226 F\ REPORT OF PROGRESS. E. W. CLAYPOLE. 



The Pocono sandstone, No. X. 



Howe township contains the angle made by the meeting 

 of the two long lines of outcrop of the Pocono sandstone, 

 which enter Perry county at Liverpool and Mount Patrick 

 respectively. These two lines of outcrop diverging further 

 after they leave the county eastward form the outer walls 

 of the Lykens Valley coal field or Wiconisco basin, the 

 northern fork of the Great Pottsville anthracite field. 



This hard and massive sandstone, the same as that* which 

 surrounds Allen's cove in the south of the county, forms 

 everywhere by its outcrop rough bold mountain ranges 

 throughout eastern Pennsylvania, encircling all the coal 

 basins, and compelling the rivers to cut for themselves gaps. 

 It contains in itself evidence of coal on a small scale, but 

 lies too low, geologically speaking, to yield any profitable 

 seams. 



There are few places where it is possible to measure with 

 any approach to accuracy the thickness of this sandstone, 

 but along the Susquehanna river it has been determined to 

 be 1950 feet. The Pocono sandstone mountains carry a very 

 high and even crest. The two ridges converging in Howe 

 towmship opposite Newport are examples of this fact. 

 Both run, with one exception, from the Susquehanna to the 

 Juniata without a gap. No roads pass over them and they 

 consequently form complete barriers between the inhabi- 

 tants on their two sides. 



The one exception alluded to above occurs near the west- 

 ern end of the ridge. Very near or at the place where the 

 two ranges meet the mountain has been cut completely 

 down, so that a road passes through without any steep as- 

 cent. 



It is not easy to assign a cause for this remarkable pass. 

 It is not a narrow dark shady gap like most of those in the 

 county, but is wide and open. Nor is there, at present, any 

 water flowing through it. A small stream rises about the 

 middle of the opening and flows south ; scarcely any water 

 Hows north ; nor does any come from the valley included 

 between the ridges. All the drainage of the inner slopes 



