119 



north here, skirting the hill, with Spuyten Duyvil Creek on the 

 right, and eventually ends at Shorakapkok Glen. 



Geographic Features. Inwood Park contains three principal 

 elevations. 1. Cock Hill, so called during Revolutionary times, 

 with an altitude of about 220 feet, is the highest and western- 

 most, commanding a view of the Hudson and the Palisades to 

 the west and northwest, as well as the mouth of Spuyten 

 Duyvil Creek^ where it enters the Hudson. It is also generally 

 known as Inwood Hill. On a southern shoulder of this hill 

 stands the "House of Rest." (p. 121). 2. Almost due south of 

 Cock Hill lies another, lesser elevation, about 140 feet at the 

 highest point, which we may call "Ostrya Hill,'^ from two 

 small hop-hornbeams (Ostrya virginia^ia) near its northern 

 end. Here a ledge of bare rock is exposed, from which is afforded 

 a view to the eastward of the upper part of Manhattan and, 

 at certain points, of University Heights (New York University) ; 

 also to the northward, through the trees, of the hill beyond 

 Spuyten Duyvil Creek. 3. Northeast of Ostrya Hill is still an- 

 other eminence, of about the same elevation (really a shoulder- 

 like extension of Ostrya Hill) and plateau-like — so flat, indeed, 

 that a tennis court, it appears, was once located there. For 

 this, because there are splendid specimens of five different 

 species of oak growing there within a short radius, we would 

 suggest the name ''Hill of the Five Oaks." 



Shorakapkok Glen, also known locally as Cold Spring Hol- 

 low,2 the depression between the Hill of the Five Oaks and Cock 

 Hill, slopes gradually upward toward the south from the shore 

 of Spuyten Duyvil Creek. On its western side, in caves formed 

 of giant slabs of rock which in past ages became detached from 



1 Spuyten Duyvil Creek gets its name from Spyt den duivel, which is the 

 Dutch equivalent for "in spite of the devil." "Supposed to be derived from the 

 following circumstance: When the English fleet appeared in New Amsterdam 

 (New York) Harbor, the governor's trumpeter was sent to warn the farmers 

 up the Hudson and summon them to the defense of the city; on reaching this 

 creek he found no ferryman willing to take him across on account of the high 

 wind, and swore to cross the stream "spyt den duivel"; but was drowned in 

 the attempt to swim across." Encyclopedia Americana. Vol. 25, p. 461. 1928. 

 This narrow strip of water, which bounds the north end of Manhattan Island, 

 connects the Harlem and the Hudson Rivers. Since it was straightened for 

 navigation purposes it is now often known as the "Ship Canal." 



2 Bolton, Reginald Pelham. Washington Heights, Manhattan : its event- 

 ful past. p. 2. Dyckman Institute: New York, 1924. 



