The two mountains between which the river passes are named in honor of two famous Indian chiefs, that on the New Jersey side being called Tammany, and the one on the Pennsylvania shore being known as Minsi. Chief Tammany was of the Delaware tribe, whose bravery and magnanimity was such that he was canonized as the patron saint of America, but his name is best perpetuated by New York City’s political organization. The two mountains, adjacent, and which were no doubt one before the wearing waters cut a way through it, exhibit marked differences, which, to a casual observer, would seem to controvert this theory. Mount Minsi is a graceful peak crowned with dense forest growths, while Tammany is a gigantic rock that rises in broken ledges, almost terraces, from the river, on one of which, two hundred feet above the river, a hotel has been built to accommodate summer tourists. And the scenery is grand enough to lure lovers of the picturesque in nature. Just below the hotel falls a silvery cascade whose waters are derived from Hunter’s Spring, that bursts out of the mountain side, and perambulates through many sequestered nooks, moss-covered and beflowered, before it drops into a pool called Diana’s Bath, thence over Caldeno Falls, and slides into the river. Above the source of the waterfall is a lofty ledge known as Lover’s Leap, and to the left another promontory called Prospect Rock, while near-by is a clear lake on the very apex of the mountain, which visitors are told is of an unfathomable depth.
But though Tammany is the more ruggedly picturesque, Minsi offers the more entrancing prospect, expanding on the east until the whole of New Jersey seems to be spread out to view. A mile below the Gap the scenery becomes curiously pretty, for the river has worn the banks into grottoes and fantastic forms. Here are such objects of interest as Indian Ladder Bluff, Cold-Air Cave, Point of Rocks, Bumer’s Spring, etc., while a few miles above the Gap there are bits of nature positively charming. Bushkill Creek pours its contribution into the Delaware five miles from the Gap and a few hundred yards from its outlet the stream tumbles over a precipice twenty feet high in a sheet of water that looks like a curtain of lace. On an affluent of the Bushkill are two other cataracts of even greater beauty, known as Buttermilk and Marshall, both of which may be reached in a half-hour’s walk from the river, and are within seven miles of the hotel on Tammany’s ledge. A feature of the Water Gap, which vies in interest with the natural scenery, is the railroad-bed around the base of Tammany, where it exacts a space from both the river and the mountain, in order to secure sufficient width for passage. At this point the gap is narrowest and the cliffs most stupendous, right where the jaws of the gorge are set in firmest resolution to prevent a full flow of the river, and where a rushing current betrays irritation at the impediment by a ceaseless roar.
Twenty-five miles above the Water Gap is another section of wild and weirdly grand scenery, where Dingman’s Creek carols through the copses and takes a header into the Delaware, like a swimmer at the bath. Dingman’s Ferry is a small hamlet containing a score of houses, but what it lacks in population is made up in public interest by its picturesque surroundings. The region is intersected by numerous streams, which are noted for their impetuous courses and numerous falls. Of these Colosseum Falls are the largest, and by many are regarded as the most beautiful; but Bridal Veil Falls are more exquisitely fascinating to the artist. The stream is not large, but the precipice is high, and so gracefully terraced that the water makes a succession of leaps, and each time is spread by the ledges until at its last fall it is as airy as a bride’s veil. Its sedgy banks and bosky shelves add to the general effect in a way that compels the thought of fairy bowers and naiads’ retreats. Factory Falls are the largest cataracts of this sylvan region, pouring a considerable volume of water over serrated brinks, and twisting around in shapely ways that add ineffable grace to the boiling, laughing and playful waters. Cadedenean Falls are almost as graceful, but are spread over a greater surface, and fall into the creek in the form of an outspread fan. The “Brakes and Braes of Bonny Doon” were not more charming to the eyes of the poet than the soul-delighting coverts and falls about Dingman’s. In the spring-time these streams are swollen to immense proportions, and it is then that the falls display their greatest grandeur, filling the woods with their torrential orisons; but in summer they exhibit the most marvelous graces, for it is then the waters are crystalline in their purity, and the dewy mosses along their brinks look like garlands of diamonds, which the branches of bordering thickets stoop down to kiss.
From Dingman’s Ferry our photographer passed on to Milford, and thence by the Erie Road to New York City, where a junction was made with the two other photographers for a trip to the sunny lands of the South.
CHAPTER XIII.
THROUGH LANGUOROUS LANDS OF THE SUNNY SOUTH.
TOMB OVER THE GRAVE OF WASHINGTON’S MOTHER, AT FREDERICKSBURG, VIRGINIA.
