INTRODUCTORY. jjg 



lost to sight. The sandy and rocky surface of its course seems grad- 

 ually becoming encroached upon by a sparse growth of small shrubs 

 and plants from the mountain vegetation on either side, and with this 

 was growing scattered clumps of a wood-rush i^Liizula parviflora 

 Desv.) not before, I think, reported from as far south. Here was 

 found the only exposed ground met with at a high altitude, most of 

 the mountains being well wooded, and lacking those more imposing 

 features which are conferred by bold and rugged outlines and barren 

 summits. 



The mountains grouped about the Slide separate two very different 

 water-sheds, and there are many streams of proximate sources, whose 

 waters reach the Atlantic through no less separated outlets than Dela- 

 ware and New York Bays. From a recent paper " On the Ph)sical 

 Geography and Hypsometry of the Catskill Mountain Region." by 

 Arnold Guyot,"" the following, relating to this subject and to Slide 

 Mountain, may be transcribed : — 



"The Slide Mountain, the culminating point of the Southern, and 

 the highest of all the Catskills, is in many respects quite remarkable. 

 It terminates abruptly on the northeast towards the deep valley of 

 Woodland . . . From its broad triangular top it sends a ridge 

 towards the southeast, which divides the waters of the Esopus from 

 those of the Rondout, and terminates in the Lone Mountain 3670 

 feet, by which it is almost connected with the Wiltemberg chain. 

 Another high ridge descends towards the south and nearly reaches 

 the high group of Table Mountain 3860 feet, and Peak-o'-Mouse 

 [Peak-o'-Moose] ^'^1^ feet, which separates the head-waters of the 

 Rondout from those of the East branch of the Xavesink. It thus be- 

 comes the main hydrographic centre of the region, sending its waters 

 to the northwest by the Esopus; northeast to the same by the Wood- 

 land Creek; south by the Rondout to the Hudson; southwest by the 

 Navesink to the Delaware." 



Though an exploration of other peaks adjoining the Slide Mountain 



would have been of the highest interest, circumstances did not admit 



of its accomplishment, and, excepting that of the Slide Mountain itself. 



no summits much over 3.000 feet altitude were visited. The greater 



* American Journal of Science, XIX, 114, 429-451, June, i83o. 



