tention to
agriculture instead of scalping, and won thereby the respect of the
community. Tradition has it that he was about seven feet in height,
but was overpowered by wolves, and was buried by his brethren not far
from the station, where a "big Indian" was carved out of a tree near
by for his monument. An old and reliable inhabitant stated that he
remembered the rude statue well, and often thought that it ought to be
saved for a relic, as the stream was washing away the roots; but it
was finally carried down by a freshet, and probably found its way to
some fire-place in the Esopus Valley. "So man passes away, as with a
flood." There is another tale, one of love but less romantic, wherein
he was killed by his rival and placed upright in a hollow tree.
Perhaps neither tradition is true, and quite possibly the Big Indian
name grew out of some misunderstanding between the Indians and white
settlers over a hundred years ago. As the train leaves the station it
begins a grade of 150 feet per mile to--

=Pine Hill=, a station perched on the slope of Belle Ayr Mountain.
This is the watershed between the Esopus and the Delaware, and 226
feet above us, around the arcs of a double horseshoe, is the railway
summit, 1,886 feet above the tide.

=Grand Hotel Station.=--The New Grand, the second largest hotel in the
Catskills, with a frontage of 700 feet, stands on a commanding terrace
less than half a mile from the station. The main building faces
southwest and overlooks the hamlet of Pine Hill, down the Shandaken
Valley to Big Indian. The mountains, "grouped like giant kings" in
the distance are Slide Mountain, Panther Mountain, Table and Balsam
Mountains. Panther Mountain, directly over Big Indian Station, with
Atlas-like shoulders, being nearer, seems higher, and is often
mistaken for Slide Mountain. Table Mountain, to the right of the
Slide, is the divide between the east branch of the Neversink and the
Rondout.

Continuing our journey from the summit we pass through Fleischmann's
to--

=Arkville=, railway station for Margaretville, one and a half miles
distant, and Andes twelve miles--connected by stages. Furlough Lake,
the mountain home of George Gould, is seven miles from Arkville. An
artificial cave near Arkville, with hieroglyphics on the inner
walls, attracts many visitors. Passing through Kelly's Corners and
Halcottville, we come to--

=Roxbury= (altitude 1,497 feet), a quaint old village at the upper end
of which