158 WAKE-ROBIN 
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 hem- 
lock 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 mountains there are no sharp peaks, 
or abrupt declivities, as in a volcanic region, but 
long, uniform ranges, heavily timbered to their sum- 
mits, 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 be- 
hind the other. If a few large trees are missing 
on the sky line, one can see the break a long dis- 
tance off. 
Approaching this region from the Hudson River 
side, you cross a rough, rolling stretch of country, 
skirting the base of the Catskills, which from a 
point near Saugerties sweep inland; after a drive 
of a few hours you are within the shadow of a high, 
bold mountain, which forms a sort of butt-end to 
this part of the range, and which is simply called 
High Point. To the east and southeast it slopes 
down rapidly to the plain, and looks defiance toward 
the Hudson, twenty miles distant; in the rear of 
it, and radiating from it west and northwest, are 
numerous smaller ranges, backing up, as it were, 
this haughty chief. 
