The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1878-02-06

highest land in New Jersey, everywhere
shows the marks of glacial action. High
Mountain, 1893 feet high is smoothed as som.
pletely as the rocks in the valley, and bould-
er, four feet in diameter, rests on its summit
The crests Of the Highland ridges as we'll as
theis sides are all worn smooth, and boulders
of the largest size are resting on their top. =
There is also an immense mass Of boulder
clay at Stanhope, at an elevation OF $50 feet,
which has been cut through by the Morris and
Essex railroad, aud so on.
Facts warrant the assumption, that the
great Glacier, which covered this Continent
from the zot parallel Of latitude had its mp
per surface nearly uniform, and rose north
ward at the rate Of "a feet per mile IL would
everywhere North Of the terminal line have a
thickness to ovcrtop the highest land i'll the
State and the marks show that it did. High.
Point, Blue Mountain, near The New York
boundary, is 1900 feet high, and has glacial
works and boulders on its top. 1t is IS miles
North of the parallel mentioned, so that
rise of 81 feet per mile would make the thick
ness of the ice there 1912 feet. The total
thickness, however, Judging from the worn
rocks in the higher mountains In New York
and Pennsylvania, must have been at least
1900 or 5000 feet.
A remarkable characteristic of the glacial
drift is the absence of tho original earth and
disintegrated rock from the surface Of the
countryside underlying rock being generally
solid and unchanged. South of the drift few
boulders are found. Some are seen at Anaan-
dale Station on the Central Railroad, and Mt
Kingston on the Delaware and Raritan Canal !;
and a belt of cobbe stones, few miles wide,
is found Immediately below the drift. But
these stones are smooth and very different
from those of the drift and must belong to-
some older drift deposit. But generally the
country South of the glacial drift is covered
with soil made from the decay of the rock be-
meath. Over much of Middesex, Somerset,
Hunterdon and Mercer, which we understand
by red-sandstone and shale, the soil is moth.
ing but the rock disintegrated
The influence which this peculiar ,listribu-
tion of the glacial drift has upon the State is
both interesting and important. The more
uNoH duu UNIFORM surface SOutn oil the uflft
area enables farmers to work with less broken
and waste ground and irres ular fields, tilage
being thus carried ON more rapidly and cheap
~. On the contrary grass and grazing are
best adapted to drift soils, and the mixed in
dustries of mechanics manufactures, etc.,
are more generally engaged in on them,
The beds of stratiied drift at various plac-
es in tho valley of the Delaware, South of
the line Of drift, bear marks of having orig
mated from the action of water, moved and
deposited by i,ssvsrf,rl onrrcnts. In the edge
of the bank of this bed of gravel and bould-
ers, mile or two below Trenton, DR.. G. g.
Abbott has found rude stone implements of
very ancient date. He has published an ac-
count of them and has assigned them to an
age older than that Of the glacial drift. But
as they were found on the edge Of a gravel
bank, where they might have fallen from the
top, precludcs the positive proof Of their true
position and age.