The Portland daily press., 1865-03-22
The EAGLE Hill Goal Mines.

The following article is copied from the Bos-
ton Iroveller, the editor having just returned
from visit to the mines of which he speaks.
As SO much stock has been taken by our citizens
on the Mutual coal-at-cost principle in the
Company which owns and is working these
mines, we copy the article, by request, for the
satisfaction it may afford them:
One of the great problems of the day, is the
future fuel supplies of the country. Our peo-
pie are not yet quite awake to its Importance,
but coal at seventeen dollars per ton, and wood
at fourteen dollars per cord will soon wake them
up. Forty years ago, wood was 80 abundant
and cheap that the Franklin stoves had to
fight for supremacy againt the huge old cavern
of fire place, that engulphed fuel by the cord.
All that is now over. Anew era has come. An
thracite coal, almost unknown, as a fuel, forty
years ago, has displaced the wood; and anthra-
cite coal is now public necessity, and likely to
continue 30. 1t has all eldy advanced from four
or five dollars to seventeen dollars per ton, and
the prospect OF any very material relief from
this CRYING oppression is not inviting, And
more than that-with an average supply of not
more than about sixty days consumption in the
market, should a foreign war occur, the price of
anthracite coal would reach double the amount.
As We have said, our people and our econo-
mlsts too-are sleeping over this profoundly
important matter; but sharp necessity will arouse
them, in time Sos ts7s O7ea
From these and other considerations we have
taken very lively and personal interest in the
"Coal st COST plan, initiated by 1.-THE EAGLE
HUI MUTUAL Coal CoMPANF," The principle
which underlies this movement is one of great
public Importance, beyond any question - and
this is proved by the remarkable popularity of
the stock, and the eagerness with which the pub
lie have rushed to subscribe to it. In order TO
determine, to our own satisfaction, just what the
Eagle Hill Mine really is, we visited it last week,
In company with several gentlemen, and gave it
critical and thorough examination. The
result was the fullest conviction that in anantty
and quality of coal, and the thoroughness of ali
its arrangements, the Eagle Hill Mire is one
of the best in the Schuylkill valley, and will
justify all that the Company can well claim
for it. 81 SONIA afaola 1s5dr ~ 49, n
The mine is located about four miles from
Pottsville, aud has both railroad and canal facil-
tiles for transportation to market, and is one of
the nearest to tide water of oil in that region.
The principal workings are upon the well known
mammoth vein, !" twenty eight feet thick. and
new vein has just been cut, seventeen feet thick
The workings are from two 'leyels," as they are
termed-one about 100 feet, and the other 300
feet deep. The tunnels driven upon the great
vein, are of immense extent with railways and
cars constantly in use, bringing up the coal.
mules being used to haul it to the shafts through
which it is raised to the surface by steam
power.
One of its valuable qualities as a mine. ia its
freedom from water. This may be understood
when we state, that while neighborino mine
requires pump of twenty inches diameter and
an engine of five hundred horse power to clear II
of water, the Eagle Hill uses only a nine-inch
pump three or four hours per day, and the COM
mon engine suffices 70 do the work of the whole
mine
The quantity of coal the mine can SUNNY NAV
be termed inexhaustible. The QUALITY Of the
coal may be judged from the fact that the PaIo
Alto Iron Company consume twenty-five or
thirty thousand tons of it per year, and no in
ferior coal would or could be used in the manu-
facture of iron. In fact all that has been claimed
for this mine was fully verified by our own care
full examination, and that of the gentlemen who
accompanied US. Favorable as our impressions
were the reality very far exceeded them. But
it is not necessary to say more. The "EAaLE
HILL MUTUAL Coal CoMPANY"is an enterprise
of public benefit and Importance; and cannot
prove otherwise than largely profitable if iudi-
ciously managed. We give it our cordial sun.
port, and feel no hesitation in thus testifvinp
our personal appreciation of it. specimen Of
the coal can be seen at our counter i7o ~
It may be well to add that the Eagle Hill Coal
Company not only own all the property connec-
ted with the working of their own colliery, but
also three-ffths of the celebrated Eagle Hill
tract in fee, upon which there are three other
collieries now in operation, three ffths of the
rents from which go to the Eagle Hill Mutual
Coal Company, and swell its dividends There
is sufficient area for the opening of two or three
more coleries on the tract 1aA XII
r Fl .