88 Mr. Pierce on the Catskill Mountains. 



the brawling stream, which here presents considerable cas- 

 cades — The mountain seems torn asunder to give passage to 

 the river leaving lofty perpendicular walls of rock on its bor- 

 ders — A short distance above, the stream falls in a circular 

 column near one hundred feet. South of the clove the 

 mountain rises to a great height — its steep northern side is 

 thickly clothed with trees of varied verdure — Rivulets are 

 seen winding rapidly down the glens or sporting in cascades. 



The most considerable branch of the Kauterskill has its 

 origin in two mountain lakes situated near the Delaware turn- 

 pike, between two and three thousand feet above the Hudson. 

 They cover about t-Tv^o hundred acres of ground, and are 

 very shallow — no where of greater depth than ten feet. 

 They contain cat-fish, and great numbers of the brown va- 

 riety of leeches, some of them six inches in length. 

 , The river from its outlet at the lake descends by rapids and 

 fallsjthrougha romantic ravine to the great clove. In one place 

 it is precipitated p'^rpendicularly about two hundred feet. 

 This fall is often visited by the curious, A road has been 

 recently worked from its vicinity down a wild glen parallel 

 with the Kauterskill, to the clove, to facilhate access to a 

 mountain mass of very friable, fine grained argillaceous red 

 sandstone, supposed by the proprietors of the ground, to be 

 valuable as a paint, although softer, and of a deeper color 

 than the red sandstone observed in almost every ravine of 

 the mountain, yet it does not appear to have sufficient oxide 

 of iron to give it such a body as to form a useful pigment. 



At the head of the great clove the western branch of the 

 Kauterskill falls perpendicularly one hundred and twenty 

 feet from projecting cliffs, and descends in rapids and cas- 

 cades four hundred feet in about one hundred rods. 



The Platterkill clove, situated about five miles south of 

 the Kauterskill, is httle known, except to the inhabitants of 

 its vicinity. I recently passed up this glen by a narrow dug 

 way which rose to a midway region of the mountain, north 

 of the river Platterkill. 



For tvi^o miles you look down the precipitous side into a 

 deep ravine near one thousand feet, where the Platterkill 

 pursues a raging course among the rocks, presenting numer- 

 ous rapids and falls. Lesser streams are seen descending 

 the precipitous south mountain from an altitude of two thou- 



