, one mile from Copake Station on the _Harlem
Railroad_, one of the most romantic glens in our country, has been
visited and eulogized by Henry Ward Beecher, Bayard Taylor and many
distinguished writers and travelers. Soon after leaving Copake Station
a beautiful carriage road, but extremely narrow, strikes the left bank
of this mountain stream, and for a long distance follows its rocky
channel. On the right a thickly wooded hill rises abruptly more than a
thousand feet--a perfect wall of foliage from base to summit. A mile
brings one to the lower falls; the upper falls are about a quarter of
a mile farther up the gorge. The height of the falls, with the rapids
between, is about 300 feet above the little rustic bridge at the foot
of the lower falls. The glen between is a place of wild beauty, with
rocks and huge boulders "in random ruin piled."

* * *

I saw the green banks of the castle-crowned Rhine,
Where the grapes drink the moonlight and change into wine,
But my heart would still yearn for the sound of the waves
That sing as they flow by my forefather's graves.

_Oliver Wendell Holmes._

* * *

=Hillsdale Village= has a beautiful location and affords a good
central point for visiting Mount Everett, with its wide prospect
(altitude 2,624 feet), Copake Lake six miles to the west, Bash-Bish
Falls six miles south, and Po-ka-no five miles to the northeast,
sometimes known as White's Hill. The Po-ka-no, Columbia County's
noblest outlook, 1,713 feet, commands the Hudson Valley for eighty
miles; and the owner says that he saw the fireworks from there the
night of the Newburgh centennial in 1883. From the summit can be seen
"Monument Mountain" and the Green Mountains of Vermont. At its base
glides the "Green River Creek," which flows into the Housatonic near
Great Barrington. From this point the drive can be continued to North
Egremont, South Egremont, Great Barrington and Monument Mountain.
Before the days of railroads the Columbia turnpike was the great trade
artery of the city of Hudson. It was interesting to hear William
Cullen Bryant recount his experiences in driving from his home in
Great Barrington over the well-known highway on his way to New York.
The _Housatonic_ and _Harlem Railroads_ tapped its life and have left
many a sleepy village along the route, once astir in staging days. The
stone for Girard College was drawn from Massachusetts quarries over
this route and shipped to Phila