View of the Head of the Gorge at Summit. 165 
Lancaster, the cold was greater than at Bath, from 11^ to 13^ dur- 
ing the winter; but the spring at Bath commenced about ten days 
later. If more proof was necessary to establish this important 
fact, viz: the moderation of the climate, it might be stated that 
the settlers have, in many parts of the country, been in the habit 
of turning into the woodi part of their cattle before winter, at a 
distance from their farms, and in the spring they have, in every 
instance, been found in good order, and with less loss than might 
be expected, from the same number of cattle, if kept about the 
houses. The frosts have never been so severe as to stop the opera- 
tion of the mills, with a very trifling precaution; so remarkable 
was this circumstance, in 1797, that a number of sleds came from 
Pennsylvania to the Bath mills, a distance of 70 miles." 
The clearing away of the primeval forests, seems to have had 
a very sensible influence upon the climate, by exposing the sur- 
face of the country to the operation of the winds and sun's rays, 
we find that instead of the redundancy of moisture above described, 
Ave now too frequently suffer under its opposite extremes, and if 
in the month of July we are compelled to suflTer under a heat of 
96°, comet-like, in the space of a few months, we are borne under 
the influence of cold 3° or 4° below zero. Such being the case, 
the aborigines, in the thickness of their forest shades, had a more 
comfortable and less variable climate than those who have suc- 
ceeded them, and well might the red man, when contemplating 
the blue expanse of his lakes, and the full-gushing of his rills, 
turn with a sigh from the footstep of the white intruder. 
Dresden, March, 1848. 
VIEW OF THE HEAD OF THE GORGE AT SUMMIT. 
The view of the head of the gorge at Summit, is only one in- 
stance among many of the wearing action of the streams. 
Upon this series and range of rocks from the Hudson to 
Lake Erie, all the water course cut through the shales and 
sandstones of this group. An interesting fact is well worthy 
of notice in this place, namely, that as the New York sedimentary 
rocks are composed of hard and soil materials, the whole series 
seem to be cut through from the Potsdam sandstone to the top of 
the Erie division. The aggregate amount of the perpendicular 
falls of the streams which flow over the series, is not less than one 
and a half miles, from the top of the Catskill series to the base of 
the Potsdam sandstone. 
Hamilton Shales.— The relations of this mass are nearly the 
