180 BIRCH BROWSINGS. 



nave observed, is nowhere found upon them. " Birch 

 Mountains " would be a more characteristic name, as 

 on their summits birch is the prevailing tree. They 

 are the natural home of the black and yellow birch, 

 which grow here to unusual size. On their sides 

 beech and maple abound ; while mantling their lower 

 slopes, and darkening the valleys, hemlock formerly 

 enticed the lumberman and tanner. Except in re- 

 mote 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. Passing 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 bowls of the trees, just stripped of their bark, 

 being visible a long distance. 



Among these.moun tains there are no sharp peaks, 

 or abrupt declivities, as in a volcanic region, but long, 

 uniform ranges, heavily timbered to their summits, 

 and delighting the eye with vast, undulating horizon 

 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 

 ane, one can see the break a long distance off. 



Approaching this region from the Hudson River 

 side, you cross a rough, rolling stretch of country, 



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