Davis and Wood.] 
406 
[Nov. 20, 
been opened behind the Watchung ridges. But the general concen- 
tration of all the back country drainage at Paterson is not what 
would be expected of a system of rivers still persisting in courses 
taken on the Cretaceous surface sloping gently to the southeast. It 
might truly be suggested that the trap ridges were not entirely bur- 
ied or that their residual relief on the Schooley peneplain was not 
entirely concealed by the Cretaceous cover ; and, in that case, the 
passage of the Passaic at Paterson might mark the passage of 
some old stream of the Schooley cycle, where the drainage from 
the back country would naturally pass when the Cretaceous plain 
rose from the sea. Between this suggestion and the explanation 
by mature adjustment following superimposition as already indi- 
cated, we must choose by means of the accordance of one or the 
other hypothesis with such details of drainage as a careful exami- 
nation of the country may disclose. The best test that can be ap- 
plied in choosing between the two hypotheses is found in the loca- 
tion of water and wind gaps in the Watchung mountains. If they 
are not distributed at random, but manifest an arrangement that 
seems to be in accord with a systematic development of many su- 
perimposed streams, more confidence may be felt in one hypothe- 
sis than in the other. 
The essential peculiarities of a drainage system that would be 
developed by the adjustments of superimposed streams would be 
the occurrence of wind gaps near the water gaps of the master 
streams, and the persistence of water gaps followed by small 
streams at a greater distance from the masters. This seems to be 
actually the case to a certain extent, as appears in fig. 13. 1 
The interpretation that we would give to the rivers of this #rea 
is as follows. The northern part was drained by a large transverse 
stream rising in the Highlands, AA, and composed of what are now 
J Fig. 13 gives an hypothetical interpretation of the actual drainage arrangement 
indicated in fig. 12. The initial courses of several superimposed streams, chosen on 
the sloping surface of the elevated Cretaceous cover, are marked by waving lines, AA, 
BB, CC, DD, corresponding with parts of existing streams whose names are given in 
Fig. 12. The most important diverting stream is marked by a heavy, broken line, EFG. 
Wind gaps and a few divides in stable positions are marked O. Inverted streams have 
dots along side of their lines. Divides not yet pushed by the inverted streams to a 
stable position are marked □, and these are all in the south. The moraine is indicated by 
XXX , heavy where it acts most effectively as a divide. Streams whose courses have 
been much changed by a glacial drift are cross-lined, as the Passaic, GKB, and the 
Rockaway at Boonton, M, and below. Divides, where capture may yet be made, are 
marked A, as on the north branch of the Raritan, H (see paragraph 26) and on the old 
drift-filled course of the Rockaway, L. The terminology of diverting, diverted, in- 
verted and beheaded streams is explained in Nat. Geogr. Mag., 1, 1889, 210. 
