158 POLLIPELL 3 ISLAND. 



of this shoal and reef, immediately opposite the mouth of the 

 river, and nearly in the rear of an islet still existing, with the 

 attending fact that some of the early voyagers mention five, and 

 even six as the number of islands in the bay, establish this 

 tradition as perfectly reliable. 



Not so, however, with that old legend which would make us 

 believe that the solid granite of Pollipell's island once floated 

 about Newburgh bay, thumping and grinding against its iron 

 headlands, and that even now, anchored by a huge grape vine, 

 it swings to and fro in the jaws of the Highlands, threatening at 

 times to close them up completely. Yet the story, absurd as it 

 is, has that in its very extravagance which may recommend it 

 to some minds ; and now that the grave attention of Geologists 

 has been turned to the well known, but still inexplicable phe- 

 nomenon of what are called " creeping rocks," observable in 

 some of our northern lakes, and of which Sebago pond in Maine 

 is popularly noted for so remarkable a specimen, a new interest 

 attaches to the ingenious fancies of our aborigines when con- 

 ceiving or explaining these mysteries of nature. 



These geologists too, are raising some queer questions about 

 former feats of this mighty river, which have no slight bearing 

 upon the dignity of our present subject. An enormous boulder 

 of granite for instance, a rock nearly one fourth the size of 

 Pollipell's island, is found sixty miles from the Hudson High- 

 lands, upon the flat shores of Long Island. Drawings and 

 measurements are made of it : a broken cliff" in the Highlands 

 is also measured, examined, and every line in its profile minutely 



