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.+

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 Mohawk. 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

climbed this beautiful and steep range to a place called Pine Orchard, a favourite resort of parties from New York and Albany, where a splendid hotel has risen "like an exhalation," on the very brink of the precipice, some five and twenty hundred feet above the river, commanding a very extensive view of the valley of the Hudson. The Falls of the Cauterskill are a picturesque object in this neighbourhood; and the valley called "the Clove," forming a deep indenture in the mountains, shews off the scenery to great advantage. The highest point of this ridge has been estimated at 3549 feet above the sea. The basis of the mountains consists of the same freestone as the Blue Ridge, of which it appears to be a prolongation or a "dismembered branch."

On the eastern side of the river, the route to Albany lies through a country gently undulating, and thickly intersected with forests, from which, however, the noblest timber has been almost wholly extracted. Dutchess county, of which Poughkeepsie* is the shire town, is reckoned one of the best tracts of land in the State: it is remarkably well cultivated, and filled up with inhabitants. To this succeeds Columbia county, in which Hudson is situated; and then the county and territory of Rennselaar, which takes its name from the family of the great hereditary landed proprietor, the patroon of Albany and the surrounding country. This singular vestige of feudalism in the midst of universal democracy, is believed to be almost the only instance of the kind now extant,—at least

on its craggy banks, and the deep wooded glen down which it hastens to the Hudson, deserve a place in every traveller's journal."-Hall's Canada, p. 20.

* This flourishing town of cacophonous name, is reckoned half way between New York and Albany

in the Northern States. Mr. Van Rennselaar still retains the Dutch title of patroon, equivalent to Seigneur; he is reported to have 30 miles of territory, and 5000 tenants, and to be worth seven millions of dollars.*

Albany, the seat of the State Legislature of New York, has been lately brought into considerable mercantile importance as a place of transit and deposite, by the great Erie canal, the eastern entrance to which lies almost within the town; and it is consequently rapidly swelling on every hand. In the year 1792, Dr. Dwight says, it contained few houses built in the modern English manner. "The body was composed of clumsy Dutch buildings, a great number of which had been erected from eighty to a hundred years. Seven successive fires, five of which were kindled by incendiaries, have swept away a large part of these, as well as many other buildings, so that the inhabitants have been compelled to build a considerable part of the town anew." In the year 1790, Albany contained 3498 inhabitants; in the year 1810, (including the suburb of Coloniè,) 10,762; having more than tripled its population in twenty years. Two-thirds of

its houses must of course have been added since the former census, besides many that have been rebuilt. Albany is, therefore, for the most part a new town. Mr. Duncan estimates its population, in 1819, at

* Hall's Canada, p. 27. Duncan's Travels, vol. i. p. 325. The latter Traveller states the territory of this gentleman to extend 60 miles in length, including two counties with a population of 60,000 or 70,000 persons.

Of the city of Albany in its primitive state, and of the manners and customs of the old Albanians, we have an interesting account in Mrs. Grant's "Memoirs of an American Lady," vol. i. ch. 6, &c. This work is not altogether superseded even by Knickerbocker's History.