Highlands of N'eio- Yorh and New- Jersey. 27 



The continuity of the Highlands is interrupted in several 

 places, by rivers, and clove passages. The sections to the 

 south, have the local names of Peekskill, Dunderberg, Ra- 

 mapaugh, Pompton, Stony brook, Rockaway, and Morris- 

 town mountains, other ridges situated in the north-western 

 part and centre, are called Sterling, Longpond, RafFenberg, 

 Greenpond and Copperas mountains. Farther to the South 

 are observed, Schooley's mountain, and Musconnitunk 

 ridge. In passing through New-Jersey the mountains ex- 

 pand, occupying a greater breadth, but are less elevated 

 than in the region adjacent to the Hudson, where Newbea- 

 con on the east side rises to the height of 1,585 feet above 

 the river, Butter hill 1,529, Crowsnest 1,418, and Bare 

 Mountain 1,350. 



The Highland ranges are primitive, with the exception of 

 an insulated transition region of considerable extent situated 

 in New-Jersey. 



The ridges and heights almost uniformly display on their 

 surface, masses of rock that will ever render them of little 

 service to man for cultivation, and continue the principal 

 part of this chain in a state of nature. 



Except the narrow district of Smith's clove, no valley of 

 any extent is presented in the western Highlands before 

 they pass into the state of New-York, when fertile and in 

 some places wide intervals commence. The most exten- 

 sive, situated in the middle region of the mountains, passes 

 through the transition district, and may be traced with an 

 almost unbroken continuity lo the Delaware, running paral- 

 lel with the mountains. 



Minerals. 



The Highland ridges bordering West-Chester and Rock- 

 land counties in the State of New-York, and the secondary 

 region of New-Jersey, present rocks of pretty uniform char- 

 acter — they are in general coarse, well crystalized aggregates 

 of quartz and feldspar, often embracing shorl, garnets, horn- 

 blend, and epidote, with little mica, and in many parts for 

 a considerable extent none — these simple minerals various- 

 ly combined and arranged, form granite, gneiss, and sienite. 

 In the middle or interior ranges situated in New-York, 

 granite often containing black mica is the predominant rock. 



