Its curving contours, from any point of view, are so nearly perfect that it is inconceivable that the work now going on can result in anything but permanent injury. No one can tell how long this outrage is to continue if the people of the State do not take measures to protect themselves ; but as there seems to be no limit to the gravel market, it is reasonable to suppose that a future generation may find a low and barren stone heap on the site of this ancient landmark. The offence to the eye, to the artistic sense, to our innate love for beauty, is not the

224 The Hudson River

only nor the greatest wrong done by the defacement of Point-no-Point. The offence to the ear, the injury done to the nervous system is a ground on which to base pubhc action. A population of several thousand people in several towns and villages on the east bank of the river is continually disturbed by the heavy blasting, that is like the discharge of great parks of artillery. Curiously, the jarring and the noise are much more severely apparent to the people of Ossining, Croton, Scarborough, and Tarrytown than at Nyack or New City, or Haverstraw. Even as far away as Tarrytown, which is eight or ten miles distant across the river, windows are shaken, and the sick often seriously disturbed by the heavy detonations, while at Ossining, more nearly opposite the Point, invalids and the aged are particularly distressed by the rattling and shaking, the shock and the uproar. It is time that there should be a general understanding of the rights of the ]xiblic in such matters. Already, in numberless ways, the right of public protection isadmitted. In the erection of buildings, the establishment of unsavoury enterprises, the storage of dangerous explosives, or the traffic in infected goods, the right of communal defence against individual aggression isenforced.