90 Taylor's model of the western 



investigation by the State geological survey, with all the combined 

 advantages resulting from the official resources, the science and 

 the experience of its able conductor. The results of that gi-eat 

 work it would be prematm*e to anticipate. The positions of the 

 various formations and of the respective members of the gi-oups 

 of strata, within these limits, have already been indicated in the 

 annual reports of Professor Rogers. 



In contemplating this region, it appears to us that its most inter- 

 esting features are attributable to the undulating and broken or 

 upheaved character of the formations, by which process some of 

 them are repeatedly brought to the sm-face, in long, elevated 

 ridges, and again dip at high angles and form basins wliich en- 

 close or support the superior strata — the carboniferous series 

 being of course the highest. These cu'cumstances confer a remai-k- 

 ably picturesque character upon the scenery, particularly where 

 these parallel ridges are intersected by the Susquehanna, the Juni- 

 ata, and the Swatara rivers. No part of Pennsylvania is so rich 

 in pictorial beauty as the borders of the noble Susquehanna, 

 or has furnished so many subjects for the sldll of the painter. 



The spectacle here presented, by this river, cutting across in its 

 singular passage, nearly at right angles, through so many ridges 

 of extremely hard rocks, would of itself furnish a theme for geo- 

 logical speculation. Phenomena like these are well illusti'ated 

 by the mode of representation we have adopted. The numerous 

 cross fractures marked by the frequent gaps through the moun- 

 tains and by the remarkable ramifications of the Swatara, in the 

 Pinegrove coal region, could by no other process of exhibition 

 be rendered so intelligible. 



The Coal Formation. — It forms no part of the plan of the wai- 

 ter to encumber this communication with minute details. With 

 regard to the southern branch, more especially, it is the less neces- 

 sary, as they have been recently published, at considerable length, 

 in the form of reports to the proprietors of the soil.* What re- 



* Vide Report on the coal lands, mines, &c., of the Dauphin and Susquehanna Coal 

 Company, by Richard C Taylor, President of the board of directors. Report of the 

 geological examinations, &c. of the Stony Creek Estate, in Dauphin and Lebanon coun- 

 ties, by Richard C. Taylor. Philadelphia, 1&40. 



