USA > Pennsylvania > Mifflin County > History of that part of the Susquehanna and Juniata valleys, embraced in the counties of Mifflin, Juniata, Perry, Union and Snyder, in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. V. 1, Pt. 1 > Part 3
USA > Pennsylvania > Perry County > History of that part of the Susquehanna and Juniata valleys, embraced in the counties of Mifflin, Juniata, Perry, Union and Snyder, in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. V. 1, Pt. 1 > Part 3
USA > Pennsylvania > Union County > History of that part of the Susquehanna and Juniata valleys, embraced in the counties of Mifflin, Juniata, Perry, Union and Snyder, in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. V. 1, Pt. 1 > Part 3
USA > Pennsylvania > Juniata County > History of that part of the Susquehanna and Juniata valleys, embraced in the counties of Mifflin, Juniata, Perry, Union and Snyder, in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. V. 1, Pt. 1 > Part 3
USA > Pennsylvania > Snyder County > History of that part of the Susquehanna and Juniata valleys, embraced in the counties of Mifflin, Juniata, Perry, Union and Snyder, in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. V. 1, Pt. 1 > Part 3
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SLATES AND SCHISTS .- These rocks, com- mon elsewhere, do not exist, so far as known, in this section. They are often confounded with shales, and will hence here be defined. Slates are rocks, which may in general appearance re- semble shales, but they are firmer, and the cleavage is vertical to the bedding, and not par- allel, as in shales,-i. e., shales cleave thus, ; while slates thus, ||||. Schists are crystalline rocks. They are bright and sparkling from crystalline particles, and are often full of dis- tinct crystals They are abundant in the south- eastern part of the State. Slates and schists are doubtless transformed shales, and thus remotely beds of consolidated mud.
TRAP-ROCKS .- In Perry County are found narrow strips of a dark, heavy, tough rock, called " trap." It is believed to be a lava which has issued from the interior of the earth in some past age. They are found in the extreme cast- ern part of the county, near Keystone Post- Office, Duncannon, and at Montgomery Station, crossing the Susquehanna River into Dauphin County. There are several narrow belts of the rock, sometimes not more than four feet in width. The rock is distinguished by its color, weight and toughness. The belts cut the moun- tain ranges nearly at right angles. There seems to be no overflow of the lava, only a filling up
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JUNIATA AND SUSQUEHANNA VALLEYS IN PENNSYLVANIA.
of the cracks or fissures in the rocks. Such veins of lava are called " dykes," and are com- mon in many parts of our country. Thus there is a narrow belt of trap-rocks extending from Virginia through Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York to Connecticut and Massachusetts. Much of the mineral wealth of these States is along this region. Mounts Tom and Holyoke, in Massachusetts, and the Highlands of the Hud- son River are of this kind of rock. The grandest eruptions of this kind known are found in the northwestern part of the Union, in Oregon, Washington, Montana and adjacent territories, where some forty thousand square miles are covered with lava, from one thousand to six thousand feet in depth.
FLAGSTONES .- Any rock which will cleave readily into thin slabs, which can be used for paving purposes, is called a flagstone. Such rocks are found near Lewistown, Juniata Coun- ty, where there is a limestone yielding very good flags ; and also near Liverpool, where there is a sandstone quarried for the same pur- pose.
CONGLOMERATES .- Along the Susquehanna River, and sometimes in the valleys and moun- tains, rocks are found which are formed of peb- bles of a considerable size, cemented together. When the pebbles are rounded the rock is called a "conglomerate" or " pudding-stone." A. conglomerate called the " millstone grit" under- lies the coal measures of Eastern Pennsylvania, and it is from the coal regions that the rock comes which we find along the river. It is the same in nature as a sandstone, but with larger grains. When the pebbles in a conglomerate are angular, it is called a breccia.
BOULDERS .- These are rounded rocks gener- ally found loose in the soil, or detached from other rocks. Most boulders show that their forms are due to the action of running water, though many are formed where found by the artion of the weather rounding off all the sharp edges and angles. Boulders are often found far removed from the place of their origin. Thus, in the alluvial bottoms of the Susquehanna River we find boulders which have been trans- ported for miles from the mountains at its head. So also in Buffalo. Valley, Union Coun-
ty, are found buried in the soil numerous sand- stone boulders, which have come from the mountains some miles distant.
