148 F 2 . REPORT OF PROGRESS. E. W. CLAYI'OLE. 



and a description of either of these might be taken with 

 small error and applied to the other. As in Penn, so here. 

 The northern part of Buffalo presents us with a district iso- 

 lated from the rest of the county. Buffalo mountain on 

 the north, and Berry's mountain on the south, are exact 

 counterparts of Peters and Cove mountains. They fence 

 in the district lying between them so completely and are so 

 ragged and impracticable that not a single road crosses them 

 in the township. The only ways of access to the interven- 

 ing vale are from the west through Howe township and 

 through the gaps of the Susquehanna river on the east. 

 Most of the waters flowing down the slopes of this valley 

 unite to form Hunter's run, a little river rising in Howe 

 township and entering Buffalo on the west. It flows down 

 the whole length of the vale and reaches the Susquehanna 

 at Mt. Patrick. 



Geological structure. 



As the characteristic feature of Penn township is the ex- 

 tension of the southern point of the Pottsville coal basin 

 across the Susquehanna, so the leading feature of Buffalo 

 and Howe townships is the westward extension and termina- 

 tion of the northern point of the same basin. The Pocono 

 sandstone, of which Buffalo mountain and Berry's mount- 

 ain are composed, is one of the beds of the lower carbonif- 

 erous system, and crops out all around the edge of the 

 coal measures. It forms the lower limit of profitable coal 

 seams. The Mauch Chunk red shale, which overlies it, is 

 the material of which the isolated valley spoken of in the 

 topographical account of the township is composed. This 

 immediately overlies the sandstone. These two are the 

 highest rocks in the geological series which occur in Perry 

 county. Consequently, it is evident that no hope can be 

 indulged of finding coal, unless it be in these three town- 

 ships.- and even here geologists can give no ground for ex- 

 pecting any profitable coal bed. 



*The geological argument on this question will be found more fully de- 

 veloped in the report on Penn township and in the chapter on the coals of 

 Perry county. It is unnecessary to reproduce it here. 



