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THE

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE.



Vol. II.
1890.
No. 2.


THE RIVERS OF NORTHERN NEW JERSEY, WITH NOTES ON THE CLASSIFICATION OF RIVERS IN GENERAL.

By William Morris Davis.

Outline.—Rivers of different kinds; consequent, antecedent, superimposed, subsequent, adjusted.—Topography of Northern New Jersey.—Revived and superimposed rivers in New Jersey.—Drainage of the Watchung crescent.—Re-arrangement of superimposed rivers by the growth of subsequent streams.—Application of this principle to the Green river in the Uinta mountains: Powell's and Emmons' theories.—The Green river probably superimposed and its branches re-arranged by the growth of subsequent streams.—Anaclinal and reversed rivers in New Jersey.

Northern New Jersey is drained by several streams which rise in the Archean Highlands, flow southeastward across the central Triassic plain and reach the sea near the inland margin of the Cretaceous formation.

What kinds of rivers are these? Such a question can hardly be answered until we have examined rivers in many parts of the world, gaining material for a general history of rivers by induction from as large as possible a variety of examples; and until we have deduced from our

generalizations a series of critical features sufficient to serve for the detection of rivers of different kinds wherever found.