POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



569 



not a view of a single chain, but takes the 

 eastern end of the border chains and the 

 short range bearing the High Peak, which 

 rises between the two. The Catskills do 

 not present prominent examples of anti- 

 clinal and synclinal folds or arches, or 

 fragments of arches, as in ordinary moun- 

 tain-chains, but are masses of piled -up 

 strata, seldom deviating notably from their 

 original horizontal position. On account of 

 this disposition of the strata, and their ten- 

 dency to break at right angles to the planes 

 of stratification, they are marked by the 

 frequent abrupt ledges which are peculiar 

 to them. For the same reason, the tops of 

 the mountains are not pointed peaks, but 

 are mostly flat surfaces, often of consider- 

 able extent. The central chain is the long- 

 est and most massive of the series, and is 

 the backbone of the whole Catskill region. 

 From Overlook Mountain to the Utsyantha, 

 near Stamford, it is a little more than thir- 

 ty-five miles long, and is divided into four 

 almost equal parts by three deep gorges 

 or cloves. The heights increase regularly 

 from the Overlook to Hunter Mountain, one 

 quarter of the way back, which, 4,038 feet 

 high, is the highest point of the northern 

 Catskills, overtopping High Peak, which has 

 borne that name, by nearly four hundred 

 feet. From this point the heights diminish 

 to the Utsyantha, at the western end of the 

 chain, whose height, 3,205 feet, is not great- 

 ly different from that of Overlook, 3,150 

 feet. The High Peak range, which is sand- 

 wiched between this range and the northern 

 range, is only six miles long, and is distin- 

 guished by its High Peak, 3,664 feet high. 

 The northeast border chain begins at South 

 Mountain, near the Catskill Mountain House, 

 which is 2,497 feet high, culminates at Black 

 Dome, 4,003 feet high, and ends at Leonard 

 Hill, 2,649 feet high, showing a similar 

 rapid rise for a quarter of the distance, and 

 a gradual fall toward the western end with 

 the central range. The highland between 

 these two chains, an irregular parallelogram 

 twenty-seven miles long and from six to 

 fifteen miles wide, is filled by three ranges, 

 which are separated by valleys in which 

 flow the tributaries of Schoharie Creek. 

 This stream and its tributaries furnish the 

 entire drainage for the interior highlands 

 of the Catskills proper. The streams that 



run directly to the Hudson draw no water 

 from the interior, but belong properly to 

 the outside slopes. " This drainage, which 

 sends the waters of the Catskills all the 

 way around to the Mohawk to come back by 

 the Hudson, after a course of one hundred 

 and seventy-five miles, to within ten miles 

 of their starting-point, is certainly remark- 

 able, and betokens a very peculiar physical 

 structure. This is made more striking by 

 the fact that on both sides of these high- 

 lands the waters of the valleys of the Cats- 

 kill and Esopus Creeks flow, as we might 

 have expected, from the western plateaus 

 directly to the Hudson River. The nearly 

 horizontal position of the strata, which is 

 common to the mountains and the surround- 

 ing plateau, and the peculiar features of 

 the drainage, lead to the inference that the 

 plastic forms of the Catskill region are the 

 work of erosive forces, and are not due to 

 the ordinary dynamic process which has 

 folded and shaped the other parts of the 

 Appalachian system. " We may, therefore, 

 conceive the original form of the Catskills 

 to have been that of a high plateau, a mass 

 of elevations forming a part of the Appa- 

 lachian plateau region which extends west 

 of the Alleghanies from south Virginia, and 

 fills nearly all the western portion of the 

 State of New York south of Lake Ontario 

 and the Mohawk River. The lowest alti- 

 tude of the primitive plateau is marked by 

 the ideal plane which would pass through 

 the mountain-tops, and its superior eleva- 

 tion on the east would account for the flow 

 of the waters, the gradual scooping out 

 and the sloping of the valleys in the direc- 

 tion they now have." The southern Cats- 

 kills have not the regular features which 

 characterize the northern group ; the boun- 

 daries are not well defined, except along the 

 Esopus Valley ; and, instead of their having 

 an interior plateau inclosed by high border 

 chains, the massive central chain, which 

 bears the highest summit, is accessible from 

 all the surrounding valleys without crossing 

 any high pass. Their general direction is 

 about the same as that of the northern Cats- 

 kills, but several important ridges run at 

 right angles to this direction, and impart 

 considerable physical irregularity to their 

 structure. The Slide Mountain, the culmi- 

 nating point of this group, is the highest of 



