giant's Causeway on the north coast of Ireland, and the cliffs at
Kawaddy in India, are thought by many to have been the result of the
same upheaval of nature as the Palisades; but the Hudson rocks seem
to have preserved their entirety--to have come up in a body, as it
were--while the Giant's Causeway owes its celebrity to the ruined
state in which the Titanic forces of nature have left it. The third
wonder is at Staffa, in Scotland, where the rocks have been thrown
into such a position as to justify the name of Fingal's Cave, which
they bear, and which was bestowed on them in the olden times before
Scottish history began to be written. It is singular how many of the
names which dignify, or designate, favorite spots of the Giant's
Causeway have been duplicated in the Palisades. Among the Hudson rocks
are several 'Lady's Chairs,' 'Lover's Leaps,' 'Devil's Toothpicks,'
'Devil's Pulpits,' and, in many spots on the water's edge, especially
those most openly exposed to the weather, we see exactly the same
conformations which excite admiration and wonder in the Irish rocks."

* * *

Where the mighty cliffs look upward in their glory and their glow
I see a wondrous river in its beauty southward flow.

_Thomas C. Harbaugh._

* * *

Under the base of these cliffs William Cullen Bryant one Sabbath
morning wrote his beautiful lines:

"Cool shades and dews are round my way,
And silence of the early day;
Mid the dark rocks that watch his bed,
Glitters the mighty Hudson spread,
Unrippled, save by drops that fall
From shrubs that fringe his mountain wall;
And o'er the clear, still water swells
The music of the Sabbath bells.

All, save this little nook of land,
Circled with trees, on which I stand;
All, save that line of hills which lie
Suspended in the mimic sky--
Seems a blue void, above, below,
Through which the white clouds come and go;
And from the green world's farthest steep
I gaze into the airy deep."

* * *

A mellow sunset was settling upon the hills and
waters and a thousand flashes played over the distant
city as its spires and prominent objects caught its glow.

_N. P. Willis._

* * *

There are many strange stories connected with the Palisades, and
one narrator says: "remarkable disappearances have occurred in the
vicinity that have never been explained. On a conical-shaped rock near
Clinton Point a young man and a young woman were seen standing some
half a century ago. Several of their friends, who were back some
thirty feet from the face of the cliff, saw them distinctly, and
called out to them not to approach too near the edge. The young couple
laughingly sent some answer back, and a moment later vanished as by
magic. Their friends rushed to the edge of the cliff but saw no trace
of them. They noticed at once that the tide was out, and at the base
three or four boatmen were sauntering about as though nothing had
happened (forgetting even, as Bryant did, that a vertical line from
the top of the cliff on account of the crumbling debris of ages makes
it impossible for even the strongest arm to hurl a stone from the
summit to the margin of the river). A diligent search was instituted.
Friends and boatmen joined in the search, but from that day to this
they have never been heard from, no trace of them has been found, and
the mystery of their disappearance is as complete now as it was five
minutes after they vanished--a more tragical termination than the
story of the old pilot on a Lake George steamer, who, surrounded one
morning by a group of tourist-questioners, pointed to Roger Slide
Mountain, and said: "A couple went up there and never came back
again." "What do you suppose, captain," said a fair-haired, anxious
listener, "ever became of them?" "Can't tell," said the captain, "some
folks said they went down on the other side.""

The old Palisade Mountain House, a few miles above Fort Lee, had
a commanding location, but was burned in 1884 and never rebuilt.
Pleasant villas are here and there springing up along this rocky
balcony of the lower Hudson, and probably the entire summit will some
day abound in castles and luxuriant homes. It is in fact within the
limit of possibility that this may in the future present the finest
residential street in the world, with a natural macadamized boulevard
midway between the Hudson and the sky.

* * *

What love yon cliffs and steeps could tell
If vocal made by Fancy's spell!

_Robert C. Sands._

* * *

It grieves one to see the gray rocks torn away for building material,
but, as fast as man destroys, nature kindly heals the wound; or to
keep the Palisade figure more complete, she recaptures the scarred and
broken battlements, unfolding along the steep escarpment her waving
standards of green. It sometimes seems as if one can almost see her
selecting the easiest point of attack, marshalling her forces, running
her parallels with Boadicea-like skill, and carrying her streaming
banners, more real than Macbeth's "Birnam-Wood" to crowning rampart
and lofty parapet.

The New York side from the Battery to Inwood, the northern end of
Manhattan Island, is already "well peopled." Until recently the land
about Fort Washington has been held in considerable tracts and
the very names of these suburban points suggest altitude and
outlook--Highbridgeville, Fordham Heights, Morris Heights, University
Heights, Kingsbridge Heights, Mount Hope, &c. The growth of the city
all the way to Jerome and Van Cortlandt's Park during the last few
years has been marvelous. It has literally stepped over the Harlem to
find room in the picturesque county of Westchester.

=The Island of Manhattan.=--As we approach the northern limit of
Manhattan we feel that in the preservation of the beautiful name
"Manhattan," distinctive of New York's chief borough, Irving's dream
has been happily realized. The meaning of this Indian word has been
the subject of much discussion. It is, however, simply the name of a
tribe. As the old historian De Laet says, "On the east side, on the
main land dwell the Manhattoes," and again from the "Documentary
History of New York." "It is so called from the people which inhabited
the main land on the east side of the river."

* * *

Pleasant it is to lie amid the grass,
Under these shady locusts half the day,
Watching the ships reflected in the Bay,
Topmast and shroud, as in a wizard's glass.

_Thomas Bailey Aldrich._

* * *

[Illustration: INDIAN HEAD, PALISADES]

The word Manhattan signifies also it is said: "The People of the
Islands," and it was evidently used by the Indians as a generic term
designating the inhabitants of the island itself, and also of Long
Island and the Neversink. This is in accordance with the testimony of
Van der Donck. With Irving we all recognize the music and poetry
of the name and are proud that our river of beauty is so happily
heralded.

=Spuyten Duyvil Creek.=--Above Washington Heights, on the east bank,
the _Spuyten Duyvil_ meets the Hudson. This stream is the northern
boundary of New York Island, and a short distance east of the Hudson
bears the name of Harlem River. Its course is southeast and joins the
East River at Randall's Island, just above Hell Gate. It is a curious
fact that this modest stream should be bounded by such suggestive
appellations as Hell Gate and Spuyten Duyvil. This is the first point
of special legendary interest to one journeying up the Hudson and it
takes its name according to the veracious Knickerbocker, from the
following incident: It seems that the famous Antony Van Corlear was
despatched one evening with an important message up the Hudson. When
he arrived at this creek the wind was high, the elements were in an
uproar, and no boatman at hand. "For a short time," it is said, "he
vapored like an impatient ghost upon the brink, and then, bethinking
himself of the urgency of his errand, took a hearty embrace of his
stone bottle, swore most valorously that he would swim across _en
spijt en Duyvil_ (in spite of the Devil), and daringly plunged into
the stream. Scarce had he buffeted half way over when he was observed
to struggle violently, as if battling with the spirit of the waters.
Instinctively he put his trumpet to his mouth, and giving a vehement
blast--sank forever to the bottom."

* * *

O legends full of life and health,
That live when records fail and die,
Ye are the Hudson's richest wealth,
The frondage of her history!

_Wallace Bruce._

* * *

The main branch of the Hudson River Railroad, with its station at
Forty-second Street and Fourth Avenue, crosses the Harlem River at
Mott Haven, and, following its northern bank, meets the Hudson at this
point, where the 30th Street branch, following the river, joins the
main line. The steamer now passes Riverdale, with its beautiful
residences and the Convent of Mount St. Vincent, one of the prominent
landmarks of the Hudson, located on grounds bought of Edwin Forrest,
the tragedian, whose "Font Hill Castle" appears in the foreground, and
we come to

=Yonkers=, on the east bank, seventeen miles from New York, at the
mouth of the Nepperhan. West of the creek is a large rock, called
A-mac-lea-sin, the great stone to which the Indians paid reverence as
an evidence of the permanency and immutability of their deity. The
Mahican Village at the mouth of the creek was called Nappechemak.
European settlements were made as early as 1639, as shown by deeds of
purchase. Here are many important manufacturing industries: carpet,
silk, and hat factories; mowers and reapers, gutta percha, rubber and
pencil companies. Its "Recreation Pavilion" on the pier was a noble
thing for the city to build--costing $50,000. The structure is of
steel and capable of accommodating 5,000 people.

It is said that Yonkers derived its name from Yonk-herr--the young
heir, or young sir, of the Phillipse manor. Until after the middle
of the seventeenth century the Phillipse family had their principal
residence at Castle Phillipse, Sleepy Hollow, but having purchased
"property to the southward" from Adrian Van der Donck and obtained
from the English king a patent creating the manor of Phillipsburgh,
they moved from their old castle to the new "Manor Hall," which at
this time was probably the finest mansion on the Hudson. This property
was confiscated by act of Legislature in 1779, as Frederick Phillipse,
third lord of the manor, was thought to lean toward royalty, and
sold by the "Commissioners of Forfeiture" in 1785. It was afterwards
purchased by John Jacob Astor, then passed to the Government, was
bought by the village of Yonkers in 1868, and became the City Hall in
1872. The older portion of the house was built in 1682, the present
front in 1745. The woodwork is very interesting, also the ceilings,
the large hall and the wide fire-place. In the room still pointed out
as Washington's, the fire-place retains the old tiles, "illustrating
familiar passages in Bible history," fifty on each side, looking as
clear as if they were made but yesterday.

* * *

Once more I walk in the dark old street
Wearily to and fro:--
But I sit no more on the desolate pier
Watching the river flow.

_Richard Henry Stoddard._

* * *

Mary Phillipse, belle of the neighborhood, and known in tradition as
Washington's first love, was born in the "Manor House" July 3, 1730.
Washington first met her on a visit to New York in 1756, after his
return from Braddock's campaign, as guest of Beverly Robinson, who had
married her elder sister.

It has been claimed by some writers that he proposed and was rejected,
but it is doubtful whether he ever was serious in his attentions.
At least there is no evidence that he ever "told his love," and she
finally married Col. Roger Morris, one of Washington's associates on
Braddock's staff. The best part of residential Yonkers lies to the
northward, beautifully embowered in trees as seen from the Hudson. A
line of electric street cars run north along Warburton Avenue. The
street known as Broadway, is a continuation of Broadway, New York.
Many of the river towns still keep this name, probably prophetic as a
part of the great Broadway which may extend some day from the Battery
to Peekskill.

Almost opposite Yonkers a ravine or sort of step-ladder cleft, now
known as Alpine Gorge, reaches up the precipitous sides of the
Palisades. The landing here was formerly called Closter's, from which
a road zigzags to the top of the cliff and thence to Closter Village.
Here Lord Grey disembarked in October, 1778, and crossed to Hackensack
Valley, "surprising and massacring Col. Bayler's patriots, despite
their surrender and calls for mercy."

Indian Head (510 feet) about two miles north of Alpine Gorge, is the
highest point of the Palisades.

* * *

Eve o'er our path is stealing fast;
Yon quivering splendors are the last;
His latest glories fringe the height
Behind us with their golden light.

_Robert C. Sands._

* * *

=Yonkers to West Point=

Passing Glenwood, now a suburban station of Yonkers, conspicuous from
the Colgate mansion near the river bank, built by a descendant of
the English Colgates who were familiar friends of William Pitt, and
leaders of the Liberal Club in Kent, England, and "Greystone," once
the country residence of the late Samuel J. Tilden, Governor of New
York, and presidential candidate in 1876, we come to

=Hastings=, where a party of Hessians during the Revolutionary
struggle were surprised and cut to pieces by troops under Colonel
Sheldon. It was here also that Lord Cornwallis embarked for Fort Lee
after the capture of Fort Washington, and here in 1850 Garibaldi,
the liberator of Italy, whose centennial was observed July 4, 1907,
frequently came to spend the Sabbath and visit friends when he was
living at Staten Island. Although there is apparently little to
interest in the village, there are many beautiful residences in the
immediate neighborhood, and the Old Post road for two miles to the
northward furnishes a beautiful walk or driveway, well shaded by old
locust trees. The tract of country from Spuyten Duyvil to Hastings was
called by the Indians Kekesick and reached east as far as the Bronx
River.

=Dobbs Ferry= is now at hand, named after an old Swedish ferryman. The
village has not only a delightful location but it is also beautiful in
itself. In 1781 it was Washington's headquarters, and the old house,
still standing, is famous as the spot where General Washington and the
Count de Rochambeau planned the campaign against Yorktown; where the
evacuation of New York was arranged by General Clinton and Sir Guy
Carleton the British commander, and where the first salute to the flag
of the United States was fired by a British man-of-war. A deep glen,
known as Paramus, opposite Dobbs Ferry, leads to Tappan and New
Jersey. Cornwallis landed here in 1776. It is now known as Snedden's
Landing.

* * *

A lovely country for a summer encampment, breezy
hills commanding wide prospects, shady valleys watered
by bright pastoral streams, the Bronx, the Spraine and
the Neperan.

_Washington Irving._

* * *

At Dobbs Ferry, June 14, 1894, the base-stone of a memorial shaft was
laid with imposing ceremony by the New York State Society of the Sons
of the American Revolution, which erected the monument. There were one
thousand Grand Army veterans in line, and addresses by distinguished
orators and visitors. The Society and its guests, including members
of the cabinet, officers of the army and navy, and prominent men of
various States, accompanied by full Marine Band of the navy yard, with
a detachment of Naval Reserves, participated in the event.

Voyagers up the river that day saw the "Miantonomoh" and the
"Lancaster," under the command of Rear-Admiral Gherardi, anchored
mid-stream to take part in the exercises. During the Revolution this
historic house was leased by a Dutch farmer holding under Frederick
Phillipse as landlord. After the war it was purchased by Peter
Livingston and known since as the Livingston House. Arnold and Andre
were to have met here but providentially for the American cause, the
meeting took place at Haverstraw.

The Indian name of Dobbs Ferry was Wecquaskeck, and it is said by
Ruttenber that the outlines of the old Indian village can still be
traced by numerous shell-beds. It was located at the mouth of Wicker's
Creek which was called by the Indians Wysquaqua.

=Tappan Zee.=--The steamer is now entering Irving's rich domain, and
Tappan Zee lapping the threshold of "Sunnyside," seems almost a part
of his very dooryard. The river, which has averaged about a mile in
breadth, begins to gradually widen at Hastings, and almost seems like
a gentle, reposeful lake.

=Piermont=, whose "mile-long-pier," built many years ago by the Erie
Railroad, hardly mars the landscape so great is the majesty of the
river, is seen on the west bank with Tower Hill rising above it from
which four states are seen. The view includes Long Island, the Sound
and the Orange Mountains on the south, with the Catskills to the north
and Berkshires to the northeast. Louis Gaylord Clark, a friend of
Irving, and an early literary associate had a cottage on Piermont
Hills.

* * *

We have a charming position for our French encampment
along the Hudson among rocks and under magnificent tulip trees.

_Count Dumas._

* * *

Turning to the eastern shore, we see "Nuits," the Cottinet residence,
Italian in style, built of Caen stone, "Nevis," home of the late Col.
James Hamilton, son of Alexander Hamilton, the George L. Schuyler
mansion, the late Cyrus W. Field's, and many pleasant places about
Abbotsford, and come to

=Irvington=, on the east bank, 24 miles from New York, once known as
Dearman's, but changed in compliment to the great writer and lover of
the Hudson, who after a long sojourn in foreign lands, returned to
live by the tranquil waters of Tappan Zee. In a letter to his brother
he refers to Sleepy Hollow as the favorite resort of his boyhood, and
says: "The Hudson is in a manner my first and last love, and after
all my wanderings and seeming infidelities, I return to it with
a heartfelt preference over all the rivers of the world." As at
Stratford-on-Avon every flower is redolent of Shakespeare, and at
Melrose every stone speaks of Walter Scott, so here on every breeze
floats the spirit of Washington Irving. A short walk of half a mile
north from the station brings us to his much-loved

="Sunnyside."= Irving aptly describes it in one of his stories as
"made up of gable-ends, and full of angles and corners as an old
cocked hat. It is said, in fact, to have been modeled after the hat of
Peter the Headstrong, as the Escurial of Spain was fashioned after the
gridiron of the blessed St. Lawrence." Wolfert's Roost, as it was once
styled (Roost signifying Rest), took its name from Wolfert Acker, a
former owner. It consisted originally of ten acres when purchased by
Irving in 1835, but eight acres were afterwards added. With great
humor Irving put above the porch entrance "George Harvey, Boum'r,"
Boumeister being an old Dutch word for architect. A storm-worn
weather-cock, "which once battled with the wind on the top of the
Stadt House of New Amsterdam in the time of Peter Stuyvesant, erects
his crest on the gable, and a gilded horse in full gallop, once the
weather-cock of the great Van der Heyden palace of Albany, glitters in
the sunshine, veering with every breeze, on the peaked turret over the
portal."

* * *

Irving chose his residence in the valley, not amid
the mountains; by the fields and meadows of the broad
Tappan Zee, rather than the Highlands; in a congenial
region suited to his temperament.

_Dr. Bethune._

* * *

About fifty years ago a cutting of Walter Scott's favorite ivy at
Melrose Abbey was transported across the Atlantic, and trained over
the porch of "Sunnyside," by the hand of Mrs. Renwick, daughter of
Rev. Andrew Jeffrey of Lochmaben, known in girlhood as the "Bonnie
Jessie" of Annandale, or the "Blue-eyed Lassie" of Robert Burns:--a
graceful tribute, from the shrine of Waverley to the nest of
Knickerbocker:

A token of friendship immortal
With Washington Irving returns:--
Scott's ivy entwined o'er his portal
By the Blue-eyed Lassie of Burns.

Scott's cordial greeting at Abbotsford, and his persistence in getting
Murray to reconsider the publication of the "Sketch Book," which he
had previously declined, were never forgotten by Irving. It was during
a critical period of his literary career, and the kindness of the
Great Magician, in directing early attention to his genius, is still
cherished by every reader of the "Sketch Book" from Manhattan to
San Francisco. The hearty grasp of the Minstrel at the gateway of
Abbotsford was in reality a warm handshake to a wider brotherhood
beyond the sea.

* * *

In purple tints woven together
The Hudson shakes hands with the Tweed,
Commingling with Abbotsford's heather
The clover of Sunnyside's mead.

_Wallace Bruce._

* * *

=Washington Irving.=--While he was building "Sunnyside," a letter came
from Daniel Webster, then Secretary of State, appointing him minister
to Spain. It was unexpected and unsolicited, and Webster remarked that
day to a friend: "Washington Irving to-day will be the most surprised
man in America." Irving had already shown diplomatic ability in London
in promoting the settlement of the "North Western Boundary," and his
appointment was received with universal favor. Then as now Sunnyside
was already a Mecca for travelers, and, among many well-known to fame,
was a young man, afterwards Napoleon the Third. Referring to his
visit, Irving wrote in 1853: "Napoleon and Eugenie, Emperor and
Empress! The one I have had as a guest at my cottage, the other I have
held as a pet child upon my knee in Granada. The last I saw of Eugenie
Montijo, she was one of the reigning belles of Madrid; now, she is
upon the throne, launched from a returnless shore, upon a dangerous
sea, infamous for its tremendous shipwrecks. Am I to live to see the
catastrophe of her career, and the end of this suddenly conjured up
empire, which seems to be of such stuff as dreams are made of?
I confess my personal acquaintance with the individuals in this
historical romance gives me uncommon interest in it; but I consider
it stamped with danger and instability, and as liable to extravagant
vicissitudes as one of Dumas' novels." A wonderful prophecy completely
fulfilled in the short space of seventeen years.

* * *

How many such men as Washington Irving are there
in America. God don't send many such spirits into this
world.

_Lord Byron._

* * *

The aggregate sale of Irving's works when he received his portfolio
to Spain was already more than half a million copies, with an equal
popularity achieved in Britain. No writer was ever more truly loved
on both sides of the Atlantic, and his name is cherished to-day in
England as fondly as it is in our own country. It has been the good
fortune of the writer to spend many a delightful day in the very
centre of Merrie England, in the quiet town of Stratford-on-Avon,
and feel the gentle companionship of Irving. Of all writers who have
brought to Stratford their heart homage Irving stands the acknowledged
chief. The sitting-room in the "Red Horse Hotel," where he was
disturbed in his midnight reverie, is still called Irving's room, and
the walls are hung with portraits taken at different periods of his
life. Mine host said that visitors from every land were as much
interested in this room as in Shakespeare's birth-place. The remark
may have been intensified to flatter an American visitor, but there
are few names dearer to the Anglo-Saxon race than that on the plain
headstone in the burial-yard of Sleepy Hollow. Sunnyside is scarcely
visible to the Day Line tourist. A little gleam of color here
and there amid the trees, close to the river bank, near a small
boat-house, merely indicates its location; and the traveler by train
has only a hurried glimpse, as it is within one hundred feet of the
New York Central Railroad. Tappan Zee, at this point, is a little more
than two miles wide and over the beautiful expanse Irving has thrown
a wondrous charm. There is, in fact, "magic in the web" of all his
works. A few modern critics, lacking appreciation alike for humor and
genius, may regard his essays as a thing of the past, but as long as
the Mahicanituk, the ever-flowing Hudson, pours its waters to the
sea, as long as Rip Van Winkle sleeps in the blue Catskills, or the
"Headless Horseman" rides at midnight along the Old Post Road _en
route_ for Teller's Point, so long will the writings of Washington
Irving be remembered and cherished. We somehow feel the reality of
every legend he has given us. The spring bubbling up near his cottage
was brought over, as he gravely tells us, in a churn from Holland by
one of the old time settlers, and we are half inclined to believe it;
and no one ever thinks of doubting that the "Flying Dutchman," Mynheer
Van Dam, has been rowing for two hundred years and never made a port.
It is in fact still said by the old inhabitants, that often in the
soft twilight of summer evenings, when the sea is like glass and the
opposite hills throw their shadows across it, that the low vigorous
pull of oars is heard but no boat is seen.

[Illustration: NORTHERN POINT OF PALISADES]

* * *

Here was no castle in the air, but a realized day-dream.
Irving was there, as genial, humorous and imaginative
as if he had never wandered from the primal
haunts of his childhood and his fame.

_Henry T. Tuckerman._

* * *

According to Irving "Sunnyside" was once the property of old Baltus
Van Tassel, and here lived the fair Katrina, beloved by all the youths
of the neighborhood, but more especially by Ichabod Crane, the country
school-master, and a reckless youth by the name of Van Brunt. Irving
tells us that he thought out the story one morning on London Bridge,
and went home and completed it in thirty-six hours. The character of
Ichabod Crane was a sketch of a young man whom he met at Kinderhook
when writing his Knickerbocker history. It will be remembered that
Ichabod Crane went to a quilting-bee at the home of Mynheer Van
Tassel, and, after the repast, was regaled with various ghost stories
peculiar to the locality. When the "party" was over he lingered for
a time with the fair Katrina, but sallied out soon after with an air
quite desolate and chop-fallen. The night grew darker and darker. He
had never before felt so lonesome and miserable. As he passed the
fatal tree where Arnold was captured, there started up before him the
identical "Headless Horseman" to whom he had been introduced by the
story of Brom Bones. Nay, not entirely headless; for the head which
"should have rested upon his shoulders was carried before him on the
pommel of the saddle. His terror rose to desperation. He rode for
death and life. The strange horseman sped beside him at an equal pace.
He fell into a walk. The strange horseman did the same. He endeavored
to sing a psalm-tune, but his tongue clove to the roof of his mouth.
If he could but reach the bridge Ichabod thought he would be safe.
Away then he flew in rapid flight. He reached the bridge, he thundered
over the resounding planks. Then he saw the goblin rising in his
stirrups, and in the very act of launching his head at him. It
encountered his cranium with a tremendous crash. He was tumbled
headlong into the dirt, and the black steed and the spectral rider
passed by like a whirlwind. The next day tracks of horses deeply
dented in the road were traced to the bridge, beyond which, on the
bank of a broad part of the brook, where the water ran deep and black,
was found the hat of the unfortunate Ichabod, and close beside it a
shattered pumpkin." All honor to him who fills this working-day world
with humor, romance and beauty!

* * *

I beg you will have the kindness to let me know when
Mr. Irving takes pen in hand again; for assuredly I
shall expect a very great treat which I may chance never
to hear of but through your kindness.

_Walter Scott._

* * *

I want to visit Washington Irving, I want to see your
stupendous scenery, I want to go to the grave of
Washington.

_Lord Byron._

* * *

=Lyndehurst=, Helen M. Gould's residence. A short distance north of
"Sunnyside" is the home of Helen M. Gould, whose modest and liberal
use of wealth in noble charities has endeared her to every American
heart. The place was first known as the Paulding Manor House, where
William Paulding, early mayor of New York, and nephew of one of the
captors of Andre had his country home. It is a beautiful specimen of
old time English architecture, with a suggestion, as some writers have
noted, of Newstead Abbey. This part of the Hudson is particularly rich
in beautiful residences, rising tier upon tier from the river to the
horizon. Albert Bierstadt, the artist, had here a beautiful home,
unfortunately burned many years ago.

=The Old Post Road= from New York to Albany is in many particulars the
richest and greatest highway of our country.

=Tappan.=--Almost opposite Irvington about two miles southwest of
Piermont, is old Tappantown, where Major Andre was executed October
2, 1780. The removal of his body from Tappan to Westminster was by a
special British ship, and a singular incident was connected with it.
The roots of a cypress tree were found entwined about his skull and a
scion from the tree was carried to England and planted in the garden
adjoining Windsor Palace. It is a still more curious fact that the
tree beneath which Andre was captured was struck by lightning on the
day of Benedict Arnold's death in London. Further reference will be
made to Andre in our description of Tarrytown, and also of Haverstraw,
where Arnold and Andre met at the house of Joshua Hett Smith.

=Tarrytown=, 26 miles from New York. It was here on the Old Post Road,
now called Broadway, a little north of the village, that Andre was
captured and Arnold's treachery exposed. A monument erected on the
spot by the people of Westchester County, October 7, 1853, bears the
inscription:

ON THIS SPOT, THE 23D DAY OF SEPTEMBER, 1780, THE SPY,
MAJOR JOHN ANDRE,
Adjutant-General of the British Army, was captured by
JOHN PAULDING, DAVID WILLIAMS, AND ISAAC VAN WART.
ALL NATIVES OF THIS COUNTY.
History has told the rest.

The following quaint ballad-verses on the young hero give a realistic
touch to one of the most providential occurrences in our history:

He with a scouting party
Went down to Tarrytown,
Where he met a British officer,
A man of high renown,
Who says unto these gentlemen,
"You're of the British cheer,
I trust that you can tell me
If there's any danger near?"

Then up stept this young hero,
John Paulding was his name,
"Sir, tell us where you're going
And also whence you came?"
"I bear the British flag, sir;
I've a pass to go this way,
I'm on an expedition,
And have no time to stay."

Young Paulding, however, thought that he had plenty of time to linger
until he examined his boots, wherein he found the papers, and, when
offered ten guineas by Andre, if he would allow him to pursue his
journey, replied: "If it were ten thousand guineas you could not stir
one step."

The centennial anniversary of the event was commemorated in 1880 by
placing, through the generosity of John Anderson, on the original
obelisk of 1853, a large statue representing John Paulding as a minute
man.

* * *

That overruling Providence which has so often and so
remarkably interposed in our favor, never manifested
itself more conspicuously than in the timely discovery
of Arnold's treachery.

_George Washington._

* * *

Tarrytown was the very heart of the debatable ground of the Revolution
and many striking incidents mark its early history. In 1777 Vaughan's
troops landed here on their way to attack Fort Montgomery, and here a
party of Americans, under Major Hunt, surprised a number of British
refugees while playing cards at the Van Tassel tavern. The major
completely "turned the cards" upon them by rushing in with brandished
stick, which he brought down with emphasis upon the table, remarking
with genuine American brevity, "Gentlemen, clubs are trumps." Here,
too, according to Irving, arose the two great orders of chivalry, the
"Cow Boys" and "Skinners." The former fought, or rather marauded under
the American, the latter under the British banner; the former were
known as "Highlanders," the latter as the "Lower-Party." In the zeal
of service both were apt to make blunders, and confound the property
of friend and foe. "Neither of them, in the heat and hurry of a foray,
had time to ascertain the politics of a horse or cow which they were
driving off into captivity, nor when they wrung the neck of a rooster
did they trouble their heads whether he crowed for Congress or King
George."

It was also a genial, reposeful country for the faithful historian,
Diedrich Knickerbocker; and here he picked up many of those legends
which were given by him to the world. One of these was the legend
connected with the old Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow. "A drowsy,
dreamy influence seems to hang over the land, and to pervade the very
atmosphere. Some say the place was bewitched by a high German doctor
during the early days of the settlement; others that an old Indian
chief, the wizard of his tribe, held his pow-wows there before
Hendrick Hudson's discovery of the river. The dominant spirit,
however, that haunts this enchanted region, is the apparition of
a figure on horse-back, without a head, said to be the ghost of a
Hessian trooper, and was known at all the country firesides as the
'Headless horseman' of Sleepy Hollow."

* * *

O waters of Pocantico!
Wild rivulet of wood and glen!
May thy glad laughter, sweet and low,
Long, long outlive the sighs of men.

_S. H. Thayer._

* * *

[Illustration: SLEEPY HOLLOW CHURCH.]

=Sleepy Hollow.=--The Old Dutch Church, the oldest on the Hudson, is
about one-half mile north from Tarrytown.

It was built by "Frederick Filipse and his wife Katrina Van Cortland
in 1690." The material is partly of stone and partly of brick brought
from Holland. It stands as an appropriate sentinel near the entrance
to the burial-yard where Irving sleeps. After entering the gate our
way leads past the graves of the Ackers, the Van Tassels, and the Van
Warts, with inscriptions and plump Dutch cherubs on every side
that often delighted the heart of Diedrich Knickerbocker. How many
worshippers since that November day in 1859, have come hither with
reverent footsteps to read on the plain slab this simple inscription:
"Washington Irving, born April 3, 1783. Died November 28, 1859," and
recall Longfellow's beautiful lines:

"Here lies the gentle humorist, who died
In the bright Indian Summer of his fame.
A simple stone, with but a date and name,
Marks his secluded resting place beside
The river that he loved and glorified.
Here in the Autumn of his days he came,
But the dry leaves of life were all aflame
With tints that brightened and were multiplied.
How sweet a life was his, how sweet a death;
Living to wing with mirth the weary hours,
Or with romantic tales the heart to cheer;
Dying to leave a memory like the breath
Of Summers full of sunshine and of showers,
A grief and gladness in the atmosphere."

* * *

If ever I should wish for a retreat whither I might
steal from the world and its distractions, and dream
quietly away the remnant of a troubled life, I know of
none more promising than this little valley.

_Washington Irving._

* * *

Sleepy Hollow Church, like Sunnyside, is hidden away from the steamer
tourist by summer foliage. Just before reaching Kingston Point
light-house, a view, looking northeast up the little bay to the right,
will sometimes give the outline of the building. Beyond this a tall
granite shaft, erected by the Delavan family, is generally quite
distinctly seen, and this is near the grave of Irving. A light-house,
built in 1883, marks the point where the Pocantico or Sleepy Hollow
Creek joins the Hudson:

Pocantico's hushed waters glide
Through Sleepy Hollow's haunted ground,
And whisper to the listening tide
The name carved o'er one lowly mound.

To one loving our early history and legends there is no spot more
central or delightful than Tarrytown. Irving humorously says that
Tarrytown took its name from husbands tarrying too late at the village
tavern, but its real derivation is Tarwen-Dorp, or Wheat-town. The
name of the old Indian village at this point was Alipconck (the place
of elms). It has often occurred to the writer that, more than any
other river, the Hudson has a distinct personality, and also that
the four main divisions of human life are particularly marked in the
Adirondacks, the Catskills, the Highlands and Tappan Bay:

The Adirondacks, childhood's glee;
The Catskills, youth with dreams o'ercast;
The Highlands, manhood bold and free;
The Tappan Zee, age come at last.

This was the spot that Irving loved; we linger by his grave at
Sleepy Hollow with devotion; we sit upon his porch at Sunnyside with
reverence:

Thrice blest and happy Tappan Zee,
Whose banks along thy glistening tide
Have legend, truth, and poetry
Sweetly expressed in Sunnyside!

* * *

Whose golden fancy wove a spell
As lasting as the scene is fair
And made the mountain stream and dell
His own dream-life forever share.

_Henry T. Tuckerman._

* * *

=Nyack=, on the west side, 27 miles from New York. The village,
including Upper Nyack, West Nyack and South Nyack, has many fine
suburban homes and lies in a semi-circle of hills which sweep back
from Piermont, meeting the river again at the northern end of Tappan
Zee. Tappan is derived from an Indian tribe of that name, which, being
translated, is said to signify cold water. The bay is ten miles in
length, with an average breadth of about two miles and a half.

Nyack grows steadily in favor as a place for summer residents. The
hotels, boarding-houses and suburban homes would increase the census
as given to nearly ten thousand people. The _West Shore Railroad_ is
two and a half miles from the Hudson, with (a) station at West Nyack. The
_Northern Railroad of New Jersey_, leased by the _New York, Lake Erie
and Western_ (Chambers Street and 23d Street, New York), passes west
of the Bergen Hills and the Palisades. The Ramapo Mountains, north
of Nyack, were formerly known by ancient mariners as the Hook, or
Point-no-Point. They come down to the river in little headlands, the
points of which disappear as the steamer nears them. (The peak to the
south, known as Hook Mountain, is 730 feet high.) Ball Mountain above
this, and nearer the river, 650 feet. They were sometimes called by
Dutch captains Verditege Hook.

* * *

The sails hung idly all night long,
I dreamed a dream of you and me;
'Twas sweeter than the sweetest song,--
The dream I dreamed on Tappan Zee.

_Wallace Bruce._

* * *

[Illustration: STONY POINT]

Perhaps it took so long to pass these illusive headlands, reaching as
they do eight miles along the western bank, that it naturally seemed a
_very tedious_ point to the old skippers. Midway in this Ramapo Range,
"set in a dimple of the hills," is--

=Rockland Lake=, source of the Hackensack River, one hundred and fifty
feet above the Hudson. The "slide way," by which the ice is sent down
to the boats to be loaded, can be seen from the steamer, and the
blocks in motion, as seen by the traveler, resemble little white pigs
running down an inclined plane. As we look at the great ice-houses
to-day, which, like uncouth barns, stand here and there along the
Hudson, it does not seem possible that only a few years ago ice was
decidedly unpopular, and wheeled about New York in a hand-cart. Think
of one hand-cart supplying New York with ice! It was considered
unhealthy, and called forth many learned discussions.

Returning to the east bank, we see above Tarrytown many superb
residences, notably "Rockwood," the home of William Rockefeller, of
the Standard Oil Company. The estate of General James Watson Webb is
also near at hand. Passing Scarborough Landing, with the Hook Mountain
and Ball Mountains on the left, we see

=Ossining=, formerly known as Sing Sing, on east bank. The low
buildings, near the river bank, are the State's Prison. They are
constructed of marble, but are not considered palatial by the
prisoners that occupy the cells. It was quarried near by, and the
prisons were built by convicts imported from Auburn in 1826. Saddlery,
furniture, shoes, etc., are manufactured within its walls. There was
an Indian chieftancy here known as the Sintsinks. In a deed to Philip
Phillipse in 1685 a stream is referred to as "Kitchewan called by the
Indians Sink-Sink." The Indian Village was known as Ossining, from
"ossin" a stone and "ing" a place, probably so called from the rocky
and stony character of the river banks.

* * *

How many, at this hour, along thy course,
Slumber to thine eternal murmurings
That mingle with the utterance of their dreams.

_William Cullen Bryant._

* * *

The heights above Tappan Zee at this point are crowned by fine
residences, and the village is one of the pleasantest on the river.
The drives among the hills are delightful and present a wide and
charming outlook. Here also are several flourishing military boarding
schools and a seminary for girls. The old silver and copper mines once
worked here never yielded satisfactory returns for invested capital.
Various industries give active life and prosperity to the town. Just
above Sing Sing

=Croton River=, known by the Indians as Kitchawonk, joins the
Hudson in a bay crossed by the _New York Central Railroad_ Croton
draw-bridge. East of this point is a water shed having an area of 350
square miles, which supplies New York with water. The Croton Reservoir
is easily reached by a pleasant carriage drive from Sing Sing, and it
is a singular fact that the pitcher and ice-cooler of New York, or in
other words, Croton Dam and Rockland Lake, should be almost opposite.
About fifty years ago the Croton first made its appearance in New
York, brought in by an aqueduct of solid masonry which follows the
course of the Hudson near the Old Post Road, or at an average distance
of about a mile from the east bank. Here and there its course can be
traced by "white stone ventilating towers" from Sing Sing to High
Bridge, which conveys the aqueduct across the Harlem River. Its
capacity is 100,000,000 gallons per day, which however began to be
inadequate for the city and a new aqueduct was therefore begun in 1884
and completed in 1890, capable of carrying three times that amount, at
a cost of $25,000,000. The water-shed is well supplied with streams
and lakes. Lake Mahopac, one of its fountains, is one of the most
beautiful sheets of water near the metropolis, and easily accessible
by a pleasant drive from Peekskill, or by the _Harlem Railroad_ from
New York. The old Indian name was Ma-cook-pake, signifying a large
inland lake, or perhaps an island near the shore. The same derivation
is also seen in Copake Lake, Columbia County. On an island of Mahopac
the last great "convention" of the southern tribes of the Hudson was
held. The lake is about 800 feet above tide, and it is pleasant to
know that the bright waters of Mahopac and the clear streams of Putnam
and Westchester are conveyed to New York even as the poetic waters of
Loch Katrine to the city of Glasgow. The Catskill water supply, the
ground of which was broken in 1907, is referred to in our description
of Cold Spring and the Catskills.

* * *

Round the aqueducts of story
As the mists of Lethe throng
Croton's waves in all their glory
Troop in melody along.

_George P. Morris._

* * *

Just above Croton Bay and the _New York Central Railroad_ draw-bridge
will be seen the old Van Cortlandt Manor, where Frederick Phillipse
and Katrina Van Cortlandt were married, as seen by the inscription on
the old Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow.

=Teller's Point= (sometimes known as Croton or Underhill's Point),
separates Tappan Zee from Haverstraw Bay. It was called by the Indians
"Senasqua." Tradition says that ancient warriors still haunt the
surrounding glens and woods, and the sachems of Teller's Point are
household words in the neighborhood. It is also said that there was
once a great Indian battle here, and perhaps the ghosts of the old
warriors are attracted by the Underhill grapery and the 10,000 gallons
of wine bottled every season.

