These are used by the serpent to give warning of its presence. Wlien disturbed, it throws itself into a coil, vibrates its rattles, and then springing, sometimes four or five feet, fixes its deadly fangs in its victim. It feeds on birds, rabbits, squirrels, &c.

THE HUDSON.

abounds. They are found in all parts of the Highlands, but in far less abundance than formerly. Indeed they are now so seldom seen, that the tourist need have no dread of them.

THE BKOCKEN KILL

A little below the Brocken Kill, at Flat Point, is one of those tunnels and deep rock cuttings so frequently passed along the entire line of the Hudson Iliver llaihvay ; and in the river opposite is a picturesque island

THE HUDSON.

called lona, containing about 300 acres of land, including a marsh meadow of 200 acres. Only about forty acres of the island proper, besides, is capable of tillage. It lies within the triangle formed by the Bonder Ecrg, Anthony's Nose, and Bear Mountain. There we spent an hour pleasantly and profitably with the proprietor, C. W. Grant, M.D., who resided there, and was extensively engaged in the propagation of grapevines and choice fruit-trees. He had a vineyard of twenty acres, from 2,000 to 3,000 bearing pear-trees, and small fruit of every kind. He had

EVTTLESNAK

eleven propagation houses, and produced more grape and other fruit-plants than all other establishments in the United States combined.

lona is upon the dividing line of temperature. The sea breeze stops here, and its effects are visible upon vegetation. The season is two weeks earlier than at Newburgh, only fourteen miles northward, above the Highlands. It is at the lower entrance to this mountain range. The width of the river between it and Anthony's Nose is only three-eighths of a mile -- less than at any other point below Albany.