That scul! had a tongue in it, and could sing once!-HAMLET. the broken horns, that peculiar eye, and that singular cartilaginous whorl, or nasalogical appurtenance. Perhaps the latter appendage induces you to include it among the tapirs. It does not belong there. It has recently been determined by geologists that this country had an antediluvian existence, and that there were estuaries and rivers here, which were visited by large birds? But it is plainly no bird's head.— Recur then to the western prairies; think of those uniform rows and circles of trees, those mounds and remnants of ancient fortifications, those monstrous bones of the salt-licks. There we have indubitable evidence of the primitive existence of things upon a large scale. Might not this subject have been an inhabitant of the earth in that day and generation, and after having laid for ages under the clod of the valley, is now exhumed to be exposed to the publick gaze? Reader! what do you imagine we have catered for you now? Or rather, what new subject do you think that rummaging science of geology has added to its extended list of discoveries? O Solomon! Solomon! here is something new under the sun. Thy extraordinary wisdom, wonderfully comprehensive though it was, could not have embraced this subject in this peculiar modification. "Trees, from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall;" beasts, fowls, creeping things, and fishes, were familiar to thee, yet here is a craniological development which never could have entered thy imagination. Baron Cuvier never dreamed of it in all those profound investigations which he had the patience to make concerning the remains of the Siberian mammoth, the mastodon, the megalonyx, the giant lizard, the Irish elk, the wapiti, and those deceased monsters of the Nile. If, peradventure, Nay, indulgent reader, it was reserved for us first the learned philosopher had stumbled upon it, it is to unfold the truth in this matter, and it shall no our opinion that he would have been completely longer be withheld. This curious specimen of natunonplused. Even Peale cannot number it in the ral history was exhibited to us by Mr. John Hooper, long catalogue of his wonderful curiosities. Profes- of Bridgehampton, Long Island. It was found on sor Hitchcock has discovered no stony bird-tracks that Island, and dug out of low marshy ground in like it in the ornithicnitical valley of the Connecticut. tide-water. It is not the head of an animal, though There is not a scull like it, in all that vast catacomb, it precisely resembles one. But it is a natural vege the cabinet of the Phrenological Society at Paris.-table root, several inches in length, and of the figure No art or science is acquainted with it, no mortal represented in the engraving! The root, we are inhas ever before seen it or described it. You may formed, is highly esteemed for its medicinal virtues. imagine it looks very like a deer's head, and must It is vulgarly called quassia root, and is, we behave belonged to one of that genus of animals. But lieve, seldom found in this country. The exact reit did not. Observe those delicate flesh lines, that semblance of this specimen to the head of an animal, strong jaw bone, the tattered muscles of the neck, renders it quite a remarkable curiosity. ANTHRACITE COAL TRADE OF PENNSYLVANIA. Written by the Hon. CALEB CUSHING, from Mass., for the North lie near together on the easterly side of the Susque hannah, upon or below its north branch, and bear a striking similitude each to the other in geographical position, extent of area, and gealogical features. They are, first, the coal-field of Mauch Chunk and Schuylkill; secondly, that of Beaver Meadow, Shamokin, and Mahoney; and thirdly, that of Lackawanna and Wyoming.-Each of these fields forms a long elliptical basin, with a well-defined border of red shale, and surrounded by a barrier of long and sharpmounted ridges. Two of these fields, the first and the second, run side by side, ranging a little north of east; the remaining one is somewhat apart from them, and has a more northerly direction. They may be considered, indeed, from their proximity and general resemblance, as constituting one single coalregion; although, as will hereafter be explained, there is great difference in the superficial character of the country which they respectively traverse. There is a difference, also, in their history, and in their statistical relations; which renders it necessary they should be treated of separately and somewhat in detail. We visited, recently, the anthracite coal mines in the interiour of the state of Pennsylvania. The spectacle of enterprise, industry, and prosperity, which we there beheld, was most imposing to the eye, and most instructive to the mind. In the heart of a wild broken territory, amid the sharp ridges of the Alleganys, intersected by the hundred rivers and streamlets which swell the tides of the Delaware and Susquehannah, in what was but a few years ago one of the most desert regions of the United States, we found a numerous and fixed population, with all the appliances of refined life, and a multitude of improvements, in rail-roads, canals, and other publick works, of which the most advanced people in America, or even in Europe, might justly be proud. A new world seemed to have sprung up in the wilderness, as if by enchantment. Smiling villages were spread out in peace and abundance beneath overshadowing peaks, and beside mountain-tops reaching up their bleak summits to the sky. The dwellings of cultivated competency, and warehouses stored The Mauch Chunk and Schuylkill coal-field comwith