88 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



OVER SUCH A QUAINT OLD FASHIONED WOODEN BRIDGE AS THIS IRVING'S 

 HORSEMAN" GALLOPED HIS WAY INTO AMERICAN LITERATURE 



that Irving speaks of in the 

 Legend of Sleepy Hollow. In 

 the bottom of the ruined race- 

 way lie the grist mill stones, 

 broken, among a tangle of jewel- 

 weed, blackberry, ailanthus, rasp- 

 berry, and tall wild lettuce. From 

 here the brook, with a forest in 

 which are many hemlocks and 

 oaks on one side, and the well 

 kept spaces and walks of the 

 cemetery on the other, tumbles 

 down over many small cataracts, 

 from the open farmlands and 

 forests above. It really is but 

 a short walk up the brookside 

 from park-like Broadway to the 

 deep woods and ancient fields 

 where the noisy brook, now still, 



"HEADLESS 



glides under smooth black ice or 

 openly past frozen castles, where 

 fairies may dance on moonlight- 

 ed nights. Great old red and 

 white oaks, their mighty arms 

 stripped of leaves and stark in 

 the winter sunshine, guard the 

 banks where Irving loved to 

 linger and dream. Many an- 

 cinet beeches, their bark silvery 

 white, cut with deep initials and 

 lovers' hearts, keep guard 'over 

 the smooth path among the 

 Christmas ferns and bayberry. 

 Skunk cabbages stick their awl- 

 like shoots up through the black 

 loam just as they have for thou- 

 sands of years, ready to blossom 

 among the snowbanks of early 



FLYPSE-HIS CASTLE," ON THE BANKS OF POCANTICO BROOK, ERECTED BY FREDERICK 

 PHILSPSE, ONE OF THE RICH OLD DUTCH SETTLERS, AS EARLY AS 1683 



spring. We find oyster shells 

 where the bank of the brook has 

 fallen away remains, no doubt, 

 of the camping sites of the 

 Wequaesqueek Indians, from 

 whom the white men acquired 

 the mystic valley. We hunt over 

 the shell heaps for possible ar- 

 rowheads and flint hatchets, but 

 find none, for many curio hunt- 

 ers have gone before us in the 

 almost three hundred years since 

 a powerful savage tribe inhabited 

 this hollow. In the deep recesses 

 of the wood-lots the green moss 

 above the roots of giant hem- 

 locks is festooned with the lace- 

 work of partridgeberry vines, 

 and on the gray ledges under the 



THE LITTLE OLD STONE CHURCH IS IN KEEPING WITH THE MONUMENTS AND THEIR 

 DUTCH LEGENDS. WASHINGTON IRVING'S GRAVE IS FURTHER UP THE HILLSIDE 



