WEST POINT FROM EAGLE’S NEST.—This view of West Point, as all who are familiar with the scene will readily perceive, is taken from the opposite side of the Hudson River. It is historic ground, close to the place where Arnold lived and plotted his treason; where Washington passed so often to and fro during the times that sorely tried men’s souls; and in the immediate vicinity of many other incidents that brighten the pages of our country’s history with the glory of their renown. West Point and the picturesque region around it must forever hold a high place in the esteem and love of the American people, both for their historic associations and artistic beauty.
RAINBOW FALLS IN WINTER, ADIRONDACKS.
But when the sun is above the mountains and setting the landscape aglow with cheerful beams, these same fastnesses are a realm of romantic delight, for every peak is reflected in some lovely lake, while waterfalls appear to be pouring out of the sky and go chasing down the verdant slopes playing high-spy among the coverts and making the woods musical with their laughter. Near Ausable Ponds, guarded by Mount Marcy, are the beautiful Rainbow Falls, a very flood of opals, so iridescent does it appear when its waters catch the sunbeams. And near Tupper Lake are the Bogg’s River Falls, or cascades, that make the surrounding forest resound with their roaring, for they discharge an immense flood over a rock-infested course, and swell into a river a mile below.
Near the western margin of the Adirondacks is Long Lake, narrow as a river and many miles in length, but so still and crystalline that the lordly lake-trout may be seen sporting in its deepest water, as if challenging an angler. Its outlet is by way of a stream that flows by Owl’s Head and into Forked Lake. Between these points is Buttermilk Falls, stately and impetuous, but symmetrical and rhythmic, as it courses over gentle terraces and drops, step by step, into the rapids which crowd from shore to shore and keep the stream in a state of constant agitation.
Northeast of Buttermilk Falls is Adirondack station, on Henderson Lake, which is the central point of this whole mountain region, and a place where tourists are usually found in large numbers. Near the north end of the lake is Wall-Face Mountain, commanding an extensive view, and midway is Indian Pass, which is a tremendous chasm through what is known as the Dismal Wilderness. Notwithstanding the large number of visitors who annually summer in the vicinity, so dense is the forest and jungle-growth that surrounds the Pass, and so inaccessible the deepest portions of the gorge, that very few explorers have succeeded in making their way through it, and no one is sufficiently familiar with the region to act as a competent guide. It has been ascertained, however, that within the Pass, which is intersected by several streams, are springs which are the source of Ausable River, which, emptying into Champlain, finds an outlet into the Atlantic by way of the St. Lawrence, and also of the Hudson, whose drainage is in the opposite direction; and yet so close are these springs that it is possible to drink from each without shifting one’s position. In this vicinity is Gill Brook, which is picturesquely broken by Surprise Falls, composed of a succession of sharp leaps over limestone ledges, but so narrow that the forest trees form a perfect canopy above, excluding a sight of both river and falls until the visitor approaches within a few feet of the stream. But the entire region so abounds with lakes, mountains, gorges, waterfalls and cataracts that to describe all its attractions would be wearisome iteration, for there is an unavoidable sameness in the pen-pictures of scenery, however variable in character.