This was directly opposite West Point. "<*

"The Dundcr Berg (Thunder Mountain), that rises so grandly at the turn of the river opposite Pcekskill village, was so named because of the frequent thunder-storms that gather around its summit in summer. ' The captains of the river-craft,' says Irving, in his legend of the Storm-ship, "talk of a little bulbous-bottomed Dutch goblin, in trunkhose and sugar-loaf hat. with a speaking trumpet in his hand, which, they say, keeps the Dunder Berg. They declare that they have heard him in stormy whether, in the midst of the turmoil, giving

a At Bergen Point .

b At the head of the Highlands.

c South peak of Vredideka Hook.

d Moulton's Hist, of New York, pp. 239-239.

THE TOWN OF CORTLANDT.

orders in low Dutch for the piping up of a fresh gust of wind, or the rattling off of another thuuder-clap. Sometimes he has been seen surrounded by a crew of little imps in broad breeches and short doubtlets, tumbling head over heels in the rock and mist, and playing a thousand gambols in the air, or buzzing, like a swarm of flies about Anthony's nose ; and that at such times the hurry-scurry of the storm was always greatest.' The romancer tells us that at one time a terrible thunder-gust burst upon a sloop when passing the Dunder Berg, and ■he was in the greatest peril. Iler crew saw at the mast head a white sugar-loaf hat, and knowing that it belonged to the goblin of the Dunder Berg, dared not climb to get rid of it. The vessel sped swiftly through the Highlands into Newburg Bay, when the little hat suddenly sprung up, whirled the clouds into a vortex, and hurried them back to the Dunder Berg. " There is another story told of this'foul-weather urchin," says the romancer, "by Skipper Daniel Ouselesticker, of Fishkill, who was never known to tell a lie.