Returning to the east bank, we see above Tarrytown many superb residences, notably “Rockwood,” the home of William Rockefeller, of the Standard Oil Company.  The estate of General James Watson Webb is also near at hand.  Passing Scarborough Landing, with the Hook Mountain and Ball Mountains on the left, we see

=Ossining=, formerly known as Sing Sing, on east bank.  The low buildings, near the river bank, are the State’s Prison.  They are constructed of marble, but are not considered palatial by the prisoners that occupy the cells.  It was quarried near by, and the prisons were built by convicts imported from Auburn in 1826.  Saddlery, furniture, shoes, etc., are manufactured within its walls.  There was an Indian chieftancy here known as the Sintsinks.  In a deed to Philip Phillipse in 1685 a stream is referred to as “Kitchewan called by the Indians Sink-Sink.”  The Indian Village was known as Ossining, from “ossin” a stone and “ing” a place, probably so called from the rocky and stony character of the river banks.

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  How many, at this hour, along thy course,
  Slumber to thine eternal murmurings
  That mingle with the utterance of their dreams.

  William Cullen Bryant.

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The heights above Tappan Zee at this point are crowned by fine residences, and the village is one of the pleasantest on the river.  The drives among the hills are delightful and present a wide and charming outlook.  Here also are several flourishing military boarding schools and a seminary for girls.  The old silver and copper mines once worked here never yielded satisfactory returns for invested capital.  Various industries give active life and prosperity to the town.  Just above Sing Sing

=Croton River=, known by the Indians as Kitchawonk, joins the Hudson in a bay crossed by the New York Central Railroad Croton draw-bridge.  East of this point is a water shed having an area of 350 square miles, which supplies New York with water.  The Croton Reservoir is easily reached by a pleasant carriage drive from Sing Sing, and it is a singular fact that the pitcher and ice-cooler of New York, or in other words, Croton Dam and Rockland Lake, should be almost opposite.  About fifty years ago the Croton first made its appearance in New York, brought in by an aqueduct of solid masonry which follows the course of the Hudson near the Old Post Road, or at an average distance of about a mile from the east bank.  Here and there its course can be traced by “white stone ventilating towers” from Sing Sing to High Bridge, which conveys the aqueduct across the Harlem River.  Its capacity is 100,000,000 gallons per day, which however began to be inadequate for the city and a new aqueduct was therefore begun in 1884 and completed in 1890, capable of carrying three times that amount, at a cost of $25,000,000.  The water-shed is well supplied with streams and lakes.  Lake Mahopac, one of its fountains, is one of the most