by Sugar Loaf mountain, Plateau mountain, Hunter mountain, Big Westkill mountain, North Dome, Mount Sheril, Vly mountain, Bloomberg mountain, Irish mountain, Bald mountain, Mount: Utsayantha, Mine mountain, Woodchuck mountain, till the peaks. fall away and form the Schoharie hills. Returning to the same point in the Plattekill Clove, the dividing ridge includes High Peak, Round Top, Haines's Falls divide and Stoppel Point. From this last the mountain ranges, with well-defined crests, have been made the dividing line between the towns of Cairo and Durham on the north, and Jewett and Windham on the south in Greene county, terminating at Mount Pisgah at the south-east corner of Schoharie county. From this point the range continues to waste away, finding its last eminence in Leonard hill, near the center of Schoharie county. From the slopes of this interior basin the waters of the Schoharie creek take rise and gather strength and volume for their long circuit, and finally, after mingling with the waters of the Mohawk, and in turn with the Hudson, find themselves, when opposite Saugerties, only ten miles from their starting point. The waters coming from the southern slope of the mountains, on reaching the lower slopes, take an easterly course and flow into the Hudson river; those from the general western slope form the several branches which together make up the headwaters of the Delaware river. The Hudson river slope is by far the greatest, occupying as it does a large portion of the three counties of Greene, Ulster and Sullivan. Next in importance is the Delaware slope, and wedged in between the two is the basin of the Schoharie creek. These two main slopes, and the interior basin, are divided into innumerable. smaller systems, but the streams from them all find each their own channel at last, and though they twist and turn in their tortuous course, traversing many a mile, still the general course is towards. the outlet of the water-shed of which they form a component part,, and sooner or later their waters mingle, forming one of the numer ous kills in which this region abounds.

There are very few well-defined mountain ranges; the impression to the casual observer being that of a great number of peaks huddled together. Still, by a little closer examination, they can be made to conform somewhat to systematic lines. Viewed in the broadest sense, they can be considered as the foot-hills of the higher Alleghanies, and as such, a part of the great Appalachian system.

which forms the Atlantic slope of the continent, and extends nearly parallel with the coast line from Nova Scotia to the Gulf of Mexico; of which system the Adirondack mountains do not form a part, they being of the Laurentian system.

The Catskill region is made up of rough mountain and deep valley, the very inaccessibility of which, together with the unkindly nature of the soil, has been its only salvation. 'Occupying but a patch on the broad domain of the whole State, insignificant in proportions when compared with the Adirondack region, thinly clothed with a forest of hard wood timber only, but maintaining an enviable position with reference to, and filled with resources commanding an active market at the shipping port of the world, this little patch is a mine of wealth and a source of vast income, both to the State and to individuals. It is, therefore, worthy of a thought how best not to waste these resources. Walton Van Loan, of Catskill, in his published Catskill Mountain Guide, gives the high peaks of the Catskills, which, when arranged according to the counties in which they are located, will convey a fair idea of their comparative elevations. The base of comparison is tide water in the Hudson river at the foot of the mountains.

HIGH PEAKS OF THE CATSKILLS -Greene County — (Cont'd).

These mountain ridges divide this region into innumerable small water-sheds, the gatherings from which contribute to comparatively few large streams. The Schoharie creek water-shed, principally in Greene county, is, in reality, made up of four or five smaller ones, being

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divided by spurs from the main ridges. There is a divide between the headwaters of the Schoharie creek and the West kill, the two streams coming together at Lexington; another divide starts at Stoppel Point and ends at Jewett Centre where the waters of the East kill join the Schoharie creek; another divide starts at Black Head mountain and takes nearly a due east course ending near Prattsville, where the waters of the Batavia kill join the Schoharie creek; another divide starts from the main range at the south-east corner of Schoharie county and taking a course about parallel with the last divide continues on into Delaware county; the Schoharie creek breaks through this ridge near Dewasego Falls in Schoharie county, and below this the Manor kill enters the Schoharie near Gilboa in Schoharie county. Innumerable smaller streams come in from

both sides of the main stream.

The eastern slope draining into the Hudson river direct has four principal water-sheds. The ridge between the first water-shed, drained by the Catskill creek, which enters the Hudson river at Catskill, starts a little west of that village and follows nearly a straight line to the south-east corner of the town of Jewett at Stoppel Point mountain, thence it follows the main range to where that runs out in Schoharie county. The Kaaters kill drains the country immediately south of the Catskill water-shed and has for its southern boundary the ridge back of Saugerties, which pursues a north-east course for a distance of about five miles, then turns north-westerly to strike High Peak, Round Top and the border of the Kaaterskill Clove at Haines's Falls. South of this water-shed is the great water-shed of the Esopus creek, the north boundary of which starts in the Plattekill Clove, on either side of which within a few rods of each other are the sources of the Platte kill, a branch of the Esopus creek, and the fountain head of the Schoharie creek, the waters of which take opposite directions, each in time arriving at the same point in the Hudson river. From the summit in the Plattekill Clove the divide leads over Sugar Loaf mountain, to the summit between Roaring kill going to the Schoharie creek, and the Beaver kill going to the Esopus, thence by many twists and turns it finds its way to the Hudson near Kingston. The Beaver kill coming from the Plattekill Clove in Greene county joins the Esopus at Glenerie; the Saw kill rising in Cooper lake in the town of Woodstock, Ulster county,

joins the Esopus above Kingston. Another Beaver kill rising near Sugar Loaf mountain in the town of Hunter, Greene county, within a few rods of the source of one of the headwaters of the Schoharie creek, joins the Esopus at Phoenicia. The Stony Clove creek, in the town of Shandaken, Ulster county, rising within a few miles of the village of Hunter, in Greene county, furnishing water power for an important industry, also joins the Esopus creek at Phoenicia. The Smith Bush kill rises in several diminutive ponds near the summit between the Schoharie creek water-shed and the Esopus creek water-shed, and but a few rods from where the waters of a branch of the West kill rise, flows through Bushnellville near the southerly line of the town of Lexington, Greene county, and enters the Esopus creek at Shandaken in Ulster county. Each of the above enumerated streams has a water-shed of its own, of a greater or less magnitude and extent, the larger of them being those drained by the first mentioned Beaver kill and the Saw kill. The Rondout creek drains the water-shed on both sides of the Shawangunk range of mountains ; the Rondout proper lies on the north-westerly side of the range, and the Shawangunk kill, heading within a few miles of Port Jervis, in the south-westerly corner of Orange county, lies on the southeasterly side of the range. A ridge of low hills starts near the junction of the Shawangunk kill with the Wall kill forming with the Highlands of the Hudson a narrow and abrupt water-shed drained by the Wall kill. The junction of the Shawangunk kill and the Wall kill is but a few miles north of the south line of Ulster county.

Sullivan county, with the exception of one-half of the town of Neversink, as a part of the Rondout creek water-shed, drains into the Delaware river. From the south-west corner of the county the Delaware river, which forms its southern boundary, flows in a southeasterly direction to Lackawaxen, and from this point to the south-east corner of the county the course of the river is nearly due east, continuing this direction to Port Jervis where it takes a sharp turn to the south-west, following the trend of the Shawangunk range of mountains. At this point the Neversink river joins the Delaware, flowing across the entire width of Sullivan county in a southeasterly direction. The divide between this water-shed and the water-shed of the Shawangunk kill and the Rondout creek follows the crest of the Shawangunk mountains to Wurtsborough, and,