he Highlands for
"sublimity" which might be termed "perpendicular grandeur;" the
Catskills for "beauty," with their rounded form and ever changing
hues, but the river scenery about Poughkeepsie abides in our memories
as a series of bright and charming "pictures." North of Waldorf is
Pelham, consisting of 1,200 acres, one of the largest fruit farms in
the world. Passing Esopus Island, which seems like a great stranded
and petrified whale, along whose sides often cluster Lilliputian-like
canoeists, we see Brown's Dock on the west bank at the mouth of Black
Creek, which rises eight miles from Newburgh on the eastern slope of
the Plaaterkill Mountains. Flowing through Black Pond, known by the
Dutch settlers as the "Grote Binnewater," it cascades its way along
the southern slope of the Shaupeneak Mountains to Esopus Village,
a cross-road hamlet, and thence carries to the Hudson its waters
dark-stained by companionship with trees of hemlock and cedar growth.
The Pell property extends on the west bank to Pell's Dock, almost
opposite the Staatsburgh ice houses. Mrs. Livingston's residence will
now be seen on the east bank, and just above this the home of the late
William B. Dinsmore on Dinsmore Point. Passing Vanderberg Cove, cut
off from the river by the tracks of the _New York Central Railroad_,
we see the residence of Jacob Ruppert, and above this the Frinck
mansion known as "Windercliffe," formerly the property of E. R. Jones,
and next beyond the house of Robert Suckly. Passing Ellerslie Dock we
see "Ellerslie," the palatial summer home of ex-Vice-President Levi
P. Morton, an estate of six hundred acres, formerly owned by the Hon.
William Kelly. Along the western bank extend the Esopus meadows, a low
flat, covered by water, the southern end of which is marked by the
Esopus light-house. To the west rises Hussey's Mountain, about one
thousand feet in height, from under whose eastern slope two little
ponds, known as Binnewaters, send another stream to join Black Creek
before it flows into the Hudson. Port Ewen on the west bank, with ice
houses and brick yards, will be seen by steamer passengers below the
mouth of Rondout Creek.

* * *

At dawn the river seems a shade,
A liquid shadow deep as space,
But when the sun the mist has laid
A diamond shower smites its face.

_John Burroughs._

* * *

=Rhinecliff=, 90 miles from New York. The village of Rhinebeck, two
miles east of the landing, is n