residence will now be seen on the east bank, and just above this the home of the late William B. Dinsmore on Dinsmore Point.  Passing Vanderberg Cove, cut off from the river by the tracks of the New York Central Railroad, we see the residence of Jacob Ruppert, and above this the Frinck mansion known as “Windercliffe,” formerly the property of E. R. Jones, and next beyond the house of Robert Suckly.  Passing Ellerslie Dock we see “Ellerslie,” the palatial summer home of ex-Vice-President Levi P. Morton, an estate of six hundred acres, formerly owned by the Hon. William Kelly.  Along the western bank extend the Esopus meadows, a low flat, covered by water, the southern end of which is marked by the Esopus light-house.  To the west rises Hussey’s Mountain, about one thousand feet in height, from under whose eastern slope two little ponds, known as Binnewaters, send another stream to join Black Creek before it flows into the Hudson.  Port Ewen on the west bank, with ice houses and brick yards, will be seen by steamer passengers below the mouth of Rondout Creek.

* * *

  At dawn the river seems a shade,
    A liquid shadow deep as space,
  But when the sun the mist has laid
    A diamond shower smites its face.

  John Burroughs.

* * *

=Rhinecliff=, 90 miles from New York.  The village of Rhinebeck, two miles east of the landing, is not seen from the river.  It was named, as some contend, by combining two words—­Beekman and Rhine.  Others say that the word beck means cliff, and the town was so named from the resemblance of the cliffs to those of the Rhine.  There are many delightful drives in and about Rhinebeck, “Ellerslie” being only about eight minutes by carriage from the landing.

The Philadelphia & Reading Rhinebeck Branch meets the Hudson at Rhinecliff, and makes a pleasant and convenient tourist or business route between the Hudson and the Connecticut.  It passes through a delightful country and thriving rural villages.  Some of the views along the Roeliffe Jansen’s Kill are unrivaled in quiet beauty.  The railroad passes through Rhinebeck, Red Hook, Spring Lake, Ellerslie, Jackson Corners, Mount Ross, Gallatinville, Ancram, Copake, Boston Corners, and Mount Riga to State Line Junction, and gives a person a good idea of the counties of Dutchess and Columbia.  At Boston Corners connection is made with the Harlem Railroad.

* * *

  Upon thy tessellated surface lie
  The wave-glassed splendors of the sunset sky!

  Knickerbocker Magazine.

* * *

From State Line Junction it passes through Ore Hill, Lakeville with its beautiful lake (an evening view of which is still hung in our memory gallery of sunset sketches), Salisbury, Chapinville, and Twin Lakes to Canaan, where the line crosses the Housatonic Railroad. This route, therefore, is the easiest and pleasantest for Housatonic visitors en route to the Catskills.  From Canaan the road rises by easy grade to the summit, at an elevation of 1,400 feet, passing through the village of Norfolk, with its picturesque New England church crowning the village hill, and thence to Simsbury and Hartford.