give a brief description of the romantic and historic River Hudson. This
river runs through the great State of New York, concerning which the
greatest ignorance prevails. The State itself is dwarfed, in common
estimation, by the magnitude of its metropolis, and if the Greater New
York project is carried into execution, and the limits of New York City
extended so as to take in Brooklyn and other adjoining cities, this
feeling will be intensified, rather than otherwise.

But "above the Harlem," to use an expression so commonly used when a
political contest is on, there are thousands of square miles of what may
be called "country," including picturesque mountains, pine lands which
are not susceptible of cultivation, and are preserved for recreation and
pleasure purposes, and fertile valleys, divided up into homesteads and
farms.

It is through country such as this that the River Hudson flows. It rises
in the Adirondack Mountains, some 300 miles from the sea, and more than
4,000 feet above its level. It acts as a feeder and outlet for numerous
larger and smaller lakes. At first it is a pretty little brook, almost
dry in summer, but noisy and turbulent in the rainy seasons. From
Schroon Lake, near Saratoga, it receives such a large quantity of water
that it begins to put on airs. It ceases to be a country brook and
becomes a small river. A little farther down, the bed of the river falls
suddenly, producing falls of much beauty, which vary in intensity and
volume with the seasons.

At Glens Falls the upper Hudson passes through a long defile, over a
precipice some hundred feet long. It was here that Cooper received much
of his inspiration, and one of the most startling incidents in his "The
Last of the Mohicans" is supposed to have been enacted at the falls.