It was here the British warship "The Vulture," came with Andre and put
him ashore at the foot of Mount Tor below Haverstraw.

The river now opens into a beautiful bay, four miles in width,--a bed
large enough to tuck up fifteen River Rhines side by side. This reach
sometimes seems in the bright sunlight like a molten bay of silver,
and the tourist finds relief in adjusting his smoked glasses to temper
the dazzling light.

* * *

Beneath these gold and azure skies
The river winds through leafy glades,
Save where, like battlements, arise
The gray and tufted Palisades.

_Henry T. Tuckerman._

* * *

=Haverstraw=, 37 miles from New York. Haverstraw Bay is sometimes said
to be five miles wide. Its widest point, however, from Croton Landing
to Haverstraw, is, according to United States Geological Survey,
a little over four miles. The principal industry of Haverstraw is
brick-making, and its brick yards reaching north to Grassy Point, are
of materal profit, if not picturesque. The place was called Haverstraw
by the Dutch, perhaps as a place of rye straw, to distinguish it from
Tarrytown, a place of wheat. The Indian name has been lost; but, if
its original derivation is uncertain, it at least calls up the rhyme
of old-time river captains, which Captain Anderson of the "Mary
Powell" told the writer he used to hear frequently when a boy:

"West Point and Middletown,
Konnosook and Doodletown,
Kakiak and Mamapaw,
Stony Point and Haverstraw."

Quaint as these names now sound, they all are found on old maps of the
Hudson.

=High Torn= is the name of the northern point of the Ramapo on the
west bank, south of Haverstraw. According to the Coast Survey, it is
820 feet above tide-water, and the view from the summit is grand and
extensive. The origin of the name is not clear, but it has lately
occurred to the writer, from a re-reading of Scott's "Peveril of the
Peak," that it might have been named from the Torn, a mountain in
Derbyshire, either from its appearance, or by some patriotic settler
from the central water-shed of England. Others say it is the
Devonshire word Tor changed to Torn, evidently derived from the same
source.

* * *

Emerging from these confused piles, the river as if
rejoicing at its release from its struggle, expanded into
a wide bay, which was ornamented by a few fertile and
low points that jutted humbly into its broad basin.

_James Fenimore Cooper._

* * *

=West Shore Railroad.=--The tourist will see at this point, on the
left bank of the river, the tunnel whereby the "West Shore" finds
egress from the mountains. The traveler over this railway, on emerging
from the quiet valley west of the Palisades, comes upon a sudden
vision of beauty unrivaled in any land. The broad river seems like a
great inland lake; and the height of the tunnel above the silver bay
gives to the panoramic landscape a wondrous charm. About a mile from
the river, southwest of Grassy Point, on the farther side of the
winding Minnissickuongo Creek, which finally after long meandering
makes up its mind to glide into Stony Point Bay, will be seen Treason
Hill marked by the Joshua Hett Smith stone house where Arnold and
Andre met. The story of this meeting will be referred to at greater
length in connection with its most dramatic incident at the old
Beverley House in the Highlands. The Hudson here is about two miles
in width and narrows rapidly as we pass Grassy Point on the west bank
with its meadows and brick yards to

=Stony Point=, where it is scarcely more than half a mile to
Verplank's Point on the eastern bank. This was, therefore, an
important pass during the Revolution. The crossing near at hand was
known as King's Ferry, at and before the days of '76, and was quite an
avenue of travel between the Southern, Middle and Eastern States. The
fort crowning a commanding headland, was captured by the British, June
1, 1779, but it was surprised and recaptured by Anthony Wayne, July
15 of the same year. A centennial was observed at the place July 15,
1879, when the battle was "refought" and the West Point Cadets showed
how they would have done it if they had been on hand a century ago.
Thackeray, in his "Virginians," gives perhaps the most graphic account
of this midnight battle. The present light-house occupies the site of
the old fort, and was built in part of stone taken from its walls.
Upon its capture by the British, Washington, whose headquarters were
at New Windsor, meditated a bold stroke and summoned Anthony Wayne,
more generally known as "Mad Anthony," from his reckless daring, to
undertake its recapture with a force of one thousand picked men. The
lines were formed in two columns about 8 p.m. at "Springsteel's farm."
Each soldier and officer put a piece of white paper in his hat to
distinguish him from the foe. No guns were to be loaded under penalty
of death. General Wayne, at the head of the column, forded the marsh
covered at the time with two feet of water. The other column led by
Butler and Murfree crossed an apology for a bridge. During the advance
both columns were discovered by the British sentinels and the rocky
defense literally blazed with musketry. In stern silence, however,
without faltering, the American columns moved forward, entered the
abatis, until the advance guard under Anthony Wayne was within the
enemy's works. A bullet at this moment struck Wayne in the forehead
grazing his skull. Quickly recovering from the shock, he rose to his
knees, shouted: "Forward, my brave fellows"; then turning to two of
his followers, he asked them to help him into the fort that he might
die, if it were to be so, "in possession of the spot." Both columns
were now at hand and inspired by the brave general, came pouring
in, crying "The fort's our own." The British troops completely
overwhelmed, were fain to surrender and called for mercy. Wayne's
characteristic message to Washington antedates modern telegraphic
brevity:--"Stony Point, 2 o'clock a.m. The American flag waves
here.--Mad Anthony." There were twenty killed and sixty wounded on
each side. Some five hundred of the enemy were captured and about
sixty escaped. "Money rewards and medals were given to Wayne and
the leaders in the assault. The ordinance and stores captured were
appraised at over $180,000 and there was universal rejoicing"
throughout the land. "Stony Point State Park" was dedicated by
appropriate ceremony July 16, 1902. At the close of Governor Odell's
address the flag was raised by William Wayne, a lineal descendant of
the hero, and the cruiser "Olympia" of Manila fame boomed forth her
tribute. Verplank's Point, on the east bank (now full of brick-making
establishments), was the site of Fort Lafayette. It was here that
Baron Steuben drilled the soldiers of the American army. Back from
Green Cove above Verplanck's Point is "Knickerbocker Lake."

* * *

The star spangled banner, the flag of the brave,
And the cross of old England in amity wave,
But if ever the nations do battle again
God send us such soldiers as Anthony Wayne.

_Minna Irving._

* * *

The echoes that so boldly rung
When cannon flashed from steep to steep,
And freedom's airy challenge flung,
In each romantic valley sleep.

_Henry T. Tuckerman._

* * *

=Tompkin's Cove.=--North of Stony Point we see great quarries of
limestone, the principal industry of the village of Tompkin's Cove.
Gravel is also shipped from this place for Central Park roads and
driveways in New York City. The tourist, looking north from the
forward deck of the steamer, sees no opening in the mountains, and
it is amusing to hear the various conjectures of the passengers; as
usual, the "unexpected" happens. The steamer turns to the left and
sweeps at once into the grand scenery of the Highlands. The straight
forward course, which seems the more natural, would land the steamer
against the _Hudson River Railroad_, crossing the Peekskill River.
It is said that an old skipper, Jans Peek, ran up this stream, years
before the railroad was built, and did not know that he had left the
Hudson, or rather that the Hudson was "left" until he ran aground in
the shoal water of the bay. The next morning he discovered that it was
a goodly land, and the place bears his name unto this day.

* * *

The Highlands and the Palisades
Mirror their beauty in the tide,
The history of whose forest shades
A nation reads with conscious pride.

_Wallace Bruce._

* * *

=Peekskill=, 40 miles from New York, is a pleasant city on the quiet
bay which deeply indents the eastern bank. The property in this
vicinity was known as Rycks Patent in 1665. In Revolutionary times
Fort Independence stood on the point above, where its ruins are still
seen. The Franciscan Convent Academy of "Our Lady of Angels," guards
the point below. In 1797 Peekskill was the headquarters of old Israel
Putnam, who rivaled "Mad Anthony" in brevity as well as courage. It
will be remembered that Palmer was here captured as a spy. A British
officer wrote a letter asking his reprieve, to which Putnam replied,
"Nathan Palmer was taken as a spy, tried as a spy and will be hanged
as a spy. P. S.--He is hanged." This was the birthplace of Paulding,
one of Andre's captors, and he died here in 1818. He is buried in the
old rural cemetery about two miles and a half from the village, and a
monument has been erected to his memory. Near at hand is the "Wayside
Inn," where Andre once "tarried," also the Hillside Cemetery, where on
June 19, 1898, the 123d anniversary of the battle of Bunker Hill, a
monument was unveiled to General Pomeroy by the Society of the Sons of
Revolution, New York. The church which Washington attended is in good
preservation.

Near Peekskill is the old Van Cortlandt house, the residence of
Washington for a short time during the Revolution. East of the village
was the summer home of the great pulpit orator, Henry Ward Beecher.
Peekskill was known by the Indians as Sackhoes in the territory of the
Kitchawongo, which extended from Croton River to Anthony's Nose.

[Illustration: SOUTHERN GATE OF HIGHLANDS]

Turning Caldwell's Landing or Jones' Point, formerly known as Kidd's
Point, almost at right angles, the steamer enters the southern gate of
the Highlands. At the water edge will be seen some upright planks or
caissons marking the spot where Kidd's ship was supposed to have been
scuttled. As his history seems to be intimately associated with the
Hudson, we will give it in brief:

=The Story of Captain Kidd.=--"My name was Captain Kidd as I sailed,"
are famous lines of an old ballad which was once familiar to our
grandfathers. The hapless hero of the same was born about the middle
of the seventeenth century, and it is thought, near Greenock,
Scotland. He resided at one time in New York, near the corner of
William and Cedar Streets, and was there married. In April, 1696, he
sailed from England in command of the "Adventure Galley," with full
armament and eighty men. He captured a French ship, and, on arrival at
New York, put up articles for volunteers; remained in New York three
or four months, increasing his crew to one hundred and fifty-five
men, and sailed thence to Madras, thence to Bonavista and St. Jago,
Madagascar, then to Calicut, then to Madagascar again, then sailed and
took the "Quedah Merchant." Kidd kept forty shares of the spoils, and
divided the rest with his crew. He then burned the "Adventure Galley,"
went on board the "Quedah Merchant," and steered for the West Indies.
Here he left the "Merchant," with part of his crew, under one Bolton,
as commander. Then manned a sloop, and taking part of his spoils, went
to Boston via Long Island Sound, and is said to have set goods on
shore at different places. In the meantime, in August, 1698, the East
Indian Company informed the Lords Justice that Kidd had committed
several acts of piracy, particularly in seizing a Moor's ship called
the "Quedah Merchant." When Kidd landed at Boston he was therefore
arrested by the Earl of Bellamont, and sent to England for trial,
1699, where he was found guilty and executed. Now it is supposed that
the crew of the "Quedah Merchant," which Kidd left at Hispaniola,
sailed for their homes, as the crew was mostly gathered from the
Highlands and above. It is said that they passed New York in the
night, _en route_ to the manor of Livingston; but encountering a gale
in the Highlands, and thinking they were pursued, ran her near the
shore, now known as Kidd's Point, and here scuttled her, the crew
fleeing to the woods with such treasure as they could carry. Whether
this circumstance was true or not, it was at least a current story in
the neighborhood, and an enterprising individual, about fifty years
ago, _caused an old cannon_ to be "discovered" in the river, and
perpetrated the first "Cardiff Giant Hoax." A New York Stock Company
was organized to prosecute the work. It was said that the ship could
be seen in clear days, with her masts still standing, many fathoms
below the surface. One thing is certain--the company did not see it or
the _treasurer_ either, in whose hands were deposited about $30,000.

* * *

Beauty and majesty on either hand
Have shared thy waters with their common realm.

_Knickerbocker Magazine._

* * *

Their summits are the first to meet
The morning's golden ray,
And last to catch the crimson fires
That warm the dying day.

_Minna Irving._

* * *

On the west shore rise the rock-beaten crags of--

=The Dunderberg=, the dread of the Dutch mariners. This hill,
according to Irving, was peopled with a multitude of imps, too great
for man to number, who wore sugar-loaf hats and short doublets, and
had a picturesque way of "tumbling head over heels in the rack and
mist." They were especially malignant toward all captains who failed
to do them reverence, and brought down frightful squalls on such craft
as failed to drop the peaks of their mainsails to the goblin who
presided over this shadowy republic. It was the dread of the early
navigators--in fact, the Olympus of Dutch mythology. Verditege Hook,
the Dunderberg, and the Overslaugh, were names of terror to even the
bravest skipper. The old burghers of New York never thought of making
their week's voyage to Albany without arranging their wills, and it
created as much commotion in New Amsterdam as a modern expedition to
the north pole. Dunderberg, in most of the Hudson Guides and Maps, is
put down as 1,098 feet, but its actual altitude by the latest United
States Geological Survey is 865 feet.

The State National Guard Encampment crowns a bluff, formerly known as
Roa Hook, on the east bank, north of Peekskill Bay, a happy location
in the midst of history and beauty. Every regiment in the State
rallies here in turn during the summer months for instruction in the
military art, living in tents and enjoying life in true army style.
Visitors are cordially greeted at proper hours, and the camp is easily
reached by ferry from Peekskill. A ferry also runs from Peekskill to
Dunderberg, affording a hillside outing and a delightful view. It is
expected that a spiral railroad, fourteen miles in length, undertaken
by a recently organized corporation, but abandoned for the present,
will make the spot a great Hudson River resort. The plan also embraces
a palatial hotel on the summit and pleasure grounds upon the point at
its base. Passing Manito Mountain on our right the steamer approaches

=Anthony's Nose=, a prominent feature of the Hudson.

* * *

The waters were hemmed in by abrupt and dark
mountains, but the channel was still broad and smooth
enough for all the steamboats in the Republic to ride
in safety.

_Harriet Martineau._

* * *

[Illustration: ANTHONY'S NOSE.]

Strangely enough the altitude of the mountains at the southern portal
of the Highlands has been greatly overrated. The formerly accepted
height of Anthony's Nose has been reduced by the Geological Survey
from 1,228 feet to 900. It has, however, an illustrious christening,
and according to various historians several godfathers. One says
it was named after St. Anthony the Great, the first institutor of
monastic life, born A. D. 251, at Coma, in Heraclea, a town in Upper
Egypt. Irving's humorous account is, however, quite as probable that
it was _derived_ from the nose of Antony Van Corlear, the illustrious
trumpeter of Peter Stuyvesant. "Now thus it happened that bright and
early in the morning the good Antony, having washed his burly visage,
was leaning over the quarter-railing of the galley, contemplating it
in the glassy waves below. Just at this moment the illustrious
sun, breaking in all his splendor from behind a high bluff of the
Highlands, did dart one of his most potent beams full upon the
refulgent _nose_ of the sounder of brass, the reflection of which
shot straightway down hissing hot into the water, and killed a mighty
sturgeon that was sporting beside the vessel. When this astonishing
miracle was made known to the Governor, and he tasted of the unknown
fish, he marveled exceedingly; and, as a monument thereof, he gave the
name of Anthony's Nose to a stout promontory in the neighborhood,
and it has continued to be called Anthony's Nose ever since." It
was called by the Indians "Kittatenny," a Delaware term, signifying
"endless hills." The stream flowing into the river south of Anthony's
Nose is known as the Brocken Kill, broken into beautiful cascades from
mountain source to mouth.

* * *

The beautiful and in some places highly singular
banks of the Hudson rendered a voyage both amusing
and interesting, while the primitive manners of the inhabitants
diverted the gay and idle and pleased
the thoughtful and speculative.

_Mrs. Grant of Laggan._

* * *

=Iona Island=, formerly a pleasure resort and picnic ground. An
old-time joke of the Hudson was frequently perpetrated on strangers
while passing the island. Some one would innocently observe, "I own
a island on the Hudson." When any one obligingly asked, "Where?" the
reply would be with pointed finger, "Why there." But the United States
Government _owns_ it now against all comers, and its quiet lanes and
picnic abandon have been exchanged for busy machine shops and military
discipline. It is near the west bank, opposite Anthony's Nose. A
short distance from the island, on the main land, was the village or
cross-roads of Doodletown. This reach of the river was formerly known
as The Horse Race, from the rapid flow of the tide when at its height.
The hills on the west bank now recede from the river, forming a
picturesque amphitheatre, bounded on the west by Bear Mountain. An
old road directly in the rear of Iona Island, better known to Anthony
Wayne than to the modern tourist, passes through Doodletown, over
Dunderberg, just west of Tompkin's Cove, to Haverstraw. Here amid
these pleasant foothills Morse laid the scene of a historical romance,
which he however happily abandoned for a wider invention. The world
can get along without the novel, but it would be a trifle slow without
the telegraph. On the west bank, directly opposite the railroad tunnel
which puts a merry "ring" into the tip of Anthony's Nose, is what is
now known as Highland Lake, called by the Indians "Sinnipink," and by
the immediate descendants of our Revolutionary fathers "Hessian
Lake" or "Bloody Pond," from the fact that an American company were
mercilessly slaughtered here by the Hessians, and, after the surrender
of Fort Montgomery, their bodies were thrown into the lake.

* * *

Behold again the wildwood shade,
The mountain steep, the checkered glade,
And hoary rocks and bubbling rills,
And pointed waves and distant hills.

_Robert C. Sands._

* * *

The capture of Fort Clinton and Fort Montgomery was two years before
Mad Anthony's successful assault on Stony Point. Early in the history
of the Revolution, the British Government thought that it would be
possible to cut off the eastern from the middle and southern Colonies
by capturing and garrisoning commanding points along the Hudson and
Lake Champlain. It was therefore decided in London, in the spring of
1777, to have Sir Henry Clinton approach from the south and Burgoyne
from the north. Reinforcements, however, arrived late from England and
it was September before Clinton transported his troops, about 4,000
in number, in warships and flat-boats up the river. Governor George
Clinton was in charge of Fort Montgomery, and his brother James of
Fort Clinton, while General Putnam, with about 2,000 men, had his
headquarters at Peekskill. In addition to these forts, a chain was
stretched across the Hudson from Anthony's Nose to a point near the
present railroad bridge, to obstruct the British fleet. General
Putnam, however, became convinced that Sir Henry Clinton proposed
to attack Fort Independence. Most of the troops were accordingly
withdrawn from Forts Montgomery and Clinton, when Sir Henry Clinton,
taking advantage of a morning fog, crossed with 2,000 men at King's
Ferry. Guided by a sympathizer of the British cause, who knew the
district, he crossed the Dunderberg Mountain by the road just
indicated. One division of 900 moving on Fort Montgomery, and another
of 1,100 on Fort Clinton. Governor Clinton in the meantime ordered 400
soldiers to Fort Montgomery, and his reconnoitering party, met by the
Hessians, fell back upon the fort, fighting as it retreated. Governor
Clinton sent to General Putnam for reinforcements, but it is said that
the messenger deserted, so that Putnam literally sat waiting in camp,
unconscious of the enemy's movements. A simultaneous attack was made
at 5 o'clock in the afternoon on both forts. Lossing says: "The
garrisons were composed mostly of untrained militia. They behaved
nobly, and kept up the defense vigorously, against a greatly superior
force of disciplined and veteran soldiers, until twilight, when they
were overpowered, and sought safety in a scattered retreat to the
neighboring mountains. Many escaped, but a considerable number were
slain or made prisoners. The Governor fled across the river in a
boat, and at midnight was with General Putnam at Continental Village,
concerting measures for stopping the invasion. James, forcing his way
to the rear, across the highway bridge, received a bayonet wound in
the thigh, but safely reached his home at New Windsor. A sloop of ten
guns, the frigate "Montgomery"--twenty-four guns--and two row-galleys,
stationed near the boom and chain for their protection, slipped their
cables and attempted to escape, but there was no wind to fill their
sails, and they were burned by the Americans to prevent their falling
into the hands of the enemy. The frigate "Congress," twenty-eight
guns, which had already gone up the river, shared the same fate on the
flats near Fort Constitution, which was abandoned. By the light of the
burning vessels the fugitive garrisons made their way over the rugged
mountains, and a large portion of them joined General Clinton at New
Windsor the next day. They had left many of their brave companions
behind, who, to the number of 250, had been slain or taken prisoners.
The British, too, had parted with many men and brave officers. Among
the latter was Lieutenant-Colonel Campbell. Early in the morning of
the 7th of October, the river obstructions between Fort Montgomery and
Anthony's Nose, which cost the Americans $250,000, were destroyed, and
a light flying squadron, commanded by Sir James Wallace, and bearing a
large number of land troops under General Vaughan, sailed up the river
on a marauding expedition, with instructions from Sir Henry to scatter
desolation in their paths. It was hoped that such an expedition would
draw troops from the Northern army for the protection of the country
below, and thereby assist Burgoyne."

* * *

I love thy tempests when the broad-winged blast
Rouses thy billows with his battle call,
When gathering clouds, in phalanx black and vast
Like armed shadows gird thy rocky wall.

_Knickerbocker Magazine._

* * *

Sir Henry Clinton, who had been advised by General Burgoyne that he
must be relieved by October 12th, sent a messenger announcing his
victory. Another of the many special providences of the American
Revolution now occurs. The messenger blundered into the American camp,
where some soldiers sat in British uniform, and found out too late
that he was among enemies instead of friends. As Irving relates the
incident in his "Life of Washington":

--"On the 9th (October) two persons coming from Fort Montgomery were
arrested by the guard, and brought for examination. One was much
agitated, and was observed to put something hastily into his mouth
and swallow it. An emetic was administered, and brought up a silver
bullet. Before he could be prevented he swallowed it again. On his
refusing a second emetic, the Governor threatened to have him hanged
and his body opened. This threat was effectual and the bullet was
again 'brought to light.' It was oval in form, and hollow, with a
screw in the centre, and contained a note from Sir Henry Clinton to
Burgoyne, written on a slip of thin paper, and dated October 8th, from
Fort Montgomery: '_Nous y voici_ (here we are), and nothing between
us and Gates. I sincerely hope this little success of ours will
facilitate your operations.' Burgoyne never received it, and
on October 13th, after the battles of Bennington and Saratoga,
surrendered to General Gates. Sir Henry Clinton abandoned the forts on
hearing of his defeat, and returned to New York 'a sadder and wiser
man.'"

* * *

Columbia! Columbia! to glory arise,
The queen of the earth and the child of the skies.

_Timothy Dwight._

* * *

Far up the Hudson's silver flood
I hear the Highlands call
With whispering of leafy boughs
And voice of waterfall.

_Minna Irving._

* * *

=Beverley House.=--Passing Cohn's Hook, pronounced Connosook, where
Hendrick Hudson anchored on his way up the river September 14, 1609,
we see before us on the right bank a point coming down to the shore
marked by a boat house. This is Beverley Dock, and directly up the
river bank about an eighth of a mile stood the old Beverley House,
where Benedict Arnold had his headquarters when in command of
West Point. The old house, a good specimen of colonial times, was
unfortunately burned in 1892, and with it went the most picturesque
landmark of the most dramatic incident of the Revolution. It will
be remembered that Arnold returned to the Beverley House after his
midnight interview with Andre at Haverstraw, and immediately upon the
capture of Andre the following day, that Colonel Jamison sent a letter
to Arnold, advising him of the fact. It was the morning of September
4th. General Washington was on his way to West Point, coming across
the country from Connecticut. On arriving, however, at the river,
just above the present station of Garrison, he became interested in
examining some defenses, and sent Alexander Hamilton forward to the
Beverley House, saying that he would come later, requesting the
family to proceed with their breakfast and not to await his arrival.
Alexander Hamilton and General Lafayette sat gayly chatting with Mrs.
Arnold and her husband when the letter from Jamison was received.
Arnold glanced at the contents, rose and excused himself from the
table, beckoning to his wife to follow him, bade her good-bye, told
her he was a ruined man and a traitor, kissed his little boy in the
cradle, rode to Beverley Dock, and ordered his men to pull off and
go down the river. The "Vulture," an English man-of-war, was near
Teller's Point, and received a traitor, whose miserable treachery
branded him with eternal infamy on both continents. It is said that
he lived long enough to be hissed in the House of Commons, as he once
took his seat in the gallery, and he died friendless and despised. It
is also said, when Talleyrand arrived in Havre on foot from Paris, in
the darkest hour of the French Revolution, pursued by the bloodhounds
of the reign of terror, and was about to secure a passage to the
United States, he asked the landlord of the hotel whether any
Americans were staying at his house, as he was going across the water,
and would like a letter to a person of influence in the New World.
"There is a gentleman up-stairs from Britain or America," was the
response. He pointed the way, and Talleyrand ascended the stairs. In a
dimly lighted room sat a man of whom the great minister of France was
to ask a favor. He advanced, and poured forth in elegant French and
broken English, "I am a wanderer, and an exile. I am forced to fly to
the New World without a friend or home. You are an American. Give me,
then, I beseech you, a letter of yours, so that I may be able to earn
my bread." The strange gentleman rose. With a look that Talleyrand
never forgot, he retreated toward the door of the next chamber. He
spoke as he retreated, and his voice was full of suffering: "I am the
only man of the New World who can raise his hand to God and say,
'I have not a friend, not one, in America!'" "Who are you?" he
cried--"your name?" "My name is Benedict Arnold!"

* * *

Wayne, Putnam, Knox and Heath are there,
Steuben, proud Prussia's honored son;
Brave Lafayette from France the fair,
And chief of all our Washington.

_Wallace Bruce._

* * *

Andre's fate on the other hand was widely lamented. He was universally
beloved by his comrades and possessed a rich fund of humor which often
bubbled over in verse. It is a strange coincidence that his best
poetic attempt on one of Anthony Wayne's exploits near Fort Lee,
entitled "The Cow Chase," closed with a graphically prophetic verse:

"And now I've closed my epic strain,
I tremble as I show it,
Lest this same Warrior-Drover Wayne
Should ever catch the poet."

By a singular coincidence he did: General Wayne was in command of the
Tarrytown and Tappan country where Andre was captured and executed. It
is also said that these lines were published by one of the Tory papers
in New York the very day of Andre's capture. One of the old-time
characters on the Hudson, known as Uncle Richard, has recently thrown
new light on the capture of Andre by claiming, with a touch of genuine
humor, that it was entirely due to the "effects" of cider which had
been freely "dispensed" that day by a certain Mr. Horton, a farmer in
the neighborhood.

* * *

In view of all he lost,--his youth, his love,
And possibilities that wait the brave,
Inward and outward bound dim visions move
Like passing sails upon the Hudson's wave.

_Charlotte Fiske Bates._

* * *

It is impossible even in these later years, not to speak of
twenty-five or fifty years ago, to travel along the shores of
Haverstraw Bay or among the passes of the Highlands, without hearing
some old-time stories about Arnold and Andre, and it would be strange
indeed if a little romance had not here and there become blended with
the real facts. Uncle Richard's account is undoubtedly the best since
the days of Knickerbocker. "Benedict Arnold, you know, had command of
West Point, and he knew that the place was essential to the success of
the Continental cause. He plotted, as everybody knows, to turn it
over to the enemy, and in the correspondence which he carried on with
General Clinton, young Andre, Clinton's aid, did all the writing.
Things were coming to a focus, when a meeting took place between
Arnold and Clinton's representative, Andre, at the house of Joshua
Hett Smith, near Haverstraw. Andre came on the British ship "Vulture,"
which he left at Croton Point, in Haverstraw Bay. Well," so runs Uncle
Richard's story, "it took a long time to get matters settled; they
'confabbed' till after daybreak. Then Arnold started back to the post
which he had plotted to surrender. But daylight was no time for Andre
to return to the "Vulture," so he hung round waiting for night.

"During that day, some men who were working for James Horton, a farmer
on the ridge overlooking the river, who gave his men good rations of
cider, drank a little too much of the hard stuff. They felt good, and
thought it would be a fine joke to load and fire off an old disabled
cannon which lay a mile or so away on the bank. They hauled it to the
point now called Cockroft Point, propped it up, and then the spirit
of fun--and hard cider--prompted them to train the old piece on the
British ship "Vulture," lying at anchor in the Bay. The "Vulture's"
people must have overestimated the source of the fire, for the ship
dropped down the river, and Andre had to abandon the idea of returning
by that means. He crossed the river at King's Ferry, and while on his
way overland was captured at Tarrytown.

"Of course, the three brave men who refused to be bribed deserve all
the glory they ever had; if it were not for them, who knows but the
revolutionary war would have had a different ending. But they never
would have had a chance to capture Andre if it had not been for James
Horton's men warming up on hard cider. Hard cider broke the plans
of Arnold, it hung Andre, and it saved West Point." A boy misguided
Grouchy _en route_ to Waterloo. On what small hinges turn the
destinies of nations!

* * *

A slanting ray lingered on the woody crests of the precipices that
overhung the river, giving greater depth to the dark-gray and
purple of the rocky sides.

_Washington Irving._

* * *

All the way from Anthony's Nose to Beverley Dock, where we have been
lingering over the story of Andre, we have been literally turning a
kaleidoscope of blended history and beauty, with scarcely time to note
the delightful homes on the west bank, just above Fort Montgomery.
Among them J. Pierpont Morgan's and the Pells', John Bigelow's and
"Benny Havens'," or on the east bank of Hamilton Fish, just above
Beverley Dock, Samuel Sloan and the late William H. Osborn, just north
of Sugar Loaf Mountain; the mountain being so named as it resembles,
to one coming up the river, the old-fashioned conical-shaped
sugar-loaf, which was formerly suspended by a string over the centre
of the hospitable Dutch tables, and swung around to be occasionally
nibbled at, which in good old Knickerbocker days, was thought to be
the best and only orthodox way of sweetening tea.

=Buttermilk Falls=, so christened by Washington Irving, is a pretty
little cascade on the west bank. Like sparkling wit, it is often dry,
and the tourist is exceptionally fortunate who sees it in full-dress
costume after a heavy shower, when it rushes over the rocks in floods
of snow-white foam. Highland Falls is the name of a small village a
short distance west of the river, on the bluff, but not seen from the
deck of the steamer.

The large building above the rocky channel is Lady Cliff, the Academy
of Our Lady of Angels, under the Franciscan Sisters at Peekskill,
opened September, 1900. It was originally built for a hotel, and
widely known as Cranston's Hotel and Landing. As the steamer is now
approaching the west bank we see above us the Cullum Memorial Hall,
completed in 1899, a bequest of the late George W. Cullum of the class
of 1833. The still newer structure to the south is the officers'
messroom, crowning the crest above the landing.

* * *

Then, as you nearer draw, each wooded height
Puts off the azure hues by distance given!
And slowly breaks upon the enamored sight,
Ravine, crag, field and wood in colors true and bright.

_Theodore S. Fay._

* * *

=West Point=, taken all in all, is the most beautiful tourist spot on
the Hudson. Excursionists by the Day Boats from New York, returning
by afternoon steamer, have three hours to visit the various places
of history and beauty. To make an easy mathematical formula or
picturesque "rule of three" statement, what Quebec is to the St.
Lawrence, West Point is to the Hudson. If the citadel of Quebec is
more imposing, the view of the Hudson at this place is grander than
that of the St. Lawrence, and the ruins of Fort Putnam are almost as
venerable as the Heights of Abraham. The sensation of the visitor is,
moreover, somewhat the same in both places as to the environment of
law and authority. To get the daily character and quality of West
Point one should spend at least twenty-four hours within its borders,
and a good hotel, the only one on the Government grounds, will be
found central and convenient to everything of interest. The parade and
drills at sunset hour can best be seen in this way.

=The United States Military Academy.=--Soon after the close of the War
of the Revolution, Washington suggested West Point as the site of a
military academy, and, in 1793, in his annual message, recommended it
to Congress, which in 1794 organized a corps of artillerists to be
here stationed with thirty-two cadets, enlarging the number in 1798 to
fifty-six. In 1808 it was increased to one hundred and fifty-six, and
in 1812 to two hundred and sixty.

Up to 1812 only 71 cadets had been graduated. The roll of graduates
now numbers about 5,000.

Each Congressman has the appointment of one cadet, supplemented by
ten appointed by the President of the United States. These cadets are
members of the regular army, subject to its regulations for eight
years, viz: during four years of study and four years after
graduating. The candidates are examined in June, each year, and must
be physically sound as well as mentally qualified. The course is very
thorough, especially in higher mathematics. The cadets go into camp in
July and August, and this is the pleasantest time to visit the point.

* * *

Enchanted place, hemmed in by mountain walls,
By bristling guns and Hudson's restful shore.

_Kenneth Bruce._

* * *

The plans furnished by the architects of the new building will
entirely change the appearance of the river front. The proposed
massive structure crowning the cliff will "out-castle" the most
massive fortifications of the walled cities of Europe. $7,500,000 has
been appropriated to the work by Congress and the next generation will
behold a new West Point.

In the rebuilding of the Post the Cadet Chapel, the Riding Hall, the
Administration Building and some of the Officers' Quarters will be
removed. Most of the old important buildings, however, will not be
disturbed, and the Chapel will be placed as it were "intact" on
another site. The plan leaves untouched the Cadet Barracks, the Cadet
Mess, the Memorial Hall, the Library and the Officers' Mess. The
tower of the new Post Headquarters will rise high and massive several
stories above the other structures and present in enduring symbol the
republic standing four square and firm throughout the ages.

In the "West Point Souvenir," prepared by W. H. Tripp, which every
visitor will prize, are many suggestions and descriptions of value.
From many visits and many sources we condense the following brevities:

=The Cadet Barracks= was built in 1845-51 of native granite. In 1882
the western wing was extended adding two divisions.

=The Academy Building= is immediately opposite the Headquarters, of
Massachusetts granite, erected in 1891-95, and cost about $500,000.
It contains recitation and lecture rooms of all departments of
instruction.

=The Ordnance Museum= contains an interesting and extensive exhibit
of ancient and modern firearms, also many valuable trophies from the
Revolutionary, Mexican, Civil and Spanish wars.

* * *

Among the fair and lovely Highlands of the Hudson, shut in by deep
green heights and ruined forts, hemmed in all round with memories
of Washington, there could be no more appropriate ground for the
military school of America.

_Charles Dickens._

* * *

=The Cadet Chapel=, immediately north of the Administration Building,
was erected in 1834. The chapel contains many valuable trophies of
the Revolutionary and Mexican wars, including three Hessian and two
British flags that were once the property of Washington. The walls
have many memorial tablets and a famous "blank" of Arnold. Here also
are several cannon surrendered at Saratoga, October 17, 1777.

=The Administration Building= was completed in 1871.

=The Library= adjoins the Cadet Chapel on the east, built of native
granite in 1841, costing about $15,000. In 1900 the building was
entirely reconstructed of fire-proof material by appropriation of
$80,000. The exterior walls of the original building entered into the
remodeled structure. The Library, founded in 1812, has about 50,000
volumes.

=The Gymnasium= adjoins the Barracks on the west, erected of native
granite, costing $90,000.

=Memorial Hall=, plainly seen from the Hudson, completed in 1899, is
of Ionic architecture. The building cost $268,000, a legacy bequeathed
by Gen. George W. Cullum, built of Milford granite for army trophies
of busts, paintings and memorials. The bronze statute of Gen. John
Sedgwick in the northwest angle of the plain was dedicated in 1868.
The fine cenotaph of Italian marble was erected in 1885. It stands
immediately in front of Memorial Hall.

=Kosciusko's Monument= was erected in 1828. It stands in the northeast
angle of Fort Clinton.

=The Chain-Battery= walk runs from Kosciusko's Garden northward to
Light House Point, near which was the battery that defended the chain
across the river in the Revolution. The scene is of great beauty and
has been known for many years by the name of "Flirtation Walk."

* * *

Where Kosciusko dreamed and proud scenes bring
To mind the stormy days when Liberty
Was cradled at West Point--the Highlands' key.

_Kenneth Bruce._

* * *

[Illustration: BATTLE MONUMENT, WEST POINT]

=The Battle Monument=, on Trophy Point, is the most beautiful on the
reservation--a column of victory in memory of 2,230 officers and
soldiers of the regular army of the United States who were killed or
died of wounds received in the war of the Rebellion. It is a monolith
of polished granite surmounted by a figure of Fame. The shaft is 46
feet in length, 5 feet in diameter, and said to be the largest piece
of polished stone in the world. The cost of the work was $66,000. The
site was dedicated June 15, 1864. The monument was dedicated in 1897.
The address was by Justice Brewer.

=Trophy Point=, on the north side of the plain, overlooking the river
and commanding a majestic view of the Hudson and the city of Newburgh,
has been likened by European travelers to a view on Lake Geneva.
Here are the "swivel clevies" and 16 links of the old chain that was
stretched across the river at this point. The whole chain, 1,700
feet long, weighing 186 tons, was forged at the Sterling Iron Works,
transported to New Windsor and there attached to log booms and floated
down the river to this point.

=Old Fort Putnam= was erected in 1778 by the 5th Massachusetts
Regiment under the direction of Col. Rufus Putnam. It was originally
constructed of logs and trees with stone walls on two sides to defend
Fort Clinton on the plain below. It was garrisoned by 450 men, and had
14 guns mounted. In 1787 it was dismantled, and the guns sold as
old iron. Its brick arch casements overgrown with moss, vines, and
shrubbery are crumbling away, but are well worth a visit. It is 495
feet above the Hudson. A winding picturesque carriage road leads up
from the plain, and the pedestrian can reach the summit in 20 minutes.
On clear days the Catskill Mountains are visible.

=Fort Clinton=, in the northeast angle of the plain, was built in
1778 under the direction of the Polish soldier, Kosciusko. Sea Coast
Battery is located on the north waterfront, Siege Battery on the slope
of the hill below the Battle Monument. Targets for the guns on both
batteries are on the hillside about a mile distant. Battery Knox,
which overlooks the river, was rebuilt in 1874 on the site of an old
revolutionary redoubt.

* * *

Bright are the moments link'd with thee,
Boast of a glory-hallowed land!
Hope of the valiant and the free,
Home of our youthful soldier band!

_Anonymous._

* * *

While Fort Putnam was being built Washington was advised that Dubois's
regiment was unfit to be ordered on duty, there being "not one blanket
in the regiment. Very few have either a shoe or a shirt, and most of
them have neither stockings, breeches, or overalls. Several companies
of inlisted artificers are in the same situation, and unable to work
in the field."

What privations were here endured to establish our priceless liberty!
It makes better Americans of us all to turn and re-turn the pages of
the real Hudson, the most picturesque volume of the world's history.

West Point during the Revolution was the Gibraltar of the Hudson
and her forts were regarded almost impregnable. Fort Putnam will be
rebuilt as an enduring monument to the bravery of American soldiers.

