It did seem dreadful; but it took the people who really cared so long to wake up to the dreadfulness of what was being done, and so much longer to discover a way to stop it, that before thev could do anything Indian Head was gravel. However, the people succeeded, though apparently with some difficulty, in saving the rest of the Palisades. The blasting and crushing processes which were at once an offence to the ear, the eye, and the aesthetic sensibilities of all good people, were finally interfered with effectually and the stone-crushers remo\'ed to other fields. Years ago that craggy point was a favourite lookout station for the red men. For how many hundreds of years they had used it, no one can ever know, but if the story related to the author b}' one who lived in the vicinity and had a curious love for Indian lore can be accepted as true, then the immemorial years must have rounded almost into millenniums between the time of the first outlook on that grey old crag and the last.

202 The Hudson River

The ston- is this: That there was a well-defined path worn in the rock and leading to the very highest point, and there, deeply indented, were three hollows, such as would be made by the knees and hand of one who was kneeling and bent a little forward. The narrator claimed that he fell naturally into that attitude in order to get a steady and restful position and that he noticed that his knees and palm fitted into the depressions. It is possible that the gentleman may have been in error in his conclusions, but that lonely vidette, waiting through uncounted centuries for the appearance of the ship of destiny that must at last arrive with the forerunner of the white conquerors, appeals strongly to the imagination.