180 BIRCH BROWSINGS. 



Have observed, is nowhere found upon them. " Birch 

 Mountains " would be a more characteristic came, at 

 on their summits birch is the prevaiHng tree. They 

 are the natural home of the black and yellow birch, 

 which grow here to unusual size. On their sides 

 beech ayd maple abound ; while mantling their lower 

 elopes, and darkening the valleys, hemlock formerly 

 enticed the lumberman and tanner. Except in re- 

 mote or inaccessible localities, the latter tree is now 

 almost never found. In Shandaken and along the 

 Esopus, it is about the only product the country 

 yielded, or is likely to yield. Tanneries by the score 

 have arisen and flourished upon the bark, and Sv>me 

 of them still remain. Passing through that region 

 the present season, I saw that the few patches of 

 hemlock that still lingered high up on the sides of 

 the mountains were being felled and peeled, the fresh 

 white bowls 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, 

 aniform ranges, heavily timbered to their summits, 

 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 behind the 

 other. If a few large trees are missing on the sky 

 jne, one can see the break a long distance off. 



Approaching this region from the Hudson Rivei 

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



