That ridge along our eastern coast,
From Carolina to the Sound,
Opposed its front to Britain's host,
And heroes at each pass were found:

A vast primeval palisade,
With bastions bold and wooded crest,
A bulwark strong by nature made
To guard the valley of the west.

Along its heights the beacons gleamed,
It formed the nation's battle-line,
Firm as the rocks and cliffs where dreamed
The soldier-seers of Palestine.

It was also believed by the Indians that, in ancient days, "before the
Hudson poured its waters from the lakes, the Highlands formed one vast
prison, within whose rocky bosom the omnipotent Manitou confined
the rebellious spirits who repined at his control. Here, bound in
adamantine chains, or jammed in rifted pines, or crushed by ponderous
rocks, they groaned for many an age. At length the conquering Hudson,
in its career toward the ocean, burst open their prison-house, rolling
its tide triumphantly through the stupendous ruins."

* * *

The Highlands are here moulded in all manner of heights and
hollows; sometimes reaching up abruptly to twelve or fifteen
hundred feet, and again stretching away in long gorges and gentle