merchandise, stood on the very edge of the old mences near the river Lehigh, on the east, and primeval forests of the continent. Here was the reaches westerly to the left bank of the Susquecentre of a vast business, which had all at once viv-hanna, extending thus about seventy miles in length, ified the surrounding country, converted the wildest while it is only from one to five miles in width, bewaste into the theatre of active life, given a fresh ing pressed in between Broad mountain on the north, stimulus to individual enterprise, created an inex- and Sharp mountain on the south. These mounhaustible source of wealth to the state in which it tains, and the coal-field itself, are penetrated more lay, and opened a new commerce and a new bond or less by numerous streams, particularly the Swaof fraternity to the whole Union. We left the scene, tara, the Schuylkill and its branches, and the Lehigh, with a strong and abiding sense of the energy and affording outlets for the coal, and natural passes for pirit of our people, with renewed admiration of the the location of canals and rai-lroads, which pervade resources and destinies of our country, and with deep-the district in all directions. But there is room for felt gratitude to that bountiful Providence which bestowed upon us this our happy land. We cannot hope to communicate our feelings and impressions by words; the scene should be seen to be appreciated. Nor shall we attempt to do so. Neither shall One portion of this field, its western extremity, we enter into any speculations or inquiries concern- on the Swatara, and near to the Susquehanna, is not ing the geological history, formation, or natural char-accessible for the Atlantick trade, in competition with acter, of anthracite coal. The objects we have in the residue; and therefore, although it has a limited view are more plain and practical. We have col- market in the interiour, it is not possessed of the lected, from personal observation, from correspond-same general interest and importance as that which ence, and a large mass of printed matter, a variety is watered by the Schuylkill and Lehigh, and need of facts respecting the production and commerce of not occupy our attention. anthracite coal, a summary statement of which we propose to lay before the readers of the Review. distinction as to the different parts of this field, in regard to the position of the coal, its quality, the mode of working it, and the means of its conveyance to market. At the eastern extremity of the field, are the works of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation company, which Pennsylvania abounds in mineral treasures of the are, in many respects, peculiar, and are conducted most useful kinds, that is, iron and coal; these being on a scale of great boldness of design, and comprethe precise means, out of which the actual grandeur hension of enterprise. Disregarding the obvious and opulence of Great Britain have in great part outlets of the basin by the waters of the Schuylkill, prung. On a future occasion we may recur to its they have ascended the mountain-barrier to its very deposites of iron ore, and of bituminous coal; our summit, entered the coal-field by a rail-road, and thus present concern is with its anthracite coal exclusive- diverted the coal from its natural channel to the waiy. It is singular that, with the general knowledge ters of the Lehigh at Mauch Chunk. To effect this they already possess of their unexampled mineral object, Messrs. Josiah White, Hazard, and Hauto, resources, and their liberality in the promotion of having acquired the property of the Mauch Chunk publick improvements, the people of Pennsylvania mines, obtained an act of incorporation with mining have not caused to be made an accurate geological and trading privileges, and undertook the task, which survey of the whole territory of their state, by suit- had repeatedly before been attempted without sucable scientifick persons, according to the course re-cess, of rendering the river Lehigh navigable. cently pursued in the state of Massachusetts. So enable them to accomplish this, the state ceded to far as the anthracite of Pennsylvania has been ex- them the sole jurisdiction of this river, for the displored, and its presence fully ascertained, it occu-tance of eighty-three miles, and the free and unconpies three separate and distinct beds or fields, which trolled use of its waters. This grant has rightly VOL. III.-55 To been deemed since an improvident one; but the company proceeded to execute what they had undertaken with a spirit worthy of the enterprise. At an expense of about two millions and two hundred thousand dollars, they made their mines accessible to the river Lehigh, and opened the river itself, by a series of works, considered the best of their class in the United States. During the year 1834, the freight transported on the Lehigh canal, amounted to 129,083 tuns, of which 106,518 tuns consisted of coal, and the residue of flour, iron, lumber, stone, and other articles of merchandise. facility and profit; because they can be so propped and roofed, as to enable the miner to remove all the coal, without any hazard; while those of twenty or thirty feet must be worked in chambers, and large pillars of coal be left to support the roof; and even then the miners are exposed to injury from falling fragments or masses of the mineral. It is the universal practice in this region to undermine. As the veins generally dip in the direction of the mountainsides, the mode of working in the interiour of the mine is regulated in part with reference to this fact. They run a drift, or tunnel, into