Merino high and near, over the bay, which is cultivated to its summit, and from whose crown the Highlands in the south, the Luzerne Mountains, near Lake George, in the north, the Katzbergs in the west, and the Green Mountains eastward, may be seen, blue and shadowy, and bounding the horizon with a grand and mysterious line, while at the feet of the observer, the city of Hudson lies like a picture spread upon a table. Directly opposite the city is Athens, a thriving little village, lying upon the river slope, and having a connection with its more stately sister by

means of a steam ferry-boat. It was first named Lunenberg, then Esperanza, and finally was incorporated under its present title. Behind it spreads out a beautiful country, inhabited by a population consisting chiefly of descendants of the Dutch. All through that region, from Coxsakie to Kingston, the Dutch language is still used in many families.

The country around Hudson is hilly and very picturesque, every turn in the road affording pleasant changes in landscape and agreeable surprises. A little northward, Claverack (Het Klauver Rack, the Clover Reach) Creek comes down from the hills in falls and cascades, and

presents many romantic little scenes. Near its banks, a few miles from Hudson, are mineral springs, now rising into celebrity, and known as the Columbia Sulphur Springs. The accommodations for invalids and pleasure-seekers are arranged in the midst of a fine hickory grove, and many persons spend the summer months there very delightfully, away from the fashionable crowd. The tourist should not omit a visit to these springs, nor to Lebanon Springs farther in the interior. The latter may

be reached by railway and stage-coaches from Hudson, with small expenditure of time and money.

The Lebanon Springs are the resort of many people during the summer months, but the chief attraction there to the tourist is a village two miles distant, upon a mountain terrace, composed entirely of celibates of both sexes, and of all ages, called Shakers. They number about five hundred,

* The Hudson Iron Works are at the entrance of the South Bay, on a point of low land between the river and the railway. They belong to a Stock Company. The chief business is the conversion of the crude iron ore into "pigs" ready for the manufacturer's use. Two kinds of ore are used-hematite from West Stockbridge, and magnetic from the Forest of Dean, Mines, in the Hudson Highlands. They produce about 16,000 tons of "pig-iron" annually.

and own and occupy ten thousand acres of land, all of which susceptible of tillage is in a state of highest cultivation. The sect or society of this singular people originated in England a little more than one hundred years ago. Ann Lee, the young wife of a blacksmith, who had borne several children, conceived the idea that marriage was impure and sinful. She found disciples, and after being persecuted as a fanatic for several years, she professed to have had a direct revelation that she was the female manifestation of the Christ upon earth, the male manifestation having been Jesus, the Deity being considered a duality-a being composed of both

sexes. She was, and still is, called "Mother Ann," and is revered by her followers with a feeling akin to worship. With a few of them she came to America, planted "the church" a few miles from Albany, at a place called Niskayuna, and there died. There are now eighteen distinct communities of this singular people in the United States, the aggregate membership numbering little more than four thousand. The community at New Lebanon is the most perfect of all in its arrangements, and there the hierarchy of the "Millennial Church" reside. Their strange forms

of worship, consisting chiefly in singing and dancing; their quaint costume, their simple manners, their industry and frugality, the perfection of all their industrial operations, their chaste and exemplary lives, and the unsurpassed beauty and picturesqueness of the country in which they are seated, render a visit to the Shakers of Lebanon a long-to-beremembered event in one's life.

About six miles below Hudson is the Oak-Hill Station, opposite the Katz-Kill (Cats-Kill) landing, at the mouth of the Katz-Kill, a clear and beautiful stream that flows down from the hill country of Schoharie County for almost forty miles. It was near here that the Half Moon anchored on the 20th September, 1609, and was detained all the next day on account of the great number of natives who came on board, and had a merry time. Master Juet, one of Hudson's companions, says, in his journal,-"Our master and his mate determined to trie some of the chiefe men of the countrey, whether they had any treacherie in them. So they tooke them downe into the cabbin, and gave them so much wine and aqua vite that they were all merrie, and one of them had his wife with him, which sate so modestly, as any of our countrey women would doe in a strange place. In the end, one of them was drunke, which had been aboord of our ship all the time that we had beene there and that was strange to them, for they could not tell how to take it. The canoes and folke went all on shoare, but some of them came againe, and brought stropes of beades [wampum, made of the clam-shell]; some had sixe, seven, eight, nine, ten, and gave him. So he slept all night quietly." The savages did not venture on board until noon the next day, when they were glad to find their old companion that was so drunk quite well again. They then brought on board tobacco, and more beads, which they gave to Hudson, "and made an Oration," and afterward sent for venison, which was brought on board.

At the Oak Hill station the tourist upon the railway will leave it for a trip to the Katzbergs before him, upon which may be seen, at the distance of eight miles in an air line, the "Mountain House," the famous resort for hundreds of people who escape from the dust of cities during the heat of summer. The river is crossed on a steam ferry-boat, and good omnibuses convey travellers from it to the pleasant village of Katz-Kill,

which lies upon a slope on the left bank of the stream bearing the same name, less than half a mile from its mouth. At the village, conveyances are ready at all times to take the tourist to the Mountain House, twelve miles distant by the road, which passes through a picturesque and highly cultivated country, to the foot of the mountain. Before making this

tour, however, the traveller should linger awhile on the banks of the Katz-Kill, from the Hudson a few miles into the country, for there may be seen, from different points of view, some of the most charming scenery in the world. Every turn in the road, every bend in the stream, presents