''THE pathfinder:' 107 



spreads itself out into the wide Tappaan Zee, 

 forming a picturesque lake at the base of 

 the opposite mountains. Notwithstanding the 

 eligibility of the many commanding sites, 

 fine mansions do not abound. It is somewhat 

 too far from the great business mart for men 

 to go to town every morning and return every 

 afternoon. If the river be followed still 

 further to the Highlands, where the scenery is 

 most impressive, or to Poughkeepsie and 

 even beyond, where it is still beautiful if not 

 so wild, it will be found bordered at greater 

 intervals either by mansions of retired gentry 

 who go to spend the last years of their lives 

 in the country, or by villas for merely summer 

 occupation. 



On this bit of turnpike stands a fine house 

 once owned and occupied by a man now re- 

 tired from public notice, but who in his day 

 was one of the foremost characters of the 

 country. " The Pathfinder " he was called in 

 his youth, when, full of enthusiasm and love 

 for adventure, he traversed the prairie deserts, 

 discovered the Great Salt Lake beyond the 

 Rocky Mountains, and led his band of avant 

 couriers over the Sierras Nevadas down the 

 slope to the Pacific shore. He was the first 



