its waters into those of the North Branch, forming there the greatest river of Pennsylvania-the historic Susquehanna.

Chest creek rises near Kaylor Station, on the Cambria and Clearfield railroad, in Allegheny township, and joined by the West Branch, which rises in Cambria township, near Winterset Station, on the same railroad, flows in a slightly northwest direction through Clearfield township and between those of Elder and Chest into Clearfield county, where it enters the West Branch of the Susquehanna.

Before the town of Patton is reached, where the Little Chest creek flows in, Laurel Lick run, Chest Springs run and several others pour in their waters.

Between the points where Flanagan's run and Blubaker creek join it, begins the outcropping of red shale that underlies the lower coal measures of the Westover and Johnstown basins, here separated by the Laurel Hill anticlinal.

Blubaker creek, the largest tributary of Chest creek, rises in the southwestern part of Elder township, and passes through the town of Hastings to its junction with the Little Blubaker creek, four miles beyond. Blubaker creek unites with Chest creek, just a short distance before the latter enters Clearfield county.

Of late years the development of the vast mineral resources of the Blacklick region following the construction of a railroad along the valley of the South Branch has brought that section of the county prominently before the people; but probably few are aware of the vast area of the drainage of the system, second only to the Conemaugh.

The Blacklick in Cambria is composed of two large branches the North Branch and the South Branch-and their tributaries.

The North Branch of the Blacklick-if preference is given length and size-rises in Carroll township, about a mile north of the Cambria township line, near the old Ebensburg plank road. Beginning its course in a northeasterly direction, swerving to the northwest, westward, and southwest, it unites, when between four and five miles in length, with another branch, which, rising about a mile to the southwest of the source of the stream already noted, runs in a less circuitous course toward the northwest. Forming from its source the boundary line between the townships of Cambria and Carroll it flows northwest, receiving various runs and rivulets from the north and south,

until it reaches the northeast corner of Blacklick township, which, in assuming a more westerly course, it divides from Barr on the north for a couple of miles. Flowing south, on the line of Blacklick township, it receives Dutch run. This run, rising in Indiana county, flows southeastward into Barr township, then in a southwesterly direction, crossing and re-crossing the line between that township and Indiana county, finally flows into the North Branch heretofore noted, from which place the united waters, now of considerable volume, continue their course southwestward, augmented from the east by what Pomeroy, who published the best map of the county ever produced, calls Elklick run, and its southern branch, Elk run, down to within. a half mile of the southwestern corner of the township, where it enters Indiana county, and soon unites with the South Branch. The South Branch of the Blacklick, formed by the union of many considerable streams, the principal of which Pomeroy calls the Middle Branch, rises in Cambria, within a quarter of a mile of Allegheny township, the dividing line between which two townships at this point is the West Branch of Chest creek, about a mile from the headwaters of Clearfield creek and also of the North Branch of the Conemaugh. Flowing south, northwest and west and modified by several short windings past historic Beulah close to the line of Jackson and Blacklick townships, and later dividing them, it emerges into Indiana county to form the considerable stream known as the Blacklick, and crosses the southeastern end of that county to a point near Livermore, below Blairsville, on the Westmoreland county line, where its waters are merged with those of the Conemaugh.

The principal tributaries of the South Branch are the East Blacklick, which rises a short distance north of Ebensburg and flows southwest to its junction with the Middle Branch, which, receiving another large branch which rises in the northern part of Cambria township, becomes the South Branch; then two smaller tributaries from the western part of the same township and from Blacklick township four small runs, and from the south Steward's run, which, rising in Cambria, flows in a northwesterly course through Jackson township, augment its waters.

Clearfield creek is the name of a stream which rises in two branches in Cambria county near the dividing ridge, along whose crest runs the Cresson and Clearfield railroad, one branch rising near Kaylor Station and the other near Cresson. They

unite in Himmelwright's mill dam and thence their waters flow northward into Clearfield county.

It is a misnomer to call this stream a creek, as it has the size and importance of a river, having served as an outlet for hundreds of millions of feet of pine lumber to markets along the West Branch of the Susquehanna of which it is a tributary.

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The name of the stream, which is perpetuated in that of one of the townships of this county and also of a neighboring county, is derived from the Clear Fields"-a few small acres of cleared ground on which the Indians raised maize, located along its valley near the old Kittanning path, not far from the present town of Ashville.

John Storm, or Sturm, is said to have erected a grist mill on the Clearfield creek, near Loretto in 1792, now Seibert's mill, Dawson Station, on the railroad.

Along what is undoubtedly the main branch,, which, as before stated, rises near Kaylor's, was the first permanent settlement of white men, viz: that of Captain Michael McGuire, who, in 1787, moved his family to a clearing and started a colony, with which Demetrius Augustine Gallitzin, prince and priest, twelve years thereafter cast his lot and established the Catholic congregation of Loretto.

