The Sun.
London, England, 1865-12-18 00:00:00

American Financial and Commercal News.

(From E. F. Satterthwate q• Co.'s Weekly Circular, Dec.l3.)
By the "Persia" we have received our usual advices
from New York, they are to the 28th ultimo, and report
an inactive Stock market, with a declining tendency. The
uncertainty which prevailed as to the future policy of the
Government with regard to a contraction of the currency,
and consequent early return to specie payment, was in-
ducing unusual caution on the part of those who had un-
employed capital ; and loans, other than at call, or for
short engagements, were difficult to obtain ; the conse-
quence was that considerable sales of Government Stocks
had been made, causing some depression in all descriptions.
Tho same cause was operating to check business in rail-
road securities, the chief part of the operations being
effected by speculative parties; the entire list, with the
exception of Chicago and North-Western, and Michigan
Southern, exhibits a slight decline, which would have
been enhanced on any forced sales.
The Directors of the Michigan Southern Railroad bad at
last come to an arrangement with the Preference Stock-
holders with regard to the long-pending question of arrears
of interest. The terms were generally considered satis-
factory.
Railroad Bonds and State Stocks were neglected.' Gold
had advanced rather more than one per cent., closing
at 118. ,„
Via " Greencastle" we have received the following
quotations, being to the 2nd inst.:—
United States 5.20's 101/ Erie, Common 92
Illinois Centrals 139 Gold 148 k
The following is the return of the New York Banks :
Discounts. Specie. Circulation. Deposits.
$
Nov. 18, 224,741,853 12,449,989 14,3335,168 173,640,46-1
Nov. 25, 225,345,177 12,313,542 15,34C,542 175,588,073
We have received the subjoined letter, which will, we
think, be read with interest by such of our friends as
are Stock or Bondholders of the Reading Railroad ; it has
also much interest as showing the mode in which the
Americans get over the difficulties imposed by the rugged
character of the country ; and also as showing the great
state of prosperity this road is enjoying. This prosperity
we are the more gratified to notice, inasmuch as the At-
lantic and Great Western passing through the great coal
fields of Ohio, may expect similar results from its coal traffic,
and having leased for 999 years the Morris and Essex,
and Catawissa roads, it taps by this moans the same coal
fields of Pennsylvania as those tapped by the Reading,
and it is beyond question that a very enormous coal traffic
will be carried to New York direct over these leased lines,
to accommodate which wharves aro to be constructed at
Hoboken, on the Hudson River, just opposite New York,
equal to those of the Philadelphia and Reading, at Port
Richmond, on the Delaware.
The monthly statement of the Reading is also subjoined,
which gives the working for eleven months of the present
fiscal year, and estimating the net profit for the remaining
month, we arrive at the following result :—Net profit, as
stated in return for eleven months, $4,288,520 ; one month,
estimated at increased rate of freight, which took effect in
October last, say, s7oo,ooo—total, $4,988,520. Deduct
amount required for interest, same as per last annual report,
$502,000 ; deduct amount required for sinking fund,
sllB,6oo—total, $620,600. Leaving a balance of
$4,367,920, being equal to a dividend of over 21 per cent.
on the stock which stood at $20,072,323.
This company paid last year a dividend of 15 per cent.
it seems in fact quite to have got over the building of the
Lebanon Valley, prior to doing which it had earned from
12 to 17 per cent. dividends. We have the pleasure to
state that the most amicable relations exist between the
Atlantic and Great Western and the Reading Railroads.
New York, 24th November, 1865.
E. F. Satterthwaite, Esq.,
My dear Sir,—Soon after your departure, and after a
few days' rest, I made a run through the coal district of
Pennsylvania, over the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad,
previously making an appointment with Mr. Bulkeley, the
gentleman we called upon together at Port Richmond, on
the 20th ult. He is the superintendent of the Port Rich-
mond depot, and thoroughly versed in the company's
business; he accompanied me to the mines.
The extension of the wharves is being proceeded with ;
they can now accommodate 125 vessels at a time. On the
6th inst., two days before I got there, they shipped 11,000
tons. Up to the Ist November, this year, notwithstanding
a six weeks' strike, they have shipped 2,000,000 tons.
Their yearly average is about 3,000,000. Next year, with
their additional wharf room, they anticipate sending away
4,000,000 tons.
The freight of coal from Pottsville to Philadelphia, 93
miles, is $3.50c. or equal to three halfpence sterling per ton
per mile. The main line to Pottsville is double track, and
in good order, though the iron shows sign of the heavy
traffic ; 23 coal trains a day are now running usually,
each of 125 waggons (small), carrying 5 tons each. This
gives an average of say-12,000 per day.
The joints are fished throughout with an iron and wood
"suspended" fish. This is the only suspended joint I
have met with in this country. Ours, at home, are all so.
This Company use gas in their night trains, and, unlike
our clumsy holders on the roof of the carriages, carry it
in a finch iron cylinder, capacity ten cubic feet water
(say 6-feet long by 10-inches diameter), into which is
pumped 100 feet of gas, enough for one night's use. The
cylinder: is carried under the car, and is removed when
empty, and a full one substituted in a very short space of
time. _ _

