THE FLOOD OF 1843. 5 



they approach each other within about half a mile, but after- 

 ward diverge and enter the Delaware river by separate 

 mouths, a short distance above Chester. 



Besides these there may be enumerated the Gulf creek, 

 which has an easterly or north-easterly course and empties 

 into the Schuylkill river a few miles below Norristown, in the 

 county of Montgomery. Naaman s creek, which empties into 

 the Delaware river, below Marcus Hook, and within the 

 borders of the State of Delaware ; Hook creek, which empties 

 into the Delaware at Marcus Hook ; Little Cnim creek, which 

 empties into Crum creek near the Delaware ; Ithen creek and 

 Miicanipates, branches of Darby creek; Naylor's run, a 

 branch of Cobb's creek; Green's run and Dismal run, 

 branches of Ridley creek ; Crreen's creek, a branch of Chester 

 creek ; Beaver and Valley creeks, branches of the Brandywine, 

 besides many other streams of a sufficient size to be employed 

 in propelling machinery. 



Leaving out of view the meadow lands bordering on the 

 Delaware river, the face of the country is generally undulat- 

 ing and in some parts hilly ; and with the exception of a 

 small part of the township of Radnor, which is drained by 

 the Gulf creek, it has a general slope towards the Delaware 

 river. This slope, though getieral, is not entirely gradtial. 

 There may be particularly observed a sudden elevation in the 

 land extending in a transverse direction to the streams across 

 the whole extent of the county. This sudden elevation in 

 the land, or "water shade," as it has been termed, is at a 

 distance of from three to five miles from the meadows, and 

 nearly parallel to the Delaware. Although in the beds of the 

 several streams, this abrupt rise in the land is in a manner 

 obliterated, yet it nevertheless gives rise to numerous water 

 powers very contiguous to each other. As the creeks are 

 large, and closely approached by the hills at these rapids, and 

 the water powers chiefly occupied on an extensive scale, all 

 the conditions were present to render the flood pow^erful and 

 destructive. This is fullv attested by the result in these par- 



