escaping through this section, and Smedley says that "Hundreds were sent to the many branch stations along interlacing routes, and hundreds of others were sent from Wilmington, Columbia, and stations westward direct to the New England States and Canada. Many of these passed through the hands of the Vigilance Committee connected with the anti-slavery office in Philadelphia."[370] From this point one outlet led overland across New Jersey to Jersey City and New York; another outlet from Philadelphia, was the Reading Railroad, which also carried refugees from various stations along its course. How many steam railway extensions may have been connected with the underground tracks of southeastern Pennsylvania cannot be discovered. One such extension was the Northern Central Railroad from Harrisburg across the state to Elmira, New York.[371] Another trans-state route in eastern Pennsylvania appears to have had its origin at or near Sadsbury, Chester County, and to have run overland to Binghamton, New York.[372] The intermediate stations along this pathway are not known, although some disconnected places of resort in northeastern Pennsylvania[373] may have constituted a section of it. Lines of northern travel for fugitives also passed through Bucks County, but Dr. Edward H. Magill, formerly President of Swarthmore College, thinks these were "less clearly marked" than those running through Chester and Lancaster counties. He finds that friends of the slave in the middle section of Bucks County generally forwarded the negroes to Quakertown or even as far north, by stage or private conveyance, as Stroudsburg. From this point they sometimes went to Montrose or Friendsville, in Susquehanna County, near the southern boundary of the State of New York,[374] whence, together with fugitives from Wilkesbarre, and, perhaps, the Lehigh Valley, they were sent on to Gerrit Smith, at Peterboro in central New York, and thence to Canada.[375] [367] See pp. 33 and 34, Chapter II. [368] R. C. Smedley, _Underground Railroad_, pp. 26, 27, 28, 29, 30. For a description of the routes of this region, our dependence is almost wholly upon Mr. Smedley, whose intimate knowledge of them was obtained by conversation and correspondence with many of the operators. _Ibid._, Preface, p. x. [369] The special map of these counties will be found in a corner of the general map. [370] _The Underground Railroad_, p. 209. For a description of the secret paths in southeastern Pennsylvania, see Smedley's book, pp. 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 50, 53, 77, 85, 89, 90, 100, 132, 137, 142, 164, 172, 191, 192, 208, 217, 218, 219, etc. [371] Letters of Mrs. Susan L. Crane, Elmira, N.Y., Aug. 27, and Sept. 14 and 23, 1896; letters of John W. Jones, Elmira, N.Y., Dec. 17, 1896, and Jan. 16, 1897. [372] Smedley, _Underground Railroad_, p. 91. [373] See the general map.