The best way to study West Point, however, is not in voluminous
histories or in the condensed pages of a guide book, but to visit it
and see its real life, to wander amid its old associations, and
ask, when necessary, intelligent questions, which are everywhere
courteously answered. The view north seen in a summer evening, is one
long to be remembered. In such an hour the writer's idea of the Hudson
as an open book with granite pages and crystal book-mark is most
completely realized as indicated in the Highland section of his poem,
"The Hudson":

On either side these mountain glens
Lie open like a massive book,
Whose words were graved with iron pens,
And lead into the eternal rock:

Which evermore shall here retain
The annals time cannot erase,
And while these granite leaves remain
This crystal ribbon marks the place.

* * *

Under Spring's delicate marshalling every hill of the Highlands
took its own place, and the soft swells of ground stood back the
one from the other in more and more tender coloring.

_Susan Warner._

* * *

[Illustration: LOOKING NORTH FROM WEST POINT BATTERY]

=West Point to Newburgh.=

The steamer passes too near the west bank to give a view of the
magnificent plateau with parade ground and Government buildings, but
on rounding the point a picture of marvelous beauty breaks at once
upon the vision. On the left the massive indented ridge of Old Cro'
Nest and Storm King, and on the right Mount Taurus, or Bull Hill, and
Break Neck, while still further beyond toward the east sweeps the
Fishkill range, sentineled by South Beacon, 1,625 feet in height, from
whose summit midnight gleams aroused the countryside for leagues and
scores of miles during those seven long years when men toiled
and prayed for freedom. Close at hand on the right will be seen
Constitution Island, formerly the home of Miss Susan Warner, who died
in 1885, author of "Queechy" and the "Wide, Wide World." Here the
ruins of the old fort are seen. The place was once called Martalaer's
Rock Island. A chain was stretched across the river at this point to
intercept the passage of boats up the Hudson, but proved ineffectual,
like the one at Anthony's Nose, as the impetus of the boats snapped
them both like cords.

Some years ago, when the first delegation of Apache Indians was
brought to Washington to sign a treaty of peace, the Indians were
taken for an "outing" up the Hudson, by General O. O. Howard and Dr.
Herman Bendell, Superintendent of Indian Affairs for Arizona. It is
said that they noted with cold indifference the palaces along the
river front: "the artistic terraces, the well-kept, sloping lawns, the
clipped hedges and the ivy-grown walls made no impression on them, but
when the magnificent picture of the Hudson above West Point revealed
itself, painted by the rays of the sinking sun, these wild men stood
erect, raised their hands high above their heads and uttered a
monosyllabic expression of delight, which was more expressive than
volumes of words."

* * *

The queenly Hudson circling at thy feet
Lingers to sing a song of joy and love,
Pouring her heart in rippling wavelets sweet,
Which sun-kissed glance up to thy throne above.

_Kenneth Bruce._

* * *

Sir Robert Temple also rises into rapture over the northern gate
of the Highlands. "One of the fairest spectacles to be seen on the
earth's surface; not on any other river or strait--not on Ganges or
Indus, on the Dardanelles or the Bosphorus, on the Danube or the
Rhine, on the Neva or the Nile--have I ever observed so fairy-like a
scene as this on the Hudson. The only water-view to rival it is that
of the Sea of Marmora, opposite Constantinople."

Most people who visit our river, naturally desire a brilliant sunlit
day for their journey, and with reason, but there are effects, in fog
and rain and driving mist, only surpassed amid the Kyles of Bute,
in Scotland. The traveler is fortunate, who sees the Hudson in many
phases, and under various atmospheric conditions. A midnight view is
peculiarly impressive when the mountain spirits of Rodman Drake answer
to the call of his "Culprit Fay."

"'Tis the middle watch of a summer night,
The earth is dark but the heavens are bright,
The moon looks down on Old Cro' Nest--
She mellows the shade on his shaggy breast,
And seems his huge gray form to throw
In a silver cone on the wave below."

It is said that the "Culprit Fay" was written by Drake in three days,
and grew out of a discussion which took place during a stroll through
this part of the Highlands between Irving, Halleck, Cooper and
himself, as to the filling of a new country with old-time legends.
Drake died in 1820. Halleck's lines to his memory are among the
sweetest in our language. It is said that Halleck, on hearing Drake
read his poem, "The American Flag," sprang to his feet, and in a
semi-poetic transport, concluded the lines with burning words, which
Drake afterwards appended:

"Forever float that standard sheet,
Where breathes the foe but falls before us,
With Freedom's soil beneath our feet,
And Freedom's banner streaming o'er us."

* * *

It floweth deep and strong and wide
This river of romance
Along whose banks on moonlight nights
The Highland fairies dance.

_E. A. Lente._

* * *

Just opposite Old Cro' Nest is the village of Cold Spring, on the east
bank, which receives its name naturally from a cold spring in the
vicinity; and it is interesting to remember that the famous Parrott
guns were made at this place, and many implements of warfare during
our civil strife. The foundry was started by Gouverneur Kemble in
1828, and brought into wide renown by the inventive genius of Major
Parrott. Cold Spring has a further distinction in having the first
ground broken, about three miles from the river, for the greatest
engineering enterprise of the age--"The Water Supply of the
Catskills," when Mayor McClellan, in June, 1907, began the work with
his silver shovel. A short distance north of the village is

=Undercliff= (built by John C. Hamilton, son of Alexander Hamilton,
but more particularly associated with the memory of the poet, Col.
George P. Morris), lies, in fact, _under the cliff_ and shadow of
Mount Taurus, and has a fine outlook upon the river and surrounding
mountains. Standing on the piazza, we see directly in front of us Old
Cro' Nest, and it was here that the poet wrote:

"Where Hudson's wave o'er silvery sands
Winds through the hills afar,
_Old Cro' Nest like a monarch stands
Crowned with a single star_."

Few writers were better known in their own day than the poet of
Undercliff, who wrote "My Mother's Bible," and "Woodman, Spare that
Tree." On one occasion, when Mr. Russell was singing it at Boulogne,
an old gentleman in the audience, moved by the simple and touching
beauty of the lines,

"Forgive the foolish tear,
But let the old oak stand."

rose and said: "I beg your pardon, but was the tree really spared?"
"It was," answered Mr. Russell, and the old gentleman resumed his
seat, amid the plaudits of the whole assembly. Truly

"Its glory and renown
Are spread o'er land and sea."

* * *

When freedom from her mountain height
Unfurled her standard to the air,
She tore the azure robe of night
And set the stars of glory there.

_Joseph Rodman Drake._

* * *

The first European name given to Storm King was Klinkersberg (so
called by Hendrick Hudson, from its glistening and broken rock). It
was styled by the Dutch "Butter Hill," from its shape, and, with
Sugar Loaf on the eastern side below the point, helped to set out the
tea-table for the Dunderberg goblins. It was christened by Willis,
"Storm King," and may well be regarded the El Capitan of the
Highlands. Breakneck is opposite, on the east side, where St.
Anthony's Face was blasted away. In this mountain solitude there was a
shade of reason in giving that solemn countenance of stone the name
of St. Anthony, as a good representative of monastic life; and, by a
quiet sarcasm, the full-length nose below was probably suggested.

The mountain opposite Cro' Nest is "Bull Hill," or more classically,
"Mt. Taurus." It is said that there was formerly a wild bull in these
mountains, which had failed to win the respect and confidence of the
inhabitants, so the mountaineers organized a hunt and drove him over
the hill, whose name stands a monument to his exit. The point at the
foot of "Mount Taurus" is known as "Little Stony Point."

The Highlands now trend off to the northeast, and we see North Beacon,
or Grand Sachem Mountain, and Old Beacon about half a mile to the
north. The mountains were relit with beacon-fires in 1883, in honor of
the centennials of Fishkill and Newburgh, and were plainly seen sixty
miles distant.

This section was known by the Indians as "Wequehache," or, "the Hill
Country," and the entire range was called by the Indians "the endless
hills," a name not inappropriate to this mountain bulwark reaching
from New England to the Carolinas. As pictured in our "Long Drama,"
given at the Newburgh centennial of the disbanding of the American
Army,

That ridge along our eastern coast,
From Carolina to the Sound,
Opposed its front to Britain's host,
And heroes at each pass were found:

A vast primeval palisade,
With bastions bold and wooded crest,
A bulwark strong by nature made
To guard the valley of the west.

Along its heights the beacons gleamed,
It formed the nation's battle-line,
Firm as the rocks and cliffs where dreamed
The soldier-seers of Palestine.

It was also believed by the Indians that, in ancient days, "before the
Hudson poured its waters from the lakes, the Highlands formed one vast
prison, within whose rocky bosom the omnipotent Manitou confined
the rebellious spirits who repined at his control. Here, bound in
adamantine chains, or jammed in rifted pines, or crushed by ponderous
rocks, they groaned for many an age. At length the conquering Hudson,
in its career toward the ocean, burst open their prison-house, rolling
its tide triumphantly through the stupendous ruins."

* * *

The Highlands are here moulded in all manner of heights and
hollows; sometimes reaching up abruptly to twelve or fifteen
hundred feet, and again stretching away in long gorges and gentle
declivities.

_Susan Warner._

* * *

=Pollopel's Island=, east of the steamer's route, was once regarded as
a haunted spot, but its only witches are said to be snakes too lively
to be enchanted. In old times, the "new hands" on the sloops were
unceremoniously dipped at this place, so as to be proof-christened
against the goblins of the Highlands. Here also another useless
"impediment" was put across the Hudson in 1779, a chevaux-de-frise
with iron-pointed spikes thirty feet long, hidden under water,
strongly secured by cribs of stone. This, however, was not broken and
would probably have done effective work if some traitor to the cause
had not guided the British captains through an unprotected passage.
The State at one time contemplated the purchase of this island on
which to erect a statue to Hendrick Hudson. For some reason Governor
Flower vetoed the bill. It is now owned by Mr. Francis Bannerman,
an energetic business man, who perhaps some day may see his way to
promote a monument to Hudson on the splendid pedestal which nature has
already completed.

* * *

What sights and sounds at which the world has wondered
Within these wild ravines have had their birth!
Young Freedom's cannon from these glens have thundered
And sent their startling echoes o'er the earth.

_Charles Fenno Hoffman._

* * *

=Cornwall-on-the-Hudson.=--This locality N. P. Willis selected as the
most picturesque point on the Hudson. The village lies in a lovely
valley, which Mr. Beach has styled in his able description, as "an
offshoot of the Ramapo, up which the storm-winds of the ocean drive,
laden with the purest and freshest air."

=Idlewild.=--Where Willis spent the last years of his life is a
charming spot and rich with poetic memories. E. P. Roe also chose
Cornwall for his home. Lovers of the Hudson are indebted to Edward
Bok for his realistic sketch of an afternoon visit. The "Idlewild" of
to-day is still green to the memory of the poet. Since Willis' death
the place has passed in turn into various hands, until now it belongs
to a wealthy New York lawyer, who has spent thousands of dollars on
the house and grounds. The old house still stands, and here and there
in the grounds remains a suggestion of the time of Willis. The famous
pine-drive leading to the mansion, along which the greatest literary
lights of the Knickerbocker period passed during its palmy days, still
remains intact, the dense growth of the trees only making the road the
more picturesque. The brook, at which Willis often sat, still runs on
through the grounds as of yore. In the house, everything is remodeled
and remodernized. The room from whose windows Willis was wont to look
over the Hudson, and where he did most of his charming writing, is now
a bedchamber, modern in its every appointment, and suggesting its age
only by the high ceiling and curious mantel. Only a few city blocks
from "Idlewild" is the house where lived E. P. Roe, the author of so
many popular novels, as numerous, almost, in number as the several
hundreds of thousands of circulation which they secured. There are
twenty-three acres to it in all, and, save what was occupied by the
house, every inch of ground was utilized by the novelist in his hobby
for fine fruits and rare flowers. Now nothing remains of the beauty
once so characteristic of the place. For four years the grounds have
missed the care of their creator. Where once were the novelist's
celebrated strawberry beds, are now only grass and weeds. Everything
is grown over, only a few trees remaining as evidence that the grounds
were ever known for their cultivated products. A large board sign
announces the fact that the entire place is for sale.

* * *

The river narrows at their proud behest
And creeps more darkly as it deeper flows,
And fitful winds swirl through the long defile
Where the great Highlands keep their stern repose.

_E.A. Lente._

* * *

Cornwall has been for many years a favorite resort of the Hudson
Valley and her roofs shelter in the summer season many thousand
people. The road completed in 1876, from Cornwall to West Point, gives
one a pleasant acquaintance with the wooded Highlands. It passes over
the plateau of Cro' Nest and winds down the Cornwall slope of Storm
King. The tourist who sees Cro' Nest and Storm King only from the
river, has but little idea of their extent. Cro' Nest plateau is about
one thousand feet above the parade ground of West Point, and overlooks
it as a rocky balcony. These mountains, with their wonderful lake
system, are, in fact, the "Central Park" of the Hudson. Within a
radius of ten miles are clustered over forty lakes, and we very much
doubt if one person in a thousand ever heard of them. A convenient
map giving the physical geography of this section would be of great
service to the mountain visitor. The Cornwall pier, built by the _New
York, Ontario and Western Railroad_ in 1892 for coal and freight
purposes, will be seen on our left near the Cornwall dock. This
railroad leaves the _West Shore_ at this point and forms a pleasant
tourist route to the beautiful inland villages and resorts of the
State.

* * *

A solitary gleam struck on the base of the Highland peak, and
moved gracefully up its side, until reaching the summit, it stood
for a minute forming a crown of glory to the sombre pile.

_James Fenimore Cooper._

* * *

=Newburgh to Poughkeepsie.=

=Newburgh=, 60 miles from New York. Approaching the city of Newburgh,
we see a building of rough stone, one story high, with steep
roof--known as Washington's Headquarters. For several years prior to,
and during the Revolution, this was the home of Jonathan Hasbrouck,
known far and wide for business integrity and loyalty to liberty. This
house was built by him, apparently, in decades; the oldest part, the
northeast corner, in 1750; the southeast corner, in 1760, and the
remaining half in 1770. It fronted west on the king's highway, now
known as Liberty Street, with a garden and family burial plot to the
east, lying between the house and the river. It was restored as nearly
as possible to its original character on its purchase by the State
in 1849, and it is now the treasure-house of many memories, and of
valuable historic relics. A descriptive catalogue, prepared for
the trustees, under act of May 11, 1874, by a patient and careful
historian, =Dr. E. M. Ruttenber=, will be of service to the visitor and
can be obtained on the grounds. The following facts, condensed from
his admirable historical sketch, are of practical interest:

"=Washington's Headquarters=, or the Hasbrouck house, is situated in
the southeast part of the city, constructed of rough stone, one story
high, fifty-six feet front by forty-six feet in depth, and located on
what was originally Lot No. 2, of the German Patent, with title vested
in Heman (Herman?) Schoneman, a native of the Palatinate of Germany,
who sold, in 1721, to James Alexander, who subsequently sold to
Alexander Colden and Burger Meynders, by whom it was conveyed to
Jonathan Hasbrouck, the grandson of Abraham Hasbrouck, one of the
Huguenot founders of New Paltz. He was a man of marked character; of
fine physique, being six feet and four inches in height; was colonel
of the militia of the district, and in frequent service in guarding
the passes of the Highlands. His occupation was that of a farmer, a
miller, and a merchant. He died in 1780. The first town meeting for
the Precinct of Newburgh was held here on the first Tuesday in April,
1763, when its owner was elected supervisor. Public meetings continued
to be held here for several years. During the early part of the
Revolution, the committee of safety, of the precinct, assembled here;
here military companies were organized, and here the regiment which
Colonel Hasbrouck commanded assembled, to move hence to the defence of
the Highland forts."

* * *

Sacred in this mansion hoary,
'Neath its roof-tree long ago
Dwelt the father of our glory,
He whose name appalled the foe.

_Mary E. Monell._

* * *

From this brief outline, it will be seen that the building is
singularly associated with the history of the Old as well as of the
New World: with the former through the original grantee of the land,
recalling the wars which devastated the Palatinate and sent its
inhabitants, fugitive and penniless, to other parts of Europe and to
America; through his successor with the Huguenots of France, and,
through the public meetings which assembled here, and especially
through its occupation by Washington, with the struggle for American
independence.

In the spring of 1782 Washington made this building his headquarters,
and remained here until August 18, 1783, on the morning of which day
he took his departure from Newburgh. At this place he passed through
the most trying period of the Revolution: the year of inactivity on
the part of Congress, of distress throughout the country, and of
complaint and discontent in the army, the latter at one time bordering
on revolt among the officers and soldiers.

It was at this place, on the 22d day of May, 1782, that Colonel
Nicola, on behalf of himself and others, proposed that Washington
should become king, for the "national advantage," a proposal that was
received by Washington with "surprise and astonishment," "viewed with
abhorrence," and "reprehended with severity." The temptation which was
thus repelled by Washington, had its origin with that portion of the
officers of the army, who while giving their aid heartily to secure
an independent government, nevertheless believed that that government
should be a monarchy. The rejection of the proposition by Washington
was not the only significant result. The rank and file of the army
rose up against it, and around their camp-fires chanted their purpose
in Billings' song, "No King but God!" From that hour a republic became
the only possible form of government for the enfranchised Colonies.

* * *

With silvered locks and eyes grown dim,
As victory's sun proclaimed the morn,
He pushed aside the diadem
With stern rebuke and patriot scorn.

_Wallace Bruce._

* * *

The inattention of Congress to the payment of the army, during the
succeeding winter, gave rise to an equally important episode in the
history of the war. On the 10th of March, 1783, the first of the
famous "Newburgh Letters" was issued, in which, by implication at
least, the army was advised to revolt. The letter was followed by an
anonymous manuscript notice for a public meeting of officers on
the succeeding Tuesday. Washington was equal to the emergency. He
expressed his disapprobation of the whole proceeding, and with great
wisdom, requested the field officers, with one commissioned officer
from each company, to meet on the Saturday preceding the time
appointed by the anonymous notice. He attended this meeting and
delivered before it one of the most touching and effective addresses
on record. When he closed his remarks, the officers unanimously
resolved "to reject with disdain" the infamous proposition contained
in the anonymous address.

The meeting of officers referred to was held at the New Building or
"Temple" as it was called, in New Windsor, but Washington's address
was written at his headquarters. The "Newburgh Letters," to which it
was a reply, were written by Major John Armstrong, aid-de-camp to
General Gates. The anonymously called meeting was not held. The
motives of its projectors we will not discuss; but its probable
effect, had it been successful, must be considered in connection
with Washington's encomium of the result of the meeting which he had
addressed: "Had this day been wanting, the world had never known the
height to which human greatness is capable of attaining."

* * *

Freemen pause! this ground is holy,
Noble spirits suffered here,
Tardy Justice, marching slowly,
Tried their faith from year to year.

_Mary E. Monell._

* * *

Serene and calm in peril's hour,
An honest man without pretence,
He stands supreme to teach the power
And brilliancy of common-sense.

_Wallace Bruce._

* * *

Notice of the cessation of hostilities was proclaimed to the army
April 19, 1783. It was received with great rejoicings by the troops
at Newburgh, and under Washington's order, was the occasion of
an appropriate celebration. In the evening, signal beacon lights
proclaimed the joyous news to the surrounding country. Thirteen
cannon came pealing up from Fort Putnam, which were followed by a
_feu-de-joie_ rolling along the lines. The mountain sides resounded
and echoed like tremendous peals of thunder, and the flashing from
thousands of fire-arms, in the darkness of the evening, was like unto
vivid flashes of lightning from the clouds. From this time furloughs
were freely granted to soldiers who wished to return to their homes,
and when the army was finally disbanded those absent were discharged
from service without being required to return. That portion of the
army, which remained at Newburgh on guard duty, after the removal of
the main body to West Point in June, were participants here in the
closing scenes of the disbandment, when, on the morning of November
3, 1783, "the proclamation of Congress and the farewell orders of
Washington were read, and the last word of command given." From
Monell's "Handbook of Washington's Headquarters" we also quote a
general description of the house and its appearance when occupied by
the commander-in-chief. "Washington's family consisted of himself, his
wife, and his aid-de-camp, Major Tench Tilghman. The large room, which
is entered from the piazza on the east, known as 'the room with seven
doors and one window,' was used as the dining and sitting-room. The
northeast room was Washington's bedroom and the one adjoining it on
the left was occupied by him as a private office. The family room was
that in the southeast; the kitchen was the southwest room; the parlor
the northwest room. Between the latter and the former was the hall and
staircase and the storeroom, so called for having been used by Colonel
Hasbrouck and subsequently by his widow as a store. The parlor was
mainly reserved for Mrs. Washington and her guests. A Mrs. Hamilton,
whose name frequently appears in Washington's account book, was his
housekeeper, and in the early part of the war made a reputation for
her zeal in his service, which Thacher makes note of and Washington
acknowledges in his reference to an exchange of salt. There was little
room for the accommodation of guests, but it is presumed that the
chambers were reserved for that purpose. Washington's guests, however,
were mainly connected with the army and had quarters elsewhere. Even
Lafayette had rooms at DeGrove's Hotel when a visitor at headquarters.

"The building is now substantially in the condition it was during
Washington's occupation of it. The same massive timbers span the
ceiling; the old fire-place with its wide-open chimney is ready for
the huge back-logs of yore; the seven doors are in their places;
the rays of the morning sun still stream through the one window; no
alteration in form has been made in the old piazza--the adornments on
the walls, if such the ancient hostess had, have alone been changed
for souvenirs of the heroes of the nation's independence. In
presence of these surroundings, it requires but little effort of the
imagination to restore the departed guests. Forgetting not that this
was Washington's private residence, rather than a place for the
transaction of public business, we may, in the old sitting-room
respread the long oaken table, listen to the blessing invoked on the
morning meal, hear the cracking of joints, and the mingled hum of
conversation. The meal dispensed, Mrs. Washington retires to appear at
her flower beds or in her parlor to receive her morning calls. Colfax,
the captain of the life-guard, enters to receive the orders of the
day--perhaps a horse and guard for Washington to visit New Windsor,
or a barge for Fishkill or West Point, is required; or it may be
Washington remains at home and at his writing desk conducts his
correspondence, or dictates orders for army movements. The old
arm-chair, sitting in the corner yonder, is still ready for its former
occupant.

"The dinner hour of five o'clock approaches; the guests of the day
have already arrived. Steuben, the iron drill-master and German
soldier of fortune, converses with Mrs. Washington. He had reduced
the simple marksmen of Bunker Hill to the discipline of the armies
of Europe and tested their efficiency in the din of battle. He has
leisure now, and scarcely knows how to find employment for his active
mind. He is telling his hostess, in broken German-English, of the
whale (it proved to be an eel) he had caught in the river. Hear his
hostess laugh! And that is the voice of Lafayette, relating perhaps
his adventures in escaping from France, or his mishap in attempting
to attend Mrs. Knox's last party. Wayne, of Stony Point; Gates, of
Saratoga; Clinton, the Irish-blooded Governor of New York, and their
compatriots--we may place them all at times beside our _Pater Patriae_
in this old room, and hear amid the mingled hum his voice declare:
'Happy, thrice happy, shall they be pronounced hereafter, who have
contributed anything, who have performed the meanest office in
erecting this stupendous fabric of Freedom and Empire on the broad
basis of independency; who have assisted in protecting the rights of
human nature, and in establishing an asylum for the poor and oppressed
of all nations and religions.'

"In France, some fifty years after the Revolution, Marbois reproduced,
as an entertainment for Lafayette, then an old man, this old
sitting-room and its table scene. From his elegant saloon he conducted
his guests, among whom were several Americans, to the room which he
had prepared. There was a large open fire-place, and plain oaken
floors; the ceiling was supported with large beams and whitewashed;
there were the seven small-sized doors and one window with heavy sash
and small panes of glass. The furniture was plain and unlike any then
in use. Down the centre of the room was an oaken table covered with
dishes of meat and vegetables, decanters and bottles of wine, and
silver mugs and small wine glasses. The whole had something the
appearance of a Dutch kitchen. While the guests were looking around in
surprise at this strange procedure, the host, addressing himself to
them said, 'Do you know where we now are?' Lafayette looked around,
and, as if awakening from a dream, he exclaimed, 'Ah! the seven doors
and one window, and the silver camp goblets such as the Marshals of
France used in my youth. We are at Washington's Headquarters on the
Hudson fifty years ago.'"

* * *

One window looking toward the east;
Seven doors wide-open every side;
That room revered proclaims at least
An invitation free and wide.

_Wallace Bruce._

* * *

The goodness which characterizes Washington is felt
by all around him, but the confidence he inspires is
never familiar; it springs from a profound esteem for
his virtues and a great opinion of his talents.

_Marquis de Chastellux._

* * *

From these headquarters Washington promulgated his
memorable order for the cessation of hostilities and
recalled the fact that its date, April 18th, was the anniversary
of the battles of Lexington and Concord.

_Thomas F. Bayard._

* * *

The Hasbrouck family returned to their old home, made historic for all
time, after the disbandment of the army and remained until it became
the property of the State. On July 4, 1850, the place was formally
dedicated by Major-General Winfield Scott, dedicatory address
delivered by John J. Monell, an ode by Mary E. Monell, and an oration
by Hon. John W. Edmunds. The centennial of the disbanding of the army
was observed here October 18, 1883. After the noonday procession
of 10,000 men in line, three miles in length, with governors and
representative people from almost every State, 150,000 people, "ten
acres" square, gathered in the historic grounds. Senator Bayard, of
Delaware, was chairman of the day. Hon. William M. Evarts was the
orator, and modestly speaking in the third person, Wallace Bruce,
author of this handbook, was the poet. No one there gathered can ever
forget that afternoon of glorious sunlight or the noble pageant. The
great mountains, which had so frequently been the bulwark of liberty
and a place of refuge for our fathers, were all aglow with beauty, as
if, like Horeb's bush, they too would open their lips in praise and
thanksgiving. One of the closing sentences of Senator Evarts' address
is unsurpassed in modern or ancient eloquence: "These rolling years
have shown growth, forever growth, and strength, increasing strength,
and wealth and numbers ever expanding, while intelligence, freedom,
art, culture and religion have pervaded and ennobled all this material
greatness. Wide, however, as is our land and vast our population
to-day, these are not the limits to the name, the fame, the power of
the life and character of Washington. If it could be imagined that
this nation, rent by disastrous feuds, broken in its unity, should
ever present the miserable spectacle of the undefiled garments of his
fame parted among his countrymen, while for the seamless vesture
of his virtue they cast lots--if this unutterable shame, if this
immeasurable crime, should overtake this land and this people, be sure
that no spot in the wide world is inhospitable to his glory, and
no people in it but rejoices in the influence of his power and his
virtue." In his lofty sentences the old heroes seemed to pass again
in review before us, and the daily life of that heroic band, when
Congress sat inactive and careless of its needs until the camp rose in
mutiny, happily checked, however, by the great commander in a single
sentence. It will be remembered that Washington began to read his
manuscript without glasses, but was compelled to stop, and, as he
adjusted them to his eyes, he said, "You see, gentlemen, that I have
not only grown gray, but blind, in your service." It is needless to
say that the "anonymously called" meeting was not held.

He quelled the half-paid mutineers,
And bound them closer to the cause;
His presence turned their wrath to tears,
Their muttered threats to loud applause.

The great Republic had its birth
That hour beneath the army's wing,
Whose leader taught by native worth
The man is grander than the king.

* * *

We hear the anthem once again,--
"No king but God!"--to guide our way,
Like that of old--"Good-will to men"--
Unto the shrine where freedom lay.

_Wallace Bruce_.

* * *

Near at hand, and also plainly seen from the river, is the new Tower
of Victory, fifty-three feet high, costing $67,000. It contains a
life-size statue of Washington, in the act of sheathing his sword,
with bronze figures representing the rifle, the artillery, the line
officer and dragoon service of our country, with a bronze tablet on
the east wall bearing the inscription: "This monument was erected
under the authority of the Congress of the United States, and of
the State of New York, in commemoration of the disbandment, under
proclamation of the Continental Congress, of October 18, 1783, of
the armies, by whose patriotic and military virtue, our national
independence and sovereignty were established." The Belvidere, reached
by a spiral staircase, is capable of holding one hundred persons,
and the view therefrom takes in a wide extent of panoramic beauty.
Newburgh has not only reason to be proud of her historical landmarks
and her beautiful situation, but also of her commercial prosperity.
In olden times, it was a great centre for all the western and
southwestern district, farmers and lumbermen coming from long
distances in the interior. Soon after the Revolution she was made a
village, when there were only two others in the State. Before the days
of the Erie canal, this was the shortest route to Lake Erie, and was
made by stage _via_ Ithaca. With increasing facilities of railway
communication, she has also easily held her own against all commercial
rivals. The _West Shore Railroad_, the _Erie Railway_, the _New York
Central_ and the _New York and New England_ across the river, and
several Hudson river steamers, make her peculiarly central. The city
is favored with beautiful driveways, amid charming country seats.
The New Paltz road passes the site where General Wayne had his
headquarters, also, the "Balm of Gilead tree," which gave the name of
Balmville to the suburban locality. Another road affords a glimpse of
the "Vale of Avoca," named after the well-known glen in Ireland, of
which Tom Moore so sweetly sung. Here, some say, a treacherous attempt
was made on the life of Washington, but it is not generally credited
by critical historians. As the steamer leaves the dock, and we look
back upon the factories and commercial houses along the water front,
crowned by noble streets of residence, with adjoining plateau,
sweeping back in a vast semi-circle as a beautiful framework to
the wide bay, we do not wonder that Hendrick Hudson established a
prophetic record by writing "a very pleasant place to build a town."

[Illustration: WASHINGTON'S HEADQUARTERS, NEWBURGH]

* * *

Washington! Brave without temerity; laborious without
ambition; generous without prodigality; noble
without pride; virtuous without severity.

_Marquis de Chastellux._

* * *

=Fishkill-on-the-Hudson.=--Directly opposite Newburgh, one mile north
of Denning's Point (formerly the eastern dock of the Newburgh ferry),
rises on a pleasant slope, the newer Fishkill of this region. A little
more than a mile from the landing, is the manufacturing village
of Matteawan, connected by an electric railroad. Old Fishkill, or
Fishkill Village, is about four miles inland, charmingly located,
under the slope of the Fishkill range. This was once the largest
village in Dutchess county, and was chosen for its secure position
above the Highlands, as the place to which "should be removed the
treasury and archives of the State, also, as the spot for holding the
subsequent sessions of the Provincial Conventions," after they were
driven from New York. A historical sketch of the town, by T. Van Wyck
Brinkerhoff, presents many things of interest. "Its history, anterior
to 1682, belongs to the red men of the valley, and, more than any
other spot, this was the home of their priests. Here they performed
their incantations and administered at their altars." According to
Broadhead, "It would seem that the neighboring Indians esteemed
the peltries from Fishkill as charmed by the incantations of the
aboriginal enchanters who lived along its banks, and the beautiful
scenery in which those ancient priests of the Highlands dwelt, is
thus invested with new poetic associations." Dunlap speaks of them as
"occupying the Highlands, called by them Kittatenny Mountains. Their
principal settlement, designated Wiccapee, was situated in the
vicinity of Anthony's Nose. Here too, lived the Wappingers, a war-like
and brave tribe, extending themselves along the Matteawan, along
the Wappingers Kill and tributaries, along the Hudson, and to the
northward, across the river into Ulster County. These and other tribes
to the south, west and north, were parts of and tributaries to the
great Iroquois confederation--the marvel for all time to come of a
system of government so wise and politic, and for men so eloquent and
daring. The Wappingers took part in the Dutch and Indian wars of 1643
and 1663, led on by their war chiefs, Wapperonk and Aepjen. A few
Indian names are still remaining, and a few traces of their history
still left standing. The name Matteawan is Indian, signifying 'Good
Beaver Grounds,' and the name Wappinger still speaks of those who
once owned the soil along the Hudson. Their name for the stream was
Mawanassigh, or Mawenawasigh. Wiccapee and Shenondoah are also Indian
names of places in Fishkill Hook, and East Fishkill, and Apoquague,
still surviving as the name of a country postoffice, was the Indian
style of what is now called Silver Lake, signifying 'round pond.' In
Fishkill Hook until quite recently, there were traces of their burial
grounds, and many apple and pear trees are still left standing, set
there by the hands of the red man before the country had been occupied
by Europeans."

* * *

For here amid these hills he once kept court--
He who his country's eagle taught to soar
And fired those stars which shine o'er every shore.

_Charles Fenno Hoffman._

* * *

To return to Brinkerhoff, "The first purchase of land in the county
of Dutchess, was made in the town of Fishkill. On the 8th day
of February, 1682, a license was given by Thomas Dongan,
Commander-in-chief of the Province of New York, to Francis Rombout and
Gulian Ver Planck, to purchase a tract of land from the Indians. Under
this license, they bought, on the 8th day of August, 1683, of the
Wappinger Indians, all their right, title and interest to a certain
large tract of land, afterward known as the Rombout precinct. Gulian
Ver Planck died before the English patent was issued by Governor
Dongan; Stephanus Van Cortland was then joined in it with Rombout,
and Jacobus Kipp substituted as the representative of the children of
Gulian Ver Planck. On the 17th day of October, 1685, letters patent,
under the broad seal of the Province of New York, were granted by King
James the Second, and the parties to whom these letters patent were
granted, became from that time the undisputed proprietors of the soil.
There were 76,000 acres of these lands lying in Fishkill, and other
towns taken from the patent, and 9,000 acres lying in the limits of
the town of Poughkeepsie. Besides paying the natives, as a further
consideration for the privilege of their license, they were to pay
the commander-in-chief, Thomas Dongan, six bushels of good and
merchantable winter wheat every year." In the Book of Patents, at
Albany, vol. 5, page 72, will be found the deed, of special interest
to the historian and antiquarian.

* * *

It was a dainty day, and it grew more dainty towards
its close as the lights and shadows stretched athwart
our Highland landscape.

_Susan Warner._

* * *

"After the evacuation of New York, in the fall of 1776, and the
immediate loss of the seaboard, with Long Island and part of New
Jersey, Fishkill was at once crowded with refugees, as they were then
called, who sought, by banishing themselves from their homes on Long
Island and New York, to escape imprisonment and find safety here. The
interior army route to Boston passed through this place. Army stores,
workshops, ammunition, etc., were established and deposited here." The
Marquis De Chastellux, in his travels in North America, says: "This
town, in which there are not more than fifty houses in the space of
two miles, has been long the principal depot of the American army.
It is there they have placed their magazines, their hospitals, their
workshops, etc., but all of these form a town in themselves, composed
of handsome large barracks, built in the woods at the foot of the
mountains: for the American army, like the Romans in many respects,
have hardly any other winter quarters than wooden towns, or barricaded
camps, which may be compared to the 'hiemalia' of the Romans." These
barracks were situated on the level plateau between the residence of
Mr. Cotheal and the mountains. Portions of these grounds were no
doubt then covered with timber. Guarding the approach from the south,
stockades and fortifications were erected on commanding positions, and
regularly manned by detachments from the camp.

* * *

Unto him and them all owing
Peace as stable as our hills,
Plenty like yon river flowing
To the sea from thousand rills.

_Mary E. Monell._

* * *

"Upon one of these hills, rising out of this mountain pass-way, very
distinct lines of earthworks are yet apparent. Near the residence of
Mr. Sidney E. Van Wyck, by the large black-walnut trees, and east
of the road near the base of the mountain, was the soldiers' burial
ground. Many a poor patriot soldier's bones lie mouldering there; and
if we did but know how many, we would be startled at the number, for
this almost unknown and unnoticed burial ground holds not a few, but
hundreds of those who gave their lives for the cause of American
independence. Some fifteen years ago, an old lady who had lived near
the village until after she had grown to womanhood, told the writer
that after the battle of White Plains she went with her father through
the streets of Fishkill, and in places between the Dutch and Episcopal
churches, the dead were piled up like cord-wood. Those who died from
wounds in battle or from sickness in hospital were buried there. Many
of these were State militiamen, and it seems no more than just that
the State should make an appropriation to erect a suitable monument
over this spot. Rather than thus remain for another century, if a
rough granite boulder were rolled down from the mountain side and
inscribed: 'To the unknown and unnumbered dead of the American
Revolution,' that rough unhewn stone would tell to the stranger and
the passer-by, more to the praise and fame of our native town than
any of us shall be able to add to it by works of our own; for it is
doubtful whether any spot in the State has as many of the buried dead
of the Revolution as this quiet burial yard in our old town!" Here
also on June 2, 1883, was observed "The Fishkill Centennial," and
few of our centennials have been celebrated amid objects of greater
revolutionary interest. Near at hand, to quote from the official
report of the proceedings, is "Denning's Point where Washington
frequently, while waiting, tied his horses under those magnificent
'Washington oaks,' as he passed backward and forward from New Windsor
and Newburgh to Fishkill. Near by is the Verplanck House, Baron
Steuben's old headquarters. On Spy Hill and Continental Hill troops
were quartered. At Matteawan Sackett lived, and there is the Teller
House built by Madame Brett, where officers frequently resorted, and
there Yates dwelt when he presided over the legislative body while it
held its sessions in Fishkill, that had much to do with forming our
first State Constitution. Baron Steuben was for a while in the old
Scofield House at Glenham. In Fishkill are those renowned old churches
where legislative sittings were held, which were also used as
hospitals for the sick, and one of which is otherwise known as being
the place where Enoch Crosby, the spy, was imprisoned, and from which
he escaped. Near at hand the Wharton House (Van Wyck House), forever
associated with him, and made famous by Cooper's 'Spy.' In the
Brinckerhoff House above, Lafayette was dangerously ill with a fever,
and there, at Swartwoutville, Washington was often a visitor. Whenever
Washington was at Fishkill he made Colonel Brinckerhoff's his
headquarters. He occupied the bedroom back of the parlor, which
remains the same 'excepting a door that opens into the hall, which has
been cut through.' It is an old-fashioned house built of stone, with
the date 1738 on one of its gables." With the story of Fishkill we
close the largest page relating to our revolutionary heroes, and leave
behind us the Old Beacon Mountains which forever sentinel and proclaim
their glory.

* * *

No prouder sentinel of glory than the old Beacon
Mountain whose watch-fire guarded the valley and spoke
its rallying message to the Catskills and Berkshires and
the very foothills of the Green Mountains.

_Wallace Bruce._

* * *

The sun touched mountains in some places were of
a bright orange and the shadows between them deep
neutral tint or blue. And the river apparently had
stopped running to reflect.

