of the Catskill Mountains. 437 
without depth. Jones’ Gap, between Hunter and Rusk Moun- 
tains, is the only one through which a wagon road passes. 
The Broadstreet Gap, in the middle of the Westkill chain, has 
hardly more than a mountain trail. The Hollow Tree Gap, 
near Hunter Mountain, and Peck’s Gap, in the western half, are 
even less accessible. All this district between the Stony Clove 
and Deep Hollow gorge, the Esopus and Schoharie Creek, is 
still one of the wildest and least known of the Catskills. 
west. It begins on the east by the Beech Ridge with a slightly 
undulating top reaching in the Vlaie Mountain 8581 feet; is 
depressed in the Halcott Gap to 2725 feet, beyond which it 
rises again to the height of 8545 feet in the Bear Pen. It 
somewhat declines in Pond Mountain and the Ontiora, or 
Roundtop, at the head of the little Westkill, 8458 feet, and 
terminates by Jones Mountain, hardly lower than Ontiora, and 
the Irish Mountain near Grand Gorge. 
Ontiora deserves a special mention for the great beauty and 
extent of the view it affords from its summit. 
It is one of the two or three mountain tops which are free 
from trees. From this high observatory the eye takes in at 
one glance almost the totality of the Catskills including the 
Slide Mountain on the extreme south; High Peak and Black 
Head, on the east; Windham High Peak, Pisgah and Ashland 
Pinnacle, on the northeast; Utsyantha, on the northwest; and 
the innumerable hills of Delaware county, on the west and 
south. It has besides the merit of being easy of access by a 
well graded road from Prattsville and Batavia Kill, passing 
within half a mile of its summit at an elevation of 3180 feet. 
This portion of the central chain unlike the preceding one has, 
on its southwestern slope, long and broad valleys—the Halecott 
Bushkill, Batavia Kill and Roxbury—whose waters form the 
east branch of the Delaware; and between which are ridges, 
Sometimes full as high (such as the Red Kill Mountain 3540 
wa tg the main chain with which they are connected. 
e northeastern, or interior, slope is much less abrupt than 
in the Westkill chains. The only indentation of importance 
is the valley of the little Westkill. : 
The fourth and last division of the central chain, from Grand 
Gorge to Utsyantha, six miles, begins with the Bald Mountain 
near the Grand Gorge Depot of the Ulster & Delaware Railroad, 
continues by the slightly higher chain of the Moresville 
ountains and, beyond a gap of moderate depression, termin- 
ates suddenly in the Utsyantha Mountain, near Stamford, with 
