159 
nucleus of all the New England 
mountains and hills. 
But leaving these Northern 
mountains to return to the Al- 
legh allies proper, we find them 
forming a broad tableland in 
North Pennsylvania, which 
gradually becomes broken into 
ridges by the valleys and 
streams. But the main or 
middle branch dividing the 
Eastern and Western Waters, 
called the Backbone mountain 
is yet a broad tableland in cen- 
ter county, and gradually ta- 
pers to £0 and 10 miles breadth 
at the Pittsburg and Cumber- 
land roads; although our maps 
represent it as a mere ridge, 1 
pointed out this error to Mr. 
Tanner, but it could not be 
conveniently corrected in his 
map, and thus is there yet! 
The Delaware, Susquehan- 
nah, Juniata, and Potomac ri- 
vers rise in this tableland and 
break through these ridges in 
many places, forming many 
successive watergaps, which 
were ancient outlets of moun- 
tain lakes according to Vol- 
ney’s theory, but as no fossil 
remains of fresh water animals 
are found therein, it is very 
probable that they were inland 
seas and gulfs of salt water 
when the Atlantic States were 
under water. The hudson ba- 
sin above Newburg was also 
such an inland sea. All the fos- 
sils of these inland seas are ma- 
rine exuvia of very ancient date 
with a few diluvial remains. 
The principal ridges skirting 
this Aleghany tableland are to 
the east, 1 Turtle mt, £ Side- 
ling mt, 3 Tuscarora mt, 4 
Kitatiiny mountain, which are 
from 5 to 10 miles broad and 
properly paralell spurs of the 
Alleghany separated by nar- 
row valleys while the 5th dr 
most easterly is separated by a 
broad valley, is of a different 
and more primitive formation, 
forming a tableland from ten 
to twenty miles wide; it is a 
long spur of the primitive 
Malta wan mountains, called 
Schooley mountains, in New- 
Jersey, South mountains in 
Pennsylvania, Blue ridge in 
Maryland and Virginia; but 
it is continuous only broken 
through by 5 Elver gaps, al- 
though primitive 4 " it is much 
lower than the second Allegha- 
ny, averaging only 1000 feet 
or one half of the average of the 
Alieghanies, yet it must be re- 
collected that at the N. E. it 
rises to 7000 feet in the White 
mountains, and at the S. E. to 
4500 feet in the Apalachian 
mountains, uniting these two 
distant groups by a long nar- 
row band or chain. 
Beyond it easterly are two 
or three smaller ranges of hills 
forming as many steps and 
chiefly primitive; they bear 
many different names from. New 
Jersey to Georgia, Pigeon hills 
West of Susquehannab, Mon- 
ocacy in Maryland, Bull bills 
in Virginia, Yeona and Hope 
bills in Carolina and Georgia, 
yet they are consimilar forming 
chains broken by the streams, 
and average 500 feet in height, 
but more to theN. and S* at 
the ends. 
In a N. W. direction from 
Philadelphia to Lake Eri% 
