252 Bursting of Lakes through Mountains. 



Art. V. — Bursting of Lakes through Mountains. 



(Communicated for this Journal by the author.) 

 TO PROFESSOR SIL.LIMAN. 



The modern theories of the earth have certainly gone 

 too far in ascribing geological appearances to second causes* 

 We have specimens of v/hat I deem this kind of extrava- 

 gance in Volney's Views, in the Notes on Virginia, and in 

 the Appendix to the American edition of Cuvier's Theory. 

 In the Notes on Virginia we are told, that the Blue Ridge 

 at Harper's ferry was torn asunder by the pressure of wa- 

 ters on the north west. The writer of the appendix has 

 improved upon the hint, and maintains that the North River 

 at West Point, the Delaware below Easton, the Schuylkill 

 to the south west of it, and the Susquehannah below Har- 

 risburgh, find their way through the mountains, by passages 

 torn open by the pressure of Lake Ontario, of which that 

 mountain was formerly the south eastern boundary ! 



It requires but a slight acquaintance with the courses of 

 the mountain, its figure and altitude, and the configuration of 

 the valley along its north west side, to be satisfied, that all 

 these hypotheses are not only improbable, but certainly un- 

 philosophical. 



The Highlands from West Point are extended almost un- 

 broken into Georgia. In Jersey, this range of mountain 

 is known by the name of Kittatihny, from a tribe of In- 

 dians of that name that occupied a considerable extent of 

 district along its base, near where the Delaware river passes 

 through it : in Pennsylvania it is distinguished by the name 

 of the South Mountain : and in Virginia it is known by the 

 name of the Blue Ridge. I would adopt the Indian name, 

 and denominate the whole, the Kittatinny mountain. North 

 east of Harrisburgh, it sweeps round to the south east, cross- 

 es the Susquehannah above Columbia, and returns in a cir- 

 cular course until it regains its ordinary direction, south east 

 of Carlisle. That bend is the lowest part of the range. 

 Its altitude for twenty miles is at least five hundred feet less 

 than that of the Highlands at West Point. The valley be- 

 tween the Kittatinny mountain and what I call the Powhat- 

 tan range, known by that name in Virginia from the father 



