158 WAKE-ROBIN 



is likely to yield. Tanneries by the score have 

 arisen and flourished upon the bark, and some of 

 them still remain. Passing through that region the 

 present season, I saw that the few patches of hem- 

 lock that still lingered high up on the sides of the 

 mountains were being felled and peeled, the fresh 

 white boles of the trees, just stripped of their bark, 

 being visible a long distance. 



Among these mountains there are no sharp peaks, 

 or abrupt declivities, as in a volcanic region, but 

 long, uniform ranges, heavily timbered to their sum- 

 mits, and delighting the eye with vast, undulating 

 horizon lines. Looking south from the heights about 

 the head of the Delaware, one sees, twenty miles 

 away, a continual succession of blue ranges, one be- 

 hind the other. If a few large trees are missing 

 on the sky line, one can see the break a long dis- 

 tance ofif. 



Approaching this region from the Hudson Rivei 

 side, you cross a rough, rolling stretch of country, 

 skirting the base of the Catskills, which from a 

 point near Saugerties sweep inland; after a drive 

 of a few hours you are within the shadow of a high, 

 bold mountain, which forms a sort of butt- end to 

 this part of the range, and which is simply called 

 High Point. To the east and southeast it slopes 

 down rapidly to the plain, and looks defiance toward 

 the Hudson, twenty miles distant; in the rear of 

 it, and radiating from it west and northwest, are 

 numerous smaller ranges, backing up, as it were, 

 this haughty chief. 



