n.

_Thomas William Parsons._

* * *

=Shokan=, 18 miles from Rondout. Here the road takes a northerly
course and we are advised by Mr. Van Loan's guide to notice on the
left "a group of five mountains forming a crescent; the peaks of
these mountains are four miles distant;" the right-hand one is the
"Wittenberg," and the next "Mount Cornell." Boiceville and Mount
Pleasant, 700 feet above the Hudson, are next reached. We enter the
beautiful Shandaken Valley, and three miles of charming mountain
scenery bring us to--

=Phoenicia=, 29 miles from Rondout and 790 feet above the Hudson.
This is one of the central points of the Catskills which the mountain
streams (nature's engineers), indicated several thousand years ago.
Readers of "Hiawatha" will remember that Gitche Manitou, the mighty,
traced with his finger the way the streams and rivers should run. The
tourist will be apt to think that he used his thumb in marking out
the wild grandeur of Stony Clove. The Tremper House has a picturesque
location in a charming valley, which seems to have been cut to fit,
like a beautiful carpet, and tacked down to the edge of these grand
old mountains. A fifteen minutes' walk up Mount Tremper gives a wide
view, from which the Lake Mohonk House is sometimes seen, forty
miles away. Phoenicia is one of the most important stations on the
line--the southern terminus of the Stony Clove and Catskill Mountain
division of the _Ulster & Delaware_ system. Keeping to the main line
for the present we pass through Allaben, formerly known as Fox Hollow,
and come to--

=Shandaken=, 35 miles from Rondout and 1,060 feet in altitude, an
Indian name signifying "rapid water." Here are large hotels and many
boarding houses and the town is a central point for many mountain
spots and shady retreats in every direction--all of which are well
described in one of the handsomest summer resort guides of the season,
the handbook of the _Ulster & Delaware Railroad_. Three miles beyond
Shandaken we come to a little station whose name reminds one of the
plains: _Big Indian_, 1,209 feet above the river.

* * *

Along the ragged top
Smiles a rich stripe of gold that up still glides
Until it dwindles to a thread and then,
As breath glides from a mirror, melts away.

_Alfred B. Street._

* * *

=Big Indian.=--It is said that about a century ago, a noble red man
dwelt in these parts, who, early in life, turned his at