from the Haverstraw hills -- or, one should say, views, for there is a panorama of them -- are of unique beauty. The swelling shoulder of Point-no-Point is below, and, still more to the south, the venerable figure of High Taur. Croton and Sing Sing lie opposite, and;' northward, the buttressed gates of the Highlands. There is a legend of High Taur that runs something in this wise: Amasis, one of the magi, long ago found his way to America and took to himself a native wife, by whom he had one child. On the summit of High Taur he built an altar, refusing the sun worship of the Indians; but they were enraged, and set upon and would have killed him had not a miracle saved him. An earthquake swallowed his enemies, and incidentally opened the present channel through which the Hudson flows. Another story follows : A band of German colonists settled here two centuries or more ago, men who knew how to extract metal from the rocks. Their leader, a nobleman, Hugo by name, refused to follow the custom of the old country, which decreed that the forge fires should be extinguished once in seven years. The belief used to ol)tain that a salamander grew in the fire, and if allowed to remain unmolested for more than seven years would develop his perfect form and be able to issue from the flames and work incalculable mischief among men. But Hugo laughed at the superstitious murmurings of his men, till one day he and they saw the dreadful monster take shape, -- the shape