Rivers.] There are fix confiderable rivers, which, with their numerous branches, peninfulate the whole ftate, viz. The Delaware, Schuylkill, Sufquehannah, Yohoganey, Monongahela, and Allegany. We have already given an account of the rife and progress of Delaware river, until it croffes into Pennsylvania (page 245). From the mouth of Delaware bay, at Cape Henlopen, to Philadelphia, is reckoned one hundred and eighteen miles. So far there is a fufficient depth of water for a feventyfour gun fhip. From Philadelphia to Trenton falls is thirty-five miles. This is the head of floop navigation. The river is navigable for boats that carry eight or nine tons, forty miles further, and for Indian canoes, except feveral fmall falls or portages, one hundred and fifty miles. At Eafton, it receives the Lehigh from the weft, which is navigable thirty miles. The tide fets up as high as Trenton falls, and at Philadelphia rifes generally about fix feet. A north-eaft and east wind raises it higher. On Cape Henlopen * ftands the light-house, with a few other houses. Oppofite the light-houfe, on the Jerfey fhore, twelve miles, is Cape May. Between thefe Capes is the entrance into the Delaware bay. The entrance into the river is twenty miles further up, at Bombay Hook, where the river is four or five miles wide. From Bombay Hook to Reedy Iland is twenty miles. This ifland is the rendezvous of outward bound fhips in autumn and fpring, waiting for a favourable wind. The courfe from this to the fea is S. S. E. fo that a N. W. wind, which is the prevailing wind in thefe feafons, is fair for veffels to put out to fea. This river is generally frozen one or two months in the year so as to prevent navigation. From Chefter to Philadelphia, twenty miles, the channel of the river is narrowed by iflands of marsh, which are generally banked and turned into rich and immenfely valuable meadows. Billingfport, twelve miles below Philadelphia, was fortified in the late war for the defence of the channel. Oppofite this fort, feveral large frames of timber, headed with iron fpikes, called chevaux de frizes, were funk to prevent the British fhips from paffing. Since the peace, a curious machine has been invented in Philadelphia, to raise them. The Schuylkill rifes north-weft of the Kittatinny mountains, through which it paffes, into a fine champaign country, and runs, from its fource, upwards of one hundred and twenty miles in a fouth-eaft direction, and falls into the Delaware three miles below Philadelphia. It is navigable from above Reading, eighty-five or ninety miles, to its mouth. There are three floating bridges thrown across it, made of logs fastened together, and lying upon the water. The Sufquehannah river rifes in lake Otfego, in the ftate of NewYork, and runs in fuch a winding courfe as to cross the boundary line between New-York and Pennfylvania three times. It receives Tyoga river, one of its principal branches, in lat. 41° 57', three miles fouth of the boundary line. The Sufquehannah branch is navigable for batteaux to its fource, whence to Mohawks river, is but twenty miles. The Tyoga branch is navigable fifty miles, for batteaux; and its fource is but a few miles from the Cheneffee, which empties into lake Ontario. From Henlopen is a Swedish word, fignifying entering in." Tyoga Tyoga point, the river proceeds fouth-east to Wyoming, without any obftruction by falls, and then fouth-weft, over Wyoming falls, till at Sunbury, in about lat. 41° it meets the weft branch of Sufquehannah, which is navigable ninety miles from its mouth, and some of the branches of it are navigable fifty miles, and are faid to approach very near fome of the boatable branches of the Allegany river. From Sunbury the river is paffable with boats to Louisburgh and Middletown, on Swetara; and with rafts of boards and mafts to Lancaster, but it is attended with difficulty and danger on account of the numerous falls below Middletown. About fifteen miles above Louisburgh, it receives the Juniatta, from the northweft, proceeding from the Allegany mountains, and flowing through a mountainous, broken country. It is navigable, however, eighty miles from its mouth. The Swetara, which falls into the Sufquehannah from the north-east, is navigable fifteen miles. It is in contemplation to cut a canal about twenty miles from the Swetara to the Tulpehoken, a branch of the Schuylkill. Should this be effected, a paffage would be open to Philadelphia from the Juniatta, the Tyoga, and the east and weft branches of the Sufquehannah, which water at least 15,000,000 of acres. From this junction, the general courfe of the river is about fouth-eaft until it falls into the head of Chefapeek bay, juft below Havre-de Grace. It is about a mile wide at its mouth, and is navigable for fea veffels but about twenty miles, on account of its rapids. The banks of this river are very ro mantic, particularly where it paffes through the mountains. This paffage has every appearance of having been forced through by the preffure of the water, or of having been burft open by fome convulfion in nature. The feveral branches of Yohogany river rife on the weft fide of the Allegany mountains. After running a fhort diftance, they unite and form a large beautiful river, which, in paffing fome of the moft western ridges of the mountains, precipitates itfelf over a level ledge of rocks, lying nearly at right angles to the course of the river. Thefe falls, called the Ohiopyle falls, are about twenty feet in perpendicular height, and the river is perhaps eighty yards wide. For a confiderable diftance below the falls, the water is very rapid, and boils and