Summer Birds of Pocono Lake, Monroe County, 

 Pennsylvania 



BY JOHN D. CARTER 



In the northeastern part of Penns3'lvania, between the sharply- 

 cut valleys of the Lackawanna, Lackawaxen, Delaware and Le- 

 high rivers, lies an elevated, thinly-settled tract called the 

 Pocono plateau. To a traveler approaching from the Delaware 

 valley at Stroudsburg, its southeastern edge has the appearance 

 of a massive mountain wall, more or less irregular, yet preserv- 

 ing the usual Alleghanian trend, up this wall, by devious courses, 

 climb the Lackawanna and Wilkes-Barre and Eastern Railroads. 



At Mount Pocono, on the former railroad, a beautiful and 

 impressive view is afforded, across the wide, rugged valley, 

 northwest of Stroudsburg, to the long ridge of the Kittatinny 

 mountain, sharply broken by the Delaware Water Gap. At the 

 next station, Pocono Summit, all the distant view is left behind. 

 On all sides extends a gently, undulating country, covered for 

 the most part with a low, scrubby growth of bushes and small 

 trees. Above this humble vegetation protrude numerous pine 

 trees of small or medium size, while an occasional great trunk, 

 desolate in its nakedness, lifts its few remaining arms as if in 

 protest against the destruction which has been wrought by fire 

 and the axe. 



This region, which to many travelers doubtless appears dull 

 and forsaken, is broken occasionally by patches of cleared land, 

 cared for by small farmers. Through wide, shallow depressions 

 flow the streams of the region, some toward the Delaware or its 

 tributaries, others toward the Lehigh. 



A few miles from Pocono Summit, one of the streams of the 

 Lehigh division, called the Tobyhanna, suddenly enters a valley 

 60 narrow and sharp]}' cut as almost to deserve the name of a 

 gorge. At this point a dam-breast has been made, backing up 



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