STONE SLIDES .- On mountain-sides are often seen considerable arcas covered so closely and so deeply with loose stones and rocks that no trees or shrubs can find a foothold. How were these produced ? At such places there were originally projecting rocks and crags, which, through the action of the atmospheric ele- ments, especially of frost, have been broken up and their fragments tumbled down the moun- tain-side. That this is the true explanation can be shown from a careful inspection of these slides, when, often, remains of the original erag may still be detected. The action of the ele- ments still continues making the stones smaller year by year.
IV. SOILS.
The unconsolidated carthy material found in most places covering the rocks of the dry land is called soil. The dark, rich surface of the soil, which contains more or less of the products of decomposition of animal and vegetable tis- sues is known as mould or humus, while subsoil is that part of the soil where there is little, or no, organic matter. It is usually lighter colored and more clayey than the upper parts of the soil.
ORIGIN OF SOILS,-All soils originate from the decomposition of rocks. The agents pro- ducing this decomposition are the mechanical and chemical elements of the atmosphere. Of the former, frost, and of the latter, oxygen, carbonic acid, water and humic acids are the prime act- ing agents. That soils are produced from the underlying rocks can be seen by any one who will attentively examine the cuttings along the line of any railroad. (1) The soil will be seen to pass insensibly into the rock below. First mould, then soil, then subsoil, then friable rock, then harder and harder rock, until it becomes valuable building rock at perhaps many feet below the surface. (2) Oftentimes one small vein of rock is harder than the others, as a quartz vein in limestone or granite, and it will remain unchanged while the others will pass into soil ; and this vein can thus be traced from
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PHYSICAL FEATURES.
the perfect soil into the original unchanged rock. (3) The composition of most soils is so nearly like the rocks below that we cannot doubt but that they were formed from the rocks.
All have observed that soils on a hillside are not so deep as those in valleys. The explana- tion of this is that on hillsides the soil is con- stantly washing into the lowlands, there accu- mulating, while the rocks on the hills are denuded. Those soils which remain just where formed may be called atmospheric soils ; those found at the mouths of rivers and along their banks, transported from a distance, may be called alluvial soils ; those on the seashore, cast up by the waves, littoral soils; and those gravelly soils so common in the Northwest, and probably in our own Pennsylvania valleys, supposed to have been produced by glacial action, are known as drift soils.
In reference to the way in which the elements act to decompose rocks, it may be briefly stated : (1) Water enters the natural crevices in rocks, or into the pores of porous rocks, and freezing, expands and cracks off chips and slabs. This process is repeated indefinitely until some rocks become fine soil. This can excellently be seen along the line of any new railroad, where fresh rock surfaces are abundantly exposed to atmos- pheric action. (2) In nature, oxygen and water are great destroyers. These substances enter into combination with such substances in rocks as iron protoxide, iron sulphide, etc., and in the production of new compounds the cohesive power existing between the particles is overcome and the rock crumbles to pieces. Water acts much in the same way as oxygen, giving up its contained oxygen to the rocks. Carbonic acid is, however, our principal rock-destroyer and soil-former. Our limestones, sandstones and shales have their constituent particles cemented together by carbonate of lime. This is soluble in water containing carbonic acid. Hence, just as fast as atmospheric water can penetrate these rocks they crumble into soil. In some places the change has extended to great depths.
FERTILITY OF DIFFERENT SOILS .- Lime- stones the world over produce the rich soils. It is this roek which makes so valuable the soils of our great Pennsylvania valleys, Sandstones
and conglomerates generally produce a thin, light, "poor" soil, though not always. These soils are often susceptible of great development through proper use of fertilizers. Shales pro- duce soils of varying fertility. Red shales in Central Pennsylvania generally decompose into a very good soil; black shales vary, some mak- ing a very sterile soil, and others a soil of some value. Gray shales vary, though the Chemung shale, which is abundant in Perry County and elsewhere, produces a barren soil. Chalky and gypsum soils vary, sometimes good, sometimes poor. Alluvial soils are generally very fertile, unless composed of too much sand.
DETERMINATION OF THE FERTILITY OF SOILs .- (1) Something may be-known from the color and texture of a soil, as to its value, though this is not to be depended upon. (2) By the wild plants growing upon the land; some plants seem to be confined to sterile soils. The vigor and luxuriance of the vegetation in- dicate a great deal, and yet here, too, great mistakes have been made. Soils which would produce great returns when cultivated have often in new countries been passed over because the natural vegetation was not luxuriant. (3) The sure method is by observing the cultivated crop. In this connection, it is to be remem- bered that all soils, unless we may exempt river bottoms, contain in so small amount the chemi- cal elements necessary for the ripening of seeds, that a very few crops will make such soils bar- ren for the production of seed crops, unless stimulated by the use of artificial fertilizers. Nowhere has this been more clearly shown than in the exhaustion of the soils of our western prairies.
