PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE COUNTY. F 2 . 25 



through the ends of seven different spurs from the mount- 

 ains on the west. 



Secondly, Sherman's creek, in flowing from the west east- 

 ward, shows plainly the general slope of the formations, 

 towards the deep coal basins of Schuylkill county * And 

 in this tendency towards that profound geological depres- 

 sion in the earth's crust, it is imitated by the other large 

 drainage-ways of the county : by Little Juniata creek, by 

 Little Buffalo creek, by Buffalo creek, and by Raccoon run 

 all of which make towards the anthracite coal basins, and 

 would have been branches of the Schuylkill river had they 

 not been stopped by the Juniata and Susquehanna rivers. 



Little Juniata creek heads on the west township line of 

 Centre, 2J miles east of Elliottsburg, and drains (eastward) 

 the long narrow valley south of Mahanoy ridge for 8 miles. 

 Issuing through Dick's ridge southward, it flows into the 

 Susquehanna at Duncannon, 1J miles below the mouth of 

 its great namesake the Juniata river. That it did not keep 

 straight on, north of Dick's hill, to the Juniata river is one 

 of those eccentricities of drainage for which a local and 

 not very apparent geological cause must be sought. 



Little Buffalo creek, heading 1^ miles west of Manns - 

 ville, drains (eastward) the corresponding valley north of 

 Limestone ridge, and enters the Juniata at Newport. It is 

 10 miles long. 



Buffalo creek, with its numerous branches, drains all Sa- 

 ville and Juniata townships, and enters the Juniata river a 

 mile above Newport. 



For 8 miles west of the river, it meanders down the cen- 

 ter line of the great trough in which lies the Wiconisco an 

 thracite coal basin. It thus illustrates the geology of Perry 

 county, just as Sherman's creek does in flowing down the 

 middle of the Dauphin county coal basin. 



The extreme head-waters of its northern branch are at 



*Landisburg, at the mouth of Montour run, is 740' above tide, (table 203, 

 page 228, N, ) and railroad grade at Duncannon at the mouth of Sherman's 

 run is 376'. (table 125, page 130, N. ) The distance in a bee-line is 11 miles. 

 Therefore, the descent eastward must be at an average rate of 364 : 11=33' per 

 mile, although by the course of the creek it is onlv 364' *-2o± miles = 14' per 

 mile, or less, as Landisburg is considerably above the creek. 



