In the -Kittatinny valley, 25 miles, by comparative -ourses, below the Delaware water gap, the Lehigh .,omes in from the north-west.
The latter stream claims a very large share of atten tion, as being one of the great channels from which the city of Philadelphia, and indeed the whole Atlantic coast, is destined to receive exhaustless supplies of coal. Our notice of the Lehigh need he only brief in this general view, as an ample survey of its valley, as a navigable route, will be made, when we reach the subject of canals.
This branch of the Delaware rises in Wayne, Luzerne, and Northampton, and is, emphatically, a mountain gream. Flowing fitst to south-west, curves to sot.th and south-east, pierces the Kittatinny mountain, crosses the Kittatinny valley in a south-east direction, is turned by the south.east mountain at Allentown, where it winds to north•east, and joins the Delaware at the borough of Easton, after a comparative course of about 80 miles.
Below the south-east mountain, the Delaware turns to a south-east course 35 miles, to where it leaves thc primitive, and falls into the alluvial formation at the head of tide-water. Continuing over the alluvion four or five miles, the Delaware again turns to south-west, nearly parallel to, and about five miles distant frotn, the primi tive ledge, in which direction it flows, by comparative courses, 35 miles, to the mouth of thc Schuylkill.
As with the Lehigh, we may reserve to the subject of canals, most of what we have to say respecting the Schuylkill ; it is sufficent to observe, that:the latter has its principal sources in Northampton and Schuylkill counties ; that its general course is from north-west to south-east, by comparative courses, 120 miles. Few secondary rivers of the American continent are destined to become of equal importance with the Schuylkill, as a channel of inland navigation. The general coursc of south-west is maintained by the Delaware, about 30 miles below the mouth of the Schuylkill, or about 5 miles below New Castle. Here the river, already consider?... bly expanded in width, opens into a wide triangular bay. 60 miles in length, and 20 wide) between Capcs Henlopen and Alay.
The basin of Delaware reaches through three and one-third degrees of latitude, and extends almost di rectly from north to south.
Leaving that of the Delaware, the basin of the Hudson next presents itself. If we include Rariton bay and river, the bay of Newark, with its two small confluent rivers, Hackinsack and Possaick, and the contiguous part of Long-Island sound, in the Hudson basin, we have before us a very curious connexion between inland and maritime navigation. Taken with this extension, the Hudson basin
reaches from Sandy Hook North Lat. 40° 30', to the ex treme sources of the Hudson in North Lat. 44° 05f, or about 250 miles in length, with a mean width of 50 miles, exclusive of the western part of the valley of the Mohawk above the mouth of the Schoharie river. This latter section includes a parallelogram of 60 miles long, and 35 wide. The whole basin spreading over an area of 14,600 square miles, It will be observed that the rivers in the Atlantic sys tem, south-west of the basin of the Susquehanna, flow, with the exception of the St. John's river of Florida, from the north-west and south-east. The Susquehanna, on the contrary, flows from north to south, and all the other Atlantic rivers to the north-east of the basin of the Susquehanna to the Penobscot inclusive, flow also in a similar direction nearly.
At the mouth of the Hudson, the primitive rock reach es the shore of the Atlantic Ocean, the tides of which in the first and last place, along the coast or the United States, passes that barrier, and traversing Ole base of two ranges of mountains, penetrates the continent nearly as far as the confluence of the Hudson and Alohawk rivers, one hundred and sixty-five miles. What is most extra ordinary in this long, narFow, but deep bay, rifted by the hand of nature through primitive mountains, is, that through one ridge, a depth of water is found sufficient for ships of the line of the largest class. Newburgh, placed nearly on the line of separation hetween the pri mitive and transition formations) and actually in one of the Appalachian valleys, has been proposed as the site of a navy-yard, in which the heaviest vessels could be launched, and from thence conducted to the ocean. New burgh is situated 70 miles inland, and, as we have seen, on the interior verge of the primitive. Above this place, the bay or river gradually shoals, but sufficient depth continues to the head of tide-water for sloops or consi derable burthen. Albany 160, and Troy 165 miles above Sandy Hook, may be considered as the two most remote points from the Atlantic Ocean, in the United States, by a direct line to which the tides flow, and to which sea vessels can be navigated.