I have written in this article the Indian name, Tahawas, in the place
of Mt. Marcy, and for this reason: There is no justice in robbing the
Indian of his keen, poetic appreciation, by changing a name, which
has in itself a definite meaning, for one that means nothing in its
association with this mountain. We have stolen enough from this
unfortunate race, to leave, at least, those names in our woodland
vocabulary that chance to have a musical sound to our imported Saxon
ears. The name Tahawas is not only beautiful in itself, but also
poetic in its interpretation--signifying "I cleave the clouds."
Coleridge, in his glorious hymn, "Before sunrise in the vale of
Chamouni," addresses Mount Blanc:

"Around thee and above
Deep is the air and dark, substantial, black--
An ebon mass. Methinks thou piercest it.
_As with a wedge!_"

The name or meaning of Tahawas was never made known to the great
English poet, who died sixty years ago. Is it not remarkable that
the untutored Indian, and the keenist poetic mind which England has
produced for a century, should have the same idea in the uplifted
mountains? There is also another reason why we, as a State, should
cherish the name Tahawas. While the Sierra Nevadas and the Alps
slumbered beneath the waves of the ocean, before the Himalayas or the
Andes had asserted their supremacy, scientists say, that the high
peaks of the Adirondacks stood alone above the waves, "the cradle of
the world's life;" and, as the clouds then encircled the vast waste
of water, Tahawas then rose--"Cleaver" alike of the waters and the
clouds.

* * *

Tahawas, rising stern and grand,
"Cloud-sunderer" lift thy forehead high,
Guard well thy sun-kissed mountain land
Whose lakes seem borrowed from the sky.

_Wallace Bruce_.

* * *

GEOLOGY OF THE HUDSON.

In addition to various geological references scattered through these
pages the following facts from an American Geological Railway Guide,
by James Macfarlane, Ph.D., will be of interest.

"The State of New York is to the geologist what the Holy Land is
to the Christian, and the works of her Palaeontologist are the Old
Testament Scriptures of the science. It is a Laurentian, Cambrian,
Silurian and Devonian State, containing all the groups and all the
formations of these long ages, beautifully developed in belts
running nearly across the State in an east and west direction, lying
undisturbed as origi