PLACES. PLACES AND DISTANCES ON THE HUDSON RIVER. NOTE. The places in Roman type are on the East side of the River; in italic, on the West side. The first Column of figures gives the distance from place to place, the second the total distance from New York, and the third the page of the Guide describing them. Hudson River.. Hudson River Railroad, Gen eral Description.. New York.. Jersey City... Hoboken.... Bull's Ferry.... Sing Sing. Croton. Cruger's.. Verplanck's Point. Undercliff... Cro's Nest.. Fishkill. 6 2 2 63 3 2 217123 7 21 Hyde Park 9 21 Staatsburg.. 12 22 Kingston.. 16 22 Lower Red Hook. 20 23 Barrytown 21 23 Tivoli 22 23 Saugerties 24 23 Malden LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 6 31 4 23 6643 ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ 80 44 81 44 85 44 4 120 48 123 48 3 126 48 4 130 48 3 133 48 3 136 48 48 8 144 49 Entered, according to Act of Congress in the year 1857, by HUMPHREY PHELPS, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, in and for the Southern District of New York ASTOR LIBRARY NEW YORK GENERAL DESCRIPTION UDSON RIVER, in many points of view, may be considered one of the most important streams in the world. It cannot vie with the Mississippi, or the Ohio, and other rivers, either in size or extent; but, in all other respects, it is altogether their superior. For steamboat and sloop navigation, stretching as it does for one hundred and sixty miles inland, through a rugged chain of Highlands, and carrying tide water the entire distance, it is certainly unsurpassed. The Hudson rises in a marshy tract in Essex county, east of Long Lake. Its head waters are nearly four thousand feet above the level of the sea. After receiving the waters of the Scroon on the north, and the Sacondaga, which flows from Hamilton county, on the west, it turns eastward until it reaches the meridian of Lake Champlain, where it suddenly sweeps round to the southward, and continues in a direct course to New York. One mile above Troy it receives the Mohawk River on the west, the latter being the largest stream of the two at their junction. The entire length of the Hudson is three hundred and twenty-five miles. The picturesque beauty of its banks, -forming gentle grassy slopes, or covered with forests to the water's edge, or crowned by neat and thriving towns, now overshadowing the water with tall cliffs, and now rising in mural precipices, and the legendary and historical interests associated with numerous spots, combine to render the Hudson the classic stream of the United States. Ships can ascend the river as far as Hudson, one hundred and fifteen miles, and steamboats and sloops to Albany and Troy. During the summer months, the water is covered with vessels of all sorts and sizes, ascending or descending the stream, from the canal boat,-of which great numbers, from the line of the Erie canal, and entering the river at Albany, are daily towed to and from New York, -to the west bank, for nearly this whole distance, is bounded by abrupt precipices of trap rock, termed the PALISADES. Beyond these there is an expansion of the river to the width of three miles, termed Tappan and Haverstraw bays, with mountains upon the western shore seven hundred feet in height. Passing these at Verplanck's Point, forty miles above New York, the Highlands commence. Here the river is contracted into narrow limits, and the water becomes of greater depth. This mountainous region, about sixteen miles in length, may be considered the most remarkable feature in the Hudson River scenery. The course of the stream is exceedingly tortuous, and the hills upon both sides rocky and abrupt. Above these Highlands the country subsides into but a fertile hilly region, which continues for one hundred miles. Hudson River is named after Henry Hudson, by whom it was discovered in 1609. He entered the southern waters of New York on the 3d of September. Tradition says that he landed upon Long Island and traded with the natives. He spent a week south of the Narrows before he entered the bay. On the 14th, he proceeded up the river. As he went along, he all the way found the natives on the west shore more affable and friendly than those on the east, and discovered that those on one side were at war with those on the other. In his journal he gives the following account of his reception upon landing at Hudson, the place which now bears his name: "I went on shore in one of the canoes with an old Indian, who was a chief of forty men and seventeen women, and whom I found in a house made of the bark of trees, which was exceedingly smooth and well finished within and all round about. I found there a great quantity of Indian corn and beans; indeed, there lay to dry, near the house, of these articles, as much as would load three ships, besides what was growing in the field. When we came to the house, two mats were spread to sit on; and immediately eatables were brought to us on red wooden bowls, well made; and two men were sent off with their bows and arrows to kill wild fowl, who soon returned with two |