makes brief mention of what I have called subsequent streams. The first appreciation that I gained of river adjustments came from the writings of Löwl; but I have since found that the general principles governing their opportunity were stated by Gilbert in his monograph on the Henry Mountains of Utah (pp. 141, 149), and by Heim in his Mechanismus der Gebirgsbildung (i, 272, etc., ii, 79, 320).
Where do the rivers of northern New Jersey stand in this general scheme of river classification? We must again postpone the answer to the question, while reviewing the history of the general geographical development of the region.[1]
The topography of northern New Jersey may be briefly described as made up of valleys and lowlands that have been etched in the now elevated surface of what may be called the Schooley peneplain on the Cretaceous baselevel. The topographical atlas of New Jersey should be constantly referred to, in order to follow such a statement as this; but in order that the reader may without undue difficulty apprehend the meaning of my descriptions and recognize the various localities yet to be named without the trouble of searching for them on the maps of the atlas, I have attempted to draw a generalized bird's eye view of northern New Jersey, as it would be seen by an observer about seventy miles vertically above the center of southern New Jersey. The meridians are vertical and east and west lines are horizontal, but oblique azimuths are foreshortened. The result is hardly more than a geographical caricature, and I publish it in part to experiment upon the usefulness of so imperfect an effort. An active imagination may perceive the long even crest line of Kittatinny Mountain on the northwest, rising beyond the rolling floor of the Kittatinny Valley, as the great Alleghany limestone lowland is here called; then come the Highland plateaus, of accordant altitude one with another, but without the mesa-like margin that my pen has not known how to avoid indicating. The Central plain lies in the foreground, diversified by the various trap ridges that rise above its surface; First and Second mountains of the double Watchung
- ↑ The more detailed statement of this history may be found in an essay prepared by the author with the collaboration of Mr. J. W. Wood, Jr., of the class of 1888 in Harvard College, the study being undertaken as a joint thesis by instructor and student in a second course in Physical Geography. The essay is published in the Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History, 1889.
