Henry T. Tuckerman.

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The Sawkill Creek flows through a beautiful ravine in Montgomery grounds and above this is the St. Stephen’s College and Preparatory School of the Episcopal Church in the Diocese of New York.  Beyond and above this are Mrs. E. Bartlett’s home and Deveaux Park, afterwards Almonte, the property of Col.  Charles Livingston.  We are now approaching—­

=Cruger’s Island=, with its indented South Bay reaching up toward the bluff crowned by Montgomery Place.  There is an old Indian tradition that no person ever died on this island, which a resident recently said still held true.  It is remarkable, moreover, in possessing many antique carved stones from a city of Central America built into the walls of a temple modeled after the building from which the graven stones were brought.  The “ruin” at the south end of the island is barely visible from the steamer, hidden as it is by foliage, but it is distinctly seen by New York Central travelers in the winter season.  Colonel Cruger has spared no expense in the adornment of his grounds, and a beautiful drive is afforded the visitor.  The island is connected by a roadway across a tongue of land which separates the North from the South Bay.  Above this island east of the steamer’s channel across the railway of the New York Central, we see a historic bit of water known as—­

=The North Bay.= It was here that Robert Fulton developed his steamboat invention, receiving pecuniary aid from Chancellor Livingston, and it is fitting to give at this place a concise account of

=Steam Navigation=, which after many attempts and failures on both sides of the Atlantic was at last crowned with success on the Hudson.

=John Fitch= first entertained his idea of a steamboat in 1785, and sent to the general assembly of the State of Pennsylvania a model in 1786.  New Jersey and Delaware in 1787, gave him exclusive right to navigate their waters for fourteen years, which, however, was never undertaken.  His steamboat “Perseverance,” on the Delaware in 1787, was eighteen feet in length and six feet beam.  The name, however, was a misnomer, as it was abandoned.  These facts appear by papers on file in the State Library at Albany.  After his experiment on the Delaware, he traveled through France and England, but not meeting with the encouragement that he expected, became poor and returned home, working his passage as a common sailor.  In 1797 he constructed a little boat which was propelled by steam in the old Collect Pond, New York, below Canal Street, between Broadway and the East River.

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    Exactly one hundred years separate the first paddle-boat
    of Papin from the first steamboat of Fulton.

    Victor Hugo.

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