Lakes and Cascades. 3 
Peterkill which flows along the west-sloping grits for half a 
mile, and then in high falls over the grit into the kill. East 
of the confluence there is a narrow depression known as Dark 
hole, which extends southeastward up the slope of the moun- 
tain. It is rimmed by moderately high cliffs of west-dipping 
erit and was cut by a stream which empties into the Peterkill. 
On the southern side of Dark hole is the high plateau of which 
the eastern front constitutes the cliffs at the southeastern end of 
lake Awosting. 
The Peterkill valley from beginning to end extends along the 
western flank of the anticlinal on which lake Minnewaska is 
situated, and has a cliff of west-dipping grit on its western side 
and slopes of grit on its eastern side. Four miles below lake 
Awosting the’ kill passes over Awosting falls and then over a 
series of cascades, aggregating in all a fall of over 240 feet 
approximately. In Awosting falls there is a clear fall of sixty- 
odd feet. They area mile north of lake Minnewaska. In the 
gorge below the several falls there are high cliffs of grit for some 
distance, but owing to considerable pitch northward or down 
stream and a thickness of erit somewhat over 200 feet, the kill 
has not cut through to the Hudson shales. 
South of lake Awosting there are two small, shallow ponds on 
the summit of the mountain. Mud pond, at the head of Fly 
brook, the principal fork of the Peterkill, is one, and lake Mara- 
tanza is the other. Lake Maratanza empties eastward by a 
branch of the Wallkill which pitches over the edge of the grit 
on the crest of the mountain, in a great fall into a deep gulf of 
Hudson shales. The locality is known as Verkeerder falls. 
Between Gertrude nose and Sams point the crest of the moun- 
tain is very high, but for some distance the edge of the grit is 
broken into great terraces and there is a sloping bench of Hud- 
son shales of some width at the base. Several branches of Wall- 
kill drainage head in the crest of the mountain in this region 
and pass over the edge of the grit in falls of which the above- 
mentioned Verkeerder falls are the most noteworthy. 
In this region the mountain narrows and some of the flexures 
pass out to the southward. This narrowing is due to recession 
of the edge of the sheet of the Shawangunk grit, which is closely 
related to the upward pitch of the flexures. This pitch increases 
the height of the mountain southward, but with increased height 
5—Nar. Grog. Maa., von, VI, 1894. 
