d often pausing to admire the immensity and
grandeur of the black rock palisades towering so far above them, they
soon found themselves under the nose of the point of rocks. Entering the
crevice in the cliffs known as "The Chimney Stairway," they commenced
the steep and toilsome climb to the summit; Fillmore Flagg taking the
lead and assisting Miss Fenwick, George Gaylord performing the same
service for Mrs. Bainbridge; fifteen minutes later they stood, almost
breathless, upon the summit, the blue sky all about them, a precipice on
either hand where shimmering, giddy space seemed to yawn so frightfully
near. Meanwhile a strong, buffeting wind tugged at ribbons and capes,
hats and bonnets, so furiously that walking was hazardous; it gave one
such an uneasy sensation of giddiness and unstable equilibrium
generally, that the temptation to fly over the edge of the cliff was
hard to resist. A huge egg-shaped boulder, twenty-five feet in height
and as large as a house, poised rather unsteadily on its rounded base,
was quite near and gave promise of protection from the violence of the
wind. With one accord our party scrambled towards it, the ladies
clinging tightly to their escorts with one hand, a firm grip on hat or
bonnet with the other. Thus sheltered, and more at ease, they slowly
drank in the glorious vision which greeted the eye on every hand.
Looking down as from a balloon, at the foot of the mountain, on the
north side, the eye was charmed by the length and beauty of the Rondout
Valley, through which ran the Delaware and Hudson Canal, and the Rondout
River. For miles on either side of canal and river the valley was made
more lovely by its checkered farms and gleaming white villages. Directly
at the foot of the mountain on the south side, the broader valley of the
Wallkill presented an equally beautiful and diversified picture of farm,
hamlet and village. Beyond these, in every direction save to the
north-east, vast stretches of country lay spread out like a map; the
mountains far and near, so dwarfed as to give to the surface the
appearance of billowy plains, almost level where they approached the
edge of the horizon. The wonderful extent and scope of the view was
bounded by the line of the horizon, at least one hundred miles distant.
Three-fourths of this sweeping circle responded to the unaided vision,
disclosing the blue hills and hazy mountain peaks located in five
states: New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connect