s more wild
land than any other tract in the State. The mountains which traverse
it, and impart to it its severe northern climate, belong properly to
the Catskill range. On some maps of the State they are called the Pine
Mountains, though with obvious local impropriety, as pine, so far as I
have observed, is nowhere found upon them. "Birch Mountains" would be
a more characteristic name, as on their summits birch is the
prevailing tree. They are the natural home of the black and yellow
birch, which grow here to unusual size. On their sides beech and maple
abound; while, mantling their lower slopes and darkening the valleys,
hemlock formerly enticed the lumberman and tanner. Except in remote or
inaccessible localities, the latter tree is now almost never found. In
Shandaken and along the Esopus it is about the only product the
country yielded, or is likely to yield. Tanneries by the score have
arisen and flourished upon the bark, and some of them still remain.
Passing through that region the present season, I saw that the few
patches of hemlock that still lingered high up on the sides of the
mountains were being felled and peeled, the fresh white boles or the
trees, just stripped of their bark, being visible a long distance.

Among these mountains there are no sharp peaks, or abrupt declivities,
as in a volcanic region, but long, uniform ranges, heavily timbered to
their summits, and delighting the eye with vast, undulating horizon
lines. Looking south from the heights about the head of the Delaware,
one sees, twenty miles away, a continual succession of blue ranges,
one behind the other. If a few large trees are missing on the sky
line, one can see the break a long distance off.

Approaching this region from the Hudson River side, you cross a rough,
rolling stretch of country, skirting the base of the Catskills, which
from a point near Saugerties sweep inland; after a drive of a few
hours you are within the shadow of a high, bold mountain, which forms
a sort of butt-end to this part of the range, and which is simple
called High Point. To the east and southeast it slopes down rapidly to
the plain, and looks defiance toward the Hudson, twenty miles distant;
in the rear of it, and radiating from it west and northwest, are
numerous smaller ranges, backing up, as it were, this haughty chief.

From this point through to Pennsylvania, a distance of nearly one
hundred miles, stretches the tract of which I speak. It is a belt o