314 Exploring Visits to the Sources of the Hudson. 
ing partially concealed under the grass-covered boulders. At 8.40 
A. M. we arrived at the head of the stream on the summit of this 
elevated pass, which here forms a beautiful and open mountain mead- 
ow, with the ridges of the two adjacent mountains rising in an easy 
slope from its sides. From this little meadow, which lies within 
the present limits of the town of Keene, the main branch of the 
Hudson and a fork of the east branch of the Au Sable commence 
their descending course in opposite directions, for different and far dis- 
tant points of the Atlantic ocean. The elevation of this spot proves 
by our observations to be more than four thousand seven hundred 
feet above tide water; being more than nine hundred feet above the 
highest point of the Catskill mountains, which have so long been 
considered the highest mountains in this state. 
The descent of the Au Sable from this point is most remarkable. 
In its comparative course to Lake Champlain, which probably does 
not exceed forty miles, its fall is more than four thousand six hun- 
dred feet!’ This, according to our present knowledge, is more than 
twice the entire descent of the Mississippi proper, from its source to 
the ocean. Water-falls of the most striking and magnificent charac- 
ter are known to abound on the course of this stream. 
2 High Peak of Essex. 
- Our ascent to the source of the Hudson had brought us to an ele- 
vated portion of the highest mountain peak, which was also a prin- 
cipal object of our exploration, and its ascent now promised to be of 
easy accomplishment by proceeding along its ridge in a W. S..W. 
direction. On emerging from the pass, however, we immediately 
found ourselves entangled in the zone of dwarfish pines and spruces, 
which with their numerous horizontal branches interwoven with each 
other, surround. the mountain at this elevation. These gradually 
decreased in height, till we reached the open surface of the moun- 
tain, covered only with mosses and small alpine plants, and at 10 
A. M. the summit of the High Peak of Essex was beneath our feet. 
The aspect of the morning was truly splendid and delightful, and 
the air on the mountain-top was found to-be cold and bracing: 
Around us lay scattered in irregular profusion, mountain masses of 
various magnitudes and elevations, like to a vast sea of broken and 
pointed billows. In the distance lay the great valley or plain of the 
St. Lawrence, the shining surface of Lake Champlain, and the ex- 
tensive mountain range of Vermont. The nearer portions of the 
