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 princ.i.p.al 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 G.o.d 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 b.u.mppo, 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 n.o.ble alt.i.tude 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 pa.s.senger car and baggage car are attached to each end of double cables which pa.s.s around immense drums located at the top of the incline. While one train rises the other descends, pa.s.sing each other midway. By this arrangement trains carrying from seventy-five to one hundred pa.s.sengers 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 pa.s.senger. At the summit of the incline pa.s.sengers 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 ma.s.sive G.o.ds 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.