the mountain above the water-level, and construct a rude rail-road upon The coal of the Lehigh company, at least at their its floor, and then pierce the seam of coal horizonold and principal works, forms an immense mass of tally for a convenient distance; by which means the carbonaceous matter, intermixed with alternate lay- entire breast, as it is called, of the seam is exposed; ers of earth and slate. This deposite they strip, or and the miners work up the acclivity until they uncover, by digging off the superincumbent earth, so reach the summit or outcrop, throwing the coal beas to leave bare the mass of coal, as in a clay-field; hind them, where it is loaded into cars, drawn out and thus the coal is mined. It is conveyed a short by horses, screened and separated into the different distance up the ridge of the mountain top, thence it sizes, and conveyed to the landings, or shot at once ascends by means of an inclined plane, and a rail- into canal-boats. In some cases, very ingenious road upwards of eight miles in length, to a chute of mechanical contrivances are used in screening the seven hundred feet in two hundred and fifteen of coal; of which a very perfect example is to be seen perpendicular height, at Mauch Chunk, when it is at the station of the Delaware Coal company.embarked in the navigation of the Lehigh. This Hitherto the veins have been worked almost exclurail-road, being the first of any extent ever construct-sively from the water-level upward; and instances ed in the United States, has in years past attracted the attention of travellers on this account; as also from the interesting fact of a descent on a rail-road for eight or nine miles, by the mere specifick gravity of the cars. It is also curious, in another point of view. Enormous trains of loaded coal-cars descend by gravity, to the head of the chute, after which the empty cars are to be returned to the mines and reloaded. They are accordingly drawn up the inclined plane by teams of mules; but these animals cannot be induced, either by persuasion or force, to descend the plane on foot, and it becomes necessary to provide cars, in which they may ride down, and which they very contentedly draw up again, together with the empty coal-cars. Circumstances like these give zest and piquancy to the inspection of the works of this Company; the relish of which is enhanced by the beauty and sublimity of the surrounding scenery, mountain after mountain stretching out beneath your eye, as you glide in your self-moving carriage along the descending side of the long steep ridge, overhanging the bright village of Mauch Chunk. But the most interesting and valuable part of the coal-field is the central or interiour track, known as the Schuylkill Region, which is twenty miles long, and from three to four broad. In this region, the numerous headquarters of the river Schuylkill have cut boldly through the strata of coal, presenting a succession of elevated summits and deep ravines, almirably fitted for extensive mining operations. Here the coal is in veins, generally having an inclination or dip to the south, and consequently reaching the surface, when they are discovered by the depression of the soil over the coal in the process of decomposition, and by the cropping out, as the black dirt, which often appears at the surface, is termed. The dip is an angle of from forty to sixty degrees, the vein descending to an unknown depth. The beds vary in thickness, from one or two up to thirty feet. Those of from five to twelve feet are considered the best, as they can be worked with greater occur, of two, three and four seams of coal, one above another; but experiments are now in train for pursuing the veins in the opposite direction downwards, by sinking shafts below the water-level, and clearing out the water through the agency of steam power, as in England. There is a great diversity in the quality of the coal in the various parts of this basin, and even in a single region of it. In his very able report, Mr. Packer speaks of this point somewhat inaccurately. He alludes to the fact that some of the coal ignites more readily than the rest; and that the red-ash coal is by many regarded as of superiour quality; and then proceeds to say: "With these exceptions, there is little difference in the quality of the coal of the region; certainly no more than in trees of the same species, growing upon the same soil, or in coal taken from different parts of the same mine; and if coal of a superiour or inferiour quality be found in market, it is only because the vender has been more or less careful in freeing it from slate or other impurities."This is far from being correct. If the writer had said that there was the same difference in quality, as between trees of different species, say walnut, oak and maple, growing upon the same soil, it would have been a more just representation of the fact. This truth is perfectly notorious to those who are familiar with the coal region. Anthracite is now divided, for practical purposes, into three classes: that which burns freely and leaves a residuum of red ashes; another harder and more difficult to ignite, leaving a residuum of white ashes; and purchasers of coal for consumption can rely upon this as an easy and conclusive test of its quality. The Lehigh coal is white-ash, less easy of ignition, but esteemed for manufacturing purposes: the Schuyl kill coal of the better mines is red-ash, and the most valuable for domestick use. Very frequently, however, you will find veins of an inferiour quality, within fifty or a hundred yards of the best. In a transverse section of the several