Prost, Esq., I climbed to the summit of Prickly Pear Hill (so called from the fact that a species of cactus, called Prickly Pear, grows there abundantly), almost five hundred feet above the river, from which may be obtained the most extensive and interesting views in all that region. From no point on the Hudson can be seen, at a glance, such a cluster of historic localities, as from this eminence. Here Washington was encamped in 1782, and made this pinnacle his chief observatory. At one sweep of the vision may be seen the lofty ranges of the Highlands, and the Fish Kill Mountains, with all the intervening coiintry adjacent

THE HUDSON.

to Peek's Kill, Verplanck's and Stony Points, the theatres of important military events during the war for independence; Haverstraw, where Arnold and And)-e had their conference ; Teller's Point, off which the Vulture lay, and from which she received a cannonading that drove her down the river ; King's Ferry, where Andre crossed the Hudson ; the place of Pine's Bridge on the Croton, where he was suspected ; Tarrytown, where he was captured, and the long wharf of Piermont, near Tappan, where he was executed. All of these, with the villages on the eastern

VIEAV FROM PRICKLY PEAR HILL.

shore of the Hudson, from Cruger's to York Island, may be seen from this hill. Before it lies Haverstraw Bay, the widest expanse of the Hudson, with all its historic and legendary associations, which limited space forbids us to portray. Here the fresh and salt water usually contend most equally for the mastery; and here the porpoise,* a sea- water