The Castleton Bar or “overslaugh,” as it was known by the river pilots, impeded for years navigation in low water.  Commodore Van Santvoord and other prominent citizens brought the subject before the State legislature, and work was commenced in 1863.  In 1868 the United States Government very properly (as their jurisdiction extends over tide-water), assumed the completing of the dykes, which now stretch for miles along the banks and islands of the upper Hudson.  Here and there along our route between Coxsackie and Albany will be seen great dredges deepening and widening the river channel.  The plan provides for a system of longitudinal dykes to confine the current sufficiently to allow the ebb and flow of the tidal-current to keep the channel clear.  These dykes are to be gradually brought nearer together from New Baltimore toward Troy, so as to assist the entrance of the flood-current and increase its height.

* * *

  Where Hudson winds his silver way
  And murmurs at the tardy stay,
      Impatient at delay.

  William Crow.

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The engineers report that the greater part of the material carried in suspension in the Hudson river above Albany is believed to come from the Mohawk river, and its tributary the Schoharie river, while the sands and gravel that form the heavy and obstinate bars near Albany and chiefly between Albany and Troy, come from the upper Hudson.

The discharge of the Hudson between Troy and Albany at its lowest stage may be taken at about 3,000 cubic feet per second.  The river supply, therefore, during that stage is inadequate in the upper part of the river for navigation, independent of tidal flow.

The greatest number of bars is between Albany and Troy, where the channel is narrow, and at least six obstructing bars, composed of fine and coarse gravel and coarse and fine sand, are in existence.  In many places between Albany and Troy the navigable depth is reduced to 71/2 feet by the presence of these bars.

From Albany to New Baltimore the depths are variable, the prevailing depth being 10 feet and over, with pools of greater depth separated by long cross-over bars, over which the greatest depth does not exceed 9 or 10 feet.  Passing many delightful homes on the west bank and the mouth of the Norman’s Kill (Indian name Ta-wa-sentha, place of many dead) and the Convent of the Sacred Heart, we see Dow’s Point on the east and above this the—­

=Van Rensselaer Place=, with its port holes on either side of the door facing the river, showing that it was built in troublesome times.  It is the oldest of the Patroon manor houses, built in 1640 or thereabouts.  It has been said that the adaptation of the old tune now known as “Yankee Doodle” was made near the well in the grounds of the Van Rensselaer Place by Dr. Richard Shuckberg, who was connected with the British army when the Colonial troops from New England marched into camp at Albany to join the British regulars on their way to fight the French.  The tune was known in New England before the Revolution as “Lydia Fisher’s Jig,” a name derived from a famous lady who lived in the reign of Charles II, and which has been perpetuated in the following rhyme: