Highlands, comprehending the site of Forts Clinton and Montgomery -- the theatre of stirring and most, important events in the war for independence. From thence we passed along the brow of the declivity next the river, to the mansion of Ardenia, from which one of the finest views of "West Point may be obtained ; and then rode to Indian Brook, passing, on the way, the ancient Philipsburg Church -- in which the officers of the Continental Army had worshipped during the Revolution -- and the grounds and mansions of wealthy residents in that vicinity.

"We crossed Indian Brook on a rustic bridge, just below the Indian Falls, whose murmur fell upon the ear before we came in sight of the stream. These falls have formed subjects for painting and poetry, and are the delight of the neighbourhood in summer. In the small space allotted for each of our illustrations and accompanying descriptions, we can convey only faint ideas of the wild beauty of the scenes we are called upon to depict in this mountain region of the Hudson. "We were on the Indian Brook on a bright October day, when the foliage was in its greatest autumnal splendour, and the leaves were falling in gentle showers among the trees, the rocks, and in the sparkling water, appearing like fragments of rainbows cast, with lavish hand, into the lap of earth. At every turn of the brook, from its springs to its union with the Hudson, a pleasant subject for the painter's pencil is presented. Just below the bridge, where the highway crosses, is one of the most charming of these " bits." There, in the narrow ravine, over which the tree tops intertwine, huge rocks are piled, some of them covered with feathery fern, others with soft green mosses, and others as bare and angular as if just broken from some huge mass, and cast in there by Titan hands.