Theodore Roosevelt in his _History of New York_ says: "During the "Half Moon's" inland voyage her course had lain through scenery singularly wild, grand and lonely. She had passed the long line of frowning battlemented rock walls that we know by the name of the Palisades; she had threaded her way round the bends where the curving river sweeps in and out among cold peaks--Storm King, Crow's Nest, and their brethren; she had sailed in front of the Catskill Mts., perhaps thus early in the season crowned with shining snow. From her decks the lookouts scanned with their watchful eyes dim shadowy wastes, stretching for countless leagues on every hand; for all the land was shrouded in one vast forest, where red hunters who had never seen a white face followed wild beasts, upon whose kind no white man had ever gazed." In modern days the channel has been enlarged, deepened and protected by concrete dykes, which are seen at intervals along the upper river, so that the Hudson is now utilized for navigation as far as Troy. On the left bank just above Parr's Island is the estuary of the Normans Kill, which flows through the valley of Tawasentha, where, according to Indian tradition, once lived the "mighty Hiawatha." Hiawatha (the word means "he makes rivers") was a legendary chief, about 1450, of the Onondaga Tribe of Indians. The formation of the League of Five Nations, known as the Iroquois, is attributed to him by Indian tradition. He was regarded as a sort of divinity--the incarnation of human progress and civilization. Longfellow's poem "Hiawatha" embodies the more poetical ideas of Indian nature-worship. In this version of the story, Hiawatha was the Son of Mudjekeewis (the West Wind) and Wenonah, the daughter of Nakomis, who fell from the moon. 142 M. RENSSELAER, Pop, 10,823. (Train 51 passes 11:30a; No. 3, 12:02p; No. 41, 4:12p; No. 25, 5:44p; No. 19, 8:53p. Eastbound: No. 6 passes 6:00a; No. 26, 6:32a; No. 16, 12:27p; No. 22, 2:07p.) Rensselaer, originally called Greenbush, lies directly across from Albany. It was first settled in 1631 and the site formed part of a large tract of land bought from the Indians by agents of Killiaen Van Rensselaer. On the lower edge of the town Ft. Cralo,* built in 1642 for protection against the Indians, still stands; the fort has a special interest in being connected with the origin of Yankee Doodle. Some writers claim that Cralo is the oldest fort still preserved in the U.S. Its white oak beams are said to be 18 inches square; its walls are 2 to 3 ft. thick, and some of the old portholes still remain. According to tradition there were once secret passages connecting the fort with the river. About 1770, during the French and Indian Wars, Maj. James Abercrombie had his headquarters here.