Semi-weekly North-Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1852-1853, 1852-02-11

We are grahed to have 1t in our power to lay be-
fore readers the following interesting and impor-
tant letter from Prof. Emmons, State Geoogis, in
relation to the Chatham coaI-felds
FAYErrEvILLE, Feb. 7, 1852.
To His Ercehency, Coz. Reid:
SIR: have executed the preliminary examination
of the Chatham coal-fed, which your Excellency
proposed when 1 visited Raleigh. The results of
this examination highly satisfactory l began it
at Famersville the most easterIy point where coal
had been discovered and have been able trace it
in its outcrop seventeen or eighteen miles. Along
this outcrop, it rises to the surface nearly uni
form dip and strike pursuing nearly direct line from
point TO point, and maintaining wIthal, through the
whole distance, average thickness of at least six
and half feet. The princ pal bed exceeds seven
feet at two points, two foot bed lies below
the main one, with ten twelve inches of slate only
between them Another three foot bed lies thirteen
feet beneath, with btuminous slate intervening. The
thickness Of the main bed is all that be wished
inasmuch as it is more profitable than of nine
| ten feet.
As there be no question, then, as to the length
of the outcrop and the thickness Of the respective
BEDS the important question is, will these beds thin
out and become lost in the lies, or will they pre-
| serve their present average thickness! This ques-
lion though it cannot be decided positively, STILL if
we may place confidence in geological principles,
We may feel great degree of assurance that they
will prove permanent the beds of coal of VIr-
ginia and Pennsy lvania In the first place, diluval
action, it is sometimes termed, has never been
felt here. There IS drift. The beds of pebbles
are not transported masses, like Northern DRIFT,
but simply the remains of old sea bottom. Beds
of coal have not, therefore, been swept away. In the
second place, find all the usual accom- ailments of
coal, shale, fossils, beds of the hydrous peroxide
of iron &C. In the third place, there is sufficient
breadth and depth to the coal series, though the
| amount OF coal is not always in proportion to the
breadth and depth of strata thus in the coa-eld of
Nova Scotia, which examined in 1885, found only
one bed of coal of four feet in strata, whose aggre-
gate thickness is fourteen thousand feet In the fourth
place. there is HpIift unduIaon the strata,
face at one and half miles south from the
first outcrop which last is within the rim of
the basin. There scarcely be doubt, therefore,
that there is breadth of coal of miles, at least
and which extends seventeen or eighteen miles
tlnuously. have, however, idea that the coal
field is thus restricted either in length or breadth.
There is only place where bed ,thins out,
to all formations. From the facts and phenomenal
then,.of the Chatham coafeld, we have little reason
to fear its early failure. 1t is proper for to OBJ
serve in this connexion, that do not regard this
coai-hed extensive many others in this country
The Appalachian, the Illinois and Michigan coal
fields are much longer and wider-the former being
nearly 900 miles long and from $50 to 200 broad.
The quality of the coal of Chatham is excellent 1t
IS adapted 10 Paror use, but particularly the
tacture of gas for lighting houses and streets; and
also Tor coke, which may be employed in the manu-
facture OF the best kinds of bar iron. see reason
why 1t may not supersede the foreign bituminous
GOALS 1t ls remarkably free from the suphuret of
Iron This mineral, however, is disseminated through
the black shales-an important fact to be borne in
mind when large quantities are to be sent to market,
tor 1t this shale is mixed with the coal in considera-
Die quantities, it may produce spontaneous combus-
ton. am, most respectfully yours,
E. EMMONS.