A Book of the United States. Various
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north and south range of argillites along the bed and banks of the river Hudson. Second, coal destitute of bitumen, usually called anthracite, but differing greatly in its character from the anthracite found in argillite. It may be called anasphaltic coal. This is embraced in slate rock, being the lowest of the lower series of secondary rocks. This coal formation is equivalent to the great coal measures of Europe. The principal localities of this coal are in the state of Pennsylvania; as at Carbondale, Lehigh, Lackawanna, and Wilkesbarre. Third, the proper bituminous coal, as at Tioga and Lyocoming. This coal is embraced in a slate rock, which is the lowest of the series of upper secondary rocks. The fourth formation is the lignite coal, which is found in a very extensive stratum in the state of New Jersey, along the south shore of the Bay of Amboy.
The anthracite of Pennsylvania is found in the Wyoming and Lackawanna valley, situated between the Blue Ridge and the Susquehanna. The coal district is chiefly occupied by mountains which run parallel to the Blue Ridge, and are fifteen hundred feet high. But little of this surface, with the exception of a few narrow valleys, invites cultivation. These mountains are mostly in a wild state, and offer a secure retreat to cougars, wolves, bears, and other animals.
The rocks of the above described region are of a transition class, and present little diversity. Gray wacke slate occurs in abundance, loose on the surface and in ledges. It is sometimes based on old red sand-stone, and surmounted by unstratified rock, and aggregate of quartz, pebbles of various dimensions, with a cement principally silicious. In the Blue Ridge, in addition to the above described rock, a silicious gray wacke, resembling fine grained granular quartz, is common. It appears in some places massive, but is often slaty. Its cement is chiefly silicious; some alumine, however, is indicated in its composition.
The beds and veins of anthracite range from north-east to south-west, and may often be traced for a considerable distance by the compass. The veins have the inclination of the adjacent strata of gray wacke, with which they often alternate, usually between twenty and forty-five degrees. In a few places they are horizontal and vertical. The beds and veins of anthracite have narrow strata of dark colored, fine grained, argillaceous schist, for the roof and floor. This slate generally contains sulphuret of iron, and disintegrates on exposure to the air. The sulphates of iron and alumine are often observed in the schist, and it frequently presents impressions of plants and sometimes of marine shells. Impure pulverulent coal is usually connected with this slate, and is said to be a good material for printers’ ink.
Anthracite has been found in the greatest quantity in sections of coal regions most accessible by water. Extensive beds and veins range from the Lehigh to the Susquehanna, crossing the head-waters of the Schuylkill and Swatara, about ten miles north-west of Blue Ridge, and it abounds contiguous to the Susquehanna and Lackawanna. But in no part of the district does anthracite occur in such apparently inexhaustible beds, or is so abundantly raised, as in the vicinity of Mauch Chunk, a village situated on the Lehigh, thirty-five miles from Easton, and one hundred and eight by water from Philadelphia.
The coal is there excavated on the flat summit of a mountain that rises nearly fifteen hundred feet above the ocean. It is of good quality, and presents beds of unparalleled extent; is disclosed for several miles on the summit, wherever excavations have been made, and is indicated in many places by coal slate in a pulverulent state, on the surface. The mountain rises with a steep acclivity, particularly on the north-west side, and when penetrated at various altitudes, discloses coal at about the same distance from the surface. Strata of grey wacke slate, containing mica, sometimes rest on the coal, parallel with the mountain side. In the deep excavations made on the summit, no termination of the coal bed has been found, and it is not improbable that the anthracite forms the nucleus of the mountain for a considerable distance.
