The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-08-13
THE WONDROU5 PAIL AIDES.
A Wilderness Near the Heart of the
City.
From the Neto York Times.

From the NetC York Times.
Science may give to posterity the fairy
power of Puck, who could put a girdle
around the earth in less tina ! forty minutes.
Already it looks at least as feasible to US to
perform this feat as it would have to the
Plymouth colonists to send message to a
friend il Liverpool and receive a reply
within twelve hours When our race has
still further subdued natures forces, 10
bank president may BE- able able 70 spend
summer vacation on the planet Mars, out
OF the reach of heat, bores, marlaria, and
dea beats, while MS Gle k takes a snort AID
cheap trip to Burmah or Kamschatka.
Yet we doubt whether travel will be q
source of greater pleasure then than now,
W .en the bank president goes to Alaska,
while his clerk must be contented much
nearer home. The globe trotter" passes
many lovely and interesting things in his
mad rush to those far lands whe the jun
bhss live. Mary Of our fellow-citizens
have been to Switzerland or to Colorado,
scenery hunting, while not one in a thOus.
and knows OF the wonderful natural beauty
wnice lies within twenty miles of the very
heart If the metropolis.
Few indeed have explored the beautiful
region which extends along the west shore
of the Hudson from point opposi 9 Glen
wood to the village of Palisade, where the
great precipiceS end in a series of broken
aud rocky terraces. The Pallis ldes, fami-
liar thou ia their weather. Ueauen faces are to
us, are geo ogical wonder. There are only
two other places IN the known world where
there are preciplceS Of columlar basait like
those on the lower Hudson Similar rocks
form the Giants Ca iseway of Northern Ire
land, aud the formation occurs once again
in tue cliffs of the Kawaddy, in farther
India.
The Palisades, as seen from the Hudson
are half hidden in trees aud vi ,eS. More
over to a spectator on the eastern shore
river and preclpiceS mutually d aarf each
| Ot4er. From Oue Je. sey sId5 the HudsoI
| looks at least half as wide again as it does
when seen from YonkerS. The ma jesty of
the st cam cannot be fully realized till we
see 1t from the Palisades, and the full hi ght
of the precipiceS IS surp ise to one looking
up to them from the rivers western shore
! Here is a region as wild as tie Cats6 Ills
Tue few plcnic grounds on the wood d
| slopes are deserted for most of the week
Even when the eXcu slonists are here they
do not wander far from the swings, dancing
| pavilion, and refreShment booth The fish
ermen's houses, with their homely human
surroundings, make the loneliness of the
neighboring woods the more impressive.
Here the whippoorwill, that lover of soil.
| tude, sings az night, while tho ornithologist
may find that even by day the forest trees
shelter rare mountain birds which he would
s1a. cely have expected to hnd nearer than
| the AdirondackS. At point opposite
Mount St Vince a brook falls in three
| slender case ide5 down the face of the prec.-
plce dis auce of over 500 feet In
spring and fail, when abundant rains have
SweIed the tiny stream, these falls are
worthy to b compared with many of ths
"Attractlons' of the Catskill or of the Della
ware Water Gap. rne brook tn nbles over
dark rocks half hidden in moses and ferns,
while great trees maze twilight owe head
ami Wild vines tapestry every rugged SUI
face with greenneSs and beauty. 1t Its
dOwufall tle water is broken into tile spray
ana CLEANS a aid the lu,trous, dripping
verdure as white as Snow.
All along the rivers margin, in the shadow
of the Palisades, are .ulns. There are
docks, wor u-eaten, wdter-wo n, and de-
cayi s. The are many little houses,
roohe and deserted. Here and there oue
finds what has evidently once been some-
body's garden patcA. A gAarle fruit tree,
couple OF curraut bushes, a syringe, and a
few h.ac are contest the ground With
the more rubust greenery of thu forest.
which has come to dispute possession win
thom. After some little search in spot
! like this, oae finds a patch of lackberry
vines aud Virginia creepeIS clamOerlay
over what has been the foundation Of a
| house. In at least two places the breezss
| blow through the broken walls of what
| used TO be factories, perhaps. Here is a de-
| serted reglOn-a verltabl3 Palmyra, dead
! and forgotten. The Oldest inhabitants on
the east side of the river can tell nothing
| about these ruins on tao west side. They
! did not know there were any ruins ere.
| One old innabitant says that the rock of
tue Palisades was once used for pav1ng the
streets Of New York The little houses
were then the dwellings of stonecutters. and