ire 



UNITED STATESs 



nage and capacity, for the extensive business those 

 settlements have to transact; it has been found ne- 

 cessary to deepen the bed of the rivers, by a very* 

 laborious and expensive undertaking, in order to 

 render it navigable to Lansingburg and Waterford* 

 The Hudson thus will be nav?^able from Sandy Hook 

 to the Half-Moon Point, adjacent to the northern 

 branch of the Mohavv^k. In this long course of about 

 two hundred miles, there is not a single cataract, 

 lior even a rapid. At Albany the tide flows about 

 one foot. The chief impediments to navigation are 

 some bars of sand and Bats of mud, with here 

 and there rocks ; such as are common in most 

 rivers. 



But, between Albany and New York, the Hudson 

 passes two ranges of mountains ; and yet neither the 

 Blue mountains nor the Rockland chain give any im- 

 pediment to its course. 



A few observations may explain this remarkable 

 circumstance. The Blue mountains d)o not exist on 

 the east side of the Hudson, unless the Tacconick 

 hills, bordering on the v,^estern extremity of Massa- 

 chusetts, may be considered as belonging to them. 

 But, admitting this, there is stiil a tract of level 

 country extending from one of these heights to the 

 other. Through this the Hudson finds its way ; and, 

 as the Blue mountains rise seven miles to the west- 

 ward of the river, it rather passes by than through 

 them^ 



Thus it glides along, until the width to which it 

 spreads at New Windsor, is contracted to the nar- 

 row bounds which restrain it as it holds its alm.ost 

 unchanging course to the southj through the moun- 



