A YEAR IN THE FIELDS 



formerly enticed the lumberman and tanner. 

 Except in remote or inaccessible localities, 

 the latter tree is now almost never found. 

 In Shandaken and along the Esopus it is 

 about the only product the country yielded, 

 or is likely to yield. Tanneries by the 

 score have arisen and flourished upon the 

 bark, and some of them still remain. Pass- 

 ing through that region the present season^ 

 I saw that the few patches of hemlock that 

 still lingered high up on the sides of the 

 mountains were being felled and peeled, the 

 fresh white boles of the trees, just stripped 

 of their bark, being visible a long distance. 



Among these mountains there are no 

 sharp peaks, or abrupt declivities, as in a 

 volcanic region, but long, uniform ranges, 

 heavily timbered to their summits, and de- 

 lighting the eye with vast, undulating hori- 

 zon lines. Looking south from the heights 

 about the head of the Delaware, one sees 

 twenty miles away a continual succession 

 of blue ranges, one behind the other. If a 

 few large trees are missing on the sky line, 

 one can see the break a long distance off. 



Approaching this region from the Hud- 

 son River side, you cross a rough, rolling 

 stretch of country, skirting the base of the 



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