coal veins from the with their Address in 1820, in which they state their anticipation of the vast benefits to result from its construction, down to the Report of the last year in which their flattering anticipations are so fully realized, presents à fine example of the publick good which was achieved by publick spirited men, pursuing their own advantage by liberal expenditures of their wealth, in modes still more conducive to the publick advantage; and it affords one of a thousand contradictions to the mad outcry against corporate investments of property, issuing from that extravagant spirit of ultraism in all things, good or evil, which at this time agitates the publick mind in one part or another of the United States. Sharp to the Broad Mountain, made by Mr. James Wilde, of Pottsville, he lays down seventy-two different veins in the space of four miles. About one fourth part of the best of them are now worked, some much more extensive than others, and differing very materially in quality; and we feel confident that one half of the whole number cannot be worked until the others are entirely worked out, or at least worked so deep below the water-level, as to enhance greatly the expense of mining. Besides the difference in the purity of coal from different veins near to each other, there may be remarked this general difference; that, commencing at the southerly termination of them in the Sharp Mountain, the coal in the vein as you proceed north to the Broad Mountain, gradually becomes harder; and also, proceeding east toThe Report of the company, for the year 1834, wards Mauch Chunk it grows harder; while pro- presents the following progressive increase of busiceeding west beyond Minersville, it becomes softer, ness, omitting the earlier year of its incompleteness: until in the neighbourhood of the Susquehannah, it becomes too soft and brittle for profitable transpor-Years. tation. This view of the subject is confirmed by 1826 reference to the weight of the coal, in the different 1827 parts of the field. Thus, at Mauch Chunk, its spe- 1828 cifick gravity is 1,494; on the waters of the Schuylkill, in and about Pottsville, it is 1,453; and on the Swatara it is 1,400. We make these remarks, of 1831 course, without reference to the fractures or faults, 1832 which occur in a vein occasionally, owing to the imperfection in the formation of the coal, a disturbance of it by great natural convulsions. 58,149 74 Total Tunnage. 32,404 Tuns Coal. 16,767 Total Toll. $43,108 87 65,501 31,360 105,463 47,284 87,171 56 1829 134,524 52,973 120,039 00 1830 180,755 89,984 148,165 95 And this leads us to another consideration of great Commensurate with this augmenting business of practical importance to the consumer. The veins the canal, has been the prosperity of the Coal Rehave a uniform range, longitudinally with the basin, gion, of which it is the outlet. It is an open highnorth seventy-two degrees east, so that whenever a way, free to all the world, at the regular rate of tolls. valuable vein is opened in one tract of land it can be Consequently, the navigation of it is in individual traced to the lands adjoining; and the more cele- hands, partly of the proprietors of mines, who conbrated veins have been opened in many places for vey their own coal to market, partly of persons who several miles beyond the first pit. Such are the pursue the business of boating alone, depending on Peach Mountain, Spohn, Lewis, and Gate veins, freight from proprietors or undertakers of mines. which were opened before rail-roads were construct- The mines, also, are in the hands of private corpoed, at points convenient for conveyance by turnpike- rations, companies, or individuals, invited to the road to the landings at mount Carbon. By the scene by the facilities it affords, in its natural and introduction of rail-roads, these veins became acces- artificial features, for the prosecution of individual sible at various places in the Schuylkill valley; and enterprise; among which persons, if any single one there are examples of a vein thus traced and identi- may, without derogation to the rest, be signalized fied for the space of ten miles. This fact shows for his active and intelligent usefulness, it is Mr. the necessity of buying coal with reference to the John White, the founder and controlling spirit of the vein from which it is obtained, without being gov-Delaware Coal company. The consequence of all erned exclusively by the name of a particular pit, mine, or property; for it is by regarding the mine, rather than the vein, that retail venders of anthracite coal, from the Schuylkill region, have fallen into so much idle competition of names, and quackery of advertisement, for the purpose of drawing customers. Whoever buys red ash coal, prepared for the market by the Delaware Coal company, the North American, or any of the respectable individual proprietors or miners in the Schuylkill Valley, may rest assured that he has a good article and the best of anthracite coal for domestick consumption. this has been the rapid growth of a flourishing population, of which Pottsville is the centre, strongly reminding the beholder of the similar results of wellapplied and well-combined capital and industry, as exhibited in the correspondent case of Lowell in Massachusetts. The immense business of the Schuylkill valley, it is also interesting to observe, has been growing up simultaneously with that of Lowell, in about the same space of time. Indeed, the prosperity of the manufactories of Lowell, and that of the collieries of the Schuylkill valley, are much more intimately The Schuylkill region seems