stretches 5 miles and more to the N. E., and is
uncommonly smooth and hard over its whole
extent. The situation is retired and agreeable
for visitors, being separated from the town by a
narrow tract of pine wood, through which there
are cool and pleasant rides. Accommodations
are provided here for a considerable number of
visitors.

ONONDAGA SALT SPRINGS, N. Y.,

Are upon the shores and in the neighborhood
of the lake of this name, which lies wholly in
Onondaga co. They are principally owned by
the state, and bring to it a handsome revenue.
They are the largest and best in the U. S. The
making of salt, both by solar evaporation and by
artificial heat, is carried on very extensively at
Salina, Syracuse, Liverpool, and Geddes, places
adjoining each other, which are all included
within the limits of the Onondaga Salt Springs
Reservation. The original Reservation, indeed,
embraced a much larger extent; but the whole,
not included within these several places, has
been sold to private landholders.

Salt was first made on this tract at Salt Point,
near the margin of the lake, and within the pres-
ent limits of Salina. The earliest systematic
arrangements for carrying on the business, as
far as records show, date back as far as 1787.
The principal spring is at Salina, which afiords
an inexhaustible supply of water, yielding, to
every 40 gallons about one bushel of pure salt.
The water is forced up by hydraulic engines into
a large reservoir, from which it is conducted in
pipes to the various works at Syracuse, and other
places in the vicinity. The amount of the duty
on salt, accruing to the state from these works,
in 1850, was $44,364.

PASSAIC FALLS, N. J.

These beautiful falls are on the Passaic River,
at Paterson, 13 miles N. of Newark, and 17
miles from New York. They are easily reached
by railroad from New York, and constitute one
of the favorite resorts for citizens and strangers
from the city. The river here, after pouring
over a dam several feet high, erected immedi-
ately on the brow of the falls, and rushing thence
down a steep declivity, on its natural rocky bed,
some 20 or 30 feet, finally makes a plunge over
a perpendicular precipice, about 60 feet high, into
a chasm between two walls of the rock, from
which the waters emerge through a fissure
at right angles to the direction of the cataract.
The rocks, being of a basaltic character, are of
rectilinear form, and perpendicular in their posi-
tion, which gives a remarkably bold and impos-
ing aspect to the scenery. This also accounts
for the comparatively smooth surfaces of this
deep excavation. By the dam above the falls, a
portion of the river is diverted for the purpose
of obtaining the valuable water power by which
the extensive factories at Paterson are carried
on. This has much diminished the beauty of
the falls, except at seasons of high water, when
they appear in their original grandeur.

PHILLIPS'S POINT, MS.,

Juts out into Massachusetts Bay, about 3 miles
N. of the centre of Lynn, on the N. side of the
entrance to the peninsula on which Nahant is
situated. Here is a beach of great beauty, of
about half a mile in length. The access to this
delightful spot is so easy, and the natural charms
of the place so great, that, with public accommo-
dations which are all that guests can desire, it has
become a favorite place of fashionable resort.
The distance from Boston is 12 miles.

PICTURED ROCKS, LAKE SUPERIOR.

See p. 251.

PINE ORCHARD, N. Y.,

Is the name given to an elevated terrace of
table land, or ledge, upon the Catskill Moun-
tains, about 2300 feet above the level of the
Hudson River. Formerly it was covered with a
scattered growth of pines, which, in its wild state,
give to it the name of Pine Orchard. Upon the
E. verge of this table of rock, of about 6 acres in
extent, stands the Catskill Mountain House,
about 140 feet in length, and 4 stories high,
which has been erected for the accommodation
of visitors, who resort here in great numbers in
the summer season, to enjoy the extensive pros-
pect, the cool, exhilarating atmosphere, and the
wild surrounding scenery. Few places of fash-
ionable resort present stronger attractions than
this. A line of stages runs between Catskill on
the Hudson River and the Mountain House, a
distance of 12 miles. The ride to the foot of the
mountain is not specially interesting; but the
ascent, by a very circuitous route, from every
successive opening and turn of which some new
and more extensive vista is presented to the eye
continually, is in a high degree inspiring and de-
lightful. And when at length the lofty eminence
is reached, there opens, from the front of the noble
edifice, a prospect of vast extent and beauty;
embracing an apparently endless succession of
woods and waters, farms and villages, towns and
cities, spread out as in a boundless panorama,
over which all inequalities of surface are over-
looked. The beautiful Hudson appears nar-
rowed in the distance, with numerous vessels
scattered along its silvery line, discerned, as far
as the eye can reach, by their canvas gleaming in
the sun, and with the trailing cloud of some
smoking steamboat almost constantly in sight.

The view embraces an area of about 70 miles
N. and S. Far in the E. outline rise the Tagh-
kanic mountains, and the highlands of Ct. and
Ms. To the left are seen the Green Mountains of
Yt., stretching away into the N. till their blue
summits are blended with the sky. At other
times all the prospect below is enveloped in a
rolling sea of mist and cloud, surging with the
wind, and presenting ever new and fanciful
forms to the sight. Thunder storms are not un-
frequently seen passing below the spectator, while
the atmosphere is delightfully clear and cool
around him. There are two small lakes a short
distance behind the Mountain House, which,
uniting their outlets in one stream, and pouring
them over a precipice 175 feet at one leap, and
80 feet at another, into an immense ravine be-
tween two mountain ridges, present a waterfall
which is one of the most wild and at the same
time pleasing curiosities of nature. This is the
source of the Kaaterskill River, which winds its
way into the Hudson at Catskill village. A view
of these falls is easily obtained by a walk or ride
of a mile or two from Pine Orchard.

PLUM ISLAND, MS.

See Newburyport.