_Susan Warner._

* * *

=Low Point=, or Carthage, is a small village on the east bank, about
four miles north of Fishkill. It was called by the early inhabitants
Low Point, as New Hamburgh, two miles north, was called High Point.
Opposite Carthage is Roseton, once known as Middlehope, and above this
we see the residence of Bancroft Davis and the Armstrong Mansion. We
now behold on the west bank a large flat rock, covered with cedars,
recently marked by a lighthouse, the--

=Duyvel's Dans Kammer.=--Here Hendrick Hudson, in his voyage up the
river, witnessed an Indian pow-wow--the first recorded fireworks in a
country which has since delighted in rockets and pyrotechnic displays.
Here, too, in later years, tradition relates the sad fate of a wedding
party. It seems that a Mr. Hans Hansen and a Miss Kathrina Van
Voorman, with a few friends, were returning from Albany, and
disregarding the old Indian prophecy, were all slain:--

"For none that visit the Indian's den
Return again to the haunts of men.
The knife is their doom! O sad is their lot!
Beware, beware of the blood-stained spot!"

Some years ago this spot was also searched for the buried treasures
of Captain Kidd, and we know of one river pilot who still dreams
semi-yearly of there finding countless chests of gold.

Two miles above, on the east side, we pass New Hamburgh, at the mouth
of =Wappingers Creek=. The name Wappinger had its origin from Wabun,
east, and Acki, land. This tribe, a sub-tribe of the Mahicans, held
the east bank of the river, from Manhattan to Roeliffe Jansen's Creek,
which empties into the Hudson near Livingston, a few miles south of
Catskill Station on the _Hudson River Railroad_. Passing Hampton
Point we see Marlborough, the head-centre of a large fruit industry,
delightfully located in the sheltered pass of the Maunekill. On the
east bank will be noticed several fine residences: "Uplands," "High
Cliff," "Cedars," and "Netherwood." Milton is now at hand on the west
bank, with its cosy landing and _West Shore Railroad_ station. This
pleasant village was one of the loved spots of J. G. Holland, and the
home of Mary Hallock Foote, until a modern "Hiawatha" took our Hudson
"Minnehaha" to far away western mountains.

* * *

The tulip tree majestic stirs
Far down the water's marge beside,
And now awake the nearer firs,
And toss their ample branches wide.

_Henry T. Tuckerman._

* * *

=Springbrook=, opposite Milton, a place of historic interest, near the
river bank, was bought by Theophilus Anthony before the Revolution.
Some of the links of the famous chain in the Highlands were forged
here in 1777. When the British ships ascended the river the family
fled to the woods, all but an old colored servant woman who wisely
furnished the soldiers a good dinner and got thereby their good will
to save the house. The old Flour Mill, however, was burned which stood
on the same site as the present Springbrook Mill. Theophilus Anthony's
only daughter married Thomas Gill after the Revolution, and from that
time the property has been in the Gill family. Few places in the
Hudson Valley have such ancient and continuous family history.

=Locust Grove=, with square central tower and open outlook, residence
of the late Prof. S. F. B. Morse, inventor of the telegraph, is seen on
the west bank; also the "Lookout," once known as Mine Hill, now a part
of Poughkeepsie cemetery, with charming driveway to the wooded point
where the visitor can see from his carriage one of the finest views
of the Hudson. The completion of this drive is largely due to the
enterprise of the late Mr. George Corlies, who did much to make
Poughkeepsie beautiful. The view from this "Lookout" takes in the
river for ten miles to the south, and reaches on the north to the
Catskills. In a ramble with Mr. Corlies over Lookout Point, he told
the writer that it was originally the purpose of Matthew Vassar to
erect a monument on Pollopel's Island to Hendrick Hudson. Mr. Corlies
suggested this point as the most commanding site. Mr. Vassar visited
it, and concluded to place the monument here. He published an article
in the Poughkeepsie papers to this effect, and, meeting Mr. Corlies
one week afterwards, said, "Not one person in the city of Poughkeepsie
has referred to my monument. I have decided to build a college for
women, where they can learn what is useful, practical and sensible."
It is interesting to note the fountain-idea of the first woman's
college in the world, as it took form and shape in the mind of its
founder.

[Illustration: POUGHKEEPSIE BRIDGE]

[Illustration: TROPHY POINT, WEST POINT]

[Illustration: OLD CRO' NEST AND STORM KING]

[Illustration: POLLIPEL'S ISLAND AND MOUNT TAURUS]

[Illustration: THE CATSKILLS FROM THE HUDSON]

[Illustration: NORTHERN GATE OF HIGHLANDS]

* * *

And from their leaguering legions thick and vast
The galling hail-shot in fierce volley falls,
While quick, from cloud to cloud, darts o'er the levin
The flash that fires the batteries of heaven!

_Knickerbocker Magazine._

* * *

[Illustration: MORNING VIEW AT BLUE POINT.]

We now see =Blue Point=, on the west bank; and, in every direction,
enjoy the finest views. The scenery seems to stand, in character,
between the sublimity of the Highlands and the tranquil, dreamy repose
of the Tappan Zee. It is said that under the shadow of these hills was
the favorite anchorage of--

=The Storm Ship=, one of our oldest and most reliable legends. The
story runs somewhat as follows: Years ago, when New York was a
village--a mere cluster of houses on the point now known as the
Battery--when the Bowery was the farm of Peter Stuyvesant, and the Old
Dutch Church on Nassau Street (which also long since disappeared),
was considered the country--when communication with the old world was
semi-yearly instead of semi-weekly or daily--say two hundred years
ago--the whole town one evening was put into great commotion by the
fact that a ship was coming up the bay.

* * *

See you beneath yon sky so dark
Fast gliding along a gloomy bark:--
By skeleton shapes her sails are furled,
And the hand that steers is not of this world.

_Legend of the Storm Ship._

* * *

She approached the Battery within hailing distance, and then, sailing
against both wind and tide, turned aside and passed up the Hudson.
Week after week and month after month elapsed, but she never returned;
and whenever a storm came down on Haverstraw Bay or Tappan Zee, it
is said that she could be seen careening over the waste; and, in the
midst of the turmoil, you could hear the captain giving orders, in
_good Low Dutch_; but when the weather was pleasant, her favorite
anchorage was among the shadows of the picturesque hills, on the
eastern bank, a few miles above the Highlands. It was thought by some
to be Hendrick Hudson and his crew of the "Half Moon," who, it was
well known, had once run aground in the upper part of the river,
seeking a northwest passage to China; and people who live in this
vicinity still insist that under the calm harvest moon and the
pleasant nights of September, they see her under the bluff of Blue
Point, all in deep shadow, save her topsails glittering in the
moonlight.

=Poughkeepsie=, 74 miles from New York, is now at hand, Queen City
of the Hudson, with name, derived from the Indian word Apokeepsing,
signifying "safe harbor." Near the landing a bold headland juts out
into the river, known as Kaal Rock, and no doubt this sheltering
rock was a safe harbor in days of birch canoes. It has been recently
claimed that the word signifies "muddy pond," which is neither true,
appropriate or poetic. Poughkeepsie does not propose to give up
her old-time "harbor name," particularly as it has been recently
discovered that the name "Kipsie" was also given by the Indians to a
"safe harbor" near the Battery on Manhattan Island. It is said that
there are over forty different ways of spelling Poughkeepsie, and
every year the postoffice record gives a new one. The first house was
built in 1702 by a Mr. Van Kleeck. The State legislature had a session
here in 1777 or 1778, when New York was held by the British and after
Kingston had been burned by Vaughan.

* * *

On the crest of the waves, a something that glides
Before the stiff breeze, and gracefully rides
On the inflowing tide majestic and free
A huge and mysterious bird of the sea.

_Irving Bruce._

* * *

Ten years later, the State convention also met here for ratification
of the Federal Constitution. The town has a beautiful location, and is
justly regarded the finest residence city on the river. It is not
only midway between New York and Albany, but also midway between the
Highlands and the Catskills, commanding a view of the mountain portals
on the south and the mountain overlook on the north--the Gibraltar of
revolutionary fame and the dreamland of Rip Van Winkle.

* * *

The azure heaven is filled with smiles,
The water lisping at my feet
From weary thought my heart beguiles.

_Henry Abbey._

* * *

The well known poet and _litterateur_, Joel Benton, who divides his
residence between New York and Poughkeepsie, in a recent article,
"The Midway City of the Hudson," written for the _Poughkeepsie Sunday
Courier_, says:

"Poughkeepsie as a township was incorporated in 1788. The village
bearing the name was formed in 1799 (incorporated as a city in 1854),
and soon became the center of a large trade running in long lines east
and west from the river. Dutchess County had at this time but a sparse
population. There was a post-road from New York to Albany; but the
building of the Dutchess Turnpike from Poughkeepsie to Sharon, Conn.,
connecting with one from that place to Litchfield, which took place
in 1808, was a capital event in its history. This made a considerable
strip of western Connecticut tributary to Poughkeepsie's trade.

"Over the turnpike went four-horse Concord stages, with berailed top
and slanting boot in the rear for trunks and other baggage. Each one
had the tin horn of the driver; and it was difficult to tell upon
which the driver most prided himself--the power to fill that thrilling
instrument, or his deft handling of the ponderous whip and multiplied
reins. Travelers to Hartford and Boston went over this route; and an
east and west through and way mail was a part of the burden. A sort of
overland express and freight line, styled the Market Wagon, ran in
and out of the town from several directions. One or more of these
conveyances started from as far east as the Housatonic River, and they
frequently crowded passengers in amongst their motley wares.

"Speaking of the stage-driver's horn recalls the fact that when the
steamboat arrived--which was so solitary an institution that for some
time it was distinctly called 'The Steamboat'--the tin horn did duty
also for it. When it was seen in the distance, either Albanyward or in
the New York direction, a boy went through the village blowing a horn
to arouse those who wished to embark on it. It is said the expectant
passengers had ample time, after the horn was sounded, to make their
toilets, run down to the river (or walk down) and take passage on it.

"In colonial days few were the people here; but they were a bright and
stirring handful. It seems as if every man counted as ten. The De's
and the Vans, the Livingstons, the Schuylers, the Montgomerys and ever
so many more of the Hudson River Valley settlers are still making
their impress upon the country. I suppose it need not now be counted
strange that the strong mixture of Dutch and English settlers, with a
few Huguenots, which finally made Dutchess county, were not a little
divided between Tory and Whig inclinations. Around Poughkeepsie,
and in its allied towns stretching between the Hudson River and the
Connecticut line, there was much strife. Gov. George Clinton in his
day ruled in the midst of much tumult and turbulence; but he held the
reins with vigor, in spite of kidnappers or critics. When the British
burned Kingston he prorogued the legislature to Poughkeepsie, which
still served as a 'safe harbor.' As the resolution progressed the Tory
faction was weakened, either by suppression or surrender.

"It was in the Poughkeepsie Court House that, by _one_ vote, after a
Homeric battle, the colony of New York consented to become a part of
the American republic, which consent was practically necessary to its
existence.

"How large a part two small incidents played here towards the result of
nationality. That single vote was one, and the news by express from
Richmond, announcing Virginia's previous ratification--and added
stimulus to the vote--was the other. Poughkeepsie honored in May,
1824, the arrival of Lafayette, and dined him, besides exchanging
speeches with him, both at the Forbus House, on Market Street, very
nearly where the Nelson House now stands, and at the Poughkeepsie
Hotel. It was one of Poughkeepsie's great days when he came. Daniel
Webster has spoken in her court house; and Henry Clay, in 1844, when a
presidential candidate, stopped for a reception. And it is said that,
by a mere accident, she just missed contributing a name to the list of
presidents of the United States. The omitted candidate was Nathaniel
P. Talmadge. He could have had the vice-presidential candidacy, the
story goes, in 1840, but would not take it. If he had accepted it, he
would have gone into history not merely as United States senator
from New York and afterwards Governor of Wisconsin territory, but as
president in John Tyler's place.

"In 1844, the New York State Fair was held here somewhere east of what
is now Hooker Avenue. It was an occasion thought important enough then
to be pictured and reported in the London _Illustrated News_. Two
years after the telegraph wires were put up in this city, before they
had yet reached the city of New York. Considering the fact that Prof.
S. F. B. Morse, the telegraph inventor, had his residence here, this
incident was not wholly inappropriate.

"The advent in 1849 of the _Hudson River Railroad_, which was an
enterprise in its day of startling courage and magnitude, constituted
a special epoch in the history of Poughkeepsie and the Hudson River
towns. Men of middle age here well remember the hostility and ridicule
the project occasioned when it was first broached. Some said no
railroad ever _could_ be built on the river's edge; and, if you
should build one, the enormous expense incurred would make it forever
unprofitable. It seemed then the height of Quixotism to lay an
expensive track where the river offered a free way to all. Property
holders, whose property was to be greatly benefited, fought the
railroad company with unusual spirit and persistence. But the railroad
came, nevertheless, and needs no advocate or apologist to-day. There
is no one now living here who would ask its removal, any more than he
would ask the removal of the Hudson River itself."

* * *

And lo! the Catskills print the distant sky,
And o'er their airy tops the faint clouds driven,
So softly blending, that the cheated eye
Forgets or which is earth or which is heaven.

_Theodore S. Fay_.

* * *

Mountains on mountains in the distance rise,
Like clouds along the far horizon's verge;
Their misty summits mingling with the skies,
Till earth and heaven seem blended into one.

_Bayard Taylor._

* * *

Poughkeepsie has been known for more than half a century as the City
of Schools. The Parthenon-like structure which crowns College Hill was
prophetic of a still grander and more widely known institution, the
first in the world devoted to higher culture for women,--

=Vassar College.=--This institution, founded by Matthew Vassar, and
situated two miles east of the city, maintains its prestige not only
as the first woman's college in point of time, but also first in
excellence and influence. The grounds are beautiful and graced by
noble buildings which have been erected year by year to meet the
continued demands of its patrons. The college is not seen from the
river but is of easy access by trolley from the steamboat landing.

=Eastman College= is also one of the fixed and solid institutions
of Poughkeepsie, located in the very heart of the city. It has
accomplished good work in preparing young men for business, and has
made Poughkeepsie a familiar word in every household throughout the
land. It was fortunate for the city that the energetic founder of this
college selected the central point of the Hudson as the place of all
others most suited for his enterprise, and equally fortunate for the
thousands of young men who yearly graduate from this institution,
as the city is charmingly located and set like a picture amid
picturesque scenery.

Among many successful public institutions of Poughkeepsie are the
Vassar Hospital, the Vassar Old Men's Home, the Old Ladies' Home, the
State Hospital and the Vassar Institute of Arts and Sciences.

* * *

I went three times up the Hudson; and if I lived in
New York should be tempted to ascend it three times a
week during the summer.

_Harriet Martineau._

* * *

The opera house is one of the pleasantest in the country and received
a high comment, still remembered, from Joseph Jefferson, for its
perfect acoustic quality. The armory, the Adriance Memorial Library to
the memory of Mr. and Mrs. John P. Adriance, and the historic Clinton
House on Main Street purchased in 1898 by the Daughters of the
Revolution, also claim the attention of the visitor. Several factories
are here located, the best known being that of Adriance, Platt & Co.,
whose Buckeye mowers and reapers have been awarded the highest honors
in Germany, Holland, France, Belgium, Sweden, Norway, Italy, Russia,
Switzerland, and the United States, and are sold in every part of
the civilized globe. The Phoenix Horseshoe Co., the Knitting-Goods
Establishment, and various shoe, shirt and silk thread factories
contribute to the material prosperity of the town. The drives about
Poughkeepsie are delightful. Perhaps the best known in the United
States is the Hyde Park road, six miles in extent, with many palatial
homes and charming pictures of park and river scenery. This is a part
of the Old Post Road and reminds one by its perfect finish of the
roadways of England. Returning one can take a road to the left leading
by and up to

=College Hill=, 365 feet in height, commanding a wide and extensive
prospect. The city lies below us, fully embowered as in a wooded park.
To the east the vision extends to the mountain boundaries of Dutchess
County, and to the north we have a view of the Catskills marshalled as
we have seen them a thousand times in sunset beauty along the horizon.
This property, once owned by Senator Morgan and his heirs, was happily
purchased by William Smith of Poughkeepsie, and given to the city as a
public park. There is great opportunity here to make this a thing of
beauty and a joy forever, for there are few views on the Hudson,
and none from any hill of its height, that surpass it in extent and
variety. The city reservoir lies to the north, about one hundred feet
down the slope of College Hill.

* * *

My heart is on the hills. The shades
Of night are on my brow;
Ye pleasant haunts and quiet glades,
My soul is with you now!

_Robert C. Sands._

* * *

The South Drive, a part of the Old Post Road, passes the gateway of
the beautiful rural cemetery, Locust Grove and many delightful homes.
Another interesting drive from Poughkeepsie is to Lake Mohonk and
Minnewaska, well-known resorts across the Hudson, in the heart of the
Shawangunk (pronounced Shongum) Mountains, also reached by railway
or stages via New Paltz. There are also many extended drives to
the interior of the county recommended to the traveler who makes
Poughkeepsie for a time his central point; chief among these, Chestnut
Ridge, formerly the home of the historian Benson J. Lossing, lying
amid the hill country of eastern Dutchess. Its mean altitude is about
1,100 feet above tide water, a fragment of the Blue Ridge branch of
the Appalachian chain of mountains, cleft by the Hudson at West Point,
stretching away to the Berkshire Hills. It is also easy of access by
the _Harlem Railroad_ from New York to Dover Plains with three miles
of carriage drive from that point. The outlook from the ridge is
magnificent; a sweep of eighty miles from the Highlands to the
Helderbergs, with the entire range of the Shawangunk and the
Catskills. Mr. Lossing once said that his family of nine persons had
required during sixteen years' residence on Chestnut Ridge, only ten
dollars' worth of medical attendance. Previous to 1868 he had resided
in Poughkeepsie, and throughout his life his form was a familiar one
in her streets.

* * *

Thy waves are old companions, I shall see
A well-remembered form in each old tree
And hear a voice long-loved in thy wild minstrelsy.

_Joseph Rodman Drake._

* * *

=The Dover Stone Church=, just west of Dover Plains Village, is also
well worth a visit. Here a small stream has worn out a remarkable
cavern in the rocks forming a gothic arch for entrance. It lies in a
wooded gorge within easy walk from the village. Many years ago the
writer of this handbook paid it an afternoon visit, and the picture
has remained impressed with wonderful vividness. The archway opens
into a solid rock, and a stream of water issues from the threshold. On
entering the visitor is confronted by a great boulder, resembling an
old-fashioned New England pulpit, reaching half way to the ceiling.
The walls are almost perfectly arched, and garnished here and there
with green moss and white lichen. A rift in the rocks extends the
whole length of the chapel, over which trees hang their green foliage,
which, ever rustling and trembling, form a trellis-work with the blue
sky, while the spray rising from behind the rock-worn altar seems like
the sprinkling of holy incense. After all these years I still hear the
voice of those dashing waters and dream again, as I did that day, of
the brook of Cherith where ravens fed the prophet of old. It is said
by Lossing, in his booklet on the Dover Stone Church, that Sacassas,
the mighty sachem of the Pequoids and emperor over many tribes between
the Thames and the Hudson River, was compelled after a disastrous
battle which annihilated his warriors, to fly for safety, and, driven
from point to point, he at last found refuge in this cave, where
undiscovered he subsisted for a few days on berries, until at last he
made his way through the territory of his enemies, the Mahicans, to
the land of the Mohawks.

* * *

Tell me, where'er thy silver bark be steering,
Bright Dian floating by fair Persian lands,
Tell if thou visited, thou heavenly rover,
A lovelier stream than this the wide world over.

_Charles Fenno Hoffman._

* * *

=Poughkeepsie to Kingston.=

Leaving the Poughkeepsie dock the steamer approaches the Poughkeepsie
Bridge which, from Blue Point and miles below, has seemed to the
traveler like a delicate bit of lace-work athwart the landscape,
or like an old-fashioned "valance" which used to hang from Dutch
bedsteads in the Hudson River farm houses. This great cantilever
structure was begun in 1873, but abandoned for several years. The work
was resumed in 1886 just in time to save the charter, and was finished
by the Union Bridge Company in less than three years. The bridge is
12,608 feet in length (or about two miles and a half), the track being
212 feet above the water with 165 feet clear above the tide in the
centre span. The breadth of the river at this point is 3,094 feet. The
bridge originally cost over three million dollars and much more has
been annually spent in necessary improvements. It not only affords a
delightful passenger route between Philadelphia and Boston, but also
brings the coal centres of Pennsylvania to the very threshold of New
England. Two railroads from the east centre here, and what was once
considered an idle dream, although bringing personal loss to many
stockholders, has been of material advantage to the city.

As the steamer passes under the bridge the traveler will see on the
left Highland station (_West Shore Railroad_) and above this the old
landing of New Paltz. A well traveled road winds from the ferry and
the station, up a narrow defile by the side of a dashing stream,
broken here and there in waterfalls, to Highland Village, New Paltz
and Lake Mohonk. _The Bridge and Trolley Line_ from Poughkeepsie make
a most delightful excursion to New Paltz, on the Wallkill, seat of one
of the State normal colleges.

* * *

My thoughts go back to thee, oh lovely lake,
Lake of the Sky Top! as thy beauties break
Upon the traveller of thy mountain road,
While sunset gilds thee, vision never fairer glowed!

_Alfred B. Street._

* * *

Prominent among many pleasant residences above Poughkeepsie are:
Mrs. F. J. Allen's of New York, Mrs. John F. Winslow's, Mrs. Thomas
Newbold's, J. Roosevelt's and Archie Rogers'. The large red buildings
above the Poughkeepsie water works are the Hudson River State
Hospital. Passing Crum Elbow Point on the left and the Sisters of the
White Cross Orphan Asylum, we see

=Hyde Park=, 80 miles from New York, on the east bank, named some say,
in honor of Lady Ann Hyde; according to others, after Sir Edward Hyde,
one of the early British Governors of the colony. The first prominent
place above Hyde Park, is Frederick W. Vanderbilt's, with Corinthian
columns; and above this "Placentia," once the home of James K.
Paulding.

Immediately opposite "Placentia," at West Park on the west bank, is
the home of John Burroughs, our sweetest essayist, the nineteenth
century's "White of Selborne." Judge Barnard of Poughkeepsie, once
said to the author of this handbook, "The best writer America has
produced after Hawthorne is John Burroughs; I wish I could see him."
It so happened that there had been an important "bank" suit a day or
two previous in Poughkeepsie which was tried before the judge in which
Mr. Burroughs had appeared as an important witness. The judge was
reminded of this fact when he remarked with a few emphatic words, the
absence of which seems to materially weaken the sentence: "Was that
Burroughs? Well, well, I wish I had known it."

* * *

How soothing is this solitude
With nature in her wildest mood,
Where Hudson deep, majestic, wide,
Pours to the sea his monarch tide.

_William Wilson._

* * *

=Mount Hymettus=, overlooking West Park, so named by "the author and
naturalist," has indeed been to him a successful hunting-ground for
bees and wild honey, and will be long remembered for sweeter stores of
honey encombed and presented in enduring type. Washington Irving says
of the early poets of Britain that "a spray could not tremble in the
breeze, or a leaf rustle to the ground, that was not seen by these
delicate observers and wrought up into some beautiful morality." So
John Burroughs has studied the Hudson in all its moods, knowing well
that it is not to be wooed and won in a single day. How clear this is
seen in his articles on "Our River":

"Rivers are as various in their forms as forest trees. The Mississippi
is like an oak with enormous branches. What a branch is the Red River,
the Arkansas, the Ohio, the Missouri! The Hudson is like the pine
or poplar--mainly trunk. From New York to Albany there is only an
inconsiderable limb or two, and but few gnarls and excrescences. Cut
off the Rondout, the Esopus, the Catskill and two or three similar
tributaries on the east side, and only some twigs remain. There
are some crooked places, it is true, but, on the whole, the Hudson
presents a fine, symmetrical shaft that would be hard to match in any
river in the world. Among our own water-courses it stands preeminent.
The Columbia--called by Major Winthrop the Achilles of rivers--is a
more haughty and impetuous stream; the Mississippi is, of course,
vastly larger and longer; the St. Lawrence would carry the Hudson as
a trophy in his belt and hardly know the difference; yet our river is
doubtless the most beautiful of them all. It pleases like a mountain
lake. It has all the sweetness and placidity that go with such bodies
of water, on the one hand, and all their bold and rugged scenery on
the other. In summer, a passage up or down its course in one of the
day steamers is as near an idyl of travel as can be had, perhaps,
anywhere in the world. Then its permanent and uniform volume, its
fullness and equipoise at all seasons, and its gently-flowing currents
give it further the character of a lake, or of the sea itself. Of
the Hudson it may be said that it is a very large river for its
size,--that is for the quantity of water it discharges into the sea.
Its watershed is comparatively small--less, I think, than that of the
Connecticut. It is a huge trough with a very slight incline, through
which the current moves very slowly, and which would fill from the sea
were its supplies from the mountains cut off. Its fall from Albany to
the bay is only about five feet. Any object upon it, drifting with the
current, progresses southward no more than eight miles in twenty-four
hours. The ebb-tide will carry it about twelve miles and the flood set
it back from seven to nine. A drop of water at Albany, therefore, will
be nearly three weeks in reaching New York, though it will get pretty
well pickled some days earlier. Some rivers by their volume and
impetuosity penetrate the sea, but here the sea is the aggressor, and
sometimes meets the mountain water nearly half way. This fact was
illustrated a couple of years ago, when the basin of the Hudson was
visited by one of the most severe droughts ever known in this part of
the State. In the early winter after the river was frozen over above
Poughkeepsie, it was discovered that immense numbers of fish were
retreating up stream before the slow encroachment of salt water. There
was a general exodus of the finny tribes from the whole lower part of
the river; it was like the spring and fall migration of the birds, or
the fleeing of the population of a district before some approaching
danger: vast swarms of cat-fish, white and yellow perch and striped
bass were _en route_ for the fresh water farther north. When the
people along shore made the discovery, they turned out as they do in
the rural districts when the pigeons appear, and, with small gill-nets
let down through holes in the ice, captured them in fabulous numbers.
On the heels of the retreating perch and cat-fish came the denizens of
the salt water, and codfish were taken ninety miles above New York.
When the February thaw came and brought up the volume of fresh water
again, the sea brine was beaten back, and the fish, what were left of
them, resumed their old feeding-grounds.

* * *

Still on the Half-Moon glides: before her rise swarms
of quick water fowl, and from her prow the sturgeon
leaps, and falls with echoing splash.

_Alfred B. Street._

* * *

Beneath--the river with its tranquil flood,
Around--the breezes of the morning, scented
With odors from the wood.

_William Allen Butler._

* * *

"It is this character of the Hudson, this encroachment of the sea upon
it, on account of the subsidence of the Atlantic coast, that led
Professor Newberry to speak of it as a drowned river. We have heard
of drowned lands, but here is a river overflowed and submerged in the
same manner. It is quite certain, however, that this has not always
been the character of the Hudson. Its great trough bears evidence
of having been worn to its present dimensions by much swifter and
stronger currents than those that course through it now. To this
gradual subsidence in connection with the great changes wrought by the
huge glacier that crept down from the north during what is called the
ice period, is owing the character and aspects of the Hudson as we see
and know them. The Mohawk Valley was filled up by the drift, the Great
Lakes scooped out, and an opening for their pent-up waters found
through what is now the St. Lawrence. The trough of the Hudson was
also partially filled and has remained so to the present day. There
is, perhaps, no point in the river where the mud and clay are not from
two to three times as deep as the water. That ancient and grander
Hudson lies back of us several hundred thousand years--perhaps more,
for a million years are but as one tick of the time-piece of the Lord;
yet even _it_ was a juvenile compared with some of the rocks and
mountains which the Hudson of to-day mirrors. The Highlands date
from the earliest geological race--the primary; the river--the old
river--from the latest, the tertiary; and what that difference
means in terrestrial years hath not entered into the mind of man to
conceive. Yet how the venerable mountains open their ranks for the
stripling to pass through. Of course, the river did not force its way
through this barrier, but has doubtless found an opening there of
which it has availed itself, and which it has enlarged. In thinking
of these things, one only has to allow time enough, and the most
stupendous changes in the topography of the country are as easy
and natural as the going out or the coming in of spring or summer.
According to the authority above referred to, that part of our coast
that flanks the mouth of the Hudson is still sinking at the rate of a
few inches per century, so that in the twinkling of a hundred thousand
years or so, the sea will completely submerge the city of New York,
the top of Trinity Church steeple alone standing above the flood. We
who live so far inland, and sigh for the salt water, need only to have
a little patience, and we shall wake up some fine morning and find the
surf beating upon our door-steps."

* * *

A sloop, loitering in the distance, dropped slowly
with the tide, her sail hanging loosely against the
mast; and as the reflection of the sky gleamed along
the still water, it seemed as if the vessel was suspended
in the air.

_Washington Irving._

* * *

How strange it seems in these brief years since 1880 to read of
"Trinity Church steeple standing alone above the flood" as the rising
tide of New York skyscrapers has long since overtopped the old
landmark and is sweeping higher and higher day by day.

The Frothingham residence and Frothingham dock are south of the
Burroughs cottage. The late General Butterfield's house immediately to
the north. The old Astor place (once known as Waldorf), is also near
at hand. In our analysis of the Hudson we refer to the hills above and
below Poughkeepsie as "The Picturesque." Any one walking or driving
from Highland Village to West Park will feel that this is a proper
distinction. The Palisades are distinguished for "grandeur" which
might be defined as "horizontal sublimity." The Highlands for
"sublimity" which might be termed "perpendicular grandeur;" the
Catskills for "beauty," with their rounded form and ever changing
hues, but the river scenery about Poughkeepsie abides in our memories
as a series of bright and charming "pictures." North of Waldorf is
Pelham, consisting of 1,200 acres, one of the largest fruit farms in
the world. Passing Esopus Island, which seems like a great stranded
and petrified whale, along whose sides often cluster Lilliputian-like
canoeists, we see Brown's Dock on the west bank at the mouth of Black
Creek, which rises eight miles from Newburgh on the eastern slope of
the Plaaterkill Mountains. Flowing through Black Pond, known by the
Dutch settlers as the "Grote Binnewater," it cascades its way along
the southern slope of the Shaupeneak Mountains to Esopus Village,
a cross-road hamlet, and thence carries to the Hudson its waters
dark-stained by companionship with trees of hemlock and cedar growth.
The Pell property extends on the west bank to Pell's Dock, almost
opposite the Staatsburgh ice houses. Mrs. Livingston's residence will
now be seen on the east bank, and just above this the home of the late
William B. Dinsmore on Dinsmore Point. Passing Vanderberg Cove, cut
off from the river by the tracks of the _New York Central Railroad_,
we see the residence of Jacob Ruppert, and above this the Frinck
mansion known as "Windercliffe," formerly the property of E. R. Jones,
and next beyond the house of Robert Suckly. Passing Ellerslie Dock we
see "Ellerslie," the palatial summer home of ex-Vice-President Levi
P. Morton, an estate of six hundred acres, formerly owned by the Hon.
William Kelly. Along the western bank extend the Esopus meadows, a low
flat, covered by water, the southern end of which is marked by the
Esopus light-house. To the west rises Hussey's Mountain, about one
thousand feet in height, from under whose eastern slope two little
ponds, known as Binnewaters, send another stream to join Black Creek
before it flows into the Hudson. Port Ewen on the west bank, with ice
houses and brick yards, will be seen by steamer passengers below the
mouth of Rondout Creek.

* * *

At dawn the river seems a shade,
A liquid shadow deep as space,
But when the sun the mist has laid
A diamond shower smites its face.

_John Burroughs._

* * *

=Rhinecliff=, 90 miles from New York. The village of Rhinebeck, two
miles east of the landing, is not seen from the river. It was named,
as some contend, by combining two words--Beekman and Rhine. Others say
that the word beck means cliff, and the town was so named from the
resemblance of the cliffs to those of the Rhine. There are many
delightful drives in and about Rhinebeck, "Ellerslie" being only about
eight minutes by carriage from the landing.

_The Philadelphia & Reading Rhinebeck Branch_ meets the Hudson at
Rhinecliff, and makes a pleasant and convenient tourist or business
route between the Hudson and the Connecticut. It passes through a
delightful country and thriving rural villages. Some of the views
along the Roeliffe Jansen's Kill are unrivaled in quiet beauty. The
railroad passes through Rhinebeck, Red Hook, Spring Lake, Ellerslie,
Jackson Corners, Mount Ross, Gallatinville, Ancram, Copake, Boston
Corners, and Mount Riga to State Line Junction, and gives a person a
good idea of the counties of Dutchess and Columbia. At Boston Corners
connection is made with the _Harlem Railroad_.

* * *

Upon thy tessellated surface lie
The wave-glassed splendors of the sunset sky!

_Knickerbocker Magazine._

* * *

From State Line Junction it passes through Ore Hill, Lakeville with
its beautiful lake (an evening view of which is still hung in our
memory gallery of sunset sketches), Salisbury, Chapinville, and Twin
Lakes to Canaan, where the line crosses the _Housatonic Railroad._
This route, therefore, is the easiest and pleasantest for Housatonic
visitors _en route_ to the Catskills. From Canaan the road rises by
easy grade to the summit, at an elevation of 1,400 feet, passing
through the village of Norfolk, with its picturesque New England
church crowning the village hill, and thence to Simsbury and Hartford.

=The City of Kingston.=--Rondout and Kingston gradually grew together
until the bans were performed in 1878, and a "bow-knot" tied at
the top of the hill in the shape of a city hall, making them one
corporation.

The name Rondout had its derivation from a redoubt that was built
on the banks of the creek. The creek took the name of Redoubt Kill,
afterward Rundoubt, and at last Rondout. Kingston was once called
Esopus. (The Indian name for the spot where the city now stands was
At-kar-karton, the great plot or meadow on which they raised corn or
beans.)

Kingston and Rondout were both settled in 1614, and old Kingston,
known by the Dutch as Wiltwyck, was thrice destroyed by the Indians
before the Revolution. In 1777 the State legislature met here and
formed a constitution. In the fall of the same year, after the capture
of Fort Montgomery and Fort Clinton by the British, Vaughan landed at
Rondout, marched to Kingston, and burned the town. While Kingston
was burning, the inhabitants fled to Hurley, where a small force of
Americans hung a messenger who was caught carrying dispatches from
Clinton to Burgoyne.

* * *

What ample bays and branching streams,
What curves abrupt for glad surprise,
And how supreme the artist is
Who paints it all for loving eyes.

_Henry Abbey._

* * *

Rondout is the termination of the Delaware and Hudson Canal (whence
canal boats of coal find their way from the Pennsylvania Mountains
to tidewater), also of the _Ulster and Delaware Railroad_, by which
people find their way from tidewater to the Catskill Mountains, which
have greeted the eye of the tourist for many miles down the Hudson.
Originally all of the country-side in this vicinity was known as
Esopus, supposed to be derived, according to Ruttenber, from the
Indian word "seepus," a river. A "sopus Indian" was a Lowlander, and
the name is intimately connected with a long reach of territory
from Esopus Village, near West Park, to the mouth of the Esopus at
Saugerties. In 1675 the mouth of the Rondout Creek was chosen by the
New Netherland Company as one of the three fortified trading ports
on the Hudson; a stockade was built under the guidance of General
Stuyvesant in 1661 inclosing the site of old Kingston; a charter was
granted in 1658 under the name of Wiltwyck, but changed in 1679 to
Kingston. Few cities are so well off for old-time houses that span the
century, and there is no congregation probably in the United States
that has worshipped so many consecutive years in the same spot as the
Dutch Reformed people of Kingston. Five buildings have succeeded the
log church of 240 years ago. Dr. Van Slyke, in a recent welcome, said:
"This church, which opens her doors to you, claims a distinction which
does not belong even to the Collegiate Dutch Churches of Manhattan
Island, and, by a peculiar history, stands identified more closely
with Holland than any other of the early churches of this country.
When every other church of our communion had for a long time been
associated with an American Synod, this church retained its relations
to the Classis of Amsterdam, and, after a period of independency and
isolation, it finally allied itself with its American sisterhood as
late as the year 1808. We still have three or four members whose life
began before that date."

* * *

Yet there are those who lie beside thy bed
For whom thou once didst rear the bowers that screen
Thy margin, and didst water the green fields;
And now there is no night so still that they
Can hear thy lapse.

_William Cullen Bryant._

* * *

Dominie Blom was the first preacher in Kingston. The church where he
preached and the congregation that gathered to hear him have been
tenderly referred to by the Rev. Dr. Belcher:

"They've journeyed on from touch and tone;
No more their ears shall hear
The war-whoop wild, or sad death moan,
Or words of fervid prayer;
But the deeds they did and plans they planned,
And paths of blood they trod,
Have blessed and brightened all this land
And hallowed it for God."

=The Senate House=, built in 1676 by Wessel Ten Broeck, who would seem
by his name to have stepped bodily out of a chapter of Knickerbocker,
was "burned" but not "down," for its walls stood firm. It was
afterwards repaired, and sheltered many dwellers, among others,
General Armstrong, secretary of war under President Madison. The
Provincial Convention met in the court house at Kingston in 1777 and
the Constitution was formally announced April 22d of that year. The
first court was held here September 9th and the first legislature
September 10th. Adjourning October 7th, they convened again August
18th, 1779, and in 1780, from April 22d to July 2d, also for two
months beginning January 27, 1783.

It was in the yard in front of the court house that the Constitution
of the State was proclaimed by Robert Berrian, the secretary of the
Constitutional Convention, and it was there that George Clinton, the
first Governor of the State, was inaugurated and took the oath of
office. It was in the court house that John Jay, chief justice,
delivered his memorable charge to the grand jury in September, 1777,
and at the opening said: "Gentlemen, it affords me very sensible
pleasure to congratulate you on the dawn of that free, mild, and equal
government which now begins to rise and break from amidst the clouds
of anarchy, confusion and licentiousness, which the arbitrary and
violent domination of the King of Great Britain has spread, in greater
or less degree, throughout this and other American states. And it
gives me particular satisfaction to remark that the first fruits
of our excellent Constitution appear in a part of this State whose
inhabitants have distinguished themselves by having unanimously
endeavored to deserve them." The court house bell was originally
imported from Holland.

* * *

Pinched by famine and menaced by foe
In the cruel winters of long ago,
They worked and prayed and for freedom wrought,
Freedom of speech and freedom of thought.

