e is about a mile, and the width perhaps half that
distance. The rocks are gray sandstone or quartz conglomerate, making
the cliffsides, except where covered by black lichens, of a glittering
white. On one side, the rocks rise in steep, precipitous masses, while
on the other they are shattered into every imaginable form. The clefts
are deep and narrow, great hemlocks rise from the bottoms of the
fissures, and the vast masses of fallen or split rock lie piled and
cloven, confusedly tossed about, gigantic memorials of the great
convulsion that in days long gone by heaped up the long ridge of the
Shawangunk, and shattered its northern dip into such majestic and
fantastic cliffs. The deepest and wildest chasm is filled by the weird,
green lake. Straying along the tops of the precipices bordering the
water, our travellers beheld lovely vistas of the far-away country,
north, south, east, or west, stealing in through rocky or leafy
openings. An easy ascent of about half a mile leads to the summit of the
Point. Blueberries were ripe, and beguiled the pair into many a moment's
dallying by the wayside. Not until they reached the very top were they
quite sure they had after all found the place they came to seek; but one
view down the jagged line of the Shawangunk, convinced our Elsie that no
other spot could have furnished the sketch seen in the studio, where she
had been advised to seek 'the lake on the Shawangunk mountain.'

The view from Paltz Point is magical. The long line of the Catskills
sweeps boldly across the near northern horizon. Nowhere do those
mountains seem so majestic, or their forms so broken and beautiful;
nearer are the Olive mountains, beyond which flows the Esopus. Rondout
creek, the Wallkill, and the Hudson, water the fertile vales lying among
the hills. To the south stretches the line of the Shawangunk toward the
Delaware river, and on the extreme southern and southeastern horizon
rise the Highlands, with the river gap, the rifted sides of the Storm
King, the Beacons, the great broad shoulders of Schunemunk;--even the
white buildings on the plain at West Point may be seen glittering in the
afternoon sun. A clear atmosphere is needed for the full enjoyment of
the view, as the panorama is so vast that even a slight haze obscures
many of the more interesting distant objects. And what words could
describe the jutting headlands--wild, broken lines of white cliffs
stretching to the southward, deep chasms, steep, f