PHYSICAL GKOGRAPHY OF THE COUNTY. F\ 9 



southern county line, and is similar in form and character 

 to those just described, having two large zigzags in its course. 



Its total crest-length is 53 miles, unbroken by a single 

 water-gap ; but in a straight line from county corner to 

 county corner, the distance is only 38 miles. 



For 17 miles it runs (with one small zigzag) parallel to 

 Bower mountain, separated from it by Henry valley, the 

 deep and narrow vale of the north branch of Laurel run. 

 which heads at the Franklin county line. Both mountains 

 run on thus south westward through Franklin county, unite 

 and end before reaching Loudon. Bower mountain, there- 

 fore, is only a long return-zigzag of Blue mountain. 



The mountain ends (so far as Perry county is concerned) 

 at the Susquehanna river, 4 miles above Harrisburg ; but, in 

 point of fact, this is merely a wide water-gap in it ; for its 

 rocks rise as boldly again on the east bank of the river, 

 and its crest continues on for nearly two hundred miles, in 

 the same E. X. E. direction (broken at intervals by the 

 water-gaps of the Swatara, Schuylkill, Lehigh, and Delaware 

 rivers) to the real terminus of the mountain, not far from 

 Xewburgh on the Hudson river. 



Along its whole course it preserves its shape of a mono- 

 clinal ridge, from 1200' to 1400' high above the river water 

 in the gaps, with a comparatively long smooth slope to the 

 north, and a steeper rougher slope towards the south, some- 

 times crowned with low cliffs of coarse sandstone. 



The mountain received the name of First mountain from 

 the early settlers of Southeastern Pennsylvania, especially 

 those who built their cabins along the Susquehanna river at 

 Columbia, Marietta, and Harrisburg, and had occasion to 

 canoe the river upwards through the water-gaps. T\\e first 

 mountain they passed through was the Blue mountain ; the 

 second was Cove mountain, and from the Susquehanna to 

 the Lehigh it has retained the name of Second mountain 

 ever since ; the thirdwns the Sharp mountain of Schuylkill 

 county, which traverses Dauphin county, but does not reach 

 the Susquehanna river; the fourth was Peters' mountain, 

 on the east or Dauphin side of the river, and the short 

 north leg of Cove mountain on the west or Perry county 