foams vehemently, occafioning a continual mift to rife from it, even at noon day, and in fair weather. The river at this place runs to the fouth-weft, but prefently winds round to the north-weft, and continuing this course for thirty or forty miles, it lofes its name by uniting with the Monongahela, which comes from the fouthward, and contains, perhaps, twice as much water. Thefe united streams, shortly after their junction, mingle with the waters of the Allegany at Pittsburgh, and together form the grand river Ohio. The Monongahela has been particularly defcribed, and fome obfervations made on the navigation of the Allegany, (Page 44.) In addition it may be obferved, that at the junction of French Creek (which comes from the north-weft) with the Allegany, are the remains of a British fortification; and about a mile above is a fort, built in 1787, and then guarded by a company of about fixty American foldiers, under the command of Capt. Hart, from Connecticut. The Pennfylvania north line, croffes French Creek about three miles above Le Bœuf, where there was formerly a fort. From Le Bœuf to Prefque-ifle, fourteen or fifteen miles, X is is an old waggon road, cut by the French in the war of 1755. The lands on French Creck are very fertile, and moftly cleared, which is an evidence that its former Indian inhabitants were numerous. Fourteen miles from the mouth of this creek is a gentle rapid, thence to its mouth, it is flow, deep and fmooth. Before we leave this interefting head concerning rivers, we cannot omit inferting the observations of Mr. Charles Thomson, secretary of Congrefs. • Befides the three channels mentioned (page 45) between the western waters, and the Atlantic, there are two others, to which the Pennsylvanians are turning their attention; one from Presque-ifle, on Lake Erie, to Le Boœuf, down the Allegany to Kiskiminitas, then up the Kiskiminitas, and from thence, by a small portage, to Juniatta, which falls into the Sufquchannah: The other from Lake Ontario to the eaft branch of the Delaware, and down that to Philadelphia. Both these are faid to be very practicable; and, confidering the enterprising temper of the Pennfylvanians, and particularly of the merchants of Philadelphia, whose object is concentered in promoting the commerce and trade of one city, it is not improbable bat one or both of these communications will be of eued and improved *.' There is faid to be still another communication equally as practicable as either of the others; and that is between the fouthern branch of the Tyoga and a branch of the Allcgany, the head waters of which, are -but a short distance from each other. The Seneca Indians say, they can walk four times in a day, from the boatable waters of the Ohio, to those of the Tyoga, at the place now mentioned. And between the Susquehannah, just before it crosses into Pennsylvania the first time, and the Delaware, is a portage of only twelve miles. One remark must not be omitted here, and that is, that in all the back country, waters of this state, even in those high up in the mountains, marine petrifactions may be found in great abundance. Swamps.] The only fwamps worth noticing, are, the Great Swamp, between Northampton and Luzerne counties, and Buffaloe fawamp in the north-western parts of Northumberland county, near the head waters of the west branch of the Sufquehannah. These swamps, on examination and furvey, are found to be bodies of rich farm land, thickly covered with beach and fugar maple. Mountains, face of the country, foil and productions.] As much as nearly one third of this hate may be called mountainous; particularly the counties of Bedford, Huntingdon, Cumberland, part of Franklin, Dauphin, and part of Bucks and Northampton, through which pass, under various names, the numerous ridges and spurs, which collectively form what - we chuse to call, for the fake of clearness, the GREAT RANGE OF ALLEGANY MOUNTAINS. The principal ridges in this range, in Pennfylvania, are the Kittatinny, or Blue mountain, which pass north of Nazareth in Northampton county, and purfue a fouth-west course, across the Lehigh, through Dauphin county, just above Louisburgh, thence on the weft fide of the Sufquehannah through Cumberland and Franklin counties. Back of thefe, and nearly parallel with them, are Peters, Tufcarora and Nescopek mountains, on the east of the Sufquehannah; and on the weft, * Sec Appendix to Mr. Jefferson's Notes on Virginia. No. I. Shareman's Shareman's hills, Sideling hills, Ragged, Great Warriors, Evits and Wills mountains; then the great Allegany ridge, which being the largest, gives its name to the whole range; weft of this are the Laurel and Chefnut ridges. Between the Juniatta and the weft branch of the Sufquehannah are Jacks, Tuffes, Nittiny and Bald Eagle mountains. The vales between these mountains are generally of a rich, black foil, fuited to the various kinds of grain and grafs. Some of the mountains will admit of cultivation almoít to their tops. There is a remarkable difference between the country on the east and weft fide of the range of mountains we have juft been defcribing. Between these mountains and the lower falls of the rivers which run into the Atlantic, not only in this but in all the fouthern ftates, are several ranges of ftones, fand, earths and minerals, which lie in the utmoft confufion. Beds of ftone, of valt extent, particularly of lime-ftone, have their feveral layers broken in pieces, and the fragments thrown confufedly in every direction. Between thefe lower falls and the ocean, is a very extentive collection of fand, clay, mud and fhells, partly thrown up by the