This coal mountain range is described as extending in a south-west direction to the Susquehanna. To the north-east, beyond the Lehigh, it is connected with the Broad Mountain, the first considerable elevation west of the Blue Ridge. The Lehigh from Mauch Chunk to the water gap, eleven miles, winds between rocky mountains, with a brisk current, but presents no falls. The road usually runs near the stream, and sometimes at a considerable elevation above, on the side of the steep mountain. In its passage through the Kittetany, or Blue Ridge, the river has a tranquil but slightly inclined course. On the adjacent elevation, yellow pine, hemlock, and spruce, are interspersed with deciduous trees. From the water gap to the Delaware, the river pursues its course in a deep ravine, seldom with alluvial borders of much extent. In this district of country, the soil generally rests on limestone sinks, indicating caves; and fissures in the rocks are often observed, that must, in some places, render canalling difficult. From the confluence of the Lehigh with the Delaware to tide-water, the descent is one hundred and fifty feet.
The village of Mauch Chunk is situated on the western bank of the Lehigh, in a deep romantic ravine, between rocky mountains that rise in some parts precipitously to eight hundred or one thousand feet above the stream. Space was procured for dwellings, by breaking down the adjacent rocks and filling up a part of the ravine of Mauch Chunk Creek. A portion of this stream has been transferred to an elevated railway, and is used to propel a grist-mill. Within a few years the Lehigh Company have erected, and are proprietors of, a large number of dwellings and buildings of every description, including a spacious hotel, a store, furnaces, grist-mills, and several saw-mills: about eight hundred men are employed by the company.41
Next to Mauch Chunk, Mount Carbon, or Pottsville, as it is now called, situated at the head of the Schuylkill canal, has been the principal source of the supply of anthracite. Many large veins are worked within three miles of the landing; and some have been opened seven miles to the north-east; in the direction of the Lehigh beds.
On almost every eminence adjacent to Pottsville, indications of coal are disclosed. The veins generally run in a north-east direction, with an inclination of about forty-five degrees, and are from three to nine feet in thickness; commencing at or near the surface they penetrate to an unknown depth, and can often be traced on hills for a considerable distance, by sounding in a north-east or south-west direction. Some veins have been wrought to the depth of two hundred feet without the necessity of draining; the inclined slate roof shielding them from water.
Where the ground admits, it is considered the best mode of working veins, to commence at the back of a coal eminence, or as low as possible, and work up, filling the excavation with slate and fine coal, leaving a horizontal passage for the coal barrows. A section of a wide vein near Pottsville, has been wrought by this mode several hundred feet into the hill. The same vein is explored from parts of the summit by vertical and inclined shafts. The coal and slate handled, are raised by horse-power, in wagons by a rail-way that has the inclination of the vein. Veins of coal alternate with gray wacke slate in the hill. Vegetable impression sometimes occur in the argillaceous schist that forms the roof of the Pottsville coal veins.
The western part of Pennsylvania is abundantly supplied with bituminous coal, as the eastern is with anthracite. It is found on the rivers Conemaugh, Alleghany, and Monongahela, and in numerous places to the west of the Alleghany ridge, which is generally its eastern boundary; it occurs on this mountain at a considerable elevation, and elsewhere, in nearly a horizontal position, alternating with gray sand-stone that is often micaceous and bordered by argillaceous schist. The veins are generally narrow, rarely over six feet in width. This mineral is abundant and of good quality near Pittsburg, where it is valuable for their extensive manufactures. Beds of bituminous coal are reported as occurring in Bedford county, in the north-west part of Luzerne, and in Bradford county. In the last county, nine miles from the Susquehanna, there is an extensive bed of coal, regarded as bituminous. It has been penetrated thirty feet without fathoming the depth of the strata.
Bituminous coal is abundant in Tioga county, state of New York. The summit level is forty-four feet above the river, and upwards of four hundred above the lake. It occurs on the Tioga, and on the Chemung, a branch of that river. Bituminous coal exists on the numerous streams that descend the western side of the extensive peninsula, situated between the north and west branches of the Susquehanna.
The appearance of the Tioga, or bituminous coal, differs but little from the best Liverpool or Newcastle coal. Its color is velvet black, with a slight resinous lustre, its structure is slaty or foliated, and its layers as in the best English coal, divided in prismatic solids, with bases slightly rhomboidal;