* * *

And now, while waiting to “throw out the plank,” which puts a period to our Hudson River division, we feel like congratulating ourselves that the various goblins which once infested the river have become civilized, that the winds and tides have been conquered, and that the nine-day voyage of Hendrick Hudson and the “Half Moon” has been reduced to the nine-hour system of the Hudson River Day Line.

Those who have traveled over Europe will certainly appreciate the quiet luxury of an American steamer; and this first introduction to American scenery will always charm the tourist from other lands.  No single day’s journey in any land or on any stream can present such variety, interest, and beauty, as the trip of one hundred and forty-four miles from New York to Albany.  The Hudson is indeed a goodly volume, with its broad covers of green lying open on either side; and it might in truth be called a condensed history, for there is no other place in our country where poetry and romance are so strangely blended with the heroic and the historic,—­no river where the waves of different civilizations have left so many waifs upon the banks.  It is classic ground, from the “wilderness to the sea,” and will always be the poets’ corner of our country:  the home of Irving, Willis, and Morris,—­of Fulton, Morse, and Field,—­of Cole, Audubon, and Church,—­and of scores besides, whose names are household words.

* * *

  The Hudson’s cable-tow of yore
    Bound gallant sire and sturdy son
  With hearty grasp from shore to shore
    For Robert Burns and Washington.

  Wallace Bruce.

* * *

THE UPPER HUDSON.

=Albany to Saratoga.=

Delaware and Hudson Railway.

A pleasant tour awaits the traveler who continues his journey north from Albany, where the Delaware and Hudson train for Saratoga is ready at the landing on the arrival of the steamer.  A half hour’s run along the west bank gives us a glimpse of Troy across the river with the classical named hills Mount Ida and Mount Olympus.  Two streams, the Poestenkill and the Wynant’s Kill, approach the river on the east bank through narrow ravines, and furnish excellent water power.  In the year 1786 it was called Ferryhook.  In 1787, Rensselaerwyck.  In the fall of 1787 the settlers began to use the name of Vanderheyden, after the family who owned a great part of the ground where the city now stands.  January 9, 1789 the freeholders of the town met and gave it the name of Troy.  The “Hudson,” the “Erie,” and the “Champlain” Canals have contributed to its growth.  The city, with many busy towns, which have sprung up around it—­Cohoes, Lansingburg, Waterford, etc., is central to a population of at least 100,000 people.  The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the oldest engineering school in America, has a national reputation.