_Frederica Davis Hatfield._

* * *

The burning of Kingston seemed unnecessarily cruel, and it is said
that Vaughan was wide of the truth when, to justify the same, he
claimed that he had been fired upon from dwellings in the village.
General Sharpe in his address before the Holland Society says: "The
history of this county begins to be interesting at the earliest stages
of American history: Visited by Dutchmen in 1614, and again in 1620,
it was in the very earliest Colonial history, one of the strong places
of the Province of New York. The British museum contains the report
of the Rev. John Miller, written in the year 1695, who, after 'having
been nearly three years resident in the Province of New York, in
America, as chaplain of His Majesty's forces there, and constantly
attending the Governor, had opportunity of observing many things of
considerable consequence in relation to the Christians and Indians,
and had also taken the drafts of all the cities, towns, forts and
churches of any note within the same.' These are his own words, and
he adds that in the Province of New York 'the places of strength are
chiefly three, the city of New York, the city of Albany, and the town
of Kingstone, in Ulster.' The east, north and west fronts ran along
elevations overlooking the lowlands and having a varying altitude
of from twenty to thirty feet. The enclosure comprehended about
twenty-five acres of land. There were salients, or horn works at each
end of the four angles, with a circular projection at the middle
of the westerly side, where the elevation was less than upon the
northerly and easterly sides. The church standing upon the ground
where we now are, was enclosed with a separate stockade, to be used
as the last resort in case of disaster, and, projecting from this
separate fortification, a strong block-house commanded and enfiladed
the approaches to the southerly side, which was a plain. The local
history is of continued and dramatic interest. The Indian wars were
signalized by a great uprising and attack here, which was known as
the war of 1663, when a considerable number of the inhabitants
were killed, a still larger number were taken prisoners, and about
one-fourth of the houses were burned to the ground. Reinforcements
were sent by the governor-general from New Amsterdam, followed by his
personal presence, when the Indians were driven back to the mountains,
and, after a tedious campaign, their fields destroyed and the
prisoners recaptured. When the next great crisis in our history came
Kingston bore a conspicuous part. It was the scene of the formation of
the State Government. The Constitution was here discussed and
adopted. George Clinton was called from the Highlands, where, as a
brigadier-general of the Continental army, he was commanding all the
forces upon the Hudson River, which were opposing the attempts of Sir
Henry Clinton to reach the northern part of the State and relieve
Burgoyne, hemmed in by Gates at Saratoga. He was the ideal war
governor--unbuckling his sword in the court room, that he might take
the oath of office, and returning, immediately after the simple form
of his inauguration, to his command upon the Hudson River.

* * *

A paradise of beauty in the light
Poured by the sinking sun, the mountain glows
In the soft summer evening.

_Alfred B. Street._

* * *

"The court house, standing opposite to us, and rebuilt upon its old
foundations, and occupying, substantially, the same superficies of
ground with its predecessors, recalls the dramatic scene where,
surrounded by the council of safety, and in a square formed by two
companies of soldiers, he was proclaimed Governor by Egbert Dumond,
the sheriff of the county, reading his proclamation from the top of a
barrel, and closing it with the words 'God save the people,' for the
first time taking the place of 'God save the King.' The only building
in any way connected with the civil foundation of this great State is
still standing, and presents the same appearance that it did at the
time of its erection, prior to the year 1690. It was subsequently
occupied by General Armstrong, who, while residing here for the better
education of his children, in Kingston Academy, was appointed minister
to France. Aaron Burr, then in attendance upon court, spent an evening
with General Armstrong, at his house, and, having observed the merit
of sundry sketches, made inquiry with regard to, and interested
himself in the fate of John Vanderlyn, who afterwards painted the
Landing of Columbus in the Capitol, and Marius upon the Ruins of
Carthage--which attracted the attention of the elder Napoleon, and
established Vanderlyn's fame. There are more than forty blue limestone
houses of the general type found in Holland, still standing to-day,
which were built before the revolutionary period, and many of them
before the year 1700."

* * *

Are there no scenes to touch the poet's soul,
No deeds of arms to wake the lordly stream,
Shall Hudson's billows unregarded roll?

_Joseph Rodman Drake._

* * *

River, oh river! upon thy tide
Gaily the freighted vessels glide.
Would that thou thus couldst bear away
The thoughts that burthen my weary day.

_Charles Fenno Hoffman._

* * *

Coal, cement and blue-stone are the prominent industries of the city.
The cement works yield several million dollars annually and employ
about two thousand men. A million tons of coal enter the Hudson _via_
the Port of Rondout from the Wyoming Valley of Pennsylvania every
year. Blue-stone also meets tide-water at this point, brought in from
quarries throughout the country by rail or by truck. The city of
Kingston, the largest station on the _West Shore_ between Weehawken
and Albany, has admirable railroad facilities connecting with the
_Erie Railway_ at Goshen _via_ the _Wallkill Valley_, and the
Catskills _via_ the _Ulster & Delaware_. All roads centre at the Union
Station and the _Ulster & Delaware_ connects at Kingston Point with
the Hudson River Day Line, also with the _New York Central_ by ferry
from Rhinebeck.

=To the Catskills.=--The two principal routes to the Catskills are
_via_ Kingston and the _Ulster & Delaware Railroad_, and _via_
Catskill Landing, the _Catskill Mountain Railway_ and _Otis Elevating
Railway_ to the summit of the mountains. It has occurred to the writer
to divide the mountain section in two parts:

=The Southern Catskills.=--Kingston Point, where the steamer lands is
indeed a _picturesque portal to a picturesque journey_. The beautiful
park at the landing presents the most beautiful frontage of any
pleasure ground along the river. Artistic pagodas located at effective
points add greatly to the natural landscape effect, and excursionists
_via_ Day Line from Albany have a delightful spot for lunch and
recreation while waiting for the return steamer. In the busy months of
mountain travel it is interesting to note the rush and hurry between
the landing of the steamer and the departure of the train. The "all
aboard" is given, and as we stand on the rear platform a friend points
north to a bluff near Kingston Point and says the Indian name is
"Ponckhockie"--signifying a burial ground. The old redoubts of
Kingston, on the left, were defenses used in early days against the
Indians.

After leaving Kingston Union Depot, the most important station on
the _West Shore Railroad_, and the terminus of the _Wallkill Valley
Railroad_, we pass through Stony Hollow, eight miles from Rondout,
where the traveler will note the stone tracks in the turnpike below,
on the right side of the car, used by quarry wagons. Crossing the
Stony Hollow ravine, we reach West Hurley, nine miles from Rondout and
540 feet above the sea.

=The Overlook= commands an extensive view,--with an area of 30,000
square miles, from the peaks of New Hampshire and the Green Mountains
of Vermont to the hills of New Jersey and Pennsylvania. To the east
the valley reaches away with its towns and villages to the blue hills
of Massachusetts and Connecticut, and, through this beautiful valley,
the Hudson for a hundred miles is reduced to a mere ribbon of light.
Woodstock, at the foot of the Overlook, is popular with summer
visitors, and is a good starting point for the mountain outlook.

* * *

Let me forget the cares I leave behind,
And with an humble spirit bow before
The Maker of these everlasting hills.

_Bayard Taylor._

* * *

=Olive Branch= is the pretty name of the station above West Hurley.
Temple Pond, at the foot of Big Toinge Mountain, covers about one
hundred acres, and affords boating and fishing to those visiting the
foothills of the Southern Catskills.

=Brown's Station= is three miles beyond, and near at hand Winchell's
Falls on the Esopus. The Esopus Creek comes in view near this station
for the first time after leaving Kingston. The route now has pleasant
companionship for twenty miles or more with the winding stream.

=Brodhead's Bridge= is delightfully located on its wooded banks near
the base of High Point, and near at hand is a bright cascade known as
Bridal Veil Falls.

* * *

Then climb the Ontioras to behold
The lordly Hudson marching to the main,
And say what bard in any land of old
Had such a river to inspire his strain.

_Thomas William Parsons._

* * *

=Shokan=, 18 miles from Rondout. Here the road takes a northerly
course and we are advised by Mr. Van Loan's guide to notice on the
left "a group of five mountains forming a crescent; the peaks of
these mountains are four miles distant;" the right-hand one is the
"Wittenberg," and the next "Mount Cornell." Boiceville and Mount
Pleasant, 700 feet above the Hudson, are next reached. We enter the
beautiful Shandaken Valley, and three miles of charming mountain
scenery bring us to--

=Phoenicia=, 29 miles from Rondout and 790 feet above the Hudson.
This is one of the central points of the Catskills which the mountain
streams (nature's engineers), indicated several thousand years ago.
Readers of "Hiawatha" will remember that Gitche Manitou, the mighty,
traced with his finger the way the streams and rivers should run. The
tourist will be apt to think that he used his thumb in marking out
the wild grandeur of Stony Clove. The Tremper House has a picturesque
location in a charming valley, which seems to have been cut to fit,
like a beautiful carpet, and tacked down to the edge of these grand
old mountains. A fifteen minutes' walk up Mount Tremper gives a wide
view, from which the Lake Mohonk House is sometimes seen, forty
miles away. Phoenicia is one of the most important stations on the
line--the southern terminus of the Stony Clove and Catskill Mountain
division of the _Ulster & Delaware_ system. Keeping to the main line
for the present we pass through Allaben, formerly known as Fox Hollow,
and come to--

=Shandaken=, 35 miles from Rondout and 1,060 feet in altitude, an
Indian name signifying "rapid water." Here are large hotels and many
boarding houses and the town is a central point for many mountain
spots and shady retreats in every direction--all of which are well
described in one of the handsomest summer resort guides of the season,
the handbook of the _Ulster & Delaware Railroad_. Three miles beyond
Shandaken we come to a little station whose name reminds one of the
plains: _Big Indian_, 1,209 feet above the river.

* * *

Along the ragged top
Smiles a rich stripe of gold that up still glides
Until it dwindles to a thread and then,
As breath glides from a mirror, melts away.

_Alfred B. Street._

* * *

=Big Indian.=--It is said that about a century ago, a noble red man
dwelt in these parts, who, early in life, turned his attention to
agriculture instead of scalping, and won thereby the respect of the
community. Tradition has it that he was about seven feet in height,
but was overpowered by wolves, and was buried by his brethren not far
from the station, where a "big Indian" was carved out of a tree near
by for his monument. An old and reliable inhabitant stated that he
remembered the rude statue well, and often thought that it ought to be
saved for a relic, as the stream was washing away the roots; but it
was finally carried down by a freshet, and probably found its way to
some fire-place in the Esopus Valley. "So man passes away, as with a
flood." There is another tale, one of love but less romantic, wherein
he was killed by his rival and placed upright in a hollow tree.
Perhaps neither tradition is true, and quite possibly the Big Indian
name grew out of some misunderstanding between the Indians and white
settlers over a hundred years ago. As the train leaves the station it
begins a grade of 150 feet per mile to--

=Pine Hill=, a station perched on the slope of Belle Ayr Mountain.
This is the watershed between the Esopus and the Delaware, and 226
feet above us, around the arcs of a double horseshoe, is the railway
summit, 1,886 feet above the tide.

=Grand Hotel Station.=--The New Grand, the second largest hotel in the
Catskills, with a frontage of 700 feet, stands on a commanding terrace
less than half a mile from the station. The main building faces
southwest and overlooks the hamlet of Pine Hill, down the Shandaken
Valley to Big Indian. The mountains, "grouped like giant kings" in
the distance are Slide Mountain, Panther Mountain, Table and Balsam
Mountains. Panther Mountain, directly over Big Indian Station, with
Atlas-like shoulders, being nearer, seems higher, and is often
mistaken for Slide Mountain. Table Mountain, to the right of the
Slide, is the divide between the east branch of the Neversink and the
Rondout.

Continuing our journey from the summit we pass through Fleischmann's
to--

=Arkville=, railway station for Margaretville, one and a half miles
distant, and Andes twelve miles--connected by stages. Furlough Lake,
the mountain home of George Gould, is seven miles from Arkville. An
artificial cave near Arkville, with hieroglyphics on the inner
walls, attracts many visitors. Passing through Kelly's Corners and
Halcottville, we come to--

=Roxbury= (altitude 1,497 feet), a quaint old village at the upper end
of which is the Gould Memorial Church. Miss Helen Gould spends part of
her summer here and has done much to make beautiful the village of her
father's boyhood. Grand Gorge comes next 1,570 feet above the tide,
where stages are taken for Gilboa three miles, and Prattsville five
miles distant, on the Schoharie Creek. Pratt's Rocks are visited by
hundreds because of the carving in bas-relief of Colonel Pratt and
figures emblematic of his career.

* * *

Softly the mist-mantled mountains arise
Dim in the dawning of opal-hued skies,
Nearer and clearer peaks burst on the view
Lightened by silvery flashes of dew.

_James Kennedy._

* * *

=Stamford= is now at hand, seventy-six miles from the Hudson, about
1,800 feet above the sea, named by settlers from Stamford, Conn. Here
are many large hotels, chief among them The Rexmere and Churchill
Hall. Thirteen miles from Stamford we come to Hobart, four miles
further to South Kortright, and then to--

=Bloomville=, eighty-nine miles from the Hudson, where a stage line of
eight miles takes the traveler to Delhi. Passing through Kortright,
ninety-two miles from the Hudson, 1,868 feet above the tide, East
Meredith, Davenport, West Davenport (where passengers _en route_ for
Cooperstown and Richfield Springs are transferred to the _Cooperstown
and Charlotte Valley R. R._) and four miles bring us to

=Oneonta=, on the Susquehanna division of the _Hudson & Delaware R. R._
Returning to Phoenicia we take train through "Stony Clove Notch,"
passing Chichester, Lanesville, Edgewood and Kaaterskill Junction to--

=Hunter=, terminus of the Stony Clove Road. Resuming the eastward
journey at Kaaterskill Junction we come to--

=Tannersville=, near which are Elka Park, Onteora Park and Schoharie
Manor.

=Haines Corners= is another busy station, at the head of Kaaterskill
Clove. On the slope of Mt. Lincoln have also been established
"Twilight," "Santa Cruz" and "Sunset" Parks.

=Laurel House Station.=--Here the voice of a waterfall invites the
tourist to one of the most famous spots in the Catskill region and a
mile beyond is

=Kaaterskill Station=, 2,145 feet above the sea, the highest point
reached by any railroad in the State, and half a mile or so further we
alight on a rocky balcony, known for its beautiful view all over the
world.

* * *

From greens and shades where the Kaaterskill leaps,
From cliffs where the wood-flowers cling.

_William Cullen Bryant._

* * *

=Kingston to Catskill.=

=Rhinecliff=, with its historic Beekman stone house, is on the east
bank of the river opposite Kingston. The old mansion, on the hillside,
above the landing, was built before 1700 by William Beekman, first
patroon of this section. It was used as a church and as a fort during
the Indian struggles and still preserves the scar of a cannon ball
from a British ship.

=Ferncliff=, a mile north of the Beekman House, is the home of John
Jacob Astor, formerly the property of William Astor, and above this

=Clifton Point=, once known as the Garretson place, the noted
Methodist preacher whose wife was sister of Chancellor Livingston, and
above this Douglas Merritt's home known as "Leacote." Flatbush landing
lies on the west bank opposite Ferncliff.

One might almost imagine from the names of places and individuals here
grouped on both banks of the river, that this reach of the Hudson
was a bit of old Scotland: Montgomery Place and Annandale with its
Livingstons, Donaldsons and Kidds on the east side, and Glenerie,
Glasgo and Lake Katrine on the west.

* * *

The Catskills to the northward rise
With massive swell and towering crest--
The old-time "mountains of the skies,"
The threshold of eternal rest.

_Wallace Bruce._

* * *

=Barrytown= is just above "Daisy Island," on the east bank, 96 miles
from New York. It is said when General Jackson was President, and this
village wanted a postoffice, that he would not allow it under the name
of Barrytown, from personal dislike to General Barry, and suggested
another name; but the people were loyal to their old friend, and
_went without_ a postoffice until a new administration. The name of
Barrytown, therefore, stands as a monument to pluck. The place was
once known as Lower Red Hook Landing. Passing "Massena," the Aspinwall
property, we see--

=Montgomery Place=, residence of Carleton Hunt and sisters, about
one-half mile north of Barrytown, formerly occupied by Mrs.
Montgomery, wife of General Montgomery and sister of Chancellor
Livingston. The following dramatic incident connected with Montgomery
Place is recorded in Stone's "History of New York City": "In 1818 the
legislature of New York--DeWitt Clinton, Governor--ordered the remains
of General Montgomery to be removed from Canada to New York. This was
in accordance with the wishes of the Continental Congress, which, in
1776, had voted the beautiful cenotaph to his memory that now stands
in the wall of St. Paul's Church, fronting Broadway. When the funeral
cortege reached Whitehall, N. Y., the fleet stationed there received
them with appropriate honors; and on the 4th of July they arrived in
Albany. After lying in state in that city over Sunday, the remains
were taken to New York, and on Wednesday deposited, with military
honors, in their final resting place, at St. Paul's. Governor Clinton
had informed Mrs. Montgomery of the hour when the steamer 'Richmond,'
conveying the body, would pass her home. At her own request, she stood
alone on the portico. It was forty years since she had parted from her
husband, to whom she had been wedded but two years when he fell on the
heights of Quebec; yet she had remained faithful to the memory of her
'soldier,' as she always called him. The steamboat halted before the
mansion; the band played the 'Dead March,' and a salute was fired; and
the ashes of the venerated hero, and the departed husband, passed on.
The attendants of the Spartan widow now appeared, but, overcome by
the tender emotions of the moment, she had swooned and fallen to the
floor."

* * *

The river that he loved so well
Like a full heart is awed to calm,
The winter air that wafts his knell
Is fragrant with autumnal balm.

_Henry T. Tuckerman._

* * *

The Sawkill Creek flows through a beautiful ravine in Montgomery
grounds and above this is the St. Stephen's College and Preparatory
School of the Episcopal Church in the Diocese of New York. Beyond and
above this are Mrs. E. Bartlett's home and Deveaux Park, afterwards
Almonte, the property of Col. Charles Livingston. We are now
approaching--

=Cruger's Island=, with its indented South Bay reaching up toward the
bluff crowned by Montgomery Place. There is an old Indian tradition
that no person ever died on this island, which a resident recently
said still held true. It is remarkable, moreover, in possessing many
antique carved stones from a city of Central America built into the
walls of a temple modeled after the building from which the graven
stones were brought. The "ruin" at the south end of the island is
barely visible from the steamer, hidden as it is by foliage, but it is
distinctly seen by _New York Central_ travelers in the winter season.
Colonel Cruger has spared no expense in the adornment of his grounds,
and a beautiful drive is afforded the visitor. The island is connected
by a roadway across a tongue of land which separates the North from
the South Bay. Above this island east of the steamer's channel across
the railway of the _New York Central_, we see a historic bit of water
known as--

=The North Bay.= It was here that Robert Fulton developed his
steamboat invention, receiving pecuniary aid from Chancellor
Livingston, and it is fitting to give at this place a concise account
of

=Steam Navigation=, which after many attempts and failures on both
sides of the Atlantic was at last crowned with success on the Hudson.

=John Fitch= first entertained his idea of a steamboat in 1785, and
sent to the general assembly of the State of Pennsylvania a model in
1786. New Jersey and Delaware in 1787, gave him exclusive right to
navigate their waters for fourteen years, which, however, was never
undertaken. His steamboat "Perseverance," on the Delaware in 1787, was
eighteen feet in length and six feet beam. The name, however, was a
misnomer, as it was abandoned. These facts appear by papers on file in
the State Library at Albany. After his experiment on the Delaware,
he traveled through France and England, but not meeting with the
encouragement that he expected, became poor and returned home, working
his passage as a common sailor. In 1797 he constructed a little boat
which was propelled by steam in the old Collect Pond, New York, below
Canal Street, between Broadway and the East River.

* * *

Exactly one hundred years separate the first paddle-boat
of Papin from the first steamboat of Fulton.

_Victor Hugo._

* * *

According to records in the State Library, the steam was sufficiently
high to propel the boat once, twice, or thrice around the pond. "When
more water being introduced into the boiler or pot and steam was
generated, she was again ready to start on another expedition." The
boat was a yawl about eighteen feet in length and six feet beam. She
was started at the buoy with a small oar when the propeller was used.
The boiler was a ten or twelve gallon iron pot. This boat with a
portion of the machinery was abandoned by Fitch, and left to decay on
the muddy shore. Shortly after this he died in Kentucky in 1798. Had
he lived, or, had the fortune like Fulton, to find such a patron as
Livingston, his success might have been assured. His visit to Europe
may have inspired Symington's experiment on Dalswinton Loch in 1788,
which made five miles an hour, and another steamboat on the Forth
of Clyde which made seven miles an hour in 1789, and the "Charlotte
Dundas" in 1802, which drew a load of seventy tons over three miles
against a strong gale. Something, however, was wanting and the idea
of successful navigation was abandoned in Britain till after the
invention of Robert Fulton which made steam navigation an assured
fact.

"How necessary it is to succeed," said Kosciusko, at the grave of
Washington, and this is also as true in the story of invention as in
the struggle for freedom: "That they never fail who die in a great
cause though years elapse, and others share as dark a doom. They but
augment the deep and sweeping thoughts which overpower all others and
conduct the world at last to fortune."

It was the writer's privilege in 1891, to deliver the unveiling
address of a monument to Symington at his birthplace, Lead Hills,
Scotland. In the tribute then paid to the genius of the great
Scotchman who had done so much for invention in many directions, he
said the difference between Symington and Fulton was this: "Each
worked diligently at the same idea, but it was the good fortune
of Fulton, so far as the steamboat was considered, to make his
'invention' 'go.'"

* * *

I see the traditions of my fathers are true; I see far,
far away the big bird again floating upon the
waters, so far my warriors that you cannot see it, but ere two
autumns have scattered the leaves upon my grave, the
pale face will claim our hunting grounds.

_Aepgin, King of the Mahicans._

* * *

To quote from a British writer, the "Comet" of Henry Bell on the Clyde
in 1812, was the first example of a steamboat brought into serviceable
use within European waters, and the writer incidentally added that
steam navigation in Britain took practical form almost on the spot
where James Watt, the illustrious improver of the steam engine was
born. The word "improver" is well put. It has much to do with the
story of many inventions. The labor of Fitch was far-reaching in
many directions, and it detracts nothing from Fulton's fame that the
experiments of Fitch and Symington preceded his final triumph.

Rumsey's claim to the idea of application of steam in 1785 does not
seem to hold good. General Washington, to whom he referred as to a
conversation in 1785, replied to a correspondent that the idea of
Rumsey, as he remembered and understood it, was simply the propelling
of a boat by a machine, the power of which was to be merely manual
labor.

=Robert Fulton= was born in 1765, and at the time of Symington's
experiment in Scotland, was twenty-three years of age. He was then an
artist student of Benjamin West, in London, but, after several years
of study, felt that he was better adapted for engineering, and soon
thereafter wrote a work on canal navigation. In 1797 he went to Paris.
He resided there seven years and built a small steamboat on the Seine,
which worked well, but made very slow progress.

It is remarkable that the two most practical achievements of our
century have been consummated by artists,--the telegraph by Morse
after a score of "invented" failures, and the successful application
of steam to navigation by Fulton.

* * *

I was glad to think that among the last memorable
beauties which have glided past us were pictures traced
by no common hand, not easily to grow old or fade beneath
the dust of time--the Kaatskill Mountains, Sleepy
Hollow and the Tappan Zee.

_Charles Dickens._

* * *

Soon after his return to New York he brought his idea to successful
completion. His reputation was now assured, and his invention of
"torpedoes" gave him additional fame. Congress not only purchased
these instruments of warfare, but also set apart $320,000 for a steam
frigate to be constructed under his supervision.

Through Livingston's influence the legislature passed an act granting
to Fulton the exclusive privilege of navigating the waters of the
State by means of steam power. The only conditions imposed were that
he should, within a year, construct a boat of not less than "twenty
tons burthen," which should navigate the Hudson at a speed not less
than four miles an hour, and that one such boat should not fail of
running regularly between New York and Albany for the space of one
year.

="The Clermont,"= named after the ancestral home of the Livingstons,
was built for "Livingston and Fulton," by Charles Brownne in New York.
The machinery came from the works of Watt and Bolton, England. She
left the wharf of Corlear's Hook and the newspapers published with
pride that she made in speed from four to five miles an hour. She was
100 feet in length and boasted of "three elegant cabins, one for the
ladies and two for the gentlemen, with kitchen, library, and every
convenience." She averaged 100 passengers up or down the river. Every
passenger paid $7, for which he had dinner, tea and bed, breakfast and
dinner, with the liberty to carry 200 pounds of baggage.

* * *

The stars are on the running stream,
And fling, as its ripples gently flow,
A burnished length of wavy-beam
In an eel-like, spiral line below.

_Joseph Rodman Drake._

* * *

An original letter from Robert Fulton to the minister of Bavaria at
the court of France, written in 1809, upon the question of putting
steamboats on the Danube, is of interest at the present day: "The
distance from New York to Albany is 160 miles; the tide rises as far
as Albany; its velocity is on an average 1½ miles an hour.

"We thus have the tide half the time in favor of the boat and half the
time against her. The boat is 100 feet long, 16 feet wide and 7 feet
deep; the steam engine is of the power of 20 horses; she runs 4½
miles an hour in still water. Consequently when the tide is 1½
miles an hour in her favor she runs 5¾ miles an hour. When the
tide is against her she runs 2¾ miles an hour. Thus in theory her
average velocity is 4¼ miles an hour, but in practice we take
advantage of the currents. When they are against us we keep near shore
in the eddies, where the current is weak or the eddy in our favor;
when the tide is in our favor we take the centre of the stream and
draw every advantage from it. In this way our average speed is 5 miles
an hour, and we run to Albany, 160 miles, in about 32 hours." Previous
to the invention of the steamboat there were two modes of conveyance.
One was by the common sloops; they charged 42 francs, and were on the
average four days in making the passage--they have sometimes been as
long as eight days. The dread of such tedious voyages prevented great
numbers of persons from going in sloops. The second mode of conveyance
was the mail, or stage. They charged $8, or 44 francs, and the
expenses on the road were about $5, or 30 francs, so that expenses
amounted to $13. The time required was 48 hours. The steamboat has
rendered the communication between New York and Albany so cheap and
certain that the number of passengers are rapidly increasing. Persons
who live 150 miles beyond Albany know the hour she will leave that
city, and making their calculations to arrive at York, stay two
days to transact business, return with the boat, and are with their
families in one week. The facility has rendered the boat a great
favorite with the public.

* * *

Through many a blooming wild and woodland green
The Hudson's sleeping waters winding stray.

_Margaretta V. Faugeres._

* * *

A telegram from Exeter, N. H., in 1886, recorded the death of Dr.
William Perry, the oldest person in Exeter and the oldest graduate of
Harvard College, at the age of ninety-eight years. He was the sole
survivor of the passengers on Fulton's first steamboat on its first
trip down the Hudson, and the connecting link of three generations of
progress. He was born in 1788, was a member of 1811 in Harvard, and
grandfather of Sarah Orne Jewett, the authoress.

The writer remembers his grandfather telling him of going to Hudson as
a boy to see the "steamboat" make its first trip, and how it had been
talked of for a long time as "Fulton's Folly." One thing is sure
it was a small cradle wherein to rock the "baby-giant" of a great
century. How Fulton would wonder if he could visit to-day the great
steamships born of his invention--successors of the "Clermont" of
"Twenty tons burthen." How he would marvel, standing on the deck of
the "Hendrick Hudson," to see the water fall away from the prow cut by
a rainbow scimitar of spray! at the great engines of polished steel,
working almost noiselessly, and wonder at the way the pilot lands at
the docks, even as a driver brings his buggy to a horse-block; for in
his day, and long afterwards, passengers were "slued" ashore in little
boats, as it was not regarded feasible to land a steamboat against a
wharf. It would surely be an "experience" for us to see the passengers
at West Point, Newburgh, or Poughkeepsie "slued ashore" to-day in
little rowboats.

=Tivoli=, above North Bay took its name from a pre-revolutionary
"Chateau," home of the late Colonel DePeyster. The "Callender Place"
to the southeast, was formerly the property of Johnston Livingston.
Two miles from the river is the home of Mr. J. N. Lewis, a morning view
from whose veranda is still remembered, and it is to him that the
writer is indebted for a pleasant trip to the ruins on Cruger's
Island. The residence of the late J. Watts DePeyster stands on a
commanding bluff north of the railway station and it was beside his
open fireside many years ago that he told the writer how his house was
saved from Vaughan's cannon. "Rose Hill," was mistaken for "Clermont,"
but a well-stocked cellar mollified the British captain.

* * *

O! stream of the mountains if answer of thine
Could rise from thy waters to questions of mine,
Methinks through the din of thy thronged banks a moan
Of sorrow would come for the days that are gone.

_Legends of the Hudson._

* * *

It grew like one of the old English family houses, with the increase
of the family, until, in strange but picturesque outline--the
prevailing style being Italian, somewhat in the shape of a cross--it
is now 114 feet long by 87 feet deep. The tower in the rear, devoted
to library purposes, rises to the height of about sixty feet. This
library, first and last, has contained between twenty and thirty
thousand volumes. Such indefinite language is used, because the owner
donated over half this number to the New York Historical Society, the
New York Society Library, and a number of other similar organizations
in different parts of the United States. As a working library, replete
with dictionaries and cyclopædias, in many tongues and on almost
every subject, it is a marvel. It is likewise very valuable for its
collections on military and several other special topics. From it was
selected and given to the New York Historical Society, one of the
finest possible collections on the History of Holland, from the
earliest period down to the present time. "Rose Hill" was left in his
will to the Leake and Watts Orphan Home.

A ferry from Tivoli to Saugerties affords communication between the
two villages. Glasco Landing, on the west bank, lies between the
residences of Henry Corse, on the south, and Mrs. Vanderpool (sister
of the late President Martin Van Buren), on the north.

In locating the residences along the river and dealing so often in the
words "north" and "south," we are reminded of a good story of Martin
Van Buren. It is said that it was as difficult to get a direct answer
from him as from Bismarck or Gladstone. Two friends were going up with
him one day on a river boat and one made a wager with the other that
a direct answer could not be secured on any question from the astute
statesman. They approached the ex-president and one of them said, "Mr.
Van Buren, my friend and I have had a little discussion; will you
tell us, does or does not the sun rise in the east?" The ex-president
calmly drew up a chair, and said, "You must remember that the east
and west are merely relative terms." "That settles it," said the
questioner, "I'll pay the bet."

* * *

How grateful is the sudden change
From arid pavements to the grass,
From narrow streets that thousands range
To meadows where June zephyrs pass.

_Henry T. Tuckerman._

* * *

It is a drop for the old Hudson, and a merry time it
has until it gets down off the mountains. I have thought
how long it would be before that very water which was
made for the wilderness will be under the bottom of a
vessel and tossing in the salt sea.

_James Fenimore Cooper._

* * *

=Saugerties=, 101 miles from New York. From its location (being the
nearest of the river towns to the Catskills), it naturally hoped to
secure a large share of tourist travel, but Kingston and Catskill
presented easier and better facilities of access and materially
shortened the hours of arrival at the summit. Plaaterkill Clove,
wilder and grander than Kaaterskill Clove, about nine miles west of
the village, has Plaaterkill Mountain, Indian Head, Twin Mountains and
Sugar Loaf on the south, and High Peak and Round Top on the north. Its
eighteen waterfalls not only give great variety to a pedestrian trip,
but also ample field for the artist's brush. The Esopus, meeting
the Hudson at Saugerties, supplies unfailing waterpower for its
manufacturing industries, prominent among which are the Sheffield
Paper Company, the Barkley Fibre Company (wood pulp), the Martin
Company (card board) and a white lead factory. There are also large
shipments of blue stone, evidences of which are seen in many places
near at hand along the western bank. Many attractive strolls near
Saugerties invite the visitor, notably the walk to Barkley Heights
south of the Esopus. An extensive view is obtained from the _West
Shore Railroad_ station west of the village and the drive thereto.
North of Saugerties will be seen the docks and hamlets of Malden,
Evesport and West Camp, also the residences of J. G. Myers to the
northwest of the Rock islet, and of H. T. Coswell, near which the
steamer passes to the west of Livingston Flats. The west shore at West
Camp was settled by exiles from the Palatinate, about 1710, and one of
the old churches still stands a short distance inland. We are now in
the midst of--

=The Livingston Country=, whose names and memories dot the landscape
and adorn the history of the Hudson Valley. Dutchess and Columbia
Counties meet on the east bank opposite that part of Saugerties where
Sawyer's Creek flows into the Hudson. "Idele" was originally called
the Chancellor Place. "Clermont" is about half a mile to the north,
the home of Clermont Livingston, an early manor house built by Robert
R. Livingston, who, next to Hamilton, was the greatest New York
statesman during our revolutionary period. The manor church, not seen
from the river, is at the old village of Clermont, about five miles
due west from the mansion. The Livingstons are of Scotch ancestry and
have an illustrious lineage. Mary Livingston, one of the "four Marys"
who attended Mary Queen of Scots during her childhood and education in
France, was of the same family. Robert Livingston, born in 1654, came
to the Hudson Valley with his father, and in 1686 purchased from the
Indians a tract of country reaching east twenty-two miles to the
boundary of Massachusetts with a river frontage of twelve miles. This
purchase was created, "the Lordship and Manor of Livingston," by
Governor Thomas Dongan. In 1692 Robert built the manor house, but did
not reside in it for twenty years. He was a friend of Captain Kidd and
a powerful promoter of his enterprises. The manor consisted of 260,000
acres. The estate of 13,000 acres, given to his second son Robert, was
called Clermont. Philip, his first son, inherited 247,000 acres, by
old-time primogeniture succession. From each of these two families
sprang a line of vigorous and resolute men. Robert R. Livingston,
our revolutionary hero, descended from the smaller estate, owned
"Clermont" at the time it was burned by the British. It was soon
rebuilt and Lafayette was a guest at the mansion during his visit to
the United States in 1824.

* * *

Let us not then neglect to improve the advantages we
possess; let us avail ourselves of the present moment to
fix lasting peace upon the broad basis of natural union;
let us while it is still in our power lay the foundation of
our long happiness and the happiness of our posterity.

_Robert R. Livingston._

* * *

Above West Camp landing on the west side, is the boundary line between
Ulster and Greene Counties; Ulster having kept us company all the way
from Hampton Point opposite New Hamburgh. Throughout this long stretch
of the river one industry must not be overlooked, well described by
John Burroughs:

=The Shad Industry.=--"When the chill of the ice is out of the river
and the snow and frost out of the air, the fishermen along the shore
are on the lookout for the first arrival of shad. A few days of warm
south wind the latter part of April will soon blow them up; it is
true also, that a cold north wind will as quickly blow them back.
Preparations have been making for them all winter. In many a
farm-house or other humble dwelling along the river, the ancient
occupation of knitting of fish-nets has been plied through the long
winter evenings, perhaps every grown member of the household, the
mother and her daughters as well as the father and his sons, lending
a hand. The ordinary gill or drift-net used for shad fishing in the
Hudson is from a half to three-quarters of a mile long, and thirty
feet wide, containing about fifty or sixty pounds of fine linen twine,
and it is a labor of many months to knit one. Formerly the fish were
taken mainly by immense seines, hauled by a large number of men; but
now all the deeper part of the river is fished with the long, delicate
gill-nets that drift to and fro with the tide, and are managed by two
men in a boat. The net is of fine linen thread, and is practically
invisible to the shad in the obscure river current: it hangs suspended
perpendicularly in the water, kept in position by buoys at the top and
by weights at the bottom; the buoys are attached by cords twelve or
fifteen feet long, which allow the net to sink out of the reach of
the keels of passing vessels. The net is thrown out on the ebb tide,
stretching nearly across the river, and drifts down and then back on
the flood, the fish being snared behind the gills in their efforts to
pass through the meshes. I envy fishermen their intimate acquaintance
with the river. They know it by night as well as by day, and learn all
its moods and phases. The net is a delicate instrument that reveals
all the hidden currents and by-ways, as well as all the sunken snags
and wrecks at the bottom. By day the fisherman notes the shape and
position of his net by means of the line or buoys; by night he marks
the far end of it with a lantern fastened upon a board or block. The
night tides he finds differ from the day--the flood at night being
much stronger than at other times, as if some pressure had been
removed with the sun, and the freed currents found less hindrance. The
fishermen have terms and phrases of their own. The wooden tray upon
which the net is coiled, and which sits in the stern of the boat, is
called a 'cuddy.' The net is divided into 'shots.' If a passing sloop
or schooner catches it with her centre-board or her anchor, it gives
way where two or three shoots meet, and thus the whole net is not
torn. The top cord or line of the net is called a 'cimline.' One
fisherman 'plugs' another when he puts out from the shore and casts
in ahead of him, instead of going to the general starting place, and
taking his turn. This always makes bad blood. The luck of the born
fisherman is about as conspicuous with the gill-net as with the rod
and line, some boats being noted for their great catches the season
through. No doubt the secret is mainly through application to the
business in hand, but that is about all that distinguishes the
successful angler. The shad campaign is one that requires pluck and
endurance; no regular sleep, no regular meals; wet and cold, heat
and wind and tempest, and no great gains at last. But the sturgeon
fishers, who come later and are seen the whole summer through, have
an indolent, lazy time of it. They fish around the 'slack-water,'
catching the last of the ebb and the first of the flow, and hence
drift but little either way. To a casual observer they appear as if
anchored and asleep. But they wake up when they have a 'strike,' which
may be every day, or not once a week. The fishermen keep their eye on
the line of buoys, and when two or more of them are hauled under, he
knows his game has run foul of the net, and he hastens to the point.
The sturgeon is a pig, without the pig's obstinacy. He spends much of
the time rooting and feeding in the mud at the bottom, and encounters
the net, coarse and strong, when he goes abroad. He strikes, and is
presently hopelessly entangled, when he comes to the top and is pulled
into the boat, like a great sleepy sucker. For so dull and lubbery
a fish, the sturgeon is capable of some very lively antics; as, for
instance, his habit of leaping full length into the air and coming
down with a great splash. He has thus been known to leap unwittingly
into a passing boat, to his own great surprise, and to the alarm and
consternation of the inmates."

* * *

The swelling river, into his green gulfs,
Unshadowed save by passing sails above,
Takes the redundant glory, and enjoys
The summer in his chilly bed.

_William Cullen Bryant._

* * *

I heard the plaintiff note of the Whip-poor-will from the
mountain-side, or was startled now and then by the
sudden leap and heavy splash of the sturgeon.

_Washington Irving._

* * *

=Germantown.=--Germantown Station is now seen on the east bank,
and between this and Germantown Dock, three miles to the north, is
obtained the best view of the "Man in the Mountain," readily traced by
the following outline: The peak to the south is the knee, the next to
the north is the breast, and two or three above this the chin, the
nose and the forehead. How often from the slope of Hillsdale, forty
miles away on the western trend of the Berkshires, when a boy, playing
by the fountain-heads of the Kinderhook and the Roeliffe Jansen's
Creek, have I looked out upon this mountain range aglow in the sunset,
and at even-tide heard my grandfather tell of his far-off journeys to
Towanda, Pennsylvania, when he drove through the great Cloves of the
Catskills, where twice he met "a bear" which retreated at the sound
of his old flint-lock, and then when I went to sleep at night how I
pulled the coverlet closer about my head, all on account of those two
bears that had been dead for more than forty years.

