The
highest point stands three or four hundred feet above the surface of the
water; but in that part the cliffs are no longer perpendicular. The
length of the lake is about a mile, and the width perhaps half that
distance. The rocks are gray sandstone or quartz conglomerate, making
the cliffsides, except where covered by black lichens, of a glittering
white. On one side, the rocks rise in steep, precipitous masses, while
on the other they are shattered into every imaginable form. The clefts
are deep and narrow, great hemlocks rise from the bottoms of the
fissures, and the vast masses of fallen or split rock lie piled and
cloven, confusedly tossed about, gigantic memorials of the great
convulsion that in days long gone by heaped up the long ridge of the
Shawangunk, and shattered its northern dip into such majestic and
fantastic cliffs. The deepest and wildest chasm is filled by the weird,
green lake. Straying along the tops of the precipices bordering the
water, our travellers beheld lovely vistas of the far-away country,
north, south, east, or west, stealing in through rocky or leafy
openings. An easy ascent of about half a mile leads to the summit of the
Point. Blueberries were ripe, and beguiled the pair into many a moment's
dallying by the wayside. Not until they reached the very top were they
quite sure they had after all found the place they came to seek; but one
view down the jagged line of the Shawangunk, convinced our Elsie that no
other spot could have furnished the sketch seen in the studio, where she
had been advised to seek 'the lake on the Shawangunk mountain.
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