THE 



MONTHLY AMERICAN JOURNAL 



OF 



GEOLOGY 



AND NATURAL SCIENCE. 



Vol. I. Philadelphia, April, 1832. No. 10. 



SECTION OF THE ALLEGHANY MOUNTAIN, AND MOSHANNON 

 VALLEY, IN CENTRE COUNTY, PENN. 



By Richard C. Taylor, F. G. S. and Associate Fellow of the Institution of 



Civil Engineers of London. 



Philipsburg, Centre Co. Pcnn. March 15, 1832. 



Dear Sir, — You ask for some information relative to the 

 geology of this neighbourhood, and I lose no time in complying 

 with your request. I believe I cannot do better than furnish 

 you with the accompanying section, which I feel some satisfac- 

 tion in doing, because its details result from a series of careful 

 observations, made during last summer, whilst pursuing an ex- 

 ploring survey, to determine a rail-way route. I have preferred 

 introducing a number of details into the section, rather than 

 transfer them into a lengthened explanatory memoir. Until the 

 investigation of the country bordering on the Alleghany chain 

 be more extensively entered upon, I propose to occupy but a 

 brief space in your Journal, with the requisite explanatory 

 references. 



My section illustrates only a very small portion of the central 

 bituminous coal field of Pennsylvania ; but it occurs in an inter- 

 esting quarter, and it is well to make a beginning, vdiere the 

 area is so vast, and so little known to men of science. The di- 

 rection of our course is north and south, exhibiting profiles of a 

 part of the Moshannon valley, its creek, and some of its tribu- 

 taries ; and then crossing the Alleghany ridge or mountain, at 

 the lowest depression wc have been able to ascertain in this di- 

 rection, we descend by Emigh's gap, and by the ravine and run 



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