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CHAPTER III.

The Steam-Boat, North America—Trip in her from New York to Albany-The Hudson River-Breakfast and Dinner in the Steam-Boat -Spit-boxes-Eagle Inn at Albany-Fulton's Discovery of Steam Navigation-Henry Bell, of Glasgow, built first Steam-Boat in Britain in 1812-First Steam-Boat in Western Rivers of America in 1811.

August 1828.

THE Continuance of intense heat (Fahrenheit's thermometer at 90,) having led us to shorten our stay at New York, we, that is, the friend who accompanied us, my wife and I, proceeded on 28th August from New York to Albany, in the North America steamer, the most beautiful and swift of the floating palaces on the Hudson, or, as I believe, I may add with truth, in the world. She left New York at 7 A. M., and arrived here at half-past 5 P. M.

The distance is 154 miles, and the scenery throughout of the most interesting and diversified description. We feel, as having seen more of the beauties of nature in one day than we have ever done before, far too much to allow us accurately to recollect all that passed before us, or to give even a sketch of it.

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The boat leaves the wharf in the very heart of the city of New York, surrounded by splendid objects; on the one side of the river, the city and bay of New York; and on the other, at the distance of a mile and a-half, the city of Jersey, projected into the river, very much as Burntisland is on the Firth of Forth, the promontory and pleasure-grounds of Hoboken, and behind them the abrupt hills of Weehawken. Those hills, which, when they approach the river, are called the Palisadoes, form in most places a precipitous wall, from 200 to 700 feet high, for about thirty miles on the western side of the river. The New York, or eastern side, exhibits a waving outline of rich, cultivated, and undulating country, ornamented with villas, farmhouses, and cottages, and bounded by sloping rising grounds.

The river itself expands into a noble bay, four or five miles wide, called the Tappan Sea, about thirty miles from New York, at the top of which, ten miles farther on, the banks approach each other so closely, that the channel, through which the river has at a distant period forced its way by some violent convulsion, is not perceived until you almost enter it. Here we suddenly found ourselves in a narrow pass between precipitous mountain tops, rising on both sides from the water's edge to an elevation of 1200 or 1500 feet. These mountains or hills, as we should view them, are what are called the Highlands of the Hudson; and this the entry to them seemed to us the most remarkable point on the river, not to be contemplated without

feelings of the deepest interest. The river course continues to run in this defile among romantic hills covered with wood, sweetly inlaid with plateaus of green pasture, and of table land, for about twenty miles. The farm-houses and villages look as if they hang on the cliffs, or as if rising by terraces from the water edge. The river is of various breadths, from a mile and a-half to two miles. The projecting rocks often force it to change its direction, so much indeed, that you frequently appear to be sailing in a lake, from which you cannot discover an outlet.

Fort Putnam, Stoney Point, and the chief military posts of the Americans on the northern territory during the revolutionary war, and of course the most interesting places in their history, the scenes of Arnold's treachery, and of Andre's misfortunes, are all situated on the banks of this part of the river. West Point, which is placed on a beautiful piece of level land above the river, is now the great military academy for all the states of the North American confederacy.

The ocean tides carry sufficient depth of water for the largest vessels through the whole of this primitive mountain chain, exhibiting the only example yet discovered where this takes place, excepting on the St Lawrence, which passes through a chain of primitive mountains, on a breach of which Quebec stands.

After leaving the Highlands, the banks of the river are comparatively low, 100 or 150 feet in height. The hills through which we had passed incline to the right, and do not break off till they reach the St Lawrence.

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The river for sixty or seventy miles frequently opens into beautiful lakes and bays, with projecting and marked shores. Great part of this district, which is called the Valley of the Hudson, consists of good land and fine corn-fields, and is one of the richest parts of the state of New York. The town of Newburg on the one side, the village of Fishkill on the other, the noble terrace of Hyde Park, the Dutchess County, famed for its fertility, are all situated in the southern part of this reach. On the upper part of it, the grand range of mountains called the Catskills, about 3000 feet high, which are a spur from the Alleghanies, and the populous city of Hudson strikingly placed on a fine promontory, are the most prominent objects. . From Hudson to Albany, about forty miles, the Hudson has more the appearance of a river than below. It is here ornamented with many islands,—the shores become less steep, the country rich looking, and more peopled. Villas on the banks appear more frequently in approaching Albany, the view of which, from the river, is very striking. The oldest part of the city reaches to the water's edge, but a great part of it is on a fine elevation on the face of a hill.

The Hudson was discovered by a native of England, Henry Hudson, then in the service of the Dutch government, and in quest of a north-west passage to India. An original portrait of him hangs in the city hall of New York.

The Hudson is still a large river, and navigable for small sloops to Waterford, thirty miles north from Al

bany, above which the tides do not flow. It is there joined by the Mohawk river, a considerable stream. The sources of both rivers are in the northern parts of New York state, at the distance of about 120 miles from Waterford. The direction of the river from New York to Albany is pretty directly to the north, with occasionally a slight inclination to the westward.

Whether the glorious scenery of the Hudson be superior to that of the Rhine, the Danube, or any of the European rivers, which many of the Americans who have travelled in Europe maintain, I, who have not seen the greatest of those rivers, do not pretend to say, --but I am very much mistaken, if there be anywhere continuously in Great Britain so remarkable a combination of natural beauty and romantic scenery as on the Hudson between New York and Albany. Nowhere in the British dominions can so great variety of interesting and pleasing objects be seen in the course of a single day. The Trosachs resemble the passage through the Highlands of the Hudson, though in miniature in all respects but one, the grandeur of the bounding objects. The lofty mountains of the Highlands of Scotland impart a character of sublimity to those justly celebrated works of nature, which is here to a certain extent awanting.

No stranger should visit New York without seeing the Hudson. If his time be limited, so that he cannot make his voyage by divisions at the rate of fifty or sixty miles a-day, he may get a tolerable idea of the beauties of the river, and of the excellence of the North Ameri

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