Kingsbridge 331 



upon the Cock Hill on Manhattan that there was to be found 

 the spouting spring which is supposed to have given its name 

 to the locality. 



Upon the higher part of the neck, the section is entirely 

 residential, and there are many beautiful houses and pieces 

 of property. The ridge ends in a bold, rocky bluff, from which 

 is obtained a beautiful and picturesque view. At our feet 

 is the winding creek entering the broad and majestic Hudson, 

 which here, by contrast, appears as a lake; across the river 

 towers the perpendicular frontage of the Palisades; while 

 across the creek is the gently rising and heavily wooded dome 

 of Cox's Hill on Manhattan, still so unimproved by man as to 

 convince us of the surpassing beauty of this locality when 

 Hudson and his crew first viewed its shores. Even as a boy, 

 when I passed the entrance of the creek on Hudson River 

 steamers, I used to look into this entrance and think it looked 

 like the entrance to Paradise. To the southward and east- 

 ward, Marble Hill rises with its residences, and at its foot is 

 the western entrance to the Ship Canal; while still farther 

 away our view extends to the heights of Fordham with the 

 great buildings of the Roman Catholic Orphan Asylum and of 

 the New York University outlined against the sky ; still farther 

 away are those engineering triumphs, High Bridge and Wash- 

 ington Bridge. When moonlight spreads its glamor over the 

 scene, even the ugly railroad bridge at the mouth of the 

 creek appears beautiful. 



On the morning of October 22, 1609, the Half-Moon left 

 her anchorage at Teller's Point near the mouth of the Croton 

 River and made twenty-one miles to the southward during 

 the day; but, encountering head winds and tides, she was 

 obliged to anchor in the afternoon off the mouth of Spuyten 

 Duvvil Creek. 



