WESTCHESTER COUNTY. <] 



of Westchester County which divides its attrac- 

 tions with its neighbors, Mahopac, Oscawana, 

 Mohansic and Osceola, all of them within fifty 

 miles of New York, and all, with the exception 

 of Mahopac, little known and almost undis- 

 turbed in the seclusion of nature. The people 

 of the crowded city who go out of it in the sum- 

 mer to the Kaaterskills, the White Mountains or 

 to the greater altitudes in more distant Colora- 

 do, surely have not informed themselves of the 

 scarcely less romantic scenery and healthful cli- 

 mate that is within their reach in an hour. Here 

 in the hills, which almost deserve the name of 

 mountains, are primeval forests and leafy sol- 

 itudes, rushing torrents and quiet glens that need 

 no distance to lend enchantment to the view. 

 Most of this soil is too rough for remunerative 

 agriculture, and it is difficult to understand how, 

 with all their industry and economy, the hardy 

 inhabitants manage to gain a livelihood. 



The roads were hard and smooth and the clat- 

 ter of my horse's hoofs rang cheerily in the crisp 

 air when I left Mohegan. A lively gallop soon 

 brought us fourteen miles on our way easterly 

 over the hills to the little village of Somerstown. 

 Like a great castle on the Rhine, with its 

 two or three adjacent appurtenances, a large 



