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 EXCURSIONS 



O N. 



OUR B L U E MOUNTAINS : 



.Br PETER DELAB IGARRE, Es^ 



AGENT OF THE FRENCH REPUBLIC AT NEW-YORK. 



STIMULATED by the flroiigeft defire of paying my lliare 

 to your iifeful or curious difquifitions, tending to enlarge the 

 natural hiftory of this State, I beg leave to lay before you my 

 nrft excurfions on that ridge of mountains oppofite Redhook 

 Landinn-, commonly called Catfkill, or Blue Mountains. 

 I do not prefume to give you atprefent an accurate or complete 

 defcription of the many curiofities, plants, trees, and minerals, 

 unexplored in that wild part ; to obtain which, would require 

 more time and knowledge than I could apply to fuch extenfive 

 refearches laft year — ^thus the only merit of this communication 

 is the novelty of many objeds, and a fl^etch of my zeal. 



The 9th of April, 1793, at 11 o'clock, a,. m« calm and- 

 clear weather, I was at the foot of- that part of the mountains 

 due weft of Redhook landing :. the firft afcent, to the height 

 of four hundred feet, is very eufy and gradual: there fome 

 banks of rocks run laterally and in a femi-circular hne round 

 the fid.c of the mountain, rifing a little higher towards tlie: 