[Illustration: THE MAN IN THE MOUNTAIN.]

* * *

And, sister, now my children come
To find the water just as cool,
To play about our grandsire's home,
To see our pictures in the pool.

_Wallace Bruce._

* * *

Alps of the Hudson, whose bold summits rise
Into the upper ether of the skies,
Cleaving with calm content
The cloudless crystal of the firmament.

_Joel Benton._

* * *

The Catskills were called by the Indians On-ti-o-ras, or mountains of
the sky, as they sometimes seem like clouds along the horizon. This
range of mountains was supposed by the Indians to have been originally
a monster who devoured all the children of the red men, until the
great spirit touched him when he was going down to the salt lake to
bathe, and here he remains. "Two little lakes upon the summit were
regarded the eyes of the monster, and these are open all the summer;
but in the winter they are covered with a thick crust or heavy film;
but whether sleeping or waking tears always trickle down his cheeks.
In these mountains, according to Indian belief, was kept the great
treasury of storm and sunshine, presided over by an old squaw spirit
who dwelt on the highest peak of the mountains. She kept day and
night shut up in her wigwam, letting out only one at a time. She
manufactured new moons every month, cutting up the old ones into
stars," and, like the old Æolus of mythology, shut the winds up in the
caverns of the hills:--

Where Manitou once lived and reigned,
Great Spirit of a race gone by,
And Ontiora lies enchained
With face uplifted to the sky.

The Catskill Mountains are now something more than a realm of romance
and poetry or a mountain range of beauty along our western horizon,
for, from this time forth the old squaw spirit will be kept busy with
her "Treasury of Tear Clouds," as the water supply of New York is to
come from these mountain sources.

=The Catskill Water Supply.=--The cost of this great undertaking is
estimated at $162,000,000. Four creeks: The Esopus, Rondout, Schoharie
and Catskill will constitute the main source of supply. The total area
of the entire watershed is over nine hundred square miles, and the
supply will exceed 800,000,000 gallons daily. The work projected will
bring to the city 500,000,000 gallons per day.

The Ashoken Reservoir, 12 miles long and two miles wide, will hold
120,000,000,000 gallons. The Catskill Aqueduct supply from Ashoken
Reservoir will deliver the water without pumping to Hill View
Reservoir in Yonkers high enough for gravity distribution. It will
take from ten to fifteen years to complete the work, which is begun
none too early, as the population of Greater New York will be over
5,000,000 in 1915, and its water consumption 1,000,000,000 gallons. In
1930 the population will be 7,000,000 and will call for a consumption
of 100,000,000,000 gallons daily. We are indeed "ancients of the earth
and in the morning of our times." From the far limits of the gathering
grounds some of the water will flow 130 miles to reach the city hall,
and 20 miles further to the southern extremity of Staten Island.

* * *

The majestic Hudson is on my left,
The Catskills rise in my dream;
The cataracts leap from the mountain cleft
And the brooks in the sunlight gleam.

_Minot F. Savage._

* * *

Between Old Cro' Nest and Cold Spring the water will be syphoned under
the Hudson through a concrete tube six hundred feet below the surface
of the river.

The Croton Water Works, at a cost of about $14,000,000, completed in
1842, were regarded the greatest undertaking since the Roman Aqueduct.
Many improvements to meet increased demand have been made since that
time. Fifty years from now it is quite possible that the Catskill
System will seem like the Croton of to-day, as a small matter, and our
next step will be "An Adirondack System," making the successive steps
of our water supply the Croton, the Catskills and the Adirondacks.

It is fortunate that our city destined to be the world's emporium, has
everything at hand needed for comfort and safety.

John Bigelow, the literary and political link of the century, born at
Malden-on-the-Hudson, in 1817, was present at the inauguration of the
work at Cold Spring, June, 1907. It was the writer's privilege to meet
him often on the Hudson River steamers in the decade of 1870, and
to receive from him many graphic descriptions of the early life and
customs of the Hudson. What memories must have thronged upon him as he
contrasted the life of three generations!

=The Clover Reach.=--We are now in what is known as The Clover Reach
of the Hudson which extends to the Backerack near Athens. One mile
above Germantown Dock stood Nine Mile Tree, a landmark among old river
pilots so named on account of its marking a point nine miles from
Hudson. Above this the Roeliffe Jansen's Kill flows into the river,
known by the Indians as Saupenak, rising in Hillsdale within a few
feet of Greenriver Creek, immortal in Bryant's verse. The Greenriver
flows east into the Housatonic, the Jansen south into Dutchess County,
whence it takes a northerly course until it joins the Hudson. The
Burden iron furnaces above the mouth of the stream form an ugly
feature in the landscape. This is the southern boundary of the Herman
Livingston estate, whose house is one mile and a half further up the
river, near Livingston Dock, beneath Oak Hill. Greenville station is
now seen on the east bank, directly opposite Catskill Landing, which
the steamer is now approaching.

* * *

The fields and waters seem to us this Sabbath morning
from the summit of the Catskills, no more truly
property than the skies that shine upon them.

_Harriet Martineau._

* * *

=Catskill=, 111 miles from New York, was founded in 1678 by the
purchase of several square miles from the Indians. The landing is
immediately above the mouth of the Catskill or Kaaterskill Creek. It
is said that the creek and mountains derive their name as follows: It
is known that each tribe had a _totemic_ emblem, or rude banner; the
Mahicans had the wolf as their emblem, and some say that the word
Mahican means an enchanted wolf. (The Lenni Lenapes, or Delawares, had
the turkey as their totem.) Catskill was the southern boundary of the
Mahicans on the west bank, and here they set up their emblem. It is
said from this fact the stream took the name of Kaaterskill. The
large cat or wolf, similar in appearance, forms the mark of King
Aepgin on his deed to Van Rensselaer. Perhaps, however, the mountains
at one time abounded in these animals, and the name may be only a
coincidence. The old village, with its main street, lies along the
valley of the Catskill Creek, not quite a mile from the Catskill
Landing, and preserves some of the features of the days when
_Knickerbocker_ was accustomed to pay it an annual visit. The location
seems to have been chosen as a place of security--out of sight to one
voyaging up the river. The northern slope now reveals fine residences,
all of which command extensive views. Just out of the village proper,
on a beautiful outlook, stands the charming Prospect Park Hotel. The
drives and pedestrian routes in the vicinity of Catskill are well
condensed by Walton Van Loan, a resident of the village, whose guide
to the Catskills is the best on this region and will be of great
service to all who would like to understand thoroughly the mountain
district.

=The Northern Catskills.=--The northern and southern divisions have
been indicated not so much as mountain divisions, but in order to
better emphasize the two routes, which converge from Kingston
and Catskill toward each other, drawn by two principal points of
attraction, the Catskill Mountain House and the Hotel Kaaterskill.

* * *

Ah! how often when I have been abroad on the mountains
has my heart risen in grateful praise to God that
it was not my destiny to waste and pine among those
noisome congregations of the city.

_John James Audubon._

* * *

=The Catskill Mountain House= has been widely known for almost a
century. The original proprietor had the choice of location in 1823,
when the entire range was a vast mountain wilderness, and he made
excellent selection for its site. It seems as if the rocky balcony
was especially reared two thousand feet above the valley for a grand
outlook and restful resort. "What can you see," exclaimed Natty
Bumppo, one of Cooper's favorite characters. "Why, all the world;" and
this is the feeling to-day of everyone looking down from this point
upon the Hudson Valley.

The Mountain House Park has a valley frontage of over three miles in
extent, and consists of 2,780 acres of magnificent forest and farming
lands, traversed in all directions by many miles of carriage roads
and paths, leading to various noted places of interest. The Crest,
Newman's Ledge, Bear's Den, Prospect Rock on North Mountain, and
Eagle Rock and Palenville Overlook on South Mountain, from which
the grandest views of the region are obtained, are contained in the
property. It also includes within its boundaries North and South
Lakes, both plentifully stocked with various kind of fish and well
supplied with boats and canoes. The atmosphere is delightful,
invigorating and pure; the great elevation and surrounding forest
render it free from malaria. The temperature is fifteen to twenty
degrees lower than at Catskill Village, New York City or Philadelphia.

* * *

Cooper's "Leatherstocking" is the one melodious synopsis
of man and nature.

_Thomas Carlyle._

* * *

The =_Otis Elevating Railway_=, made possible by the enterprise of
the late Commodore Van Santvoord, extends from Otis Junction on the
_Catskill Mountain Railway_ to Otis Summit, a noble altitude of the
Catskill Range. The incline railway, 7,000 feet in length, ascends
1,600 feet and attains an elevation of 2,200 feet above the Hudson
River. "In length, elevation, overcome and carrying capacity it
exceeds any other incline railway in the world. It is operated by
powerful stationary engines and huge steel wire cables, and the method
employed is similar to that used by the Otis Elevator Company for
elevators in buildings. Every safeguard has been provided, so that an
accident of any kind is practically impossible. Should the machinery
break, the cables snap or track spread, an ingenious automatic device
would stop the cars at once. A passenger car and baggage car are
attached to each end of double cables which pass around immense drums
located at the top of the incline. While one train rises the other
descends, passing each other midway. By this arrangement trains
carrying from seventy-five to one hundred passengers can be run in
each direction every fifteen minutes when necessary, the time required
for a trip being only ten minutes. This is a vast improvement over the
old way of making the ascent of the mountains by stage, as it reduces
the time fully one and a half hours, besides adding greatly to the
pleasure of the trip. The ride up the mountains on the incline railway
is a novel and delightful experience, and is alone worth a visit to
the Catskills. As the train ascends, the magnificent panorama of the
valley of the Hudson, extending for miles and miles, is gradually
unfolded; while the river itself, like a ribbon of silver glistening
in the sun, and the Berkshire Hills in the distance seem to rise to
the view of the passenger. At the summit of the incline passengers for
the Laurel House, Haines Corners, Ontiora, Sunset, Twilight, Santa
Cruz, Elka Park, and Tannersville, take the trains of the _Kaaterskill
Railroad_, which connect with the _Otis Elevating Railway_."

* * *

The din of toil comes faintly swelling up
From green fields far below, and all around
The forest sea sends up its ceaseless roar
Like the ocean's everlasting chime.

_Bayard Taylor._

* * *

Two miles from the summit landing are the Kaaterskill Falls. The upper
fall 175 feet, lower fall 85 feet. The amphitheatre behind the cascade
is the scene of one of Bryant's finest poems:

"From greens and shades where the Kaaterskill leaps
From cliffs where the wood flowers cling;"

and we recall the lines which express so beautifully the well-nigh
fatal dream

"Of that dreaming one
By the base of that icy steep,
When over his stiffening limbs begun
The deadly slumber of frost to creep."

About half-way up the old mountain carriage road, is the place said to
be the dreamland of Rip Van Winkle--the greatest character of American
mythology, more real than the heroes of Homer or the massive gods
of Olympus. The railway, however, has rather dispensed with Rip Van
Winkle's resting-place. The old stage drivers had so long pointed out
the identical spot where he slept that they had come to believe in it,
but his spirit still haunts the entire locality, and we can get along
without his "open air bed chamber." It will not be necessary to quote
from a recent guide-book that "no intelligent person probably believes
that such a character ever really existed or had such an experience."
The explanation is almost as humorous as the legend.

=The Hotel Kaaterskill=, whose name and fame went over a continent
even before it was fairly completed, is located on the summit of the
Kaaterskill Mountain, three miles by carriage or one by path from the
Catskill Mountain House. It is the largest mountain hotel at this
time in the world, accommodating 1,200 guests, and the Catskills have
reason to feel proud of this distinction. They have for many years had
the best-known legend--the wonderful and immortal Rip Van Winkle. They
have always enjoyed the finest valley views of any mountain outlook,
and they have a right to the best hotels.

* * *

There is a fall in the hills, where the water of two
little ponds runs over the rocks into the valley. The
first pitch is nigh two hundred feet and the water looks
like flakes of driven snow before it touches the bottom.

_James Fenimore Cooper._

* * *

It may seem antiquated and old-fashioned in the midst of elevated
railroads to speak of mountain driveways, but that to Palenville, as
we last saw it, was a beautiful piece of engineering--as smooth as a
floor and securely built. It looks as if it were intended to last for
a century, the stone work is so thoroughly finished. The views from
this road are superior to anything we have seen in the Catskills, and
the great sweep of the mountain clove recalls a Sierra Nevada trip on
the way to the Yosemite.

The writer will never forget another Catskill drive fully twenty
years ago. Starting one morning with a pair of mustang ponies from
Phoenicia, we called at the Kaaterskill, the Catskill Mountain
House, and the Laurel House, took supper at Catskill Village, and
reached New York that evening at eleven o'clock. It is unnecessary to
say that we were on business--our book was on the press--and we went
as if one of the printers' best-known companions was on our trail.

Irving's description of his first voyage up the river brings us more
delicately and gracefully down from these mountains to the Hudson--the
level highway to the sea. "Of all the scenery of the Hudson, the
Kaatskill Mountains had the most witching effect on my boyish
imagination. Never shall I forget the effect upon me of my first view
of them, predominating over a wide extent of country--part wild, woody
and rugged; part softened away into all the graces of cultivation. As
we slowly floated along, I lay on the deck and watched them through a
long summer's day, undergoing a thousand mutations under the magical
effects of atmosphere; sometimes seeming to approach; at other times
to recede; now almost melting into hazy distance, now burnished by the
setting sun, until in the evening they printed themselves against the
glowing sky in the deep purple of an Italian landscape."

* * *

Limned upon the fair horizon,
West from central Hudson's tide,
The fair form of Ontiora
Throughout ages shall abide.

_Jared Barhete._

* * *

=Catskill to Hudson.=

Leaving Catskill dock, the Prospect Park Hotel looks down upon us from
a commanding point on the west bank, while north of this can be seen
Cole's Grove, where Thomas Cole, the artist, lived, who painted the
well-known series, the Voyage of Life. On the east side is Rodger's
Island, where it is said the last battle was fought between the
Mahicans and Mohawks; and it is narrated that "as the old king of the
Mahicans was dying, after the conflict, he commanded his regalia to be
taken off and his successor put into the kingship while his eyes were
yet clear to behold him. Over forty years had he worn it, from the
time he received it in London from Queen Anne. He asked him to kneel
at his couch, and, putting his withered hand across his brow, placed
the feathery crown upon his head, and gave him the silver-mounted
tomahawk--symbols of power to rule and power to execute. Then, looking
up to the heavens, he said, as if in despair for his race, 'The hills
are our pillows, and the broad plains to the west our hunting-grounds;
our brothers are called into the bright wigwam of the Everlasting, and
our bones lie upon the fields of many battles; but the wisdom of the
dead is given to the living.'"

On the east bank of the Hudson, above this historic island, is the
residence of Frederick E. Church, whose glowing canvas has linked the
Niagara with the Hudson. It commands a wide view of the Berkshire
Hills to the eastward, and westward to the Catskills. The hill above
Rodgers' Island, on the east bank, is known as Mount Merino, one of
the first places to which Merino sheep were brought in this country.

=Hudson=, 115 miles from New York, was founded in the year 1784, by
thirty persons from Providence, R. I., and incorporated as a city in
1785. The city is situated on a sloping promontory, bounded by the
North and South Bays. Its main streets, Warren, Union and Allen, run
east and west a little more than a mile in length, crossed by Front
Street, First, Second, Third, etc. Main Street reaches from Promenade
Park to Prospect Hill. The park is on the bluff just above the
steamboat landing; we believe this city is the only one on the Hudson
that has a promenade ground overlooking the river. It commands a fine
view of the Catskill Mountains, Mount Merino, and miles of the river
scenery. The city has always enjoyed the reputation of hospitality.
It is the western terminus of the Hudson and Chatham division of the
_Boston & Albany Railroad_, and also of the _Kinderhook & Hudson
Railway_.

* * *

White fleecy clouds move slowly by.
How cool their shadows fall to-day!
A moment on the hills they lie
And then like spirits glide away.

_Henry T. Tuckerman._

* * *

From an old-time English history we read that Hudson grew more rapidly
than any other town in America except Baltimore. Standing at the head
of ship navigation it would naturally have become a great port had it
not been for the railway and the steamboat which made New York the
emporium not only of the Hudson, but also of the continent.

Hudson had also a good sprinkling of Nantucket blood, and visitors
from that quaint old town recognize in portico, stoop and window a
familiar architecture.

=Columbia Springs=, an old-time resort with pleasant grove and white
sulphur water, is four miles northeast of Hudson. Its medicinal
qualities are attested by scores of physicians, and by hundreds who
have been benefited and cured. The drive is pleasant and the return
can be made through--

=Claverack=, three and a half miles east of Hudson, a restful
old-fashioned village situated at the crossing of the Old Post Road
and the Columbia turnpike and county seat of Columbia in Knickerbocker
days. The court house on its well-shaded street was for many years the
home of the late Peter Hoffman. The Dutch Reformed Church, built of
bricks brought from Holland, wears on its brow wrinkles of antiquity,
emphasized by the date 1767 on its walls. It is said that General
Washington encamped here, but there is no historical data to confirm
the tradition. Claverack Falls is well worth a visit, which can easily
be made in an afternoon stroll. Copake Lake, to the southeast, can be
reached by a drive of about twelve miles, a fine sheet of water ten
miles in circumference, with a picturesque island connected to the
main land by a causeway. Forty years ago a romantic ruin of a stone
mansion still stood on this island, where the writer, when a boy, used
to wander around the deserted rooms looking for ghosts, but the walls
were torn down July 4, 1866, as the place was frequented every summer
by a remnant of the old Stockbridge tribe. The neighbors thought the
best way of getting rid of the "noble red men" was to burn up the
hive. The mansion was built by a Miss Livingston, but she soon
exchanged her island home for Florence and the classic associations
of Italy. Bash-Bish, one mile from Copake Station on the _Harlem
Railroad_, one of the most romantic glens in our country, has been
visited and eulogized by Henry Ward Beecher, Bayard Taylor and many
distinguished writers and travelers. Soon after leaving Copake Station
a beautiful carriage road, but extremely narrow, strikes the left bank
of this mountain stream, and for a long distance follows its rocky
channel. On the right a thickly wooded hill rises abruptly more than a
thousand feet--a perfect wall of foliage from base to summit. A mile
brings one to the lower falls; the upper falls are about a quarter of
a mile farther up the gorge. The height of the falls, with the rapids
between, is about 300 feet above the little rustic bridge at the foot
of the lower falls. The glen between is a place of wild beauty, with
rocks and huge boulders "in random ruin piled."

* * *

I saw the green banks of the castle-crowned Rhine,
Where the grapes drink the moonlight and change into wine,
But my heart would still yearn for the sound of the waves
That sing as they flow by my forefather's graves.

_Oliver Wendell Holmes._

* * *

=Hillsdale Village= has a beautiful location and affords a good
central point for visiting Mount Everett, with its wide prospect
(altitude 2,624 feet), Copake Lake six miles to the west, Bash-Bish
Falls six miles south, and Po-ka-no five miles to the northeast,
sometimes known as White's Hill. The Po-ka-no, Columbia County's
noblest outlook, 1,713 feet, commands the Hudson Valley for eighty
miles; and the owner says that he saw the fireworks from there the
night of the Newburgh centennial in 1883. From the summit can be seen
"Monument Mountain" and the Green Mountains of Vermont. At its base
glides the "Green River Creek," which flows into the Housatonic near
Great Barrington. From this point the drive can be continued to North
Egremont, South Egremont, Great Barrington and Monument Mountain.
Before the days of railroads the Columbia turnpike was the great trade
artery of the city of Hudson. It was interesting to hear William
Cullen Bryant recount his experiences in driving from his home in
Great Barrington over the well-known highway on his way to New York.
The _Housatonic_ and _Harlem Railroads_ tapped its life and have left
many a sleepy village along the route, once astir in staging days. The
stone for Girard College was drawn from Massachusetts quarries over
this route and shipped to Philadelphia from Hudson. The Lebanon
Valley, in the northeastern part of the county, is considered one of
the most beautiful in the State, and said by Sir Henry Vincent, the
English orator, to resemble the far-famed valley of Llangollen, in
Wales. The Wy-a-mon-ack Creek flows through the valley, joining its
waters with the Kinderhook. Quechee Lake is near at hand, where Miss
Warner was born, author of "Queechee" and the "Wide Wide World."

* * *

Welcome ye pleasant dales and hills,
Where dream-like passed my early days!
Ye cliffs and glens and laughing rills
That sing unconscious hymns of praise!

_Wallace Bruce._

* * *

=Lindenwald=, a solid and substantial residence, home of President
Martin Van Buren, where he died in 1862, is two miles from the
pleasant village of Kinderhook. Columbia County just missed the proud
distinction of rearing two presidents, as Samuel J. Tilden was born in
the town of Lebanon. Elisha Williams, John Van Buren and many others
have given lustre to her legal annals.

* * *

Ever fonder, ever dearer
Seems our youth that hastened by,
And we love to live in memory
When our fond hopes fade and die.

_Wallace Bruce._

* * *

=Hudson to Albany.=

=Athens.=--Directly opposite Hudson, and connected with it by ferry,
is the classically named village of Athens. An old Mahican settlement
known as Potick was located a little back from the river. We are now
in the midst of the great

="Ice Industry,"= which reaches from below Staatsburgh to Castleton
and Albany, well described by John Burroughs in his article on the
Hudson: "No man sows, yet many men reap a harvest from the Hudson. Not
the least important is the ice harvest, which is eagerly looked for,
and counted upon by hundreds, yes, thousands of laboring men along its
course. Ice or no ice sometimes means bread or no bread to scores of
families, and it means added or diminished comforts to many more. It
is a crop that takes two or three weeks of rugged winter weather to
grow, and, if the water is very roily or brackish, even longer. It is
seldom worked till it presents seven or eight inches of clear water
ice. Men go out from time to time and examine it, as the farmer goes
out and examines his grain or grass, to see when it will do to cut. If
there comes a deep fall of snow the ice is 'pricked' so as to let the
water up through and form snow ice. A band of fifteen or twenty men,
about a yard apart, each armed with a chisel-bar, and marching in
line, puncture the ice at each step, with a single sharp thrust. To
and fro they go, leaving a belt behind them that presently becomes
saturated with water. But ice, to be of first quality, must grow from
beneath, not from above. It is a crop quite as uncertain as any other.
A good yield every two or three years, as they say of wheat out west,
is about all that can be counted upon. When there is an abundant
harvest, after the ice houses are filled, they stack great quantities
of it, as the farmer stacks his surplus hay. Such a fruitful winter
was that of '74-5, when the ice formed twenty inches thick. The stacks
are given only a temporary covering of boards, and are the first ice
removed in the season. The cutting and gathering of the ice enlivens
these broad, white, desolate fields amazingly. My house happens to
stand where I look down upon the busy scene, as from a hill-top upon
a river meadow in haying time, only here figures stand out much
more sharply than they do from a summer meadow. There is the broad,
straight, blue-black canal emerging into view, and running nearly
across the river; this is the highway that lays open the farm. On
either side lie the fields, or ice meadows, each marked out by cedar
or hemlock boughs. The farther one is cut first, and when cleared,
shows a large, long, black parallelogram in the midst of the plain
of snow. Then the next one is cut, leaving a strip or tongue of ice
between the two for the horses to move and turn upon. Sometimes nearly
two hundred men and boys, with numerous horses, are at work at once,
marking, plowing, planing, scraping, sawing, hauling, chiseling; some
floating down the pond on great square islands towed by a horse, or
their fellow workmen; others distributed along the canal, bending to
their ice-hooks; others upon the bridges separating the blocks with
their chisel bars; others feeding the elevators; while knots and
straggling lines of idlers here and there look on in cold discontent,
unable to get a job. The best crop of ice is an early crop. Late in
the season or after January, the ice is apt to get 'sun-struck,' when
it becomes 'shaky,' like a piece of poor timber. The sun, when he
sets about destroying the ice, does not simply melt it from the
surface--that were a slow process; but he sends his shafts into it and
separates it into spikes and needles--in short, makes kindling-wood of
it, so as to consume it the quicker. One of the prettiest sights about
the ice harvesting is the elevator in operation. When all works well,
there is an unbroken procession of the great crystal blocks slowly
ascending this incline. They go up in couples, arm in arm, as it were,
like friends up a stairway, glowing and changing in the sun, and
recalling the precious stones that adorned the walls of the celestial
city. When they reach the platform where they leave the elevator, they
seem to step off like things of life and volition; they are still in
pairs and separate only as they enter upon the 'runs.' But here they
have an ordeal to pass through, for they are subjected to a rapid
inspection and the black sheep are separated from the flock; every
square with a trace of sediment or earth-stain in it, whose texture
is not perfect and unclouded crystal, is rejected and sent hurling
down into the abyss; a man with a sharp eye in his head and a sharp
ice-hook in his hand picks out the impure and fragmentary ones as they
come along and sends them quickly overboard. Those that pass the
examination glide into the building along the gentle incline, and are
switched off here and there upon branch runs, and distributed to all
parts of the immense interior."

* * *

But when in the forest bare and old
The blast of December calls,
He builds in the starlight clear and cold
A palace of ice where his torrent falls.

_William Cullen Bryant._

* * *

Where the frost trees shoot with leaf and spray
And frost gems scatter a silver ray.

_William Cullen Bryant._

* * *

How fair the thronging pictures run,
What joy the vision fills--
The star-glow and the setting sun
Amid the northern hills.

_Benjamin F. Leggett._

* * *

Passing west of the Hudson Flats we see North Bay, crossed by the _New
York Central Railroad_. Kinderhook Creek meets the river about three
miles north of Hudson, directly above which is Stockport Station for
Columbiaville. Four Mile Light-house is now seen on the opposite bank.
Nutten Hook, or Coxsackie Station, is four miles above Stockport.
Opposite this point, and connected by a ferry, is the village of--

=Coxsackie= (name derived from Kaak-aki, or place of wild geese, "aki"
in Indian signifies place and it is singular to find the Indian word
"Kaak" so near to the English "cackle"). Two miles north Stuyvesant
Landing is seen on the east bank, the nearest station on the _New
York Central & Hudson River Railroad_, by carriage, to Valatie and
Kinderhook. The name Kinderhook is said to have had its origin from a
point on the Hudson prolific in children; as the children were always
out of doors to see the passing craft, it was known as Kinderhook, or
"children's point." Passing Bronk's Island, due west of which empties
Coxsackie Creek, we see Stuyvesant Light-house on our right, and
approach New Baltimore, a pleasant village on the west bank, with
sloop and barge industry. About a mile above the landing is the
meeting point of four counties: Greene and Albany on the west,
Columbia and Rensselaer on the east. Beeren Island, connected with
Coeyman's Landing by small steamer, now a picnic resort, lies near the
west bank, where it will be remembered the first white child was born
on the Hudson. Here was the Castle of Rensselaertein, before which
Antony Van Corlear read again and again the proclamation of Peter
Stuyvesant, and from which he returned with a diplomatic reply,
forming one of the most humorous chapters in Irving's "Knickerbocker."
Threading our way through low-lying islands and river flats, and
"slowing down" occasionally on meeting canal boats or other river
craft, we pass Coeyman's on our left and Lower Schodack Island on
our right, due east of which is the station of Schodack Landing. The
writer of this handbook remembers distinctly a winter's evening walk
from Schodack Landing, crossing the frozen Hudson and snow-covered
island on an ill-defined trail. He was on his way to deliver his first
lecture, February, 1868, and his subject was "The Legends and Poetry
of the Hudson." Since that time he has written and re-written many
guides to the river, so that the present handbook is not a thing of
yesterday. The next morning, on his return to Schodack, he had for
his companion a young man from twenty or thirty miles inland, who had
never seen a train of cars except in the distance. On reaching the
railway, one of the New York expresses swept by, and as he caught the
motion of the bell cord he turned and said: "Do they drive it with
that little string?" Lower Schodack Island, Mills Plaat (also an
island) and Upper Schodack Island reach almost to--

=Castleton=, a pleasant village on the eastern bank, with main street
lying close to the river. The cliffs, a few miles to the north, were
known to the Indians as Scoti-ack, or place of the ever-burning
council-fire, which gave the name of Schodack to the township, where
King Aepgin, on the 8th of April, 1680, sold to Van Rensselaer "all
that tract of country on the west side of the Hudson, extending from
Beeren Island up to Smack's Island, and in breadth two days' journey."

* * *

No spot in all the world where poetry and romance
are so closely blended with the heroic in history as
along the banks of our Hudson.

_Wallace Bruce._

* * *

THE MAHICAN TRIBE originally occupied all the east bank of the Hudson
north of Roeliffe Jansen's Kill, near Germantown, to the head waters
of the Hudson; and on the west bank, from Cohoes to Catskill. The town
of Schodack was central, and a signal displayed from the hills near
Castleton could be seen for thirty miles in every direction. After the
Mahicans left the Hudson, they went to Westenhook, or Housatonic,
to the hills south of Stockbridge; and then, on invitation of the
Oneidas, removed to Oneida County, in 1785, where they lived until
1821, when, with other Indians of New York, they purchased a tract of
land near Fox River, Minnesota.

Domestic clans or families of the Mahicans lingered around their
ancient seats for some years after the close of the Revolution, but
of them, one after another, it is written, "They disappeared in the
night." In the language of Tamerund at the death of Uncas, "The
pale-faces are masters of the earth, and the time of the red men has
not yet come again. My day has been too long. In the morning I saw the
sons of Unami happy and strong; and yet before the night has come,
have I lived to see the last warrior of the race of the Mahicans."

* * *

Autumn had given uniformity of coloring to the woods.
It varied now between copper and gold, and shone like
an infinitely rich golden embroidery on the Indian veil
of mist which rested upon the heights along the Hudson.

_Harriet Martineau._

* * *

According to Ruttenber, the names and location of the Indian tribes
were not ascertained with clearness by the early Dutch settlers, but
through documents, treaties and information, subsequently obtained,
it is now settled that the Mahicans held possession "under sub-tribal
organizations" of the east bank of the river from an undefined point
north of Albany to the sea, including Long Island; that their dominion
extended east to the Connecticut, where they joined kindred tribes;
that on the west bank of the Hudson they ran down as far as Catskill,
and west to Schenectady; that they were met on the west by the
territory of the Mohawks, and on the south by tribes of the Lenni
Lenapes or Delawares, whose territory extended thence to the sea, and
west to and beyond the Delaware River. The Mahicans had a castle at
Catskill and at Cohoes Falls. The western side of the Hudson, above
Cohoes, belonged to the Mohawks, a branch of the Iroquois. Therefore,
as early as 1630, three great nations were represented on the Hudson--

=The Mahicans, the Delawares and the Iroquois.= The early French
missionaries refer to the "nine nations of Manhinyans, gathered
between Manhattan and the environs of Quebec." These several nations
have never been accurately designated, although certain general
divisions appear under the titles of Mohegan, Wappinger, Sequins,
etc. "The government of the Mahicans was a democracy. The office was
hereditary by the lineage of the wife; that is, the selection of a
successor on the death of the chief, was confined to the female branch
of the family." According to Ruttenber, the precise relation between
the Mahicans of the Hudson and the Mohegans under Uncas, the Pequot
chief, is not known. In a foot-note to this statement, he says: "The
identity of name between the Mahicans and Mohegans, induces the belief
that all these tribes belonged to the same stock,--although they
differed in dialect, in territory, and in their alliances." The two
words, therefore, must not be confounded.

* * *

Round about the Indian village
Spread the meadows and the cornfields,
Stood the groves of singing pine trees,
And beyond them stood the forest,

_Henry W. Longfellow._

* * *

It is also pleasant to remember that the Mahicans as a tribe were true
and faithful to us during the war of the Revolution, and when the six
nations met in council at Oswego, at the request of Guy Johnson and
other officers of the British army, "to eat the flesh and drink the
blood of a Bostonian," Hendrick, the Mahican, made the pledge for his
tribe at Albany, almost in the eloquent words of Ruth to Naomi, "Thy
people shall be our people, and whither thou goest we will be at your
side."

=The Mourdener's Kill=, with its sad story of a girl tied by Indians
to a horse and dragged through the valley, flows into the Hudson above
Castleton. Two miles above this near the steamer channel will be seen
Staats Island on the east, with an old stone house, said to be next in
antiquity to the old Van Rensselaer House, opposite Albany. It is also
a fact that this property passed directly to the ancestors of the
present family, the only property in this vicinity never owned by the
lord of the manor. Opposite the old stone house, the point on the west
bank is known as Parda Hook, where it is said a horse was once drowned
in a horse-race on the ice, and hence the name Parda, for the old
Hollanders along the Hudson seemed to have had a musical ear, and
delighted in accumulating syllables. (The word pard is used in Spenser
for spotted horse, and still survives in the word leopard.)

The Castleton Bar or "overslaugh," as it was known by the river
pilots, impeded for years navigation in low water. Commodore Van
Santvoord and other prominent citizens brought the subject before the
State legislature, and work was commenced in 1863. In 1868 the United
States Government very properly (as their jurisdiction extends over
tide-water), assumed the completing of the dykes, which now stretch
for miles along the banks and islands of the upper Hudson. Here and
there along our route between Coxsackie and Albany will be seen great
dredges deepening and widening the river channel. The plan provides
for a system of longitudinal dykes to confine the current sufficiently
to allow the ebb and flow of the tidal-current to keep the channel
clear. These dykes are to be gradually brought nearer together from
New Baltimore toward Troy, so as to assist the entrance of the
flood-current and increase its height.

* * *

Where Hudson winds his silver way
And murmurs at the tardy stay,
Impatient at delay.

_William Crow._

* * *

The engineers report that the greater part of the material carried in
suspension in the Hudson river above Albany is believed to come from
the Mohawk river, and its tributary the Schoharie river, while the
sands and gravel that form the heavy and obstinate bars near Albany
and chiefly between Albany and Troy, come from the upper Hudson.

The discharge of the Hudson between Troy and Albany at its lowest
stage may be taken at about 3,000 cubic feet per second. The river
supply, therefore, during that stage is inadequate in the upper part
of the river for navigation, independent of tidal flow.

The greatest number of bars is between Albany and Troy, where the
channel is narrow, and at least six obstructing bars, composed of fine
and coarse gravel and coarse and fine sand, are in existence. In many
places between Albany and Troy the navigable depth is reduced to 7½
feet by the presence of these bars.

From Albany to New Baltimore the depths are variable, the prevailing
depth being 10 feet and over, with pools of greater depth separated by
long cross-over bars, over which the greatest depth does not exceed
9 or 10 feet. Passing many delightful homes on the west bank and the
mouth of the Norman's Kill (Indian name Ta-wa-sentha, place of many
dead) and the Convent of the Sacred Heart, we see Dow's Point on the
east and above this the--

=Van Rensselaer Place=, with its port holes on either side of the door
facing the river, showing that it was built in troublesome times.
It is the oldest of the Patroon manor houses, built in 1640 or
thereabouts. It has been said that the adaptation of the old tune now
known as "Yankee Doodle" was made near the well in the grounds of the
Van Rensselaer Place by Dr. Richard Shuckberg, who was connected with
the British army when the Colonial troops from New England marched
into camp at Albany to join the British regulars on their way to fight
the French. The tune was known in New England before the Revolution as
"Lydia Fisher's Jig," a name derived from a famous lady who lived
in the reign of Charles II, and which has been perpetuated in the
following rhyme:

Lucy Locket lost her pocket,
Lydia Fisher found it;
Not a bit of money in it,
Only binding 'round it.

The appearance of the troops called down the derision of the British
officers, the hit of the doctor became known throughout the army, and
the song was used as a method of showing contempt for the Colonials
until after Lexington and Concord.

* * *

When life is old
And many a scene forgot the heart will hold
Its memory of this.

_Fitz-Greene Halleck._

* * *

=Rensselaer=, on the east bank of the river, was incorporated in 1896
by the union of Greenbush and East Albany. The old name of Greenbush,
which still survives in East Greenbush, four miles distant, was given
to it by the old Dutch settlers, and it was probably a "green-bushed"
place in early days. Now pleasant residences and villas look out upon
the river from the near bank and distant hillsides. Two railroad
bridges and a carriage bridge cross the Hudson at this point. During
the French war in 1775, Greenbush was a military rendezvous, and in
1812 the United States Government established extensive barracks,
whence troops were forwarded to Canada.

=Albany=, 144 miles from New York. (_New York Central & Hudson River
Railroad_, _Boston & Albany_, _West Shore_, _Delaware and Hudson_, the
_Hudson River Day Line_ and _People's Line_.) Its site was called by
the Indians Shaunaugh-ta-da (Schenectady), or the Pine Plains. It
was next known by the early Dutch settlers as "Beverwyck," "William
Stadt," and "New Orange." The seat of the State Government was
transferred from New York to Albany in 1798. In 1714, when 100 years
old, it had a population of about 3,000, one-sixth of whom were
slaves. In 1786 it increased to about 10,000. In 1676, the city
comprised within the limits of Pearl, Beaver and Steuben streets, was
surrounded by wooden walls with six gates. They were 13 feet high,
made of timber a foot square. It is said that a portion of these walls
were remaining in 1812. The first railroad in the State and the second
in the United States was opened from Albany to Schenectady in 1831.
The pictures of these old coaches are very amusing, and the rate of
speed was only a slight improvement on a well-organized stage line.
From an old book in the State Library we condense the following
description, presenting quite a contrast to the city of to-day:
"Albany lay stretched along the banks of the Hudson, on one very wide
and long street, parallel to the Hudson. The space between the street
and the river bank was occupied by gardens. A small but steep hill
rose above the centre of the town, on which stood a fort. The wide
street leading to the fort (now State street) had a Market-Place,
Guard-House, Town Hall, and an English and Dutch Church, in the
centre."

* * *

I wandered afar from the land of my birth,
I saw the old rivers renowned upon earth,
But fancy still painted that wide-flowing stream
With the many-hued pencil of infancy's dream.

