2 SERN ty 
aa 
Mr. Pierce on the Catskill Mountains. 87 
these the height near Cairo and the Round Top of about 
equal vaibe tir, are the most conspicuous. 
Several prominent spurs run from the. eastern chain of 
the Catskill mountains, in a north-western direction, for sev- 
eral miles. ‘The intermediate mountain vallies are mostly 
of a good ee medium soil, and afford, when cleared, fine 
grazing ground 
state of nature these intervals present towering for- 
ests “of hard maple, beach, hemlock, birch, cherry, spruce, 
and balsam fir. The surface in general is not too strong 
for the purposes of agriculture. 
The most considerable of the ranges which take a wes- 
tern direction, border the elevated vallies and ravines thro 
which the rivers Kauterskill, Schoharie and Platterkill, e 
their Bens 
ove passages formed by the Kauterskill. and Plat- 
terkil in in pits eastern descent, present as sublime and pic- 
turesque scenery as this or sbardue any country exhibits, — 
ough there is considerable similarity in the appear- 
ance of these wae yet some peculiar features. make an 
intgrestns. diver 
sion the Kauterskill clove ascends gece 
ly near die river, where there appears scarcely space for the 
road es stream. 
In many places the traveller looks down from a perpen- 
dicular and dizzy height upon foaming waters that pursue 
a raging course among the a falling with a deafening 
noise from precipice to precipic 
2 northern side of the site the: mountain is lofty 
and precipitous, exhibiting near its base stupendous pur- 
pendicular walls of argillaceous red sandstone and gre: 
wacke slate—the strata in nearly a horizontal vaitiea Pro- 
quently but a small section of the horizon can be seen. 
Mural precipices rise in succession and tower above the 
forest.. The mountain’s top, which seems almost to over- 
hang the spectator, is crowned by enormous ledges resem- 
bling castles or fortifications in ruins, on which a few scat- 
tered pines preserve their bleak station in defiance of tem- 
pests, and wave their dark verdure over the cliffs like nod- 
ding plumes. 
About two miles from the entrance of the clove the Kau- 
terskill is passed by a bridge thrown from crag to crag over 
