e
Adirondacks, among the cold peaks of the northern wilderness; its
ending may be said to be in the briny waters of the Atlantic, for its
channel-way has been sounded outside of the sandy beaches of New York
harbor in the bosom of the restless ocean. The highest types of
civilized life are nurtured upon its banks. Noble edifices, which
contain and preserve the works of genius and of mechanical art, rear
their proud roofs from among these hills on the lofty sites of the
picturesque Hudson. The wealth of the great city at its mouth, the
metropolis of the young nation, has been lavished upon the soil of the
river's borders to make it even more beautiful and more fruitful. What
river in America, along the same length of coast-lines as from Troy to
New York (one hundred and fifty-six miles), can rival in natural beauty
and artificial applications of wealth the lovely Hudson? "The Hudson
River," says its genial historian, Mr. Lossing, "from its birth among
the mountains to its marriage with the ocean, measures a distance of
full three hundred miles."

[Illustration: THE ABORIGINAL TYPE (KAYAK.)]

[Illustration: THE IMPROVED TYPE (MARIA THERESA CANOE.)]

Captain John Smith's friend, the Englishman Henry Hudson, while in the
employ of the Dutch East India Company, in his vessel of ninety tons,
the Half-Moon, being in search of a northwest passage south of Virginia,
cast anchor outside of Sandy Hook, September 3, 1609, and on the 11th
passed up through the Narrows into the present bay of New York. Under
the firm conviction that he was on his way to the long-sought Cathay, a
day later he entered the Hudson River, where now stands the proud
metropolis of America. As the Half-Moon ascended the river the water
lost its saltness, and by the time they were anchored where the city of
Albany now stands all hopes of Cathay faded from the heart of the
mariner. Englishmen called this river in honor of its discoverer, but
the Dutch gave it the name of North River, after the Delaware had been
discovered and named South River. Thus, while in 1609 Samuel Champlain
was exploring the lake which bears his name, Hudson was ascending his
river upon the southern water-shed. The historian tells us that these
bold explorers penetrated the wilderness, one from the north and the
other from the south, to within one hundred miles of each other.

The same historian (Dr. Lossing) says: "The most remote source of the
extreme western branch of our noble r