180 SPORT IN NORTH AMERICA. 



from little hills to summits of fifteen Imndred feet 

 high. These hills border the scene like frames of 

 verdure around landscapes, and occasionally allow a 

 peep at some charming little scene where there is a 

 miniature valley, Avith pleasant little houses sprinkled 

 here and there with the first buddings of a modern 

 hamlet. Sometimes the perpendicular rocks em- 

 bank the very brink of the river, and sometimes 

 the chain seems to melt away into the horizon, 

 forming a vast amphitheatre, the farthest boundary 

 of which approaches again, as if to repose by an 

 almost imperceptible inclination in the bed of the 

 river. Here and there soars a lofty peak, clothed 

 with trees, whose top is lost in the clouds. In the 

 middle of the gorge which nature has hollowed out 

 through these undulations, flows the Hudson, describ- 

 ing a thousand windings and presenting pictures 

 infinite in number and variety. Sometimes it opens 

 a straight vista of five or six miles in length, and 

 then it deviates by a graceful curve, whilst further on 

 there is an unexpected angle or elbow. This last 

 variety (which is by no means common in the course 

 of great rivers) occurs here with extraordinary fre- 

 quency, and produces the most picturesque efi'ects. 

 In certain spots, — at Caldwell, for example, — a pro- 

 montory seems literally to bar the passage across, and 

 it is only at the moment when this is rounded that the 

 river reveals its course and opens a new horizon. 

 After quitting the highlands, a blue line denotes 



