upon me; they awakened no sympathy in my mind; it
was absorbed, filled, bewildered, in the admiration which each
rapidly-opening point awakened, for never before this fair morning had
such a succession of matchless river views passed before my delighted
eyes.

"Write down your first impressions of scenery when fairly viewed, and
your descriptions will at least have correctness to recommend them."
Somebody, I know, says something very like this; and I have hitherto
quoted it as an axiom: but alas! what rule, however sage, but meets
exceptions; for what man endowed with any ordinary share of devotion to
Nature, and admiration of her handiwork, dare venture to set down his
first impressions of this enchanting Hudson whilst the overwhelming
influence it creates is yet dazzling his imagination! I say
overwhelming, because such, in sober truth, was its first effect on me.

I was at times unable to venture the expression of all I felt even to
myself: I sought to avoid the intelligent friends who accompanied me,
and am not ashamed to add, that, albeit "unused to the melting mood," I
here was affected almost to weakness. There might, perhaps, have been
chords awakened that helped this fancy; but in no mood could an
enthusiast of Nature, I think, feel otherwise than "rapt" when free for
the first time to view, on such a day, such glorious magic pass before
his sight; for, in our rapid flight, I could compare the effect of all I
saw to glamour only.

The grape-covered steeps of the old Rhine, the mountain-enshrined lochs
of our Hielans, with their clear blue waters, and the sweet valleys in
which the little lakes of Killarney are set like gems,--all are lovely,
and all of these appear to me to have contributed models for this
masterpiece, each to be equalled, if not surpassed.

But I must check my pen, since disjointed eulogium will do little
towards satisfying the curious or silencing the sceptical; and for
description in reasonable detail, worthy the subject, only one hand in
our age has existed endowed by nature to grapple with such a task, and
that wizard hand lies mouldering now beneath the ruins of Dryburg Abbey!

Above West Point and the pass of the highlands the river expands
grandly, forming the Bay of Newburg. The town of this name lies prettily
spread along the face of a gently rising hill; and in a meadow at the
foot of the town stands a venerable-looking stone-built house, rendered
memorable from having been the