_Oliver Wendell Holmes._

* * *

Tourists and others will be amply repaid in visiting the new Capitol
building, at the head of State Street. It is open from nine in the
morning until six in the evening. It is said to be larger than the
Capitol at Washington, and cost more than any other structure on the
American continent. The staircases, the wide corridors, the Senate
chamber, the Assembly chamber, and the Court of Appeals room, attest
the wealth and greatness of the Empire State. The visitor up State
Street will note the beautiful and commanding spire of "St. Paul." The
Cathedral is also a grand structure. The population of Albany is now
100,000, and its growth is due to three causes: First, the Capitol
was removed from New York to Albany in 1798. Then followed two great
enterprises, ridiculed at the time by every one as the _Fulton Folly
and Clinton's Ditch_--in other words, steam navigation, 1807, and the
Erie Canal, 1825. Its name was given in honor of the Duke of Albany,
although it is still claimed by some of the oldest inhabitants that,
in the golden age of those far-off times, when the good old burghers
used to ask the welfare of their neighbors, the answer was "All
bonnie," and hence the name of the hill-crowned city.

* * *

Canals, long winding, ope a watery flight,
And distant streams and seas and lakes unite;
From fair Albania toward the fading sun,
Back through the midland lengthening channels run.

_Joel Barlow._

* * *

To condense from H. P. Phelps's careful handbook of "Albany and the
Capitol:" in 1614 a stockaded trading-house was erected on an island
below the city, well defended for trading with the Indians. In 1617
another was built on the hill, near Norman's Kill. The West Indian
Company erected a fort in 1623 near the present landing of the Day
Line. In 1664 the province fell into the hands of the English and the
name was changed to Albany. In 1686 it was incorporated into a city.
It was the meeting place of the Constitutional Congress 1754,
the proposed Constitution of which, however, was never ratified.
Washington visited it in 1783. The Erie Canal was opened in 1825,
a railroad to Schenectady in 1832, the _Hudson River_ in 1851, a
consolidated road to Buffalo in 1853, and the _Susquehanna Railroad_
to Binghamton in 1869. State Street at one time was said to be the
widest city thoroughfare in the country, after Pennsylvania Avenue in
Washington. The English and Dutch Churches and other public buildings,
once in the midst of it, but long since removed, account for its
extra width. The State Capitol has a commanding site. The old Capitol
building was completed in 1808. The corner-stone of the present
building was laid June 24, 1871, and it has been occupied since
January 7, 1879. According to Phelps, "the size of the structure
impresses the beholder at once. It is 300 feet north and south by 400
feet east and west, and with the porticoes will cover three acres and
seven square feet. The walls are 108 feet high from the water-table,
and all this worked out of solid granite brought, most of it, from
Hallowell, Me."

The impression produced varies with various persons. One accomplished
writer finds it "not unlike that made by the photographs of those
gigantic structures in the northern and eastern parts of India, which
are seen in full series on the walls of the South Kensington, and by
their barbaric profusion of ornamentation and true magnificence of
design give the stay-at-home Briton some faint inkling of the empire
which has invested his queen with another and more high-sounding
title. Yet when close at hand the building does not bear out this
connection with Indian architecture of the grand style; it might be
mere chance that at a distance there is a similarity; or it may be
that the smallness of size in the decorations as compared to the
structure itself explains fully why there is a tendency to confuse the
eye by the number of projections, arches, pillars, shallow recesses,
and what-not, which variegate the different facades. The confusion is
not entirely displeasing; it gives a sense of unstinted riches, and
represents the spirit that has reared the pile."

* * *

Nor let the dear love of its children grow cold
Till the channel is dry where its waters have rolled.

_Oliver Wendell Holmes._

* * *

The Governor's room, the golden corridor, the Senate staircase, the
Senate chamber, the Assembly chamber, and the Court of Appeals room
are interesting alike for their architectural stone work, decorations
and general finish. The State Library, dating from 1818, contains
about 150,000 volumes. The Clinton papers, including Andre's documents
captured at Tarrytown, are the most interesting of many valuable
manuscripts. Here also are a sword and pistol once belonging to
General Washington. The Museum of Military Records and Relics contains
over 800 battle flags of State regiments, with several ensigns
captured from the enemy. Near the Capitol are the State Hall and City
Hall, and on the right, descending State Street, the Geological Hall,
well worthy an extended visit. The present St. Peter's Episcopal
Church, third upon the site, is of Schenectady blue stone with brown
trimmings. Its tower contains "a chime of eleven bells and another
bell marked 1751, which is used only to ring in the new year."
Washington Park, consisting of eighty acres and procured at a cost
of one million dollars, reached by a pleasant drive or by electric
railway, is a delightful resort. It is noted for its grand trees,
artistic walks and floral culture. Several fine statues are also
worthy of mention, notably that of Robert Burns (Charles Calverley,
sculptor), erected by money left for this purpose by Mrs. McPherson,
under the careful and tasteful supervision of one of Albany's
best-known citizens, Mr. Peter Kinnear. A view from Washington Park
takes in the Catskills and the Helderberg Mountains.

* * *

No wonder that his countrymen today, led by the
Congress of this great Republic, celebrate the transaction
and the scene where Washington refused to accept
a crown.

_William M. Evarts._

* * *

And now, while waiting to "throw out the plank," which puts a period
to our Hudson River division, we feel like congratulating ourselves
that the various goblins which once infested the river have become
civilized, that the winds and tides have been conquered, and that
the nine-day voyage of Hendrick Hudson and the "Half Moon" has been
reduced to the _nine-hour system_ of the Hudson River Day Line.

Those who have traveled over Europe will certainly appreciate the
quiet luxury of an American steamer; and this first introduction to
American scenery will always charm the tourist from other lands. No
single day's journey in any land or on any stream can present such
variety, interest, and beauty, as the trip of one hundred and
forty-four miles from New York to Albany. The Hudson is indeed a
goodly volume, with its broad covers of green _lying open_ on either
side; and it might in truth be called a _condensed_ history, for there
is no other place in our country where poetry and romance are so
strangely blended with the heroic and the historic,--no river where
the waves of different civilizations have left so many waifs upon the
banks. It is classic ground, from the "wilderness to the sea," and
will always be the poets' corner of our country: the home of Irving,
Willis, and Morris,--of Fulton, Morse, and Field,--of Cole, Audubon,
and Church,--and of scores besides, whose names are household words.

* * *

The Hudson's cable-tow of yore
Bound gallant sire and sturdy son
With hearty grasp from shore to shore
For Robert Burns and Washington.

_Wallace Bruce._

* * *

THE UPPER HUDSON.

=Albany to Saratoga.=

_Delaware and Hudson Railway._

A pleasant tour awaits the traveler who continues his journey north
from Albany, where the _Delaware and Hudson_ train for Saratoga is
ready at the landing on the arrival of the steamer. A half hour's run
along the west bank gives us a glimpse of Troy across the river with
the classical named hills Mount Ida and Mount Olympus. Two streams,
the Poestenkill and the Wynant's Kill, approach the river on the east
bank through narrow ravines, and furnish excellent water power. In the
year 1786 it was called Ferryhook. In 1787, Rensselaerwyck. In the
fall of 1787 the settlers began to use the name of Vanderheyden, after
the family who owned a great part of the ground where the city now
stands. January 9, 1789 the freeholders of the town met and gave it
the name of Troy. The "Hudson," the "Erie," and the "Champlain" Canals
have contributed to its growth. The city, with many busy towns, which
have sprung up around it--Cohoes, Lansingburg, Waterford, etc., is
central to a population of at least 100,000 people. The Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute, the oldest engineering school in America, has a
national reputation.

=Cohoes=, where the Mohawk joins the Hudson, has one of the finest
water powers in the country. Its name is of Indian origin and
signifies "the island at the falls." This was the division line
between the Mahicans and the Mohawks, and when the water is in full
force it suggests in graceful curve and sweep a miniature Niagara. The
view from the double-truss iron bridge (960 feet in length), looking
up or down the Mohawk, is impressive.

* * *

Oh, be my falls as bright as thine!
May heaven's relenting rainbow shine
Upon the mist that circles me,
As soft as now it hangs o'er thee!

_Thomas Moore._

* * *

Passing through Waterford, and Mechanicville which lies partly in the
township of Stillwater, with its historic records of Bemis Heights and
burial place of Ellsworth, the first martyr of the Civil war, we come
to--

=Round Lake=, nineteen miles north of Troy, and thirteen south
of Saratoga, near a beautiful sheet of water, three miles in
circumference, called by the Indians Ta-nen-da-ho-wa, which
interpreted, signifies Round Lake. The camp-meeting and assembly
grounds consist of 200 acres. The air is pure and invigorating and the
grove and cottages inviting. The drives in the vicinity are delightful
to Saratoga Lake, to the Hudson River, to the historic battlefields of
Bemis Heights and Stillwater.

=Ballston Spa=, thirty-one miles from Albany, is the county seat of
Saratoga. Here are several well-known mineral springs, with chemical
properties similar to the springs of Saratoga. Over ninety years ago
Benjamin Douglas, father of Hon. Stephen A. Douglas, built a log
house, near the "Old Spring," for the accommodation of invalids and
travelers, and at one time it looked as if Saratoga would have a
vigorous rival at her very doors; but its hotel glory has departed and
the old "Sans Souci" of the days of Washington Irving is a thing of
the past.

* * *

A gallant army formed their last array
Upon that field, in silence and deep gloom,
And at their conqueror's feet,
Laid their war-weapons down.

_Fitz-Greene Halleck._

* * *

=Saratoga=, thirty-eight miles north of Albany, one hundred and
eighty-two miles from New York, is the greatest watering place of the
continent. Its development has been wonderful, and puts, as it were,
in large italics, the prosperity of our country. The first white man
to visit the place was Sir William Johnson, who, in 1767, was conveyed
there by his Mohawk friends, in the hope that the waters might afford
relief from the serious effects of a gunshot wound in the thigh,
received eight years before in the battle of Lake George, at which
time his army defeated the French legions under Baron Dieskau. It was
not until the year 1773, six years after Sir William Johnson's initial
visit, that the first clearing was made and the first cabin erected
by Derick Scowten. Owing, however, to misunderstandings with his red
neighbors, he shortly afterwards left. A year later, George Arnold,
from Rhode Island, took possession of the vacated Scowten House, and
conducted it with some degree of success for about two years. Arnold
was in turn followed by Samuel Norton, who failed to make the venture
successful, owing to the outbreak of the Revolution. Norton was
succeeded in 1783 by his son, who sold out in 1787 to Gideon Morgan,
who, in the same year, made the property over to Alexander Bryan.
Bryan became the first permanent settler after the close of the war.
The prosperity of the village began in 1789, with the advent of Gideon
Putnam, but the wooden inns and hotels of 1830, which seemed palatial
in those days, would get lost even in one of the parlors of the
mammoth hotels which now line the main street of the village. Chief
among these hotels, we mention the--

="United States,"= a grand and princely building of noble frontage
with a bright and spacious interior court, completed in June, 1874. It
constitutes one continuous line of buildings, six stories high, over
fifteen hundred feet in length, containing nine hundred and seventeen
rooms for guests, and is the largest hotel in the world.

=The American-Adelphi= near at hand, also fronting Broadway, always
cheery and delightful under the management of its popular owner and
proprietor, Mr. George A. Farnham, has one of the finest locations in
Saratoga, combining comfort, good attention, a fine table, and every
convenience of a first-class house. One thing is sure, those who go to
the "American" return again and again.

=The Speedway, the Race Track, and Driveways.=--Saratoga can justly
feel proud of her material growth and progress in many directions
during the last decade, and prominent among her varied attractions are
the Speedway and Race Track. Mr. W. C. Whitney and many other prominent
men have contributed liberally in this direction. _The Electric Line_
to Saratoga Lake is also one of the features of the village, and
furnishes a delightful forenoon or afternoon's outing.

* * *

And boyhood's love and fireside-listened tales
Are rushing on your memories, as ye breathe
That valley's storied name,--
Field of the Grounded Arms.

_Fitz-Greene Halleck._

* * *

=The Springs.=--The most prominent springs in and about Saratoga are
the Hathorn, the Patterson and the Congress. The popularity of the
Hathorn is attested by the universal sale of its bottled waters
throughout the United States. The Patterson has won a wide reputation
which its excellence deserves.

=Historic Saratoga.=--But in the midst of this throbbing, gay and
delightful Saratoga, we must not forget that it was here the fathers
of the Republic achieved their most decisive victory. The battle was
fought in the town of Stillwater, at Bemis Heights, two and a half
miles from the Hudson. The defeat of St. Leger and the triumph of
Stark at Bennington filled the American army with hope. Burgoyne's
army advanced September 19, 1777. The battle was sharply contested. At
night the Americans retired into their camp, and the British held the
field. From September 20th to October 7th the armies looked each other
in the face, each side satisfied from the first day's struggle
that their opponents were worthy foemen. The Americans had retaken
Ticonderoga and Lake George. Burgoyne had no place to retreat, and
the lines were slowly but surely closing in around him. October 7th
Burgoyne commenced the battle, but in half an hour his line was
broken. He attempted to rally his troops in person, but they could not
stand before the impetuous charge of the Americans. He was compelled
to order a full retreat, and fell back on the heights above
Schuylerville. The Americans surrounded him, and he surrendered. It
was a decisive victory, and cheered the friends of freedom, not only
in America, but in the English House of Commons.

* * *

The leaves were red with crimson
And then brave Gates did cry,
'Tis diamond now cut diamond,
We'll beat them boys or die.

_Ballads of the Revolution._

* * *

=Mount McGregor=, where General Grant died, associates the Saratoga of
the Revolution with the story of our Civil War. Near the monument
to the old heroes at Schuylerville, where Burgoyne surrendered,
a monument to the Boys in Blue was dedicated in 1904. It was the
privilege of the writer to be the poet of the occasion, and in his
lines "The Flag They Bore," to bind the noble memorials of those who
made and those who saved the Republic.

Two monuments in triumph stand
To catch with joy the morning sun,
One chorus joins them hand in hand--
Heroes of Grant and Washington.

And wider yet the chorus leaps!
Two famous hills the song unites,
As Mount MacGregor's anthem sweeps
Across the plains to Bemis Heights.

In Nathaniel Bartlett Sylvester's book, entitled "Historical Sketches
of Northern New York and the Adirondack Wilderness," we learn that the
earliest date in which the word Saratoga appears in history is 1684,
and was then the name of an old hunting ground on both sides of the
Hudson. Its interpretations have been various. Some say "The Hillside
Country of the Great River;" others, the place of swift waters, while
Morgan, in his "League of the Iroquois," says the signification of
Saratoga is lost.

Whatever the origin of the name whether from the old High Rock spring
or a "reach of the river," one thing is sure: Saratoga is the most
attractive point in the country as a gathering place for conventions
and large meetings, and, in response to the growing demand for
adequate facilities, a splendid convention hall, with a seating
capacity for five thousand people, has been erected by the town
authorities. It is a striking architectural addition to Saratoga's
attractions.

In 1907 over fifty thousand "Knights" gathered here and were
hospitably entertained.

* * *

And such were Saratoga's victors--such
The yeoman-brave, whose deeds and death have given
A glory to her skies,
A music to her name.

_Fitz-Greene Halleck._

* * *

=Saratoga to the Adirondacks.=

The _Adirondack Railway_ division of the _Delaware and Hudson_
furnishes one of the pleasantest excursions to the north woods. The
traveler passes along the romantic and picturesque valley of the upper
Hudson--through King's, South Corinth, Jessup's Landing to Hadley (the
railroad station for Luzerne, a charming village at the junction of
the Hudson and the Sacandaga); then through Stony Creek, Thurman,
thirty-six miles from Saratoga Springs, at the junction of the Schroon
and the Hudson; the Glen, forty-four miles; Riverside, fifty miles
(for Schroon Lake), pleasurable throughout, to North Creek, where
"Concord coaches" and patent-covered spring buck-boards are in waiting
for Blue Mountain Lake--distance about thirty miles, through a
beautiful romantic country.

The water route from this point is as follows: Through Blue Mountain
Lake and Utowana to the outlet, a distance of seven miles, where a
"Railway Carry," something less than a mile, brings the traveler to a
fairy-like steamer on Marion River. The river trip is twelve miles to
Forked Lake.

Arriving at "Forked Lake Carry," one-half mile brings us to Forked
Lake, where the traveler gets his first real mountain bill of fare.
From this point we took a guide to Long Lake. There is a short cut
from this point over to the Tupper Lakes, which we can commend in
every particular, and the tourist can either return to Long Lake and
continue his route to the Saranacs, or go to the Saranacs direct from
Lake Tupper.

From this point we visit Keene Flats, a charming and healthful spot,
only five miles from the "Lower Ausable Pond." These ponds, the
"Lower" and "Upper," are unrivaled in beauty and grandeur. They lie at
the foot of Mount Marcy, Haystack, the Gothics, and Mount Bartlett.

* * *

'Twas in the mellow autumn time
When I, an idler from the town,
With gun and rod was lured to climb
Those peaks where fresh the Hudson takes
His tribute from an hundred lakes.

_Charles Fenno Hoffman._

* * *

=Saratoga to Lake George.=

The traveler will find trains and excursions to suit his convenience
from Saratoga to our fairest lake. His route takes him through
Gansevoort and Fort Edward to Glens Falls with the narrowing and
bright-flowing Hudson for a companion. About one mile beyond Fort
Edward Station, near the railway on the right, stood, until recently,
the tree where Jane McCrea was murdered by Indians during the
Revolution. From Glens Falls the tourist proceeds over the
well-conducted Lake George division of the _Delaware and Hudson_, and
soon finds himself in the midst of a historic and romantic region.
About half way to the lake stands a monument to Col. Ephraim Williams,
killed at the battle of Lake George in 1755, erected by the graduates
of Williams College, which he founded. Bloody Pond, a little farther
on, sleeps calm and blue in the sunlight in spite of its tragic name
and associations, and soon Lake George, girt-round by mountains,
greets our vision, stretching away in beauty to the north.

Near the railway station on the ninth of September, 1903, a monument
was unveiled commemorating the battle of Lake George one hundred and
forty-eight years before. The monument embodies the heroic figures of
Sir William Johnson and King Hendrick the Indian chief. It represents
the Indian chief demonstrating to General Johnson the futility of
dividing his forces. Governor Odell of New York, Governor Guild of
Massachusetts, Governor Chamberlain of Connecticut, and Governor
McCulloch of Vermont and others delivered appropriate addresses.

=The Trossachs of America.=--Capt. Wm. R. Lord, author of
"Reminiscences of a Sailor," in a recent article contributed to a
Scottish paper, has happily called Lake George and its surroundings
"The Trossachs of America." In writing of the autumn season he says:
"Its similarity to the Trossachs of Scotland impresses one most
vividly as seen at this season; the mountains are clothed in a garb,
the prevailing color of which is purple, reminding me of a previous
visit through the Scottish Highlands when the heather was in full
bloom. I at that time felt it to be impossible that any other place on
the face of the globe could equal the magnificently imposing grandeur
of the 'Trossachs.' I must, however, freely admit that in its power of
changing beauty this region of America fully equals, if it does
not surpass it. Deeds of 'derring-do,' enacted in these mountain
fastnesses in days gone by, still add to make the comparison more
close. Our path at times seemed to be literally strewn with roses,
for the different colored leaves that carpeted our way conveyed that
thought. The depth and variegated beauty of coloring that marks this
season of decaying foliage, would enrapture the heart of an artist.
In my vocation I have had occasion to visit the four quarters of the
globe, but never have I seen tints so strikingly beautiful."

* * *

The early fragments of our Colonial poetry and Revolutionary
ballads are chanted in the midst of such profound
silence and loneliness that they sound spectrally
to our ears.

_Bayard Taylor._

* * *

=Lake George=, called by the French "Lac St. Sacrament," was
discovered by Father Jacques, who passed through it in 1646, on his
way to the Iroquois, by whom he was afterward tortured and burned. It
is thirty-six miles long by three miles broad. Its elevation is
two hundred and forty-three feet above the sea. The waters are of
remarkable transparency; romantic islands dot its surface, and elegant
villas line its shores. Fort William Henry and Ticonderoga, situated
at either end of the lake, were the salients respectively of the two
most powerful nations upon the globe. France and England sent great
armies, which crossed each other's track upon the ocean, the one
entering the St. Lawrence, the other the harbor of New York. Their
respective colonies sent their thousands to swell the number of
trained troops, while tribes of red men from the south and the north
were marshalled by civilized genius to meet in hostile array upon
these waters, around the walls of the forts, and at the base of the
hills. In 1755, General Johnston reached Lake St. Sacrament, to which
he gave the name of Lake George, "not only in honor of his Majesty,
but to assert his undoubted dominion here."

* * *

The progress of that October month had been like
the stately march of an Orient army, with all the
splendor of blazing banners. It looked as though the glories of the
sunset had been distilled into it decked
with the glowing hues of crimson, scarlet and gold.

_John Henry Brandow._

* * *

The village of Lake George is situated at the head of the lake.
It contains two churches, a court house, and a number of pretty
residences. Just behind the court house is the bay where Montcalm
landed his cannon, and where his entrenchments began. It ran across
the street to the rising ground beyond the Episcopal church.

=Fort William Henry Hotel= is the largest and best appointed hotel on
Lake George. It has a most beautiful and commanding location, and the
view from its great piazza is one long to be remembered. The piazza is
twenty-four feet in width and supported by a row of Corinthian columns
thirty feet high. The outlook from it at all times is enchanting,
commanding as it does the level reaches of the lake for miles, with
picturesque islands and promontories.

About twelve miles from the hotel is Fourteen-mile Island which, with
a number of others, form "The Narrows." The lake here is 400 feet
deep, much fishing is done, and in the right season hunting parties
start out. Black Mountain, the monarch of the lake, rises over two
thousand feet above its waters (being 2,661 feet above tide), and from
the summit a magnificent view is obtained of Lake Champlain, the Green
Mountains, the Adirondacks, and the distant course of the Hudson.

A carriage drive to Schroon Lake and conveyance from Schroon Village
to Adirondack resorts can be made from Lake George.

Those who have only a day can make a delightful excursion from
Saratoga to Caldwell by rail, then through the lake to Baldwin, and
thence by rail to Saratoga, or _via_ Baldwin and up the lake to
Caldwell, and so to Saratoga. But, to get the full beauty of this
unrivaled lake, the trip should be made with less haste, for there is
no more delightful place in the world to spend a week, a month, or an
entire summer. Its immediate surroundings present much to interest
the student of history and legend; and to lovers of the beautiful it
acknowledges no rivals. The elevation and absolute purity of air make
it a desirable place for the tourist. It is 346 feet above the level
of the sea, 247 feet above Lake Champlain, and is now brought within
six hours of New York City by the enterprise of the _Delaware & Hudson
Co_. It is a great question, and we talk it over every time we see the
genial Passenger Traffic Manager of this enterprising line, whether
Lake George or Lake Luzerne, in Switzerland, is the more beautiful. We
were just deciding last summer, on the steamer "Horicon," that Lake
George was more beautiful, but not so wild, when, as if the spirit
of the lake were roused, a great black squall suddenly came over the
mountains, and, the "crystal lake" for a few minutes, was as wild as
any one might desire. We all were glad to see her smile again as she
did half an hour afterward in the bright sunlight.

* * *

Oh the mystical glory that crowns them
Reflected in river and lake,
Like a fire that burns through the firs and ferns
By the paths that the wild deer take.

_Eben E. Rexford._

* * *

"At its widest point Lake George measures about four miles, but at
other places it is less than one mile in width. It is dotted with
islands; how many we do not know exactly--nobody does; but tradition,
which passes among the people of the district for history and truth,
says there is exactly one island for every day in the year, or 365 in
all. Whatever their real number they all are beautiful, although some
of them are barely large enough to support a flagstaff, and they all
seem to fit into the scene so thoroughly that each one seems necessary
to complete the charm. On either side are high hills, in some places
rising gently from the shores, and in others beetling up from the
surface of the water with a rugged cliff, or time-worn mass of rocks,
which reminds one of the wild bits of rocky scenery that make up the
savage beauty of the Isle of Skye.

"Its clearness is something extraordinary. From a small boat, in many
places, the bottom can be seen. Indeed, so mysteriously beautiful is
the water that many visitors spend a day in a rowboat gazing into it
at different points."

* * *

Each islet of green which the bright waters hold
Like emeralds fresh from their bosom rolled.

_Charles Fenno Hoffman._

* * *

Charles Dudley Warner says: "Bolton, among a host of attractive spots
on the lake, holds, in my opinion, a rank among the two or three most
interesting points. There is no point of Lake George where the views
are so varied or more satisfactory, excepting the one from Sabbath-day
Point. At Bolton the islets which dot the surface of the lake whose
waters are blue as the sea in the tropics, carry the eye to the
rosy-tinted range which includes Pilot, Buck and Erebus Mountains,
and culminates in the stateliness of Black Mountain. Or, looking
northwest, the superb masses of verdure on Green Island are seen
mirrored on the burnished surface of the lake. Behind rises the mighty
dividing wall called Tongue Mountain, which seems to separate the lake
in twain, for Ganouskie, or Northwest Bay, five miles long, is
in effect a lake by itself, with its own peculiar features." The
Champlain Transportation Company runs a regular line of steamboats
the entire length of the lake, making three round trips daily, except
Sunday. The "Horicon" is a fine side-wheel steamer, 203 feet long and
52 feet wide, and will accommodate, comfortably, 1,000 people.

At Fort Ti the tourist can continue his northern route _via_ the
_Delaware & Hudson_ to Hotel Champlain, Plattsburgh, Rouse's Point, or
Montreal, or through Lake Champlain by steamer. The ruins of Fort Ti,
like old Fort Putnam at West Point, are picturesque, and will well
repay a visit.

* * *

Far off the dreaming waters lie,
White cascades leap in snowy foam,
Lake Champlain mirrors cloud and sky,
The Hudson seeks his ocean home.

_Benjamin F. Leggett._

* * *

=Lake George to the Adirondacks.=

The reader who does not visit Lake George may feel that he is switched
off on a side-track at Fort Edward; so, coming to his rescue, we
return and resume our northern journey _via_ the main line, through
Dunham's Basin, Smith's Basin, Fort Ann, and Comstock's Landing, to--

=Whitehall=, at the head of Lake Champlain. From this point north the
_Delaware & Hudson_ crosses all thresholds for the Adirondacks, and
shortens the journey to the mountain districts. It passes through
five mountain ranges, the most southerly, the Black Mountain range,
terminating in Mt. Defiance, with scattering spurs coming down to
the very shore of the lake. The second range is known as the
Kayaderosseras, culminating in Bulwagga Mountain. The third range
passes through the western part of Schroon, the northern part of
Moriah and centre of Westport, ending in Split Rock Mountain. The
fourth range, the Bouquet range, ends in high bluffs on Willsboro Bay.
Here the famous Red-Hook Cut is located, and the longest tunnel on the
line.

The fifth range, known as the Adirondack Range, as it includes the
most lofty of the Adirondack Mountains, viz.: McIntyre, Colden and
Tahawas, ends in a rocky promontory known as Tremblau Point, at Port
Kent.

* * *

Afar the misty mountains piled,
The Adirondacks soaring free,
The dark green ranges lone and wild,
The Catskills looking toward the sea.

_Benjamin F. Leggett._

* * *

No wonder, with these mountain ranges to get through, that the subject
was agitated year after year, and it was only when the Delaware and
Hudson Company placed their powerful shoulder to the wheel, that the
work began to go forward. For these mountains meant tunnels, and rock
cuts, and bridges, and _cash_. Leaving Whitehall, we enter a tunnel
near the old steamboat landing, cross a marsh, which must have
suggested the beginning of the Pilgrim's Progress, for it seemed
almost bottomless, and pass along the narrow end of the lake, still
marked by light-houses, where steamers once struggled and panted "like
fish out of water," fulfilling the Yankee's ambition of running a boat
on a heavy dew. Then winding in and out along the shore, we proceed
to--

=Ticonderoga=, 23 miles from Whitehall. Here terminates the first
range of the Adirondacks, to which we have already referred, viz.:
Mount Defiance. Steamers connect with the train at this point on Lake
Champlain, also with a railroad for Lake George. Near the station we
get a view of old Port Ticonderoga, where Ethan Allen breakfasted
early one morning, and said grace in a brief and emphatic manner. The
lake now widens into a noble sheet of water; we cross the Lake George
outlet, enter a deep rock-cut, which extends a distance of about 500
feet, and reach Crown Point thirty-four miles north of Whitehall.
Passing along the shore of Bulwagga Bay we come to--

=Port Henry=, 40 miles from Whitehall. A few miles further the
railroad leaves the lake at Mullen Brook, the first departure since
we left Whitehall, and we are greeted with cultivated fields and a
charming landscape.

=Westport=, 51 miles from Whitehall, is the railroad station for--

=Elizabethtown=, the county seat of Essex. It is about eight miles
from the station, nestled among the mountains. A county consisting
mostly of mountain scenery could have no happier location for a
head-centre. Elizabethtown forms a most delightful gateway to the
Adirondacks either by stage route or pedestrian tour.

* * *

A health to Ethan Allen and our commander Gates;
To Lincoln and to Washington whom every Tory hates;
Likewise unto our Congress, God grant it long to reign,
Our country's right and justice forever to maintain.

_Saratoga Revolutionary Ballad._

* * *

A short distance north of Westport we enter the well-cultivated
Bouquet Valley, and after a pleasant run come to Wellsboro Falls,
where we enter seven miles of rock cutting. The road is about 90 feet
above the lake, and the cuts in many places from 90 to 100 feet high.
After leaving Red-Rock cut, we pass through a tunnel 600 feet long.
Crossing Higby's Gorge and rounding Tremblau Mountain, we reach--

=Port Kent=, the connecting point for the progressive village of
Keeseville.

=Ausable Chasm=, is only three miles from the station of Port Kent. It
is many years since we visited the Chasm, but its pictures are still
stamped upon our mind clearly and definitely--the ledge at Birmingham
Falls, the Flume, the Devil's Pulpit, and the boat ride on the swift
current. Indeed, the entire rock-rift, almost two miles in length,
left an impression never to be effaced. The one thing especially
peculiar, on account of the trend of the rock-layers was the illusion
that we were floating up stream, and that the river compressed in
these narrow limits, had "got tired" of finding its way out, until it
thought that the easiest way was to run up hill and get out at the
top.

* * *

Hear what the gray-haired woodmen tell
Of this wild stream and its rocky dell.

_William Cullen Bryant._

* * *

=Bluff Point.=--On a commanding site 200 feet above the lake some
three miles south of Plattsburgh, stands the superb "Hotel Champlain"
commanding a view far-reaching and magnificent, from the Green
Mountains on the east to the Adirondacks on the west. The hotel
grounds comprise the same number of acres as the islands of Lake
George, 365. The hotel is 400 feet long. We condense the following
description from the "Delaware and Hudson Guide-book," which we can
heartily endorse from many personal visits:

"Resolute has been the struggle here with nature, where rocks, tangled
forest and matted roots crowned the chosen spot; but upon the broad,
smooth plateau finally created the Hotel Champlain has been placed,
and all the surrounding forest, its solitudes still untamed, has been
converted into a superb park, threaded with drives and bridle paths.
At the foot of the gradual western slope of the ridge the handsome
station of Bluff Point has been located beside the main line of the
_Delaware & Hudson Railroad_, the chief highway of pleasure and
commercial travel between New York, Saratoga, Lake George, the
Adirondacks and Canada.

"From the station where the coaches of the hotel await expected
guests, a winding pike, the very perfection of a road, leads up the
hill. From the carriage, as it rises to the crest, a wondrous outlook
to the westward is opened to view. Nearly a thousand square miles of
valley, lake and mountain are within range of the eye or included in
the area encircled by visible peaks. As the porch of the hotel
is reached, the view, enhanced by the fine foreground, is indeed
beautiful, but still finer is the grandeur of the scene from the
arches of the tall central dome of the house.

"To the southward we see Whiteface, showing, late in spring and early
in autumn, its coronet of almost perpetual snow; and in a grand circle
still more southward we see in succession McIntyre, Marcy (both over
5,000 feet high), Haystack, Dix, the Gothic peaks, Hurricane and the
Giant. This noble sisterhood of mountains rises from the very heart of
the wilderness, and yet the guests at the Hotel Champlain may reach
any portion of their environment within a few hours."

The fine equipment and frequent train service of the _Delaware &
Hudson_ between New York and Bluff Point without change, by daylight
or at night, and the direct connection of the same line with the
Hudson River steamboats, places this resort high upon the list of
available summering points in the dry and healthful north for families
from the metropolis. Travel from the west, coming down the St.
Lawrence River, or through Canada _via_ Montreal, will find Bluff
Point easy to reach; while from the White Mountains and New England
seashore resorts it is accessible by through trains _via_ St. Albans
or Burlington.

The western shore of Lake Champlain forms the margin of the most
varied and altogether delightful wilderness to be found anywhere upon
this continent east of the Rocky Mountains. The serried peaks to the
westward are in plain view from its shores, their foot-hills ending
in lofty and often abrupt ridges where they meet the lake. Three
impetuous rivers, the Saranac, the Salmon and the Ausable, flow down
from the cool, clear lakes, hidden away in the wildwood, and, breaking
through this barrier at and in the vicinity of Plattsburgh, contribute
not only to the lucid waters of Lake Champlain but greatly to the
picturesque variety of the region.

* * *

There lie broad acres laced with rills
And gemmed with lake and pond
Behind a wave of wooded hills
And mountain peaks beyond.

_Benjamin F. Leggett._

* * *

=Plattsburgh=, 168 miles from Albany, at the mouth of the Saranac, is
a delightful threshold to the Adirondacks. The northern part of Lake
Champlain offers special attractions to camping parties. The shores
and islands abound in excellent sites. Lake Champlain is also replete
with interest to the historian. The ruins of Fort St. Anne are still
seen on the north end of the Isle La Mott, built by the French in
1660. Valcour Strait, where one of the battles of '76 was fought;
Valcour's Island, where lovers came from far and near, built air
castles, wandered through these shady groves for a season or two, and
then vanished from sight, bankrupt in everything but mutual affection;
Cumberland Bay, with its victory, September, 1814, when the British
were driven back to Canada; and many other points which can be visited
by steamer or yacht.

It is thirty years since I made my first trip to the Saranacs and I
remember well the long journey of those early days, but now we can
step aboard a well equipped train at Plattsburgh and in five or six
hours stand by the bright waters of the Lower Saranac, which might
to-day be called the centre and starting point for all resorts and
camping grounds in the eastern lake district of the Adirondacks.
Floating about the Saranac Islands of a summer evening, roaming among
forest trees, strolling over to the little village one mile distant,
and absorbing the rich exhilaration of a life of untrammeled freedom,
with a perfect hotel, and blazing fire-places if the weather happens
to be unpleasant, form a grand combination, alike for tourists or
seekers after rest.

* * *

Where rosy zephyr lingers
All the livelong day,
With health upon his pinions
And gladness on his way.

_George P. Morris._

* * *

SOURCE OF THE HUDSON.

In our journey from Albany to Plattsburgh, we have indicated various
routes to the Adirondacks: By way of Saratoga and North Creek to Blue
Mountain Lake following the course of the Hudson which might therefor
be called "The Hudson Gateway;" _via_ Lake George, Westport, and
Elizabethtown, suited for carriage and pedestrian trips, and _via_
Plattsburgh, which might be termed "The Northern Portal." In addition
to these it has been my lot to make several trips up the valley of the
Sacandaga to Lake Pleasant and Indian Lake, and _via_ Schroon Lake
to Sanford and Lake Henderson--and four times to ascend the mountain
trail of Tahawas to the tiny rills and fountains of the Hudson, but
one trip abides in memory distinct and unrivalled, which may be of
service to those who wish to visit in fact or fancy the head waters of
the Hudson.

=The Tahawas Club.=--We took the cars one bright August morning from
Plattsburgh to Ausable Forks, a distance of twenty miles, hired a team
to Beede's, some thirty miles distant from the "Forks;" took dinner at
Keene, and pursued our route up the beautiful valley of the Ausable.

From this point we visited Roaring-Brook Falls, some four hundred feet
high, a very beautiful waterfall in the evening twilight. The next
morning we started, bright and early, for the Ausable Ponds. Four
miles brought us to the Lower Ausable. The historic guide, "old
Phelps," rowed us across the lower lake, pointing out, from our slowly
moving and heavily laden scow, "Indian Head" on the left, and the
"Devil's Pulpit" on the right, lifted about eight hundred feet above
the level of the lake. "Phelps" remarked with quaint humor, that
he was frequently likened to his Satanic Majesty, as he often took
clergymen "up thar." The rocky walls of this lake rise from one
thousand to fifteen hundred feet high, in many places almost
perpendicular. A large eagle soared above the cliffs, and circled in
the air above us, which we took as a good omen of our journey.

* * *

The rills
That feed thee rise among the storied rocks
Where Freedom built her battle-tower.

_William Wallace._

* * *

After reaching the southern portion of the lake, a trail of a mile and
a quarter leads to the Upper Ausable--the gem of the Adirondacks. This
lake, over two thousand feet above the tide, is surrounded on all
sides by lofty mountains. Our camp was on the eastern shore, and I can
never forget the sunset view, as rosy tints lit up old Skylight, the
Haystack and the Gothics; nor can I ever forget the evening songs from
a camp-fire across the lake, or the "bear story" told by Phelps, a
tale never really finished, but made classic and immortal by Stoddard,
in his spicy and reliable handbook to the North Woods.

The next morning we rowed across the lake and took the Bartlett trail,
ascending Haystack, some five thousand feet high, just to get an
appetite for dinner; our guide encouraging us on the way by saying
that there never had been more than twenty people before "on that air
peak." In fact, there was no trail, and in some places it was so steep
that we were compelled to go up on all fours; or as Scott puts it more
elegantly in the "Lady of the Lake":

"The foot was fain
Assistance from the hand to gain."

The view from the summit well repaid the toil. We saw Slide Mountain,
near by to the north, and Whiteface far beyond, perhaps twenty-five
miles distant; northeast, the Gothics; east, Saw-teeth, Mt. Colvin,
Mt. Dix, and the lakes of the Ausable. To the southeast, Skylight;
northwest, Tahawas, still foolishly styled on some of our maps,
Mt. Marcy. The descent of Haystack was as easy as Virgil's famous
"Descensus Averni." We went down in just twenty minutes. The one
that reached the bottom first simply possessed better adaptation for
rolling.

* * *

Eagles still claim the loftiest heights: from there
They scan with solemn eyes the scenes below--
The river and the hills which shall endure
While man's frail generations come and go.

_E. A. Lente._

* * *

One mile from the foot of Haystack brought us to Panther Gorge Camp,
appropriately named, one of the wildest spots in the Adirondacks. We
remained there that night and slept soundly, although a dozen of us
were packed so closely in one small camp that no individual could turn
over without disarranging the whole mass. Caliban and Trinculo were
not more neighborly, and Sebastian, even sober, would have been fully
justified in taking us for "a rare monster" with twenty legs.

