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PHOENICIA. This is one of the most important stations on the
line. You are now twenty-eight miles from the river and 794 feet above
it, with lofty mountain peaks on every hand. It is the entrance of the
famous Stony Clove Canyon, and the southern terminus of the Stony Clove
and Kaaterskill Branch of the Ulster & Delaware system. This route
will be described more fully on subsequent pages of this book after traversing
the main Line. The Stony Clove creek here joins the Esopus and together
they have pre-empted most of the level land in sight, though really using
only a small portion of it, except in times of freshet. You are now well
into the mountains and the scenery is wild and picturesque. It is late
in the day when the sun peers over the eastern skyline on Mount Tremper,
and comparatively early in the afternoon when the western shadows begin
to envelop the little hamlet. There are stores, shop and cottages, with
a pretty little church, and several hotels, large and small, near at hand,
with other boarding houses in the vicinity. Meanwhile your engine, having
taken a fresh drink of mountain water, gets the signal and skips off up
the valley with a business-like snort, winding now closely along the left
bank of the Esopus, which lessens in volume as the region of its source
is approached |
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