OR UPPER BARRIER. \ 337 



exhibits the traces of rounded primitive rocks, inter* 

 spersed with alluvial deposites. 



5. The breach by the Delaware through the mountains 

 above Easton. 



The Delaware river is turned out of its course by the 

 continuation of the Shawangunk mountain, and travels 

 along its northwestern side from Minissink to Knowlton ; 

 there it has opened a way, and in doing so, drawn 

 the water from the soil above, and covered the lands be- 

 low with a medley of rocks, pebbles and sand. 



But before this opening was made, the mountain seems 

 to have been disparted at another place, called the Wind- 

 Gap, through which probably the water of the inland 

 sea was partially and temporarily discharged. 



The vastness of this dismemberment impresses every 

 traveller with a sense of its present grandeur, and of the 

 prodigious force necessary to rend the mountain from its 

 summit to its base. 



6. The breach by the Lehigh through the mountains. 



To the northwest of Bethlehem, in Pennsylvania, the 

 river Lehigh shows the opening it has made through the 

 Blue Mountain, as it is there called ; a passage which, 

 like those already mentioned, the physical geographer 

 and geologist will contemplate with interest. An ope- 

 ration which laid bare the region covered with water 

 above, and overspread with alluvial wash and displaced 

 and rounded nodules of rock the regions below, is worthy 

 of particular notice. 



43 



