Part 31 (2/2)
”Opposite Fishkill is Newburgh, which is in the great valley of Lower Silurian or Cambrian limestone and slate. North of that, on the west side of the river, the formations occur in their usual order, their outcrops running northeast and southwest. On the _N. Y. C. & H. R. R. R._, on the east side, the same valley crosses, and the slates from Fishkill to Rhinebeck are about the same place in the series; but being dest.i.tute of fossils and very much faulted, tilted and disturbed, their precise geology is uncertain. See the exposures in the cuts at Poughkeepsie. The high ground to the east is commonly called the Quebec group.
Amid thy forest solitudes one climbs O'er crags, that proudly tower above the deep, Along the verge of the cliff, and he can hear The low dash of the wave with startled ear.
_Fitz-Greene Halleck._
”A series of great dislocations with upthrows on the east side traverse eastern North America from Canada to Alabama. One of these great faults has been traced from near the mouth of the St. Lawrence River, keeping mostly under the water up to Quebec just north of the fortress, thence by a gently curving line to Lake Champlain or through western Vermont across Was.h.i.+ngton County, N. Y., to near Albany. It crosses the river near Rhinebeck 15 miles north of Poughkeepsie and continues on southward into New Jersey and runs into another series of faults probably of a later date, which extends as far as Alabama. It brings up the rocks of the so called Quebec group on the east side of the fracture to the level of the Hudson River and Trenton.
”Catskill Mountains. For many miles on this railroad are beautiful views of the Catskill Mountains, 3,800 feet high, several miles distant on the opposite or west side of the river, and which furnish the name for the Catskill formation. The wide valley between them and the river is composed of Chemung, Hamilton, Lower Helderberg and Hudson River. The geology on the east or railroad side is entirely different.
”Albany. The clay beds at Albany are more than 100 feet thick, and between that city and Schenectady they are underlaid by a bed of sand that is in some places more than 50 feet thick. There is an old glacial clay and boulder drift below the gravel at Albany, but Professor Hall says it is not the estuary stratified clay.”
There has that little stream of water been playing among the hills since He made the world, and none know how often the hand of G.o.d is seen in a wilderness but them that rove it for a man's life.
_James Fenimore Cooper._
THE HUDSON TIDE.
(_Condensed from article by permission of writer._)
The tide in the Hudson River is the continuation of the tide-wave, which comes up from the ocean through New York Bay, and is carried by its own momentum one hundred and sixty miles, growing, of course, constantly smaller, until it is finally stopped by the dam at Troy.
The crest of this wave, or top high water, is ten hours going from New York to Troy. A steamer employing the same time (ten hours) for the journey, and starting at high water in New York, would carry a flood tide and highest water all the way, and have an up-river current of about three miles an hour helping her. On the other hand, the same steamer starting six hours later, or at low tide, would have dead low water and an ebb tide current of about three miles against her the entire way. The average rise and fall of the tides in New York is five and one-half feet, and in Troy, about two feet.
Flood tide may carry salt water, under the most favorable circ.u.mstances, so that it can be detected at Poughkeepsie; ordinarily the water is fresh at Newburgh.
To those who have not studied the tides the following will also be of interest.
The tides are the semi-diurnal oscillations of the ocean, caused by the attraction of the moon and sun.
The influence of the moon's attraction is the preponderating one in the tide rising force, while that of the sun is about two-fifths as much as that of the moon. The tides therefore follow the motion of the moon, and the average interval between the times of high water is the half length of the lunar day, or about twelve hours and twenty-five minutes.
Nor lives there one whose boyhood's days Of happiness were pa.s.sed beneath that sun, That in his manhood-prime can calmly gaze Upon that Bay, or on that mountain stand, Nor feel the prouder of his native land.
_Fitz-Greene Halleck._
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