home is one of the most charming retreats to be found on the banks of the Hudson from the wilderness to the sea.

About four miles below Poughkeepsie is an ancient stone farm-house and a mill, at the mouth of Spring Brook, at the eastern terminus of the Milton Ferry. Here, during the old war for independence, lived Theophilus Anthony, a blacksmith, farmer, miller, and staunch Whig, who used his forge for most rebellious purposes. He assisted in making a great chain (of which I shall hereafter write), that was stretched across the Hudson in the Highlands at Fort Montgomery, to prevent the British ships of war

ascending the river and carrying invading troops into the heart of the country. For this offence, when the chain and accompanying boom were forced, and the vessels of Vaughan carried the firebrand to Esopus or Kingston, the rebel blacksmith's mill was laid in ashes, and he was confined in the loathsome Jersey prison-ship at New York, where he had ample time for reflection and penitence for three weary years. Alas! the latter never came. He was a sinner against ministers, too hardened for repentance, and he remained a rebel until the close of his life. Another mill soon arose from the ashes of the old one, and there his grandsons, the

Messrs. Gill were grinding wheat when we were there for the descendants of both Whigs and Tories, and never inquired into the politics of the passengers upon their boat at the Milton Ferry. That boat was keeping alive the memory of times before steam was used for navigation. It was one of only two vessels of the kind upon the Hudson in 1860, that were propelled by horse-power. The other was at Coxsakie. The Milton ferry-boat has since been withdrawn.

Opposite Spring Brook is the village of Milton, remarkable, like its

sister, Marlborough, a few miles below, for the picturesque beauty of the surrounding country and the abundance of Antwerp raspberries produced in its vicinity every year. There and at some places on the eastern shore, are the chief sources of the supply of that delicious fruit for the city of New York; and the quantity raised is so great, that a small steamboat is employed for the sole purpose of carrying raspberries daily to the city. These villages are upon high banks, and are scarcely visible from the river. They have a background of rich farming lands, terminating

C C

beyond a sweet valley by a range of lofty hills that are covered with the primeval forest. They are the resort of New Yorkers during the heat of

summer.

Eight miles below Poughkeepsie is the little village of New Hamburg, situated at the foot of a rocky promontory thickly covered with the Arbor Vitæ, or white cedar, and near the mouth of the Wappingi's Creek. Through this bluff the Hudson River Railway passes in a tunnel 800 feet in length, and then crosses the mouth of the Wappingi, upon a causeway

Here

and drawbridge. All over this rocky bluff, including the roof of the tunnel, the Arbor Vitæ shrubs stand thickly; and present, according to Loudon, the eminent English writer on horticulture and kindred subjects, some of the finest specimens of that tree to be found in the world. they may be seen of all sizes and most perfect forms, from the tiny shrub to the tall tree that shows its stem for several feet from the ground. The most beautiful are those of six to ten feet in height, whose branches shoot out close to the ground, forming perfect cones, and exhibiting nothing to the eye but delicate sprays and bright green leaves. When quite small these shrubs may be successfully transplanted; but under cultivation they

sometimes lose their perfect form, and become irregular, like the common cedar tree. They are beginning to be extensively used for hedges, and the ornamentation of pleasure grounds.*

A pleasant glimpse of Marlborough, through a broad ravine, may be obtained from the rough eminence above the New Hamburg tunnel, and also from the lime-kilns at the foot of the bluff, on the edge of the river, where a ferry connects the two villages. But one of the most interesting views on the Hudson, in this vicinity, is from the gravelly promontory

near the town, at the mouth of the Wappingi's Creek-a large stream that comes down from the hills in the north-eastern part of Duchess County, dispensing fertility and extensive water-power along its whole course. It is navigable for a mile and a half from its mouth, when it falls seventyfive feet, and furnishes power used by quite a large manufacturing village. It is usually incorrectly spelled Wappingers. Its name is derived from

* The Arbor Vitee is the Thuya Occidentalis of Linnæus. It is not the genuine white cedar, although it frequently bears that name. In New England it is often called Hackmatack. Its leaves lie in flattened masses along the stems, and each is filled with a vesicle containing a thin aromatic turpentine. It bears yellowish brown cones, about five lines in length.

the Wappingi tribe of Indians, who, with the Matteawans, inhabited this beautiful region on the Hudson, just north of the Highlands. It should be written Wappingi's Creek.

From that gravelly height the Highlands, the village of Newburgh, and a large portion of the lower part of the "Long Reach" from Newburgh to Crom Elbow, are seen; with the flat rock in the river, at the head of Newburgh Bay and near its western shore, known as Den Duyvel's Dans Kamer, or the Devil's Dance Chamber. This rock has a level surface of about half an acre (now covered with beautiful Arbor Vitæ shrubs), and is

separated from the main-land by a marsh. On this rock the Indians performed their peculiar semi-religious rites, called pow-wows, before going upon hunting and fishing expeditions, or the war-path. They painted themselves grotesquely, built a large fire upon this rock, and danced around it with songs and yells, making strange contortions of face and limbs, under the direction of their conjurors or "medicine men." They would tumble, leap, run, and yell, when, as they said, the Devil, or Evil Spirit, would appear in the shape of a beast of prey, or a harmless animal; the former apparition betokened evil to their proposed undertaking, and