The New era. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1865-1871, 1865-11-16

oniS aiter burning. Cnderiying the
lowest coal seam are two bands of ore,
each about a foot in thickness, separated
by shales, and consisting chiefly of the
peroxide Ola shady texture. Next be-
low comes layer of white sandstone ;
then bed OF ore six or eight inches
timex, undecomposed, q compact proto-
carbonate; and lower still among the
shaies lies another thin band Of ore, UNI
derlaid with limestone, from which the
lux Is obtained for iron furnaces.
Furnaces have recently been erected
in Preston county, which are producing
from ore bearing high per centage OF
pure metal large quantities OF iron If q
superior quality. The enterprise, it is
understood, has been attended with q
large measure of peeuniary success. In
the Kanawha coal fields there is an IN
exha,lstible deposit Of iron ore of good
quality.
The Iron Of West Virginia is almost
coextensive with its coal, and may be
said to exist literally throughout the
State, and be worked to advantage at
least throughout the mountain districts
i specimens ofore from the north branch
of the Potomac have yielded some IS,
and some Is per cent; in Monongahela
several specimens from 60 to 93per cent;
in Preston county 65, SO, II, and 50 per
cent.
OF the coal of West Virginia it is use
less to attempta description. 1t is found
in immense beds in the Panhandle: it
crops out at different elevations on the
banks of the Monongahela and its nu-
merous branches, away up among their
sources; the hills of the Cheat River re-
gion are black with seams that are in
some cases ten totwelve feet thick of sol
id coal; small quantities are found in
the coil oil region east of Parkersburg.
The coal fields of the Kanawha valley
are scarcely eXcelled, and perhaps not
equalled, in variety and quantity, upon
the continent; while in the eastern slope
OF the mountains, among the head wa
ters of the Potomac, great deposits of
bituminous and semi-bituminous are
successfully worked.
The following items relative to coal,
from the geological report of Professor
Rogers, made long since and previous to
the opening of many successful mines,
will give a hint merely of the great
wealth of these Alleghanian coal fields
"At Clarksburg