waves of the fea, partly brought down by floods from the upper country, and partly produced by the decay of vegetable fubftances. The country weftward of the Allegany mountains, in thefe refpects, is totally different. It is very irregular, broken and variegated, but there are no mountains; and when viewed from the moft western ridge of the Allegany, it appears to be a vaft extended plain. All the various ftrata of tone appear to have lain undisturbed in the fituation wherein they were first formed. The layers of clay, fand and coal, are nearly horizontal. Scarcely a fingle inftance is to be found to the contrary. Detached rocks are indeed found here in all fituations, as well as eastward of the mountains; but these are only fuch as lie near the furface, and being undermined by the waters, have tumbled from their original places. Every appearance, in fhort, tends to confirm the opinion, that the original cruft, in which the ftone was formed, has never been broken up on the west fide of the mountains, as it evidently has been eaftward of them. The irregularity and unevennefs of the country weftward of the mountains, appear to have been the effect of water defcending in heavy fhowers of rain. Many thousands of fquare miles are cut by innumerable deep drains for carrying off water, and nothing is left between them but high, fleep and narrow ridges. The prodigious rains. which produced this furprising effect, probably filled up the intervals between the mountains, and the preffure of the water in time, may have become fo great as to have, at length, broken through the lowest and weakest parts of them; and in fuch places have carried away the rocks which formed the ridges, down nearly as low as the prefent beds of the rivers; part of the water running caftward, and part weftward, fo that the principal ridge, the proper Allegany, only was left unbroken. The rocks, thus torn from their beds, appear to have been lodged within a few miles of the mountains, where at this day we find them; and the gravel, fand and earth, carried far below, and depofited in the lower country, in fucceffion, according to their refpective gravities *. In this connection, in confirmation of what we have now been faying, and alfo of what was obferved, page 48, I beg leave to introduce the remarks of the fecretary of Congrefs, whom we just now quoted, which were fuggefted on his reading Mr. Jefferfon's defcription of the paffage of the Patomak through the Blue ridge. The reflections I was led into on viewing this paffage of the Patomak through the Blue ridge were, that this country muft have fuffered fome violent convulfion, and that the face of it must have been changed from what it probably was fome centuries ago; that the broken and ragged faces of the mountain on each fide the river; the tremendous rocks, which are left wish one end fixed in the precipice, and the other jutting out, and feemingly ready to fall for want of fupport; the bed of the river for feveral miles below obstructed, and filled with the loofe ftones carried from this mound; in fhort, every thing on which you caft your eye, evidently demonftrates a difrupture and breach in the mountain, and that, before this happened, what is now a fruitful vale, was formerly a great lake or collection of water, which poffibly might have here formed a mighty cafcade, or had its vent to the ocean by the Sufquehannah, where the Blue ridge feems to terminate. Befides this, there are other parts of this country which bear evident traces of a like convulfion. From the best accounts I have been able to obtain, the place where the Delaware now flows through the Kittatinny mountain, which is a continuation of what is called the North ridge, or mountain, was not its original course, but that it paffed through what is now called the Wind-gap,' a place feveral miles to the weftward, and above an hundred feet higher than the prefent bed of the river. This wind-gap is about a mile broad, and the ftones in it fuch as feem to have been wafhed for ages by water running over them. Should this have been the cafe, there must have been a large lake behind that mountain, and by fome uncommon fwell in the waters, or by fome convulfion of nature, the river must have opened its way through a different part of the mountain, and meeting there with lefs obftruction, carried away with it the oppofing mounds of earth and deluged the country below with the immenfe collection of waters to which this new paffage gave vent. There are ftill remaining, and daily difcovered, innumerable inftances of fuch a deluge on both fides of the river, after it paffed the hills above the falls of Trenton, and reached the champaign. On the New Jersey fide, which is flatter than the Pennfylvania fide, all the country below Crofwick hills feems to have been overflowed to the diftance of from ten to fifteen miles back from the river, and to have acquired a new foil by the earth and clay brought down and mixed with the native fand. The fpot on which Philadelphia ftands evidently appears to be made ground. The different ftrata through which they pafs in digging to water, the acorns, leaves, and fometimes branches, which are found above twenty feet below the furface, all feem to demonftrate this. I am informed that at York town in Virginia, in the bank of York river, there are different ftrata of fhells and earth, one above another, which feem to point out that the country there has undergone feveral changes; that the sea has, for a fucceffion of ages, occupied the place where dry land now appears; and that the ground has been fuddenly raifed at various periods. What a change |