Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1857-03-27
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y
correspondence Of the Free Press
The Coat Mines of Peunsylynnin,

nus Always oeeh supposed 10 nave very inpUi
tsnt and seryicable braLeh through the Keyston
state butyosr readers may not generally be war
that there are in the single county of Schuylkil
nearly one hundred and fifty miles Of actual rail
road laid mostly with iron and traversed b!
heavy freights by day and ri sht far under groun,
and many miles away un der the mountains.
few weeks since, finding it necessary to az
quaint ourselves more infinitely with the actua
processes Of mining coal, we took advantage OF s
brief vacation, and in few hours ride from phila
delphia. found ourselves ON coal land ~ Ou1
ideas Of mountain scenery had been formed annie
the dome shaped and conica hills and mountain,
Of New England and New York caused by the
uphcaval Of primitive or granite rocks, in range.
Of individual poaks-forms which not unity Illus
trate the individuality and strength Of Yankee
Character Our attention, therefore, was at
once attracted to the change of scenery caused by
long elevated ridges. of no great height, but very
steep ON the scarped sides, and showing unbro-
ken outline, save where some stream had cut its
'gap'through The distance down the slopes of these
ridges, from the SUBMITS to tie level intervals
are cut by the surface waters, and the whole sur-
iuSS ~ ulNlutu INTO Nullcys OF signify varying
width, lying between parallel ridges
glance at the map of Penn will show one of
these ridges in the Blue Mountain which bound,
Schuylkill County the south. The next ridge
North of this, known as the sharp Mountain,
VIII CHI is cut through by the SchuylkiI River about
two miles from Pottsvillc, forms the southern
boundary Of the southern Coal field. Tie top
rock Of this ridge may be traced for miles with.
out much deviation from the same direction or the
same level, broken only by the two branches of the
Schuylkill and one or two smaller streams
From this ridge to that Of the Broad Mountain,
from two to ten miles distant, the ccal.neas ures
rise md fall Yer the intervening ridges forming
saddles or basins, as in their unduation they pass
over the hills under the yallies. There were
supposed Mt time, to be about eighty workable
veins in this field. Many of them have been
proved to be identical. the vein, dipping to
the North and south on different slopes, and the
prevailing opinion now i that only some fourteen
distinct veins have been proved. The uuduations
have been so great that the strata in some places
have been recurved, SO that he upper have been
folded bn,k upon the lower, like plat of cloth
Because this fact not understood, large sums
VI Woucy WeIe Whsleu III seuTSHluB lhT VEINS sup
posed to be below those already proved, when in
fact the order of superposition had been reversed
and the veins when found at all, found above.
We shall not attempt any description of the sever
al veins which mined at different part. under the
names of Peach Mountain, Diamond, Hickory,
Primrose, Jugular, Y U Y &c, and which pro-
duce Goals of various qualities, and ashes red,
white and grey. Some of them have a thickness Of
not more than two or three feet. while the NAM
variety of white ash coal, is sometimes from TWEEN
ty five to forty feet thick, and is seldom less than
twenty Eve feet, except under the influence of
some local snip"
The Mammoth vein probably underlies the
whole soal-held, cropping out at certain points,
and sinking at others to depth, possibly of thou.
,luds of feet d depth which may, perhaps, be de-
termincd in some coming century when all the
higher Goals worked out. The amount Of cca
tent from the county last year three and
bird millions Of tons, from one hundred AID forty
olleries. These are in every valley and on .>ory
nil.side. They are kuownby their huge piles Of
waste coal dust, large block buildings with all
sorts of uncouth angular projections, tall Chin
iegS; uhu P"H'"o s'N"h" N"o''A'S' w ''"'hNH
that the largest operations were at It. Cljr.
hamlet Of miners cabins some three miles from
and thlther accordingly, We went We
found guide and lamp just in time to take
the regu ar inward train into the drift of one of
the largest cullieries. We provided ourselves each
with tolerab'y clean block Il wood, to serve as
seat in the lotion of the diiest car we could find.
gave ourselve. up to our guide, and .oon dislp-
peared in a hole i'll the ground Ut " round mule
trot. Our gallery had been driven for a TOW yards
in the seven foot vein of coal, hut soon took a
turn to the left, passed through about iourt en-
yards of slate, and we were in the Mammoth vein.
The gangway itself was barely high enough for
short man to walk in, six feet wide at bottom,
four feet Mt top, and made to rise just enough to
carry of the water, as this coliery was above the
water level. The walls and timbers were black,
and dripping with waters SO h'Rh'y charged with
sulphur, that shovel lett standing uhIer coz
tinuous dropping would speedily nave a mole
eaten through it. Ca our right was wall OF coal,
which went down, down, an unknown depth into
the earth above us was the top slate, AMI on our
left alternate openings, from which the ccal had
been worked, between wide pillars left TO support
tne roof went AWAY up in'o u"l"'h'"i""'o JAIN
ness which our flaming and smoking lamps seemed
to develop into thick and tangible substance
Presently we reached & turnout and accord
ing to the laws of the road. waited for down
train. In minute down 1t came punctuai to
time, with heavy freight OF gli'teh'nS coal IT'S
four ragged mules and i's lrlsh driver the couh-
terpart OF our own engineer whose 'ace' oAck with
coal dust ana giiineh with SMOKE was Mucous
ander the glare of the flaming lamp hung on his
greasy rkull-cap. On we went again, till, a mile
aud half from daylight we passed through
door, which was opened at our approach ana
closed after us, by sooty little imp and we were
In the workings Here the vein' which had when
we entered H. a DIP oil ABOUT ao0 10 the soutn'
was nearly horizontal and the gahery orahched
an TWO or three directions taxing one ot the
Gf walked IA farther.