DISEASES PERTAINING TO DIFFERENT Soms .- It has long been known that cer- tain diseases seem more frequent on some soils than on others. Hippocrates treated at length in one of his works on the sanitary influences of the soil. Herodotus and Galen called atten- tion to the same subject, as did also the Roman architect Vitruvius, who flourished about the beginning of the Christian cra. He taught that a point of first importance in building a dwelling was to select a site upon healthy soil. We can only call attention to the facts that all
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JUNIATA AND SUSQUEHANNA VALLEYS IN PENNSYLVANIA.
wet soils are unhealthy, and by wet we mean all which cannot be made perfectly dry. All swampy soils are unhealthy, and all soils full of decaying vegetable matters are unhealthy, as the made soils in many of our cities. A light, dry, porous soil is best adapted to health.
V. THE GEOLOGICAL. AGES OF OUR ROCKS.
Geologists have divided time so far as it has affected our earth into the following seven ages, commencing with the oldest, viz. :
1. Archæan, or azoic, (no life).
2. Silurian, or age of mollusks.
3. Devonian, or age of fishes.
4. Carboniferous, or age of coal plants.
5. Reptilian, or age of reptiles.
6. Mammalian, or age of mammals,
7. Psychozoic, or age of man.
These ages are subdivided into " periods " and the periods into " epochs," as is shown in the following table. The thickness in Perry and adjoining counties is also indicated, as well as the composition of the rocks. The table is taken from F 2 of the Second Geologi- cal Survey of Pennsylvania.
|NOTE .- Those periods in italics do not occur in our district. It will be observed that the rocks in these counties are all below the coal measures, though they extend upward into the Carboniferous age.]
AGE. NO.
PERIODS.
THICK- NESS.
COMPOSITION.
DEVONIAN. CARBONIFEROUS.
XIII.
Coal measures . . .
2500
Sandstone, shale and coal.
XII.
Pottsville .
1000 Pebbles and sandstone.
XI.
Mauch Chunk. . 2500
Red shale.
X.
Pocono . 2000
Gray sandstone.
IX.
Catskill. . 6000
Red sandstone and shale.
Chemung.
3000
Olive sandstone and shale.
Portage
200
Shale.
VIII.
Genesee.
200
Dark shale.
Hamilton,
1500
Shale and sandstone.
Marcellus
200 Dark shale and limestone.
(Upper Helderberg) (absent)
UPPER SILURIAN.
VIL.
Oriskany . .
25 Sandstone.
VI.
Lower Helderberg.
200 Limestone and shale.
V.
Clinton
800 Red sandstone and green shale
Medina
1500 Sandstones and shales.
IV.
Oneida Hudson River
500
Conglomerate and shales.
LOWER SILURIAN.
Total 1 ck neHA, 32725 feet.
In the first survey of Pennsylvania by Pro- fessor HT. Rogers, another system of nomencla-
ture was used, the terms being the Latin for different periods of the day. These, with the present equivalents, are shown in the following table :
XII. Seral, XI. Umbral, X. Vespertine, IX. Ponent, Vergent,
Millstone grit.
Catskill.
VIII. Cadent, ( Post-meridian, VII. Meridian,
Oriskany.
VI. Pre-meridian, Lower Helderberg. Onondaga.
V. Scalent, Surgent,
- Levant, Niagara.
II.
Matinal, Auroral,
Trenton.
I. Primal,
Potsdam.
In Perry County the lowest rocks are the Trenton limestone, found in the extreme west- ern part of the county, in Horse Valley, in Toboyne township, though there are only traces of it there resting upon Hudson River shales and Utica shales. The highest rocks in the county are the Mauch Chunk red shale, found in the extreme eastern portion of the county in two patches in Buffalo and Rye townships, the former being an extension of the upper arm of the Pottsville coal-field, and the latter of the lower arm. The rest of the rocks are intermediate between these.
In Mifflin and Juniata Counties the lowest rock is also Trenton limestone, found forming the whole bottom of the Kishacoquillas Valley ; also a small patch in Beach Log Valley. The highest rock in these counties is the Chemung shale, which covers a large portion of the castern, northern and southern parts of Mifflin County, and a portion of both the northern and southern parts of Juniata.
