48 TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION 



high-water marks the stream must often rise many feet. 

 The depth of the channel is very variable here. Some 

 12-15 miles above there is another fall, called the upper 

 fall. 



Just above the lower fall there is a little island on the 

 Jersey side. Some one had formed the project of build- 

 ing a dam there and running a deep ditch as far as the 

 ferry, intending to erect a mill at that spot. The ditch 

 is to be 12 ft. deep and 20 wide, and will require 

 time and expense enough in the digging. At a depth 

 of no more than two to three feet below the surface 

 nothing but rock is found, for the most part a hard, 

 blueish sort of stone,* (with fragments of incomplete 

 granite), which also appears at the surface of the water 

 along the banks, and seems to be the material of which 

 the reef is composed. Above this stone, at the side of 

 the ditch, were to be seen loose rounded stones of 

 several sorts, the whole covered with the common 

 sandy, reddish soil. On the Pensylvania side, at some 

 distance, we were shown several houses belonging to a 

 forge of Colonel Bird's. 



It was not my purpose to spend time in Jersey, which 

 (beyond its mines already described) has nothing 

 especial to show as between the adjoining provinces, 

 New York and Pensylvania. The products of the 

 country, its climate &c. are the same. Among the 

 natural curiosities the beautiful waterfall of the Peq- 

 uanok, or Passaik, deserves mention. Over a wall of 



the sea to Philadelphia. In the Delaware, on account of its 

 length, there occur two flood-tides and two ebb-tides, at fixed 

 times but varying for different places. 



* Seems to be similar to trap ? does not strike fire on steel 

 is not affected by acids has a very fine grain. 