The new carpenter's shop at Reading is one of the
finest I ever saw ; 700 feet long, and three spans of 55-
feet each, or 165-feet broad: They have a large space of
ground adjoining the town, which is going to be covered
with buildings, to be paid out of the revenue I sup-
pose!
From Reading to Pottsville, 35 miles, I travelled on the
Ariel, a donkey-engine, with car built on the boiler, from
which one gets a first-rate view of the line and country,
Next day in the Gem, another donkey, I went over the
Minehall section from Schulkill Haven to Shemokin,
most interesting country.
A few miles east branches the Tremont line and
laterals, 38 miles in all, which furnish 1,800 tons a day.
From Minersville, for nine miles, is a uniform
ascending grade of 90 feet to the mile' (1 in 58),
which takes you to the top of Broad Mountain, the
road forming a horse-shoe bend round the mountain, five
miles from heel to heel, of single track. Hero you arrive
at the top of the first "plane ;" or descending grade,
which is 4,800 feet long, with a fall of 355 feet, 1 in

101 ; and at the foot of this, at the second 4,900 feet,
and 365 feet fall (1 in 10.6) ; in all, a fall of 720 feet in 1.83
miles, an average of 1 in 13.5, but at the steepest as much
as lin 6. Each plane is worked by a 250 (nominal) horse
power engine, and 2-inch (diam.) iron rope. Six full cars
ascend, and eight empty descend. They are obliged to
work day and night always. Attached to each end of the
rope is a safety car, against which the train butts, so that
there is no coupling required. This car runs on a track
of its own, about 3-feet gauge, within the main 4-feet
Bf-inch gauge, which, at the foot of the plane, conducts it
into a pit below the surface, the train of cars running by
their own impetus over the top of it, and into a siding ; a
very •clever way of detaching the rope without loss of
time.

It is rather nervous work at first going down thes
planes, for should the rope break, and it has done so, no
power in the world could save you. The average life of
a rope is about 31 years, towards the end of which time
careful watch is kept for signs of decay, which show
themselves in the form of broken strands, caused by
crystalisation.
A rich vein of coal was passed near the summit, being
worked by the company. It crcps out on the surface of
the hill, a black shining mass of solid anthracite, 6i-feet
thick, slope 45 deg.

Shemokin is a mining village in the heart of the moun-
tains, surrounded with coal " breakers."
The burning mine was pointed out to me, a vein of
coal which took fire twenty-five years ago, and is still
burning.
Next day, in another engine, the " Witch," I:went by
Paloalto and Port Carbon, over the Mahanoy section.
The former is the head-quarters of this section, as Schul-
kill Haven is of the other; both places have eight or ten
tracks in and about them, workshops, engine sheds, &c.
The ascent to the summit of the mountain is more gradual,
but the descent heavier than the others ; viz., 400 feet in
2,400, or lin 6. A 2i-inch rope is usual here.
At the foot of the plane I took the Mahanoy and Broad
Mountain Railroad to Fisk's Colliery, through which I
was conducted, going half-a-mile into the workings ; the
vein is 9 to 10 feet thick, and yields 40 to 50 cars a day, to
140 to 150 men and boys.
The " breaker " is peculiar to anthracite coal mining,
and consists of a wooden erection some 100 feet high, to
the top of which the cars of coal are hoisted by steam power,
just as they come from the mine; at the top they are tilted
over, the coal in its descent passing first over a screen,
which sifts out the dirt (dust coal), then into the breaker,
where it is crushed into lumps of all sizes, and on through
a revolving screen, having gratings of different sizes ;
thence it slides down iroa guides, past a lot of boys, who
pick out the slate, earning from s2i to $7 a week, and is
finally deposited into bins, under which the railway cars
are shunted to load.