Snyder County has for its foundation rock the Utica slates and the Hudson River shales, which occur sparingly in west Perry County on the side of Shade Mountain. The highest formation is the Catskill red sandstone, which occurs forming a large portion of Shade Mountain and Blue Hill. In Union County the lowest roek is the Utica shale, found spar- ingly in the far western portion of the county. The Chemung and Hamilton shales, found in
Utica .
500 Dark shales.
=
Trenton
500-
Limestone.
Calciferoi
5000)
I. Postadrene
2000 Samdetono and alato.
( Cauda-Galli ..
(absent)
Onondaga
1600 Shale.
1000 Slates and shales.
IV. & III.
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PHYSICAL FEATURES.
the extreme northern portion of the county and on both sides of the mouth of Buffalo Creek, are the highest and youngest. In Union and also in the other counties there is unconsoli- dated rock material of later date, some of it possibly deposited since the advent of man. We refer to the extensive gravel and boulder deposits which can be found in Buffalo and other valleys. We are not certain how or when these deposits were made, whether through the agency of running water or of ice. At any rate, they are recent.
VI. THE ORIGIN AND STRUCTURE OF MOUN- TAINS AND VALLEYS.
1. DEFINITIONS .- Formation, all the rocks of one geological age. Its subdivisions are strata, layers, seams and beds.
Stratum, a thick bed or layer of rocks. Layer, a division or part of a stratum.
Scam, a layer quite different in composition from adjacent strata, as of coal or iron.
Bed, a thick, workable seam of iron or coal. Outerop, any portion of rock projecting above the soil.
Dip, the inclination of strata, or the angle they form with a horizontal surface.
Strike, the direction in reference to the points of the compass which an outerop takes.
· A
B
Anticline, a hill in which the rocks slope away from a central axis (a, b)as shown in cut.
A
Syncline, a syncline is seen in a valley where the strata slope toward an axis (a, b), as in cut.
Monocline, a hill or valley in which the strata all have the same slope.
Joint, those division planes which cause most rocks to come from the quarry in more or less regular-shaped blocks ; thus, sandstone is jointed into large, irregularly prismatic blocks; gran- ile, irregularly cubic; trap, hexagonal prisms. Joints are believed to be produced in rocks by shrinkage in drying or cooling. Joints usually extend through strata of one kind only without changing.
Fissures, great cracks extending through all strata to indefinite depths into the earth. They have been produced by earthquakes and by fracturing of the crust as it shrinks in cooling.
Fault, a fissure in which the strata on one side are displaced, being pushed up or allowed to sink down. In mining regions faults are often very abundant and the cause of much trouble.
A
C
B
D
Law of Faults, the under-strata have been pushed up. This is so general that in mining it is always followed.
Nodule, a rounded rock-mass produced by a power somewhat resembling the crystalline force. Very small nodules are called oolites (fish eggs), larger ones pisolites (peas). They sometimes form hundreds of feet in diameter, as in crystalline formations in the Rocky Moun- tains. When the nodule takes on a form re- sembling an animate object it is called a con- cretion. Thus they are often found resembling turtles, heads of various animals, human foot- prints, etc. A concretion in the museum of the University of Lewisburg much resembles a muskrat.
Conformable: when strata lie parallel, they are said to be conformable; but when not parallel they are unconformable.
River Basin, the whole extent of country drained by a river and its tributaries ; thus the basin of the Mississippi extends from the Alle- gheny Mountains to the Rocky Mountains.
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JUNIATA AND SUSQUEHANNA VALLEYS IN PENNSYLVANIA.
River Valley, properly speaking, is all the country between the bluffs bordering the river ; or, it is the country over which the river has at some time flowed. In some of our western rivers the bluff's are from twenty, forty to one hundred miles apart, as on the Missouri and Mississippi.
Rirer Channel is-the portion of the valley actually occupied by the stream.
Mountain, this term is loosely applied to every considerable elevation of country, no difference what its origin or structure. A mountain system consists of an elevated region of great extent, as the American Cordilleras - ten thousand miles long and one thousand miles wide, and consisting of several mountain ranges separated by great valleys. Each great com- ponent of a mountain system is called a moun- tain range; the Coast Ranges, the Sierra Nevadas and the Wahsatch are ranges in the Rocky Mountain system. The components of a range are called ridges, and isolated portions are called peaks.
