Here, at an elevation of a hundred feet above the river, all arrangements were made for the convenience of a permanent camp. A reser\'oir was formed by damming a brook, and the water distributed in jnpes through the grounds, while facilities for cooking on a large scale have also l:)een perfected. Here, summer after summer, the \'arious regiments of the National Guard have succeeded each other in encampments that have come to be a feature of the service. The point known as Roa Hook was the site of Fort Independence. A hotel occupied the s]:)ot in the forties and some of the steamboats made it a stopping place; but the working of valuable gravel pits gradually undermined the bluff' on which it stood.

320 The Hudson River

Peekskill looks out upon the Dunderberg and Bear Mountain. Verplanck's Point stretches to the south, and northward is the deep, narrow channel of the Highlands. Irving compared Peekskill Bay with Lake Como; it would be difficult in any part of the world to find a spot the natural features of which conspire to form a scene of more exquisite loveliness. From the lighthouse at Stony Point to that on lona Island the grand sweep of the opi^osite shore appeals to the imagination, producing a sense of delight. The trains that creep about the base of the Dunderberg are pigmy affairs ; the swift current that flows through the Horse Race and into Seylmaker's Reach catches broken reflections of the towering masses above them, and all the contrivances of man -- his wharves, his boats, and his villages -- cannot impair the invincible majesty of nature. Some years ago there was a coffer-dam and pumping station at the foot of the Dunderberg, and the story that is connected with them is one of several of a similar character that the river can boast.