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this mound ; in short, every thing on which you cast 

 your eye evidently demonstrates adisrupture and breach 

 in the mountain, and that, before this happened, what 

 is now a fruitful vale, was formerly a great lake or col- 

 lection of water, which possibly might have here form- 

 ed a mighty cascade, or had its vent to the ocean by 

 the Susquehanna, where the Blue ridge seems to ter- 

 minate. Besides this, there are other parts of this coun- 

 try which bear evident traces of a like convulsion. 

 From the best accounts 1 have been able to obtain, the 

 place where the Delaware now flows through the Kit- 

 tatinney mountain, which is a continuation of what 

 is called the North ridge, or mountain, was not its origi- 

 nal course, but that it passed through what is now call- 

 ed 'the Wind-gap,' a place several miles to the west- 

 ward, and about an hundred feet higher than the pre- 

 sent bed of the river. This Wind-gap is about a mile 

 broad, and the stones in it such as seem to have been 

 washed for ages by water running over them. Should 

 this have been the case, there must have been a large 

 lake behind that mountain, and by some uncommon 

 swell in the waters, or by some convulsion of nature the 

 river must have opened its way through a different part 

 of the mountain, and meeting there with less obstruc- 

 tion, carried away with it the opposing mounds of earth, 

 and deluged the country below with the immense col- 

 lection of waters to which th'.s new passage gave vent. 

 There are still remaining, and daily discovered, innu- 

 merable instances of such a deluge on both sides of the 

 river, after it passed the hills above the falls of Tren- 

 ton, and reached the chajrijiaign. On the Now Jersey 

 side, which is flatter than tlie Pennsylvania side, all the 

 country below Croswick hills seems to have been over- 

 flowed to the distance of from ten to fifteen miles back 

 from the river, and to have acquired a new soil by the 

 earth and clay brought down and mixed with thenativ-e 

 sand. The spot on which Phi]ac1elf)hia stands evident- 

 ly appears to be made ground. Tlie different strata 

 through which they pass in digging to water, the acorns, 

 leaves, and sometimes branches, which are found above 

 18** 



