Of Niagara I Have Spoken; And All
The World Has Acknowledged That No Claim Made On That Head Can Be
Regarded As Exaggerated.
As to the Hudson I am not prepared to say
so much generally, though there is one spot upon it which cannot be
beaten for sweetness.
I have been up and down the Hudson by water,
and confess that the entire river is pretty. But there is much of
it that is not pre-eminently pretty among rivers. As a whole, it
cannot be named with the Upper Mississippi, with the Rhine, with
the Moselle, or with the Upper Rhone. The palisades just out of
New York are pretty, and the whole passage through the mountains
from West Point up to Catskill and Hudson is interesting. But the
glory of the Hudson is at West Point itself; and thither on this
occasion we went direct by railway, and there we remained for two
days. The Catskill Mountains should be seen by a detour from off
the river. We did not visit them, because here again the hotel was
closed. I will leave them, therefore, for the new hand book which
Mr. Murray will soon bring out.
Of West Point there is something to be said independently of its
scenery. It is the Sandhurst of the States. Here is their
military school, from which officers are drafted to their
regiments, and the tuition for military purposes is, I imagine, of
a high order. It must of course be borne in mind that West Point,
even as at present arranged, is fitted to the wants of the old
army, and not to that of the army now required.
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