5. HOWE TOWNSHIP. F a . 223 



6. Howe townsltip. 



Howe is one of the smallest of the townships of Perry 

 county, containing less than ten square miles of surface. 

 It is also very irregular in shape being deeply cut into by 

 the great double bend of the Juniata, which, thrown back 

 by the Buffalo hills, returns northward and is again re- 

 flected by the high ground at the foot of Berry mountain, 

 where it returns southward and finds a passage through the 

 Buffalo hill barrier at Baileysburg. 



To the observer of geological processes this part of the river 

 affords some fine examples of the way in which the Juniata 

 has been made what and where it now is. Every river and 

 stream in turning a corner cuts away, as is well known, the 

 side against which it strikes because the current is there 

 strongest. At the same time on the opposite or concave 

 side of the river, owing to the retardation of its flow, it 

 drops its sediment. 



Thus the Juniata in Howe township has gradually cut its 

 way southward at the first bend, and northward at the 

 second, both of which points are faced on the convex side by 

 cliffs, and backed on the concave side by low alluvial land 

 gradually rising from the waters edge. 



The Hamilton group. 



Xot much notice of the Hamilton group is required here, 

 inasmuch as its outcrop only enters the township at its 

 southeastern corner, leaving it again almost immediately 

 and x>assing under the Juniata. The Hamilton sandstone 

 forming the most northern of the three ridges of Half Falls 

 mountain, scarcely can be said to exist in Howe township, 

 but the Upper Hamilton shale must exist along a short range 

 near the old Tavern, though I have not found any exposure 

 of it ; nor have I been able to learn that any trace of the 

 Hamilton Fossil ore bed has been seen on its proper line of 

 outcrop. 



