Beyond Fort Putnam, on another elevated flat of considerable extent, stands the Military Academy of West Point, containing 250 cadets. This institution was established by the General Government a considerable time ago; but since last war, it has been fostered with assiduous care, and now the tactics of Napoleon's school are taught in it by men who discharged similar offices in the Polytechnic schools of France. A bare rock on the opposite side of the river, serves the young soldiers as a target, and its battered brow bears token of their proficiency.*

"Nearly opposite to West Point is the Sugar Loaf Mountain, conspicuous by its regularly conical outline; and among a numerous succession of others are the Crow's Nest, Butter Hill, and New Beacon. Anthony's Nose tosses high on the right a bare peak of granite, and holds its name in virtue of the real or fancied appearance of its beetling top. A large rock, which once crowned the summit of Butter Hill, 1520 feet above tide-water, now reposes on a sand-bank in

glen, known by the name of Wiley's Swamp. A few rough logs, laid side by side, served for a bridge over this stream. On that side of the road where the brook entered the wood, a groupe of oaks and chestnuts, matted thick with wild grape-vines, threw a cavernous gloom over it. It was at this identical spot that the unfortunate André was captured: and under the covert of those chestnuts and vines were the sturdy yeomen concealed who surprised him. This has ever since been considered as a haunted stream, and fearful are the feelings of the school-boy who has to pass it alone after dark."-Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Dr. Dwight states, that André was taken at Tarry-town, and executed at Tappan, on the opposite shore.-Travels, vol. i. p. 423.

*This is the only institution of the kind in the United States, which is maintained at the expense of the General Government. Captain Basil Hall visited it, and praises the efficient manner in which it is conducted. The nominations lie with the President of the United States, and the applications are numerous.

the bed of the river, opposite West Point, far enough from the shore for vessels to sail round it."*

This was the land of romance to the early settlers; and Indian tradition had peopled the high lands with imaginary beings, before the Flying Dutchman had been seen or heard of on the Hudson. These aboriginal superstitions, however, are well nigh forgotten in the more recent adventures of Dolph Heyliger and Rip Van Winkle. Geoffrey Crayon has selected this part of the river as a subject for one of his graphic sketches. "To the left, the Dunderberg reared its wooded precipices height over height, forest over forest, away into the deep summer sky. To the right strutted forth the bold promontory of Anthony's Nose with a solitary eagle wheeling about it; while beyond, mountain succeeded to mountain, until they seemed to lock their arms together, and confine this mighty river in their embraces. There was a feeling of quiet luxury in gazing at the broad, green bosoms here and there scooped out among the precipices; or at woodlands high in air, nodding over the edge of some beetling bluffs, and their foliage all transparent in the yellow sunshine." The Dunderberg (or, as Dr. Dwight writes it, Donderbarrak) receives its name, ThunderHill, from its echoes, which, when awakened by the tempests of summer, have a magnificent effect. This

* Duncan, vol. i. pp. 311-318. An account of the transition of the rock from its original resting-place, is given from the American Journal of Science. It seems that it used to be a common amusement for the officers, when off duty, to roll large rocks from the sides of the hills. In June 1778, Colonel Putnam and a party of friends, having provided themselves with axes, ropes, and levers, contrived to launch this large rock, which overhung the precipice; and once set in motion, it carried every thing before it in its route to the river.

† Bracebridge Hall, vol, ii. p. 295.

part of the river is particularly subject to sudden flaws of wind from the mountains; and the name of Weygat (or Windgate) has been given to the opening between the majestic cliffs of the Butter Hill and Brecknock range, on account of the violence with which the wind often blows through the narrow channel. From the summit of the Sugar-loaf, an excellent view is obtained of the grand and solemn scenery, including the Kaatskill .mountains, which are seen at the distance of about 40 miles, their blue summits lost in the clouds.t

Above the Highlands, the Hudson assumes a different character, its bed again expanding to a breadth of about three miles. "From the bay of Newburgh to

