The broadened valley of the Delaware extends a short distance above
Port Jervis, the canal and railway rounding the ponderous battlements
of Point Peter and then proceeding up the river, one on either bank.
About three miles above the "Port," as it is familiarly called, the
valley contracts to a rock-enclosed gorge, for here the Delaware
emerges from its great canyon in the Catskill series of rocks, in the
bottom of which it flows from Deposit, at the northern boundary of
Pennsylvania, eighty-seven miles above. The remarkable change seen in
the surrounding topography indicates the presence of a different rock
formation from that passed below, and the river runs out of the
Catskill rocks over the "Saw-mill rift." For thirty miles above, to
the northern line of Pike County, at Narrowsburg, the river banks
mostly are only mere shelves a few rods wide, and frequently present
nothing but the faces of rocky walls, rising perpendicularly from the
water to a height of six hundred feet or more. From the expanding
limestones below, the valley here suddenly contracts in the flags and
ledges of the Catskill series. All the small streams coming from the
bluffs back of the cliffs descend with rapid fall, and frequently over
high cascades. These Catskill flags, built up in vast construction,
rear their gaunt and weather-beaten jagged walls and wood-crowned
turrets on high. Perched far up on the New York side, at the
narrowest part of this remarkable gorge, is an eyrie called the
"Hawk's Nest," which gives a wonderful view, reached by a road carved
out of the rocky side of the abyss. This road, hung on the
perpendicular wall five hundred feet over the river, is the only
available route to the part of New York north of Port Jervis. The
canal and railway, far below, are each set on a shelf cut out of the
rocky banks. The enclosing cliffs rise higher as the river is
ascended, sometimes reaching an elevation of twelve hundred feet; and
here for miles are seen the famous Delaware and Starucca flags, rising
hundreds of feet in a continuous wall of bluish-gray and greenish-gray
flaggy sandstones. They are extensively quarried and shipped to New
York. Both railway and canal construction through this deep cleft were
enormously costly.