We then ran "wild cat"---i.e., running on a single track in
face of an expected train, rather ticklish work, to Mahanoy
city, 1 miles; and a little further on passed the junction
with the Catawissa, near Quakabe, and arrived at Tama-
qua, a thriving mining town of 6,000 inhabitants. Here
we met a gentleman, Mr. George Cole, who owns a mine
near the Fisk, in which the vein, or rather basin, of coal is
58 feet thick.

Tamaqua is 18 miles east of Pottsville, where we arrived
after dark, and next day returned to Reading. A. few miles
from Reading, east, a breakdown, causing two hours delay,
had blocked the line with coal trains ; I counted six of
them, each of 125 cars, in a mile and a half.
Two or three days later I returned here, after a very in-
teresting trip. .

Mr. Kennard, engineer-in-chief of the Atlantic and Great
Western Railway, who is at present actively engaged with
the Morris and Essex affairs, contemplates constructing
four wharves for shipping coal at Hoboken, each of 1,500
feet, which will give a frontage of 12,000 feet. I find the
Reading have between 13,000 and 14,900.
Yours very faithfully, Txos. B. MOSELEY.
PHILADELPILAIA ND READING RAILROAD COMPANY.—The
traffic of tho Philadelphia and Reading Railroad for the
month of October, 1864, is as follows :—Received from coal,
1865, $1,185,406.81; 1864, $565,114.65; received from mer-
chandise, 1865, $110,376.88; 1864, $74,351.73; received
from passengers, &c., 1865, $123,448.28 ; 1864, $115,084.21;
total receipts, 1865, $1,419,231.97 ; 1864, $754,550.59.
Transportation, roadway, dumpage renewal fund, and all
charges, 1865, $602,746.10; 1864, $474,478.90. Not profit
for the month, 1865, $816,485.87 ; 1864, $280,071.69 ; net
profit for previous ton months, 1865, $3,412,034.49; 1864,
$3,523,011.45. Total net profit for eleven months, 1865,
$4,288,520.36 ; 1864, $3,803,083.14.
The Great Western of Canada traffic is for week end-

ing Nov. 24, 1865, £15,507 6s. 7d. sterling on 345 !miles,
or £44 19s. por mile per week; Nov. 25, 1864, £11,597 6s.
ld. sterling on 345 miles, or £33 12s. 4d. per mile per
week.

The Grand Trunk of Canada, traffic is, for week ending
Nov. 18, 1865, £28,857 sterling on 1,377 miles, or £2O
19s. id. per mile per week; Nov. 19, 1864, £24,623 sterling
on 1,335 miles, or £l6 Bs. 11d. per mile per week.
The Detroit and Milwaukee traffic is, for week ending—
Nov. 23, 1865, £8,476 Os. 6d. sterling on 189 miles, or £44
16s. 11d. per mile per week; Nov. 24, 1861, £6,175 2s. 7d.
sterling on 189 miles, or £32 13s. sd. per mile per week.
American securities have not been exempt from the dull-
ness and depression which has characterised other markets
during the past few days. Yesterday was the lowest day
of the week, United States 5-20 Bonds having changed
hands as low as 62: ; Illinois Shares at 80} ; and Eries at

At the close of business to-day a manifestly stronger
tone pervades tho markets, United States 5-20's closing
63f to a ; Illinois Shares, 80 to ; and Eries 57f to -I,
with an improving tendency.
All descriptions of Atlantic and Great Western securi-
ties remain steady, and prices exhibit but little alteration
from last week. The new issue of Consolidated Scrip
closes to 1 prem.