“West Point and Middletown,
  Konnosook and Doodletown,
  Kakiak and Mamapaw,
  Stony Point and Haverstraw.”

Quaint as these names now sound, they all are found on old maps of the Hudson.

=High Torn= is the name of the northern point of the Ramapo on the west bank, south of Haverstraw.  According to the Coast Survey, it is 820 feet above tide-water, and the view from the summit is grand and extensive.  The origin of the name is not clear, but it has lately occurred to the writer, from a re-reading of Scott’s “Peveril of the Peak,” that it might have been named from the Torn, a mountain in Derbyshire, either from its appearance, or by some patriotic settler from the central water-shed of England.  Others say it is the Devonshire word Tor changed to Torn, evidently derived from the same source.

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Emerging from these confused piles, the river as if rejoicing at its release from its struggle, expanded into a wide bay, which was ornamented by a few fertile and low points that jutted humbly into its broad basin.

    James Fenimore Cooper.

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=West Shore Railroad.=—­The tourist will see at this point, on the left bank of the river, the tunnel whereby the “West Shore” finds egress from the mountains.  The traveler over this railway, on emerging from the quiet valley west of the Palisades, comes upon a sudden vision of beauty unrivaled in any land.  The broad river seems like a great inland lake; and the height of the tunnel above the silver bay gives to the panoramic landscape a wondrous charm.  About a mile from the river, southwest of Grassy Point, on the farther side of the winding Minnissickuongo Creek, which finally after long meandering makes up its mind to glide into Stony Point Bay, will be seen Treason Hill marked by the Joshua Hett Smith stone house where Arnold and Andre met.  The story of this meeting will be referred to at greater length in connection with its most dramatic incident at the old Beverley House in the Highlands.  The Hudson here is about two miles in width and narrows rapidly as we pass Grassy Point on the west bank with its meadows and brick yards to

=Stony Point=, where it is scarcely more than half a mile to Verplank’s Point on the eastern bank.  This was, therefore, an important pass during the Revolution.  The crossing near at hand was known as King’s Ferry, at and before the days of ’76, and was quite an avenue of travel between the Southern, Middle and Eastern States.  The fort crowning a commanding headland, was captured by the British, June 1, 1779, but it was surprised and recaptured by Anthony Wayne, July 15 of the same year.  A centennial was observed at the place July 15, 1879, when the battle was “refought” and the West Point Cadets showed how they would have done it if they had been on hand a century ago.  Thackeray, in his “Virginians,” gives perhaps the most graphic account of this midnight battle.