William Cullen Byrant.

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=The “Albany"= was built by the Harlan & Hollingsworth Co., of Wilmington, Del., in 1880.  During the winter of 1892, she was lengthened thirty feet and furnished with modern feathering wheels in place of the old style radial ones.  Her hull is of iron, 325 feet long, breadth of beam over all 75 feet, and her tonnage is 1,415 gross tons.  Her engine was built by the W. & A. Fletcher Co., of New York, and develops 3,200 horse power.  The stroke is 12 feet, and the diameter of the cylinder is 73 inches.  On her trial trip she ran from New York to Poughkeepsie, a distance of 75 miles, in three hours and seven minutes.  Steam steering gear is used on the “Albany,” thus insuring ease and precision in handling her.  The wood-work on the main deck and in the upper saloons is all hard wood; mahogany, ash and maple tastefully carved.  Wide, easy staircases lead to the main saloon and upper decks.  Rich Axminster carpets cover the floors, and mahogany tables and furniture of antique design and elegant finish make up the appointments of a handsomely furnished drawing room.

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  Lose not a memory of the glorious scenes,
  Mountains and palisades, and leaning rocks.

  William Wallace.

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=The Old Reaches.=—­Early navigators divided the Hudson into fourteen “reaches” or distances from point to point as seen by one sailing up or down the river.  In the slow days of uncertain sailing vessels these divisions meant more than in our time of “propelling steam,” but they are still of practical and historic interest.

The Great Chip Rock Reach extends from above Weehawken about eighteen miles to the boundary line of New York and New Jersey—­(near Piermont).  The Palisades were known by the old Dutch settlers as the “Great Chip,” and so styled in the Bergen Deed of Purchase, viz, the great chip above Weehawken.  The Tappan Reach (on the east side of which dwelt the Manhattans, and on the west side the Saulrickans and the Tappans), extends about seven miles to Teller’s Point.  The third reach to a narrow point called Haverstroo; then comes the Seylmaker’s Reach, then Crescent Reach; next Hoge’s Reach, and then Vorsen Reach, which extends to Klinkersberg, or Storm King, the northern portal of the Highlands.  This is succeeded by Fisher’s Reach where, on the east side once dwelt a race of savages called Pachami.  “This reach,” in the language of De Laet, “extends to another narrow pass, where, on the west, is a point of land which juts out, covered with sand, opposite a bend in the river, on which another nation of savages—­the Waoranecks—­have their abode at a place called Esopus.  Next, another reach, called Claverack; then Backerack; next Playsier Reach, and Vaste Reach, as far as Hinnenhock; then Hunter’s Reach, as far as Kinderhook; and Fisher’s Hook, near Shad Island, over which, on the east side, dwell the Mahicans.”  If these reaches seem valueless at present there are