162 TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION 



to warmer climates or coming thence, is found here 

 now in pairs. 



The celebrated Blue Mountains appear from here 

 not so high and praiseworthy as, from descriptions, I 

 had been led to expect. What gives them a particular 

 face, at a certain distance, is their lying so straight the 

 one after the other. Thus the first range (at the foot 

 of which we are here) seen from Heller's house ex- 

 tends south as it were a steep wall ; the little foot-hills 

 and offsets and other irregularities disappear in the 

 view of the great and uniform whole with its cover- 

 ing of forest. Measured from its foot, the height of this 

 first range, called particularly the Blue or Kittatiny 

 Mountain (and under this name extending from 

 Jersey through Virginia) is by no means considerable. 

 Beyond Heller's house, a mile to the north, is a natural 

 pass, from three-quarters of a mile to a mile wide, the 

 so-called Wind Gap which vastly lightens the labor 

 of crossing the mountain, the cut being at least half 

 the height of the mountain and only a moderate climb 

 remaining. It is not easily guessed what was the 

 cause of this section through the otherwise pretty uni- 

 form ridge. No water flows through this gap. Per- 

 haps ten miles to the north-east there is another open- 

 ing through the mountain where the Delaware crosses 

 and hence called Delaware Gap ; a third, and the nar- 

 rowest, is to the south-west, also at no great distance ; 

 the Leheigh comes through this and its name is the 

 Water Gap. There is a very fine view at this gap, it 

 is said. 



In the Kittatiny the rock-species is a hard, fine- 

 grained Cos, either grey, whitish, or verging on red. 

 Fragments lay along the road in vast quantities and 



