"
* * *
The Highlands are here moulded in all manner of heights and
hollows; sometimes reaching up abruptly to twelve or fifteen
hundred feet, and again stretching away in long gorges and gentle
declivities.
_Susan Warner._
* * *
=Pollopel's Island=, east of the steamer's route, was once regarded as
a haunted spot, but its only witches are said to be snakes too lively
to be enchanted. In old times, the "new hands" on the sloops were
unceremoniously dipped at this place, so as to be proof-christened
against the goblins of the Highlands. Here also another useless
"impediment" was put across the Hudson in 1779, a chevaux-de-frise
with iron-pointed spikes thirty feet long, hidden under water,
strongly secured by cribs of stone. This, however, was not broken and
would probably have done effective work if some traitor to the cause
had not guided the British captains through an unprotected passage.
The State at one time contemplated the purchase of this island on
which to erect a statue to Hendrick Hudson. For some reason Governor
Flower vetoed the bill.
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