470 RECORDS 



throughout the dissected tilted peneplain which remains was very 

 uniform, and indicates that the former land level was 220 feet 

 lower than the present. If this is the case, we have an instance 

 of rivers beheaded close to their mouths. In addition to the 

 wild beauty of the Palisades escarpment, the timber of this tract 

 is the most luxurious and valuable of the State of New Jersey, 

 although its area is much less than that of the pine groves to 

 the south. 



Professor John C. Smock, State Geologist of New Jersey, 

 followed with an account of the efforts expended on the protec- 

 tion of the Palisades from devastation by quarry men. Legislative 

 prohibition of such destruction is retarded by (i) lack of inter- 

 est in the matter on the part of residents in southern New- 

 Jersey ; (2) prospects of the future commercial value of the 

 riparian lands at the base of the cliffs, for purposes of shipping 

 and manufacturing, which the removal of a portion of the cliffs 

 would render available ; (3) the present value to the State of its 

 quarrying interests along the water front ; (4) the income de- 

 rived from riparian grants of these lands by the State to the 

 quarrymen, which income is devoted to the maintenance of the 

 public schools, the approximate value to the State for this pur- 

 pose of the lands from Fort Lee to the State border being about 

 one million dollars. This clash between the interests of the 

 schools and the preservation of beautiful scenery is the most 

 serious obstacle with which legislation against defacing the 

 Palisades has to contend. 



" In the face of these obstacles it is evident that the whole- 

 sale absorption of this territory for a purely sentimental object 

 is impossible. The opposition to such a scheme could only be 

 broken by years of fighting, and in the meantime the destruc- 

 tion of the cliffs and wooded slopes will continue with ever-in- 

 creasing extent." 



As a compromise, Professor Smock suggested that an inter- 

 state commission of New Jersey and New York lay out a drive- 

 way along the base of the Palisades, quarrying, manufacturing, 

 and shipping interests to be confined to the water-side of the 

 driveway, and the cliff side to be permanently preserved intact 



