Its appropriateness may be understood by the form of the shore, whose banks have evidently been cut down by the rushing river currents that sweep swiftly along between an island and the main, when the spring freshets occur. From a high rocky bluff at the ferry, on the east side of the river, a fine view of Coxsakie, with the blue Katzbergs as a background, may be obtained. Turning southward, the eye takes in a broad expanse of the river and country, with the city of Hudson in the distance, and northward are seen the little villages of Cocymans and New Baltimore,

THE HUDSON.

on the western shore. The site of the former bore the Indian name of Sanago. It was settled by the Dutch, and received its present name from one of its earlier inhabitants.

It was in blossoming May, in 1860, when the shad fishers were in their glory, drawing full nets of treasure from the river in quick succession, when the "tide served," that I visited this portion of the Hudson. On both sides of the river they were pursuing their vocation with assiduity, for "the season" lasts only about two months. The

immense reels on which they stretch and dry their nets, the rough, uncouth costume of the fishermen, appropriate to the water and the slime, the groups of young people who gather upon the beach to see the " catch," form interesting and sometimes picturesque foregrounds to every view on these shores. The shad'^' is the most important fish of the Hudson, being very delicious as food, and caught in such immense