CHAPTER XL 



The West Side of the Hudson. — The Discov- 

 erers Dream. — Revolutionary Memories. — 

 On Andre's Track. — Over the Ice-Bridge, — ■ 

 Fanny s Misgivings, 



Frequently passing up and down the 

 eastern bank of the Hudson River, whether by 

 rail or over the highway, the steep Palisades 

 and the range of which they form a part, 

 stretching far north to the higher Kaaterskills 

 on the western side, in their varied dresses of 

 the seasons, changing from green to russet- 

 gray, and then to the silver of the frozen tor- 

 rents or the dazzling white of midwinter, are 

 ever-present pictures of scenery which famili- 

 arity cannot render tame or uninteresting. 

 They seem to have been built up to hide some- 

 thing beyond and to excite our imagination 

 with conjectures of what it may be. As Irving 

 looked upon them from the porch of Sunnyside, 

 he peopled them with the beings of his own 



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