At AVaterford the ear catches the subdued roar of Cohoes Falls '^' in the Mohawk river, three-fourths of a mile distant. That stream is the largest tributary of the Hudson. It flows eastward, with a rapid current most of the way, from Oneida County, in the interior of the State of New York, through one of the richest agricultural regions in the world, for about one hundred and thirty-five miles, and enters the Hudson in four

* Cah-hoos, an Iroquois word, according to Brant, the gi-eat Mohawk chief, signifying a canoe falling.

THE HUDSON. 109

channels, formed by three islands, named respectively, Van Hover's, Van Schaick's, or Cohoes, and Green or Tibbett's Islands. Van Schaick's alone, which is almost inaccessible at many points, because of its high rocky shores, has escaped the transforming hand of improvement. There, in the summer of 1777, General Schuyler cast up some fortifications, with the determination to dispute with Burgoyne the jpassage of the Mohawk. Faint traces of those intrenchments may yet be seen ; and, in the spring of 1860, a large zinc cartridge-box was found in that vicinity, supposed to have been left when General Schuyler moved northward. The banks of Van Schaick's are steep, a forest of evergreens clothes a large portion of its surface, and only a solitary barn indicates its cognizance by man.

Green Island, the larger of the three, stretches along the upper part of Troy, and is a theatre of industry for a busy population, engaged chiefly in manufactures, or in employments connected with railways. There was the immense establishment of Messrs. Eaton, Gilbert, & Co, (afterward destroyed by fire), the most extensive manufacturers of railway carriages, omnibuses, and stage coaches in the United States, if not in the world.