* It was one of these flaws which threw on her beam-ends the sloop in which Dolph Heyliger took his passage for Albany, and occasioned his being knocked overboard. Just as they turned the point where the river "makes a sudden bend, the only one in the whole course of its majestic career," and which must therefore have been, we are told, the bend at West Point, "a violent flaw of wind came sweeping down a mountain gully, bending the forest before it, and, in a moment, lashing up the river into white froth and foam." It was on a point of the western shore that Dolph landed, and scrambled up the rocks. "The captains of the river-craft talk of a little bulbous-bottomed Dutch goblin in trunk hose and sugarloafed hat, with a speaking trumpet in his hand, which, they say, keeps about the Dunderberg. They declare that they have heard him, in stormy weather, in the midst of the turmoil, giving orders in low Dutch for the piping up of a fresh gust of wind, or the rattling off of another thunderclap." At Pollopol's Island, the jurisdiction of the Dunderberg potentate ceases; and there," the little white sugar-loaf hat on the mast head, which was known to be the hat of the Heer of the Dunderberg, spun up into the air like a top, whirled up the clouds into a vertex, and hurried them back to the summit of the Dunderberg, while the sloop righted herself and sailed on as quietly as if in a mill-pond."-Bracebridge Hall, vol. ii. pp. 298, 330. The invention of steam-vessels has, however, materially lessened the power of the goblin.

+ Dr. Dwight ascended this peak, and has given a minute description of the country it commands.-Travels, vol. iii. p. 413.

that of Hudson, a distance of between 60 and 70 miles, it appears," Mr. Cooper says, "like a succession of beautiful lakes, each reach preserving the proportions and appearance of a separate sheet of water, rather than of part of a river. From Hudson to Albany, a distance of 36 miles, the Hudson acquires more of the character of a river. It is dotted with islands, much like the Seine above Caudebec, and its scenery is picturesque) and agreeable."* As far as Hudson, 124 miles above New York, a ship of the line of 64 guns may ascend the river without meeting with a single obstruction. The tide flows to the height of 12 inches at Albany; and vessels of 80 tons can ascend to Troy, seven miles higher, or even to the mouth of the Mo.. hawk. The country north of the Highlands, Dr. Dwight supposes to have been, in fact, originally a vast lake. The valley of the Hudson is here, in some places, not far from 40 miles in breadth. The mountains on both sides form a complete barrier to the waters of such a lake, while, on the south, the highlands would keep its waters to a great height, till they forced open their present channel,-possibly by "the slow recession of a cataract between Anthony's Nose and Bear Hill." The waters of this noble river are, to a great extent, the learned Writer remarks, derived

* Cooper's Notions, vol. i. p. 274.

+ This opinion accords with that of Dr. Mitchell, the American Editor of Cuvier's Theory of the Earth. "The Catskill mountains," says the learned writer, "are composed chiefly of granite and gneiss, abounding in loose nodules and solid veins of magnetical iron ore. The width of the chain may be rated at about sixteen miles. According to the barometrical observations of Captain Partridge, of the corps of engineers, Butternut, on the west side of the river, is 1529 feet above tide-water, and the New Beacon 1565 feet. This thick and solid barrier seems in ancient days to have impeded the course of the water, and to have raised a lake high enough to cover all the country, to Quaker Hill and the

from the ocean, its only tributaries being mere millstreams; and "the rest of the waters owe the greatness of their mass chiefly to the fact, that, in consequence of the lowness of their bed, they are stopped and heaped up by its influence." Owing to this circumstance, the Hudson is the most navigable river, in proportion to the supplies which it receives from its fountains, perhaps in the world.*

After passing the highlands, in ascending the river, the Kaatskill mountains, on the left, are for a great distance every where visible, "swelling up to a noble height, and lording it over the surrounding country. Every change of season, every change of weather, indeed every hour of the day, produces some change in the magical lines and shapes of these mountains; and they are regarded by all the good wives far and near, as perfect barometers. When the weather is fair and settled, they are clothed in blue and purple, and print their bold outlines on the clear evening sky; but sometimes, when the rest of the landscape is cloudless, they will gather a hood of grey vapours about their summits, which, in the last rays of the setting sun, will glow and light up like a crown of glory." Captain Basil Hall landed at Catskill (as the name of the town is usually written); and on the following day,

Taconick Mountains on the east, and the Shawangunk and the Catskill mountains on the west. The lake may be calculated to have extended to the Little Falls of the Mohawk and to Hadley's Falls on the Hudson.”—Mitchell's Observations cited in Hodgson's Letters, vol. i. p. 331.

Dwight, vol. iii. pp. 426, 7.

+ Sketch Book, vol. i. p. 49.

This town is nearly opposite to Hudson. Lieutenant F. Hall left the Hudson at Fishkill, opposite to Newburgh, and proceeded to Albany by land. "About three miles from Fishkill," he says, "a wild torrent rushed over its bed of broken rocks across the road; the romantic bridge flung over its brawling course, the mill