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. He declared that, in a severe squall, he saw him seated astride of his bowsprit riding the sloop ashore, full butt against Anthony's Nose, and that he was exorcised by Dominie Van Giesen, of Esopus, who happened to be on board, and who sang the hymn of St. Nicholas, whereupon the goblin threw himself up into the air like a ball, and went off in a whirlwind, carrying away with him the night-cap of the Dominie's wife, which was discovered the next Sunday morning hanging on the weather-cock of Esopus church steeple, at least forty miles off." Not many years ago the engine of an immense pumping apparatus of a coffer-dam was in operation at the foot of the great hill at a place called Caldwell's Landing. The story of that coffer-dam, in all its details, forms one of the most remarkable of the romances of the Hudson. It may only be given here in faint outline.

Many years ago an iron cannon was by accident brought up by an anchor from the bottom of the river at that point. It was suggested that it belonged to the pirate ship of Captain Kidd. A speculator caught the idea, and boldly proclaimed, in the face of recorded history to the contrary, that Kidd's ship had been sunken at that point with untold treasures on board.