Not as lofty as many of the famous chains that are celebrated by travellers, the Catskills have a rare beauty of their own and are fully worthy of the admiration of the artist or the poet. Irving says:

Of all the scenery of the Hudson, the Kaatskill ^Mountains had the most witching effect on my boyish imagination. Never shall I forget the effect upon me of the first view of them predominating over a wide extent of country, part wild, woody, and

500 The Hudson River

rugged; part softened away into all the graces of cultivation. As we slowly floated along, 1 lay on the deck and watched them through a long summer's day; undergoing a thousand mutations under the magical effects of atmosphere ; sometimes seeming to approach, at other times to recede; now almost melting into hazv distance, now burnished by the setting sun, until, in the evening, they printed themselves against the glowing sky in the deep purple of an Italian landscape.

As Kingston cherishes in her hall of fame the name of John Vanderlyn, artist, so Catskill points with pride to Thomas Cole, who, though of English birth, yet for many years, and indeed to the close of his life, lived and worked near that ])lace. He is best known by the Voyage of Life, which at the time of its exhibition was considered. |:)erhaps, the most remarkable painting produced in America. Cole had a deeply re\^erent spirit, evinced no less in the works of his brush than in the poems b}^ which he lo\'ed to express his strong appreciation of nature,