Page:Historical and Biographical Annals of Columbia and Montour Counties, Pennsylvania, Containing a Concise History of the Two Counties and a Genealogical and Biographical Record of Representative Families.djvu/48

 at the red rock on which people crossed in going to and from the Foulk mill.

Going to Catawissa in those days was not an easy matter by any means. The only way of getting there was by going around by what is now the Aqueduct mill and fording the river at the site of the Rupert railroad bridge, or being pushed in a flat, there being no rope ferries at that time. Or one could go down the valley to the Deimer farm, then over the hill and cross the river at Catawissa in the same manner.

CHAPTER III TOPOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY—IRON—COAL

Separated from the earlier settled portion of Pennsylvania by the Kittatinny range of hills, and defended from the storms of the northwest by the Alleghenies, the portion of the State in which lie counties of Columbia and Montour is particularly blessed in the possession of both natural beauty and mineral wealth. Few of the elevations reach the dignity of mountains, although they rise in graceful curvesto the height of over 1,000 ft in some instances. From their summits may be obtained a view of the beautiful and fertile valleys, clear streams and gently rolling hills of as fair a land as that written of by the Irish poet, who said:

Bounteous nature loves all lands, beauty wanders

everywhere,

Footprints leaves on many sands but her home is surely there.

The community in general is distinctly agricultural on every hand are to be seen the results of men's efforts to gain a support from the willing soil Upon the basis of the productiveness of the land is built the success of the two counties, and almost every man of affairs can trace back to three generations of agricultural progenitors.

Montour county bears in her center the productive Limestone ridge, from which much of the ore and stone of the past have been taken. On her southern boundary is the famous Montour ridge, like a wall between it and Northumberland county. In the eastern end is the first rise of Catawissa mountain, which passes down through Columbia county, forming the division between Main and Locust townships. At Catawissa the Susquehanna has forced a passage through the range, showing all the strata of the rocks of this section in all their odd and interesting forms. Dividing Locust and Conyngham townships is Little mountain, with a parallel ridge south of it, separating the fertile regions from the anthracite coal fields, the only evidence of whose existence is the black waters of Catawissa creek.

Between Mifflin and Beaver townships lies Nescopeck mountain, which extends from the Luzerne county line to Mainville. McAuley and Buck mountains, with their small deposits of hard coal now almost worked out, complete the list of elevations in the southern part. North of the Susquehanna the most important elevation is Knob mountain, at the site of Orangeville, a clear cut. green-clad elevation of great scenic beauty. Eastwardly this ridge is called Huntington and Lee mountains, after a division at the edge of (he county. The most picturesque portion of the county lies in the extreme northern part, where a spur of the Alleghenies forms the lofty North mountain, the source of Fishing creek and its branches. This is the home of the trout and the paradise of the summer boarder.

Elsewhere in the counties the surface is constantly broken by a succession of hills of varying height, the fertile slopes of which arc cultivated entirety to the top. .Around these hills meander the numerous streams of this well watered country.

Fishing creek and its tributaries afford the sole drainage of that section of Columbia county north of the river, with the exception of a small portion in the extreme cast drained by Briar creek. On the south of the river the country is drained by Catawissa creek, Roaring creek and Ten-Mile run.

Montour county is drained almost entirely by Chillisquaque creek and its many branches. This stream flows through Northumberland county and empties into the West Branch of the Susquehanna. The portion of the county around Danville is drained by Mahoning creek.