The next morning we ascended Tahawas, but saw nothing save whirling
clouds on its summit. Twice since then we have had better fortune, and
looked down from this mountain peak, five thousand three hundred and
forty-four feet above the sea, upon the loveliest mountain landscape
that the sun ever shone upon. We went down the western slope of
Tahawas, through a driving rain, to Camp Colden, where, with clothes
hung up to dry, we looked like a party of New Zealanders preparing
dinner, hungry enough, too, to make an orthodox meal of each other.
The next day the weather cleared up, and we made a trip of two miles
over a rough mountain trail to Lake Avalanche, whose rocky and
precipitous walls form a fit christening bowl, or baptistery-font for
the infant Hudson.

Returning to Camp Colden and resuming our western march, two miles
brought us to Calamity Pond, where a lone monument marks the spot of
David Henderson's death, by the accidental discharge of a pistol. Five
miles from this point brought us to the "Deserted Village," or the
Upper Adirondack Iron Works, with houses and furnaces abandoned,
and rapidly falling into decay. Here we found a cheery fireside and
cordial welcome.

* * *

All the sad story of forest and flower,
All the red glory of sunsetting hour,
Comes till I seem to lie lapped in bright dreams
Lulled by the lullaby murmur of streams.

_James Kennedy._

* * *

Had I time to picture this level, grass-grown street, with ten or
fifteen square box-looking houses, windowless, empty and desolate; a
school-house with its long vacation of twenty-three years; a bank with
heavy shutters and ponderous locks, whose floor, Time, the universal
burglar, had undermined; two large furnaces with great rusty wheels,
whose occupation was gone forever; a thousand tons of charcoal,
untouched for a quarter of a century; thousands of bricks waiting for a
builder; a real haunted house, whose flapping clap-boards contain
more spirits than the Black Forests of Germany--a village so utterly
desolate, that it has not even the vestige of a graveyard--if I could
picture to you this village, as it appeared to me that weird midnight,
lying so quiet,

"under the light of the solemn moon,"

you would realize as I did then, that truth is indeed stranger than
fiction, and that Goldsmith in _his_ "Deserted Village" had not
overdrawn the description of desolate Auburn.

By special request, we were permitted to sleep that night in the
Haunted House and no doubt listened to the first crackling that the
old fire-place had known for years. Many bedsteads in the old building
were still standing, so we only needed bedding from the hotel to
make us comfortable. As we went to sleep we expressed a wish to be
interviewed in the still hours of the night by any ghosts or spirits
who might happen to like our company; but the spirits must have been
absent on a visit that evening, for we slept undisturbed until the old
bell, suspended in a tree, rang out the cheery notes of "trout and
pickerel." We understand that the Haunted House from that night
lost its old-time reputation, and is now frequently brought into
requisition as an "Annex," whenever the hotel or "Club House," as it
is now called, happens to be full. The "Deserted Village" is rich in
natural beauty. Lakes Henderson and Sanford are near at hand, and the
lovely Preston Ponds are only five miles distant.

* * *

Stately and awful was the form of Tahawas, the old
scarred warrior king of the mountains, and yet it owns
pines that sing like the sea, brooks that warble like the
robin, and flowers that scent the air like the orange-blossoms
of Italy.

_Alfred B. Street._

* * *

Resuming our march through Indian Pass, under old Wall-Face Mountain,
we reached a comfortable farmhouse at sunset, near North Elba, known
by the name of Scott's. The next morning we visited John Brown's house
and grave by the old rock, and read the beautiful inscription, "Bury
me by the Old Rock, where I used to sit and read the word of God."

From this point we went to Lake Placid, engaged a lad to row us across
the lake--some of our party had gone on before--and strapped our
knapsacks for another mountain climb. We were fortunate in having a
lovely day, and from its sparkling glacier-worn summit we could look
back on all the mountains of our pleasant journey, and far away across
Lake Champlain to Mount Mansfield and Camel's Hump of the Green
Mountains, and farther still to the faint outlines of Mount
Washington. We reached Wilmington that night, drove the next morning
to Ausable Forks, and took the cars for Plattsburgh. The ten days'
trip was finished, and at this late hour I heartily thank the Tahawas
Club of Plattsburgh for taking me under their generous care and
guidance. We took Phelps, our guide, back with us to Plattsburgh. When
he reached the "Forks," and saw the cars for the first time in his
life, he stooped down and, examining the track, said, "What tarnal
little wheels." I suppose he concluded that if the ordinary cart had
two large wheels, that real car wheels would resemble the Rings of
Saturn. He saw much to amuse and interest him during his short stay
in Plattsburgh, but after all he thought it was rather lonesome, and
gladly returned to his lakes and mountains, where he slept in peace,
with the occasional intrusion of a "Bar" or a "Painter." He knew the
region about Tahawas as an engineer knows his engine, or as a Greek
professor knows the pages of his lexicon. He had lived so closely with
nature that he seemed to understand her gentlest whispers, and he had
more genuine poetry in his soul than many a man who chains weak ideas
in tangled metre.

* * *

Lake Avalanche with rocky wall
And Henderson's dark-wooded shore,
Your echoes linger still and call
Unto my soul forevermore.

_Wallace Bruce_.

* * *

[Illustration: INDIAN HEAD.]

Since that first delightful trip I have visited the Adirondacks many
times, and I hope this summer to repeat the excursion. To me Tahawas
is the grand centre. It remains unchanged. In fact, the route I have
here traced is the same to-day as then. Even the rude camps are
located in the same places, with the exception that the trail has been
shortened over Tahawas, and a camp established on Skylight. With good
guides the route is not difficult for ladies in good health,--say
sufficient health to endure half a day's shopping. Persons
contemplating the mountain trip need blankets, a knapsack, and a
rubber cloth or overcoat; food can be procured at the hotels or farm
houses.

* * *

The old English ballads have all the sparkle, the
energy and the rhythm of our mountain streams, but
Chaucer, Spenser, Shakespeare and Bunyan are the
crystal lakes from which flow the river, ay, the Hudson
of our language.

_Wallace Bruce_.

* * *

In this hasty sketch I have had little space to indulge in
picture-painting. I passed Bridal-Veil Fall without a reference. I
was tempted to loiter on the banks of the Feld-spar and the bright
Opalescent, but I passed by without even picking a pebble from the
clear basins of its sparkling cascades. I passed the "tear of the
clouds," four thousand feet above the tide--that fountain of the
Hudson nearest to the sky, without being beguiled into poetry. I have
not ventured upon a description of a sunrise view from the summit of
Tahawas, of the magic effect of light above clouds that clothe the
surrounding peaks in garments wrought, it seems, of softest wool,
until mist and vapor dissolve in roseate colors, and the landscape
lies before us like an open book, which many glad eyes have looked
upon again and again. I have left it for your guides to tell you, by
roaring camp-fires, long stories of adventure in trapping and hunting,
of wondrous fishes that grow longer and heavier every season, although
captured and broiled many and many a year ago--trout and pickerel
literally pickled in fiction, served and re-served in the piquant
sauce of mountain vocabulary. In brief, I have kept my imagination and
enthusiasm under strict control. But, after all, the Adirondacks are
a wonderland, and we, who dwell in the Hudson and Mohawk valleys, are
happy in having this great park of Nature's making at our very doors.

It has charms alike for the hunter, the angler, the artist, the
writer, and the scientist. Let us rejoice, therefore, that the State
of New York is waking at last to the fact, that these northern
mountains were intended by nature to be something more than lumber
ranches, to be despoiled by the axe, and finally revert to the State
for "taxes" in the shape of bare and desolate wastes. Nor can the most
practical legislator charge those, who wish to preserve the Adirondack
woods, with idle sentiment; as it is now an established scientific
fact that the rainfall of a country is largely dependent upon its
forest land. If the water supply of the north were cut off, to any
perceptible degree, the Hudson, during the months of July and August,
would be a mere sluice of salt water from New York to Albany; and the
northern canals, dependent on this supply, would become empty and
useless ditches. Our age is intensely practical, but we are fortunate
in this, that so far as the preservation of the Adirondacks is
concerned, utility, common sense, and the appreciation of the
beautiful are inseparably blended.

* * *

Wild umbrage far around me clings
To breezy knoll and hushed ravine,
And o'er each rocky headland flings
Its mantle of refreshing green.

_Henry T. Tuckerman_.

* * *

To those persons who do not desire long mountain jaunts, who simply
need some quiet place for rest and recuperation, I would suggest this:
Select some place near the base of these clustered mountains, like the
tasty Adirondack Lodge at Clear Pond, only seven miles from the summit
of Tahawas, or Beede's pleasant hotel, high and dry above Keene Flats,
near to the Ausable Ponds, or some pleasant hotel or quiet farm-house
in the more open country near Lake Placid and the Saranacs. But
I prophesy that the spirit of adventure will come with increased
strength, and men and women alike will be found wandering off on
long excursions, sitting about great camp-fires, ay, listening like
children to tales which have not gathered truth with age. If you have
control of your time you will find no pleasanter months than July,
August and September, and when you return to your firesides with
new vigor to fight the battle of life, you will feel, I think, like
thanking the writer for having advised you to go thither.

* * *

To shut up a glen or a waterfall for one man's exclusive
enjoying; to fence out a genial eye from any
corner of the earth which nature has lovingly touched;
to lock up trees and glades shady paths and haunts
along rivulets, would be an embezzlement by one man
of God's gifts to all.

_N. P. Willis._

* * *

I have written in this article the Indian name, Tahawas, in the place
of Mt. Marcy, and for this reason: There is no justice in robbing the
Indian of his keen, poetic appreciation, by changing a name, which
has in itself a definite meaning, for one that means nothing in its
association with this mountain. We have stolen enough from this
unfortunate race, to leave, at least, those names in our woodland
vocabulary that chance to have a musical sound to our imported Saxon
ears. The name Tahawas is not only beautiful in itself, but also
poetic in its interpretation--signifying "I cleave the clouds."
Coleridge, in his glorious hymn, "Before sunrise in the vale of
Chamouni," addresses Mount Blanc:

"Around thee and above
Deep is the air and dark, substantial, black--
An ebon mass. Methinks thou piercest it.
_As with a wedge!_"

The name or meaning of Tahawas was never made known to the great
English poet, who died sixty years ago. Is it not remarkable that
the untutored Indian, and the keenist poetic mind which England has
produced for a century, should have the same idea in the uplifted
mountains? There is also another reason why we, as a State, should
cherish the name Tahawas. While the Sierra Nevadas and the Alps
slumbered beneath the waves of the ocean, before the Himalayas or the
Andes had asserted their supremacy, scientists say, that the high
peaks of the Adirondacks stood alone above the waves, "the cradle of
the world's life;" and, as the clouds then encircled the vast waste
of water, Tahawas then rose--"Cleaver" alike of the waters and the
clouds.

* * *

Tahawas, rising stern and grand,
"Cloud-sunderer" lift thy forehead high,
Guard well thy sun-kissed mountain land
Whose lakes seem borrowed from the sky.

_Wallace Bruce_.

* * *

GEOLOGY OF THE HUDSON.

In addition to various geological references scattered through these
pages the following facts from an American Geological Railway Guide,
by James Macfarlane, Ph.D., will be of interest.

"The State of New York is to the geologist what the Holy Land is
to the Christian, and the works of her Palæontologist are the Old
Testament Scriptures of the science. It is a Laurentian, Cambrian,
Silurian and Devonian State, containing all the groups and all the
formations of these long ages, beautifully developed in belts
running nearly across the State in an east and west direction, lying
undisturbed as originally laid down.

"The rock of New York Island is gneiss, except a portion of the north
end, which is limestone. The south portion is covered with deep
alluvial deposits, which in some places are more than 100 feet in
depth. The natural outcroppings of the gneiss appeared on the surface
about 16th Street, on the east side of the city, and run diagonally
across to 31st Street on 10th Avenue. North of this, much of the
surface was naked rock. It contains a large proportion of mica, a
small proportion of quartz and still less feldspar, but generally an
abundance of iron pyrites in very minute crystals, which, on
exposure, are decomposed. In consequence of these ingredients it soon
disintegrates on exposure, rendering it unfit for the purposes
of building. The erection of a great city, for which this island
furnishes a noble site, has very greatly changed its natural
condition. The geological age of the New York gneiss is undoubtedly
very old, not the Laurentian or oldest, nor the Huronian, but it
belongs to the third or White Mountain series, named by Dr. Hunt the
Montalban. It is the same range which is the basis rock of nearly all
the great cities of the Atlantic coast. It crosses New Jersey where it
is turned to clay, until it appears under Trenton, and it extends to
Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington and Richmond, Va., and probably
Boston, Massachusetts, is founded on this same formation.

* * *

Oh, river! darkling river! what a voice
Is that thou utterest while all else is still!

_William Cullen Bryant_.

* * *

"On the opposite side of the river may here be seen for many miles the
Palisades, a long, rough mountain ridge close to the water's edge. Its
upper half is a perpendicular precipice of bare rock of a columnar
structure from 100 to 200 feet in height, the whole height of the
mountain being generally from 400 to 600 feet, and the highest point
in the range opposite Sing Sing 800 feet above the Hudson, and known
as the High Torn. The width of the mountain is from a half mile to a
mile and a half, the western slope being quite gentle. In length it
extends from Bergen Point below Jersey City to Haverstraw, and then
westward in all 48 miles, the middle portion being merely a low ridge.
The lower half of the ridge on the river side is a sloping mound of
detritus, of loose stones which has accumulated at the base of the
cliff, from its weathered and wasted surface.

"Viewed from the railroad or from a steamboat on the river, this lofty
mural precipice with its huge weathered masses of upright columns of
bare rock, presenting a long, straight unbroken ridge overlooking the
beautiful Hudson River, is certainly extremely picturesque. Thousands
of travelers gaze at it daily without knowing what it is. This entire
ridge consists of no other rock than trap traversing the Triassic
formation in a huge vertical dike. The red sandstone formation of New
Jersey is intersected by numerous dikes of this kind, but this is much
the finest. The materials of this mountain have undoubtedly burst
through a great rent or fissure in the strata, overflowing while in a
melted or plastic condition the red sand-stone, not with the violence
of a volcano, for the adjoining strata are but little disturbed in
position, although often greatly altered by the heat, but forced up
very slowly and gradually, and probably under pressure. Subsequent
denudation has laid bare the part of the mountain now exposed along
the river. The rock is columnar basalt, sometimes called greenstone,
and is solid, not stratified like water-formed rocks, but cracked in
cooling and of a crystalline structure. Here is a remarkable but not
uncommon instance of a great geological blank. On the east side of
this river the formations belong to the first or oldest series of
Primary or Crystalline rocks, while on the west side they are
all Triassic, the intermediate Cambrian, Silurian, Devonian and
Carboniferous formations being wanting. This state of things continues
all along the Atlantic coast to Georgia, the Cretaceous or Jurassic
taking the place of the Triassic farther south.

* * *

Like thine, O, be my course--nor turned aside,
While listening to the soundings of a land,
That like the ocean call invites me to its strand.

_Mrs. Seba Smith._

* * *

"Montrose to Cornwall. This celebrated passage of the Hudson through
the Highlands, is a gorge nearly 20 miles long from 3 miles south of
Peekskill to Fishkill, and is worn out of the Laurentian rocks far
below mean tide water. The hills on its sides rise in some instances
as much as 1,800 feet, and in many places the walls are very
precipitous. The rock is gneiss, of a kind that is not easily
disintegrated or eroded, nor is there any evidence of any convulsive
movement. It is clearly a case of erosion, but not by the present
river, which has no fall, for tide water extends 100 miles up the
river beyond the Highlands. This therefore was probably a work mainly
performed in some past period when the continent was at a higher
level. Most likely it is a valley of great antiquity.

"Opposite Fishkill is Newburgh, which is in the great valley of Lower
Silurian or Cambrian limestone and slate. North of that, on the west
side of the river, the formations occur in their usual order, their
outcrops running northeast and southwest. On the _N. Y. C. & H. R. R. R._,
on the east side, the same valley crosses, and the slates from
Fishkill to Rhinebeck are about the same place in the series;
but being destitute of fossils and very much faulted, tilted and
disturbed, their precise geology is uncertain. See the exposures in
the cuts at Poughkeepsie. The high ground to the east is commonly
called the Quebec group.

* * *

Amid thy forest solitudes one climbs
O'er crags, that proudly tower above the deep,
Along the verge of the cliff, and he can hear
The low dash of the wave with startled ear.

_Fitz-Greene Halleck._

* * *

"A series of great dislocations with upthrows on the east side
traverse eastern North America from Canada to Alabama. One of these
great faults has been traced from near the mouth of the St. Lawrence
River, keeping mostly under the water up to Quebec just north of the
fortress, thence by a gently curving line to Lake Champlain or through
western Vermont across Washington County, N. Y., to near Albany. It
crosses the river near Rhinebeck 15 miles north of Poughkeepsie and
continues on southward into New Jersey and runs into another series of
faults probably of a later date, which extends as far as Alabama. It
brings up the rocks of the so called Quebec group on the east side of
the fracture to the level of the Hudson River and Trenton.

"Catskill Mountains. For many miles on this railroad are beautiful
views of the Catskill Mountains, 3,800 feet high, several miles
distant on the opposite or west side of the river, and which furnish
the name for the Catskill formation. The wide valley between them
and the river is composed of Chemung, Hamilton, Lower Helderberg and
Hudson River. The geology on the east or railroad side is entirely
different.

"Albany. The clay beds at Albany are more than 100 feet thick, and
between that city and Schenectady they are underlaid by a bed of
sand that is in some places more than 50 feet thick. There is an
old glacial clay and boulder drift below the gravel at Albany, but
Professor Hall says it is not the estuary stratified clay."

* * *

There has that little stream of water been playing among the hills
since He made the world, and none know how often the hand of God
is seen in a wilderness but them that rove it for a man's life.

_James Fenimore Cooper._

* * *

THE HUDSON TIDE.

(_Condensed from article by permission of writer._)

The tide in the Hudson River is the continuation of the tide-wave,
which comes up from the ocean through New York Bay, and is carried
by its own momentum one hundred and sixty miles, growing, of course,
constantly smaller, until it is finally stopped by the dam at Troy.
The crest of this wave, or top high water, is ten hours going from New
York to Troy. A steamer employing the same time (ten hours) for the
journey, and starting at high water in New York, would carry a flood
tide and highest water all the way, and have an up-river current of
about three miles an hour helping her. On the other hand, the same
steamer starting six hours later, or at low tide, would have dead low
water and an ebb tide current of about three miles against her the
entire way. The average rise and fall of the tides in New York is five
and one-half feet, and in Troy, about two feet.

Flood tide may carry salt water, under the most favorable
circumstances, so that it can be detected at Poughkeepsie; ordinarily
the water is fresh at Newburgh.

To those who have not studied the tides the following will also be of
interest.

The tides are the semi-diurnal oscillations of the ocean, caused by
the attraction of the moon and sun.

The influence of the moon's attraction is the preponderating one in
the tide rising force, while that of the sun is about two-fifths as
much as that of the moon. The tides therefore follow the motion of the
moon, and the average interval between the times of high water is the
half length of the lunar day, or about twelve hours and twenty-five
minutes.

* * *

Nor lives there one whose boyhood's days
Of happiness were passed beneath that sun,
That in his manhood-prime can calmly gaze
Upon that Bay, or on that mountain stand,
Nor feel the prouder of his native land.

_Fitz-Greene Halleck._

* * *

CONDENSED POINTS.

_As Seen on the Hudson River Day Line Steamers._

_Desbrosses Street Pier._ On leaving landing a charming view is
obtained of New York Harbor with Bartholdi Statue to the south.

_Stevens Castle._ Above Jersey City docks on the west, crowning a
commanding site.

_St. Michael's Monastery_, or Monastery of the Passionist Fathers, on
west bank above Elysian Fields; distinguished by large dome and towers
of the St. Paul (London) style of architecture. This dome is 300 feet
high, and its summit is 515 feet above the Hudson.

_42d Street Pier._ Midway to the dwellers of Greater New York and
convenient to all Elevated, Subway and Trolley Lines.

_Weehawken_, on the west bank, about opposite 50th Street. Near the
river bank was the scene of the Hamilton and Burr duel, 1804.

_Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument_, 89th Street, New York. Dedicated
May 30, 1902. Corner stone laid in 1900 by President Roosevelt when
Governor.

_Columbia University._ Stately buildings on east bank.

_St. Luke's Hospital._ Beautiful dome in the distance southeast of
college.

_The Cathedral of St. John the Divine_, now in construction, will be
one of the finest structures in the world.

_General Grant's Tomb_ at Riverside Drive and 123d Street.

_129th Street Pier._ Above this landing is the Steel Viaduct of the
Boulevard Drive.

* * *

The land that from the rule of kings
In freeing us itself made free,
Our old world sister to us brings
Her sculptured dream of liberty.

_John G. Whittier._

* * *

_Carmansville_ (where Audubon, the ornithologist lived), a city suburb
at 152d Street.

_Trinity Cemetery_, 152d Street, and above this Audubon Park.

_Old Fort Washington_ once crowned the hills on the east bank. Fort
Lee was almost opposite on the southern point of the Palisades.

_Stewart Castle_, east bank, formerly owned by A. T. Stewart.

_University of City of New York_ with dome, in distance.

_Inwood._ Station on the Hudson River Railroad, above the heights.
Place once known as Tubbie Hook.

_Palisades_, on west bank, extend fifteen miles from Fort Lee to
Piermont, a sheer wall of trap rock from 300 to 500 feet high.

_Spuyten Duyvil_, on east bank northern boundary of Manhattan Island.

_Site of Fort Independence_, east bank, on height north of Spuyten
Duyvil.

_Riverdale Station._ Station on the Hudson River Railroad above
Spuyten Duyvil. Yonkers rising on the green slope to the north; and
the Palisades blending in the far distance with green headlands of the
Ramapo Range.

_Convent of Mount St. Vincent._ The gray, castle-like structure in
front, was once the home of Edwin Forrest.

_Yonkers_, seventeen miles from Battery.

_Greystone_, on east bank, crowning hill, about one and a half miles
north of Yonkers. Once property of Samuel J. Tilden.

_Hastings_, pleasant village on east bank.

_Indian Head_ (510 feet), opposite Hastings, highest point of
Palisades.

_Dobb's Ferry_, on east bank, named after an old Swedish ferryman.

_Cottinet Place_, on east bank, built of stone brought from France.
Easily distinguished by light shade through trees.

_George L. Schuyler's Residence_, near east bank. The late Col. James
A. Hamilton's house almost east of Mr. Schuyler's. Stiner's place
distinguished by its large dome.

* * *

From this brow of rock
That overlooks the Hudson's western marge,
I gaze upon the long array of groves,
The piles and gulfs of verdure drinking in the grateful heat.

_William Cullen Bryant._

* * *

_Ardsley_, on east bank, just above Dobb's Ferry.

_Ardsley Club_ and Golf Links.

_Irvington_, 24 miles from New York, named after Washington Irving.

_Piermont_, on west bank, with pier almost one mile in length
extending into river.

_Sunnyside_, home of Washington Irving, east bank, one-half mile north
of Irvington Station, close to river bank and scarcely seen through
the trees.

_Helen M. Gould's Residence_, east bank, prominent Abbey-like
structure, known as "Lyndehurst."

_Tarrytown_, east bank, 26 miles from New York.

_Nyack_, west bank, opposite Tarrytown.

_J. D. Rockefeller's New Home_ on Kykuit or Kake-out Mt. back of
Tarrytown.

_Tappan Zee_, reaching from Dobb's Ferry to Croton Point, is about
three miles wide at Tarrytown.

_Sleepy Hollow_, east bank, north of Tarrytown; burial place of
Washington Irving. The tall shaft visible from steamer, erected by the
Delavan family, is near his grave.

_Kingsland Point_, east bank, above lighthouse.

_Rockwood_, home of William Rockefeller. One of the most imposing
residences on the river.

_Mrs. Elliot F. Shepard's Residence_, on east bank.

_Ramapo Mountains_, on west side above Nyack, known as "Point No
Point."

_Ossining_, on east bank, six miles north of Tarrytown. Prison
buildings are near the river below the village.

_Rockland Lake_, opposite Sing Sing, between two hills; source of the
Hackensack River.

_Croton River_, on east bank, meets the Hudson one mile above Sing
Sing; crossed by drawbridge of the Hudson River Railroad.

_Teller's Point._ That part of Croton Point which juts into the Hudson.
This point separates Tappan Zee from Haverstraw Bay.

* * *

O Tappan Zee! with peaceful hills,
And slumbrous sky and drowsy air,
Thy calm and restful spirit stills
The heart weighed down with weary care.

_Wallace Bruce_.

* * *

_Haverstraw Bay_, widest part of the river; over four miles in width.

_West Shore R. R. Tunnel_ under mountain.

_West Shore Railroad_, west bank, meets the Hudson south of
Haverstraw.

_Haverstraw_, on west bank, with two miles of brickyards.

_Treason Hill_, where Arnold and Andre met at the house of Joshua Hett
Smith, northwest of Haverstraw.

_Stony Point_, west bank. Lighthouse built on site and from the
material of old fort captured from British by Anthony Wayne in 1778.

_Verplank's Point_, on east shore, full of brickyards. It was here
Baron Steuben drilled the soldiers of '76.

_Tompkin's Cove_, on west bank. Lime kilns and quarries.

_Peekskill_, east bank, pleasantly located on Peekskill Bay.

_New York State Encampment_, on bluff north of Peekskill Creek.

_Kidd's Point_, on west bank, where steamer enters Highlands almost at
a right angle.

_Dunderberg Mountain_, west bank, forming with Manito Mountain on the
east southern portal of Highlands.

_Iona Island_, former pleasure resort for excursions, now converted to
Government use.

_The Race._ The river channel is so termed by navigators, between Iona
Island and the east bank.

_Anthony's Nose_, east bank, with railroad tunnel.

_Montgomery Creek_, on west side, empties into the Hudson about
opposite the point of Anthony's Nose. _Fort Clinton_ was on the south
side of this creek, and _Fort Montgomery_ on the north side.

_J. Pierpont Morgan's Residence_, on west bank.

_Sugar-Loaf_, east bank, resembling an old "sugar-loaf" to one looking
north from Anthony's Nose.

* * *

From Stony Point to Bemis Height,
From Saratoga to the sea,
We trace the lines, now dark, now bright,
From seventy-six to eighty-three.

_Wallace Bruce._

* * *

_Beverley Dock_, at foot of Sugar-Loaf, from which point Arnold fled
to the "Vulture."

_Lady-Cliff Academy_, (west side) on bluff.

_Hamilton Fish's Residence_, on hill, east side.

_William H. Osborne's Residence_, on east bank; house with pointed
tower north of Sugar-Loaf.

_Sam Sloan's_ lookout tower, east side, on top of mountain. Residence
on hillside below.

_Buttermilk Falls_, on west bank.

_West Point_, 50 miles from New York, Academy Buildings and Parade
Grounds.

_Memorial Hall_, building on bluff above landing.

_Kosciusko's Garden_ with monument and spring below Memorial.

_Garrison_, opposite West Point on east bank.

_Fort Putnam_ (596 feet), above the Hudson on west.

_West Point Hotel_, west bank, wide outlook to the north.

_Battle Monument_, surmounted by Statue of "Victory."

_Constitution Island_, on east bank; chain was thrown across the river
at this point during the Revolution.

_Old Cro' Nest_, picturesque mountain north of West Point on west
bank.

_Cold Spring_, on east bank, opposite Old Cro' Nest.

_Undercliff_, once the home of George P. Morris, on slope north of
Cold Spring.

_Break Neck Mountain_, on east bank, from which point the Highlands
trend away to the northeast, known as the Beacon Mountains or the
Fishkill Range.

_Storm King_, on west bank, marking northern portal of the Highlands.

_Cornwall_, under the slope of Storm King.

_Pollopel's Island_, at northern portal of the Highlands.

_Idlewild_, above Cornwall, former home of N. P. Willis.

_Washington's Headquarters_, Newburgh, seen as the boat approaches the
city. A flag-staff marks the point.

_Newburgh_, west bank, 59 miles from New York.

_Fishkill Landing_, on east bank, opposite Newburgh.

* * *

Let us toast our foster-father, the Republic as you know--
Who in the path of science taught us upward for to go--
And the maidens of our native land whose cheeks like roses glow,
They're oft remembered in our songs, at Benny Havens--oh!

_Benny Havens, West Point._

* * *

_Low Point_ or _Carthage_, 4 miles above Fishkill.

_Devil's Dans Kammer_, point on west bank covered with cedars.

_New Hamburg_, above Low Point, on the east side.

_Hampton Point_, opposite New Hamburgh. Here are the finest white
cedars on the river.

_Irving Grinnell's Residence, "Netherwood,"_ east bank, just
distinguished through the trees.

_Shawangunk Mountains_, on the west side, reach away in the distance
toward the Catskills.

_Marlborough_ and _Milton_, on west bank.

_Locust Grove._ Home of the late Prof. S. F. B. Morse on east bank, with
square central tower.

_The Lookout_, a wooded hill owned by Poughkeepsie Cemetery.

_Livingston Place_, now occupied by a rolling mill.

_Vassar Brothers Hospital_, brick building on the hillside.

_Poughkeepsie_, 74 miles from New York.

_Poughkeepsie Bridge_, 12,608 feet in length. Track 212 feet above
tide-water.

_Mrs. John F. Winslow's Residence_, seen through opening of trees on
east bank.

_Hudson River State Hospital._ Large red buildings on east bank, two
miles north of Poughkeepsie.

_Hyde Park_, on the east side.

_Residence of Frederick W. Vanderbilt_, with white marble Corinthian
columns.

_Manresa Institute_, large building above Crum Elbow, on west side.

_A. R. Frothingham._ Grecian portico with columns.

_John Burrough's_ brown stone cottage, north of Frothingham's.

_The Novitiate of the Redemption Fathers_, a large new building on
west bank at Esopus.

_Staatsburgh, on east side._ Dock and ice houses in foreground.

* * *

While fashion seeks the islands
Encircled by the sea,
Taste finds the Hudson Highlands
More beautiful to see.

_George P. Morris._

* * *

_D. O. Mills' Mansion_, palatial residence on the east bank above
Staatsburgh.

_Dinsmore's Residence_, a large building charmingly located on
Dinsmore Point, east bank.

_Ellerslie_, residence of Ex-Vice-President Levi P. Morton, below
Rhinecliff.

_Rhinecliff_, on east bank.

_City of Kingston_, embraces Kingston and Rondout.

_Kingston Point._ Delightful park and picnic grounds near the landing.

_Old Beekman Place_, on east bank, a short distance above Rhinecliff.
One of the old Revolutionary houses.

_Ferncliff, Residence of John Jacob Astor._ Fine villa with pointed
tower.

_Out-of-Door Sports._ A large building on east bank, erected by Mr.
Astor.

_Garretson Place_, north of Ferncliff, on east bank.

_"Leacote," Douglas Merritt's Residence_, north of Clifton Point.

_Flatbush_, on west bank opposite Clifton Point.

_Rokeby, Residence of late William B. Astor_, above Astor's Point.

_Barrytown_, on east side.

_Aspinwall Place_, north of Barrytown, formerly John R. Livingston's
place.

_Montgomery Place_, east bank, among the trees.

"_Annandale_," name of John Bard's place. East of this is St.
Stephen's College, a training school for the ministry.

_Cruger's Residence_, on Cruger's Island--once called Lower Red Hook
Island.

_Tivoli_, on east side, 100 miles from New York.

_Glasco_, south of Tivoli on the west side.

_Saugerties_, on the west side.

_Idele_, property of Miss Clarkson, known as the old Chancellor Place,
on east bank.

_Hotel Kaaterskill_ is plainly seen from this point.

* * *

O would that she were here,
Sure Eden's garden-plot,
Did not embrace more varied charms
Than this romantic spot.

_George P. Morris._

* * *

_Malden_, above Saugerties, on west side.

_Clermont_, above Tivoli. The original Livingston manor.

_West Camp_, on west side, above Malden.

_Four County Island._ The "meeting point" of Dutchess, Columbia,
Greene and Ulster.

_Germantown_, on east side, 105 miles from New York.

_Man in the Mountain._ Between Germantown and Catskill we get a fine
view of the reclining giant, traced by the following outline:--the
peak to the south is the _knee_; the next to the north is the
_breast_; and two or three above this, the _chin_, the _nose_, and the
_forehead_.

_Roeliff Jansen's Kill_ meets the Hudson on east bank above what is
known by the pilots as Nine Mile Tree.

_Herman Livingston's Residence_, on point above.

_Catskill Creek_ joins the Hudson south of Catskill.

_Catskill_, 110 miles from New York. Route from this point to Catskill
Mountains, via Catskill Mountain Railroad.

_Prospect Park Hotel_, on west bank, north of Catskill.

_Cole's Grove_, north of Catskill. Here was the residence of Thomas
Cole, the artist.

_Frederick E. Church's Residence._ One of the most commanding sites
and finest residences, opposite Catskill.

_Rodger's Island_, on the east side, where the last battle was fought
between the Mohawks and the Mahicans.

_Mount Merino_, two miles north of Roger's Island.

_State Reformatory for Women_, on bluff south of Hudson.

_Hudson_, 115 miles from New York. Promenade Hill just north of
landing.

_Athens_, quiet village, on the west bank.

_Stockport._ On east side, four miles north of Hudson, near the mouth
of Columbiaville Creek, formed by the union of the Kinderhook and
Claverack Creeks.

_Four-mile Point._ On west side, about 125 feet high; four miles from
Hudson and four from Coxsackie.

_Coxsackie._ On west side, 8 miles from Hudson.

* * *

For while the beautiful moon arose,
And drifted the boat in the yellow beams,
My soul went down the river of thought
That flows in the mystic land of dreams.

_Richard Henry Stoddard._

* * *

_Newtown Hook_, opposite Coxsackie. The wooded point is called
Prospect Grove.

_Stuyvesant._ On the east side. Once called Kinderhook Landing.

_Schodack Island._ On east side, about two miles above Stuyvesant. The
island is about 3 miles long.

_New Baltimore._ About opposite the centre of Schodack Island; fifteen
miles from Hudson and fifteen from Albany. The Government dykes begin
opposite New Baltimore.

_Berren Island._ Site of the famous "Castle of Rensselaerstien."

_Coeymans._ Right above Berren Island. Above Coeymans is what is known
as the Coeyman's Cross Over.

_Shad Island._ The first island to the westward above Coeymans; 3
miles long; old Indian fishing ground.

_Castleton_, on east bank, in the town of Schodack.

_Mourdeners Kill_, a small stream which empties into the Hudson above
Castleton.

_Sunnyside Island_ near east bank.

_Cedar Hill_, above, on west bank.

_Staats Island_, settled by the Staats family before the arrival of
the Van Rensselaers.

_The Overslaugh_ reaches from Van Wies' Point (the first point above
Cedar Hill), on east bank, about two miles up the river.

_Albany_, 142 miles from New York, is now near at hand, and we see to
the south the Convent of the Sacred Heart; to the north the Cathedral,
the Capitol, the State House, the City Hall, etc.

_Rensselaer_, opposite. Connected with Albany by ferries two railroad
bridges, and carriage bridge.

_Old Van Rensselaer Place._ One of the Van Rensselaer houses on the
east bank, built before the Revolution. The tourist will note the port
holes on either side of the door as defense against Indians.

* * *

In love to the deep-bosomed stream of the west
I fling this loose blossom to float on its breast.

_Oliver Wendell Holmes._

* * *

* * * * *

[Transcriber's Note--Errata (Old Typos) and Corrections

TOC:--
Entries for "New Amsterdam" and "The Dutch and the English"
reversed, and page number for New Amsterdam changed from 25 to 23.
Page number for "New York" changed from 26 to 27.
Page number for "Yonkers to West Point" changed from 59 to 60.
Changed: '97-104' to '97-103', to match entry.
Changed: '152' (1st listing) to '151', to match entry.
Page number for "Source of the Hudson" changed from 201 to 202.
Changed: 'Colombia County' to 'Columbia Springs', to match entry.
Page 9: Restored missing period and missing half of closing quote.
[Illustration: Hendrick Hudson's "Half Moon."]
Page 35: added 's' to 'landing' (...steamers make their various
landings.)
Page 43: removed extraneous closing quote.
Page 46: added comma after 'erection' (..., now in process of
erection, ...)
Page 55: added 's' to 'make' (forgetting even, as Bryant did, that a
vertical line from the top of the cliff on account of the crumbling
debris of ages make(s) it impossible for even the strongest arm to
hurl a stone from the summit to the margin of the river).
Page 59: missing closing quote, and possibly also missing text in
paragraph?
(one narrator says: "remarkable disappearances ...)
Page 76: changed 'materal' to 'material'.
Page 80: changed 'Revoluton'to 'Revolution'.
Page 94: added missing comma after 'library': "The Library, founded
in 1812, has about 50,000 volumes."
Page 95: changed 'Seige' to 'Siege'"... Siege Battery on the slope...."
Page 96: changed 'pictureque' to 'picturesque'.
Page 107: changed (Major Tench) 'Tighlman' to 'Tilghman'.
Page 107: added opening quote ..."the proclamation of Congress and
the farewell orders of Washington were read, and the last word
of command given."
Page 108/9: changed 'proclams' to 'proclaims'.
Page 110: changed: 'The Marquis De Chastelleaux' to 'The Marquis De
Chastellux' (ref.: google)
Page 113: changed: 'The Marquis De Chastelleux' to 'The Marquis De
Chastellux'
Page 125: added 's' to 'thousand' (thousands of young men)
Page 129: (While sunset gilds) 'theee', to 'thee',
Page 139: changed 'openng' to 'opening'.
Page 145: changed 'Sofly' to 'Softly'.
Page 153: changed 'communicaton' to 'communication'.
Page 153: added closing quote (in about 32 hours.")
Page 155: changed 'wth' to 'with'
Page 173: changed 'thousand' to 'thousands' (...thousands of
laboring men... )
Page 205: added 's' to 'brick' (thousands of bricks)
Page 212: added " to para beginning ("Viewed from the railroad ...)
Page 212: added 's' to 'thousand' (Thousands of travellers ...)

Also added: Periods and commas, various (in the poetry footnotes). The
text appears worn; there is space for a period (and a couple of letters
are missing), so I am assuming that the missing punctuation may have
been rubbed off the page.

I have also encountered a number of instances throughout the book where
the author quoted from an external source and omitted either the opening
or closing quotation mark, and it is not obvious from the text just
where the quote began or ended. In a couple of instances I have hazarded
a guess, but have otherwise left the single quotaton mark in place, as it
appears in the original.]

*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "The Hudson - Three Centuries of History, Romance and Invention" ***

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