Gallitzin was a man who looked after the temporal interests of his people as the handmaid of their spiritual welfare, and on this creek, about a hundred yards up the stream from the bridge that spans the run, which is the highest name by which it can be here truthfully called, built the third grist mill in Cambria county. This was early in the present century, and was then an undertaking of considerable magnitude, as the fall in the stream is here so slight that a millrace about a half mile in length had to be dug to give the water sufficient "head." The water wheels of this mill might have been seen near the ruins of the mill until a few years ago.

Some years after the erection of this mill Gallitzin had built on the eastern branch at the present site of the mill of the late B. P. Anderson a sawmill, the dam of which is still in use. It was built, according to the testimony of one of the old pioneers, ́ ́at a cost of $1,500, at a time when men worked for fifty cents a day and did an honest day's work."

This was probably the first water sawmill in the county. It was built on this stream at a distance of two miles from

the grist mill for the reason that the water power at the latter was not deemed sufficient to turn the crank of a sawmill.

About a mile below this mill the two branches unite in Himmelwright's mill-dam, which, as well as Anderson's, can be seen from the Cresson and Coalport railroad, a branch of the Cambria and Clearfield division. Another mile further down is located Seibert's grist mill, near Dawson Station, a couple of hundred feet below which Bradley's run, which rises in Allegheny township, Blair county, enters Cresson township and flows down through Gallitzin borough and Gallitzin township and pours its murky waters into the hitherto comparatively pure stream of the Clearfield. Next from the west a small stream called Beaver Dam run comes in from Allegheny township, Cambria county.

On the eastern side, near the small mining town of Amsbry, a small, swift mountain stream, which formerly swarmed with trout, drains part of Gallitzin township, and at Ashville, a mile further down, Trexler's run empties in from the same side.

At Ashville is Kratzer's sawmill dam, and close to it on the western side is the site of old Ashland furnace, the ruins of which were dug up and hauled away about 1896. While quarrying stone for the foundations of this furnace, about 1840, the workmen found on a high rocky bluff the skeletons of several human beings, buried in a horizontal position with the feet towards the east. The bones of one of these skeletons indicated that in life the individual whose remains were ruthlessly disturbed, must have been of gigantic stature, probably eight feet in height. The mode of burial, so different from that of the Indians, who interred their dead in a crouching, vertical position, and the size of the skeletons would appear to indicate that they were those of people of a pre-historic race of a higher degree of civilization than the Indians-a supposition that is borne out by the fact that many articles of pottery have been found in the vicinity.

Within sight of this cemetery is one of the "Clear Fields," about three acres in size, and about a mile farther up the creek is a smaller one, while about three miles to the northwest is a circular clearing, about three hundred feet in diameter, with a solitary old red oak tree exactly in the centre. To this place the old settlers gave the name of "The Indian Garden," but it was probably a place of meeting for the council fires of the

red men who frequented the region, and near which several of their graves may yet be found.

Between the first of the "Clear Fields" and the quarry where the large skeletons were found, lay the old "Kittanning Path," so well known to the early settlers of Northern Cambria. Tradition says that in the bed of the Clearfield creek at Kratzer's dam, and a mile below and also a mile above, lead ore of remarkable purity was known to the Indians. It was here the party that captured Mrs. Elder and Felix Skelly in the Juniata valley in the early part of 1778 camped the first night of their journey to Detroit, and, according to the testimony of Skelly, replenished their store of lead, of which they molded many bullets, and also loaded him with a bundle of hickory withes, presumably for bows.

Just below this dam, some of the old settlers used to say, occurred a tragedy equal in atrocity to that of Hinckston's run, in which a poor Indian, who was standing on a log of a pile of driftwood, looking intently into the stream, was shot and killed by a white trapper named Beatty, whose brother had been murdered near Shaver's creek, now in Blair county, by a party of Indians during the Revolutionary war.

From the west, a short distance below Ashville Swartz's run flows in from the direction of St. Augustine. This is the last stream of note on the west until the Beaver dam system pours in the largest volume of water the Clearfield receives at any one point in Cambria county.

The name "Beaver Dam" is probably of more frequent application to streams in this and Somerset county than any other appellation--"Laurel run" coming next. But this stream is undoubtedly entitled to the distinction of being the most important of its name in Cambria county, deriving its appellation from the fact that on this run was formerly a large dam, covering several acres of ground, built by beavers.

The valley of the Beaver Dam run, lying principally in White township, is a deep alluvial soil, bearing traces of having been at an early period covered with water.

The main branch of the Beaver Dam run rises near St. Augustine and flows in a direction west of north to its junction with the main stream, the direction of which throughout is east of north. Into this stream about half a mile below the Clearfield township line flows the Slate Lick, the direction of which is northward.