: Hawk's Nest; or The Last of the Cahoonshees. A Tale of the Delaware Valley and Historical Romance of 1690. by Allerton James M James Martin - Historical fiction; Delaware River Valley (N.Y.-Del. and N.J.) Fiction

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A Bird's Eye View of the Delaware and Neversink Valleys From Hawk's Nest Mountain.

It is contrast that makes the beautiful. What a monotonous world this would be if it was one entire level plane. It is the variegated colors that makes the landscape beautiful and harmonious. In fact it is upon contrasts that we build all of our notions of the beautiful. Yet the same object seen by different persons, from the same standpoint, creates different impressions. Some admire the Alpine mountains and deep blue sky of Italy, and the towering majesty of Mont Blanc. Here, with them, all creation is centered, and there is nothing beautiful that is not connected with Italian skies, hills or landscapes.

Others view Vesuvius, and admire the smoke and fire as it is thrown heavenward. Others immure themselves within the walls of cities like New York or London, and satiate their eyes with brick and mortar, and their ears with a jargon of sounds. Others admire a more extended scenery, or rather a scenery where nature is represented in all its variegated colors; where river and rivulet are blended into one; where the cascade and cataract drop their moisture into the depth below; where the fauna and flora are equally distributed; where the mountain ascends thousands of feet, in contrast with the plain below. In a word, where nature's great architect has faithfully executed the fore-ordained design.

But where can this perfection be found? Where is this Eden?

I have gazed upon all the cities of the world: From Mont Blanc I have viewed Italy and Switzerland; From Pike's Peak I have viewed the Pacific and the western slope; I have stood over the thundering and majestic Niagara and viewed the spray going heavenward. All these views are grand and sublime, yet they lack contrast between great and small things that are calculated to make nature beautiful in all its parts and satisfy the mind, eye and ear at a single glance.

Yet there is one such spot on earth; one beautiful place where all these things are combined; one pinnacle of the mountain top, where the eye can take in all these beauties at a single glance.

It is that pinnacle that rises hundreds of feet above the level and embraces within its view the beautiful valley of the Delaware.

It is Hawk's Nest Mountain. Here the Shawangunk range rises hundreds of feet above the Delaware river, and the beholder imagines himself transported to the skies. These heights are perpendicular, or rather they project over the river, and in its side are deep furrows, crevices and caverns. And in these crevices and caverns, the hawks and eagles build their nests and rear their young without fear of being molested by man.

A few feet from the Hawk's Nest are the Lifting Rocks. In looking upon these, you gaze upon one of the wonders of the world. Here are three large rocks, but a few hundred feet apart, weighing from 30 to 100 tons, elevated above the ground about five feet and resting on three stone pillars. These pillars are equal distance apart--as much so as if they had been placed there on geometrical principles.

Where did these huge rocks come from? When were they placed there, and by what power were they raised and placed on these triangular pillars?

Geologists say that they were brought from a great distance by the ice during the glacier period, and that their setting on these pillars of stone is one of the freaks of nature beyond the comprehension of man.

Standing at Hawk's Nest and looking southeast, we behold "High Point," the most elevated land in the State of New Jersey, it being the highest point in the Shawangunk range. Northeast of us the Appalachian mountains rise to the horizon as far as the eye can reach.

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