2. THE AGENCIES PRODUCING MOUNTAINS. -- These are two: (1) Lateral pressure of a contracting earth and (2) erosion of superficial waters. All mountain systems and mountain ranges have been produced, it is now believed, by the first of these means, while all ridges and peaks have been brought about by the second means. In reference to the first of these causes, it is now supposed that the earth is a cooling globe, the interior of which is cooling more rapidly than the exterior. This is brought about by the exterior receiving heat from the sun and external space, while the interior loses heat rapidly by conduction. Now the outside of the earth, following down the con- tracting interior, is subject to powerful lateral pressure, which continues until there is a yield- ing at some point. "Mountain chains are the lines along which the yielding of the surface to the horizontal thrust has taken place." The proofs that ranges are formed in this way are: (1) That the strata in mountain ranges are dis- tinetly folded, as is well seen in the Alps, Ap- palachian and Coast Range of California. (2) Slaty cleavage is present in these folded rocks when they are of the right materials, and ex-
perimentally we know that slaty cleavage is produced by powerful lateral pressure. (3) The folded structure of mountains and various mountain phenomena have been produced by compressing many layers of plastic material, as clay, wax, etc.
There are certain facts generally observed in an examination of mountain systems, some of which will be noted, viz. :
1. Mountain systems are generally on the borders of a continent, and the highest systems facing the widest oceans.
2. Mountain chains have been formed of im- mensely thick sediments. In the Appalachian forty thousand feet ; in the Wahsatch range fifty-six thousand.
3. The different ranges of a system seem to have been formed successively coastward.
4. The strata in a chain are often strongly folded, fissured and faulted.
5. Mountain chains are often one-sided- that is, have more and sharper folds, more metamorphism of rocks and more volcanoes on one side than on the other.
6. The highest mountains on the earth are the youngest.
It may be interesting to examine the differ- ent steps in the formation of a mountain range, such as one of our Appalachian ranges.
1. A downward bending of the crust as the sediments, which afterward formed the range, accumulated. It seems that at an early period in the history of the American continent there was land to the cast and north of the present Appalachian Mountains ; there was also land in the Rocky Mountain region, while the whole of the interior was a vast sea, extending north from the Gulf of Mexico. Now the sediments of which mountains are formed seem to be ac- cumulations on the coast of some sea, and we suppose that the continent which lay where now the Atlantic Ocean is, furnished the greater portion of the sediments. It is possible that the Blue Ridge is the western portion of this ancient continent.
2. Studies of mountains show that the sedi- ments accumulated in shallow water ; hence the sca-shore must have slowly sank as the sediments gathered. . Now when this sinking had pro-
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PHYSICAL FEATURES.
needed to a great depth, as of forty thousand feet, the original crust would have penetrated into the regions of great internal heat, and would doubtless have become softened and weakened, and finally, probably completely melted off.
3. The third step would follow the second. The soft, unconsolidated strata would be called upon to resist the great lateral pressure of the shrinking globe, and the result would be a folding, crumpling, compression, and finally an elevation of the stratified sediments into one or more mountain ranges. The proofs of this have already been given.
These evolutions of mountains occurred with great slowness, requiring many ages for their fulfillment. The old geologists taught that mountains were suddenly formed in great con- vulsions of nature. Professor J. D. Dana es- timates that the Green Mountains, elevated at the close of the Lower Silurian age, were not less than twenty million years in process of formation, and the Appalachian system, which was elevated at the close of the Carboniferous age, was thirty-six million years in formation, at the lowest estimate. These estimates are only introduced to show that geological time is long.
Our Pennsylvania streams nearly all cut through our mountain ranges. Now we can only explain this by supposing that the mountains arose so slowly that the rivers and -treams were able to cut down as fast as they were elevated. In the Susquehanna River " natural dams" still exist, which the stream is cutting away. In the study of these we can gain an idea of the immensely long period it took to elevate the mountains.
The relative size of the earth to its mountains has been carefully estimated, and it is stated as follows : On a globe twelve feet in diameter, lines elevated one-twelfth of an inch would have the same relative height as the highest mountain ranges of the earth. It is an interesting fact that the deepest places known in the ocean are about as many feet in depth as the highest mountains are in elevation.
It will thus be seen that, as the earth con- tinues to cool through time, existing ranges
must continue to be elevated, or new folds and new ranges produced. But the existing ranges are continually exposed to atmospheric crosion, and this has occurred to such an extent that there is in no part of America any feature of re- lief in any degree like what it was when first produced. In parts of Pennsylvania there is good evidence that in places this erosion has extended even to the depth of twenty thousand feet, and in other parts of the continent to an even greater extent. Professor J. P. Lesley, State geologist, in charge of the Second Survey, thus speaks,-
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