to have been connected, than a superficial observer, looking only marked by nature, for individual enterprise; and to the distance of the two places one from the other, the State was careful to keep this object in view, in would be prone to imagine. Coal was known to the incorporation of the Schuylkill Navigation com- abound in this region, so early as 1790, and perhaps pany, on whose canal the coal is conveyed to Phila- before; and the mines at Mauch Chunk were pardelphia for distribution along the Atlantick. The tially opened prior to the year 1800. It was used history of this canal, as recorded in the annual re- to a very limited extent by some of the blacksmiths ports of the officers of the company, and beginning in the neighbourhood; but not esteemed as of much value. During the war of 1812, however, many in- Add to this, the borough of Pottsville, the towns telligent individuals, in that part of Pennsylvania, had of Port Carbon, Minersville and Schuylkill Haven, become convinced of the value of anthracite; and and other villages, as Mauch Chunk, Summit Hill, serious attempts were unsuccessfully made to intro- Tamaqua, Patterson, Tuscarora, St. Clair, New duce it into the market by Mr. Charles Miner, of Castle, Middleport, Mount Carbon, Pinegrove, Coal Wilkesbarre, and by Mr. George Shoemaker, of Castle, Llewellyn, and others, the property in which Pottsville, about the same time. After which, it is valued at three millions of dollars, and we shall does not appear that any considerable quantity of then have some idea of the fruits of the Coal busianthracite was taken to market, either by the Schuyl-ness in the coal-field of the Schuylkill and Lehigh. kill or Lehigh, until 1820, when the Lehigh company conveyed three hundred and sixty-five tuns to Philadelphia. This may be considered, therefore, as the commencement of the business. What progress it has since made, may be partly judged by the table we have given of the transportation on the Schuylkill canal; to which we proceed to add some other statistick facts bearing on the same point. The Schuylkill canal affords employment to 370 boats. There were sent to market in 1834, by the Schuylkill, 224,242 tuns of coal, and 106,244 tuns by the Lehigh. The value of fixed improvements connected with the Schuylkill and Lehigh coal-field, is estimated as follows: We come now to the second coal basin, that of Beaver Meadow, Shamokin, and Mahoney. This, being not yet opened to the publick markets, does not afford so much matter of observation and remark as the first basin; but still it is not devoid of interest. This coal-field occupies the summit of highest ground between the waters of the Lehigh and Schuylkill on the one hand, and those of the north branch of the Susquehannah on the other, in the midst of a continuous range of double mountain barrier. Its obvious outlets by water are the Mahoney, flowing into the Susquehannah, and the Beaver Meadow creek, into the Lehigh. The whole basin, as far as regards its form, and the quality and formation of its coal, greatly resembles the one already described; but does not present the same facilities for access to tide water. The veins appear to be of great thickness, and capable of affording an abundant supply of 59,766 39 coal, whenever the demand shall be adequate to 123,000 00 overcome the difficulties in the way of its reaching 2,966,480 13 the market. There is in this region, one publick 185,000 00 improvement of striking boldness. Miles. Cost. Lateral Roads connected with Norwegian or Mount Carbon Rail 161 81 108 15 the above 101 5,250 00 15,000 00 11,700 00 19,200 00 164,364 38 We allude to the Danville and Pottsville rail-road, 31,500 00 completed as far as Girardsville, a town which Mr. Girard willed to have exist in the heart of this wild 95,000 00 region, and which therefore exists. This road is a striking instance of what human art can accomplish, in overcoming natural difficulties. There is no publick work in Europe surpassing it in grandeur of design, or beauty of execution. We specify, in illustration, the tunnel, and inclined planes, by which the great elevation of the Broad mountain is surmounted. This tunnel, perforated right through a sharp high ridge, is eight hundred feet in length, 10 in height, and 10 in width, with a superincumbent mass of mountain thirty-five feet in height above it. Of the succession of inclined planes, some are self moving, regulated by wind-breaks, or otherwise; and one of them, acted upon by a stationary steam engine, has a descent of sixteen hundred and twentyfive feet, at an angle of about eighteen degrees, in a 225,557 11 perpendicular elevation of three hundred and fortyfive feet; and the ease and safety, with which you descend this stupendous plane, are as remarkable as the prospects before you, when you step into the car to descend, is appalling to the sense and the imagination. This road will run through the coal regions of the Mahoney and the Shamokin; and in addition to opening this coal to the consumer, will form a great thoroughfare for the merchandise, produce, and the general traffick of the country, and a line of communication between the waters of the Schuylkill at Pottsville, and those of the Susquehannah at Danville and Sunbury. 7,500 00 90,000 00 60 1,430,211 85 Number of wagons or Rail-Road cars 490,000 00 92 colliery establishments, including $5,022,780 00 It remains that we speak of the third coal-fieldthat of the Wyoming valley and Lackawanna. In this region, the coal beds are generally more accessible than those of the other two fields, being exposed in a multitude of localities, by deep ravines, |