296 Natural History Tour in North America. 



village to where it empties itself into the Hudson, several 

 mills, principally for the manufacture of flour, are erected. 



After passing Poughkeepsie, the traveller meets with little 

 to interest him on this majestic river until he reaches Albany. 

 The country is nearly a level, a great portion of which is ap- 

 propriated to agricultural purposes, and consequently desti- 

 tute of that sublime and splendid wildness which always 

 accompanies the scenery of the mountain. Kingston, Esopus, 

 Glasgow, and Caatskill are villages on the western border. 

 These are places of small account to the stranger, yet they 

 contribute no trifling share to the stores of the greatest com- 

 mercial mart of this country. New York. There is a lyceum 

 at Caatskill, well supported, and, I am informed, upon an 

 extensive scale. The village of Hudson is situated on the 

 eastern bank, thirty miles from Albany, and was a few years 

 ago in possession of the principal trading on this river, mono- 

 polising a very extensive commission business. The times 

 have altered, and with them the commercial prosperity of 

 Hudson. Although not now noted as a place of business, it 

 maintains a degree of wealth and influence which none of its 

 more bustling and enterprising neighbours have yet attained. 

 Its lyceum is one of the best in this country, and in it regular 

 courses of lectures on subjects of natural history are constantly 

 given. 



We reached Albany about noon of next day. Albany is a 

 city, and the capital of the state of New York. It is built on 

 an irregular descent, and crowded down upon the western 

 shore of the river. It was founded by the Dutch, and for a 

 number of years afterwards contained few inhabitants of any 

 other nation. Some of the houses appear very antique, and 

 are constructed after an old Dutch fashion, of a most gro- 

 tesque description. The streets are irregular, mostly narrow 

 and crooked ; the buildings, too, are destitute of that uniform- 

 ity of structure so conspicuous in all the principal towns I 

 have seen in this country ; for amidst some of the best and 

 most elegant, in the gayest and most fashionable parts of the 

 city, may be found Dutch huts or miserable-looking wooden- 

 framed houses. For these and other singularities Albany is 

 indebted to the taste and unwieldy manners of its ancient 

 inhabitants. State Street is about 500 yards in length, very 

 broad, and consists generally of handsome brick houses, of 

 three and four stories in height. On an elevation, and directly 

 across the upper extremity of State Street, stands the Capitol. 

 The exterior of this building is by no means elegant, or go- 

 verned by any regular laws of architecture ; and, with the 

 exception of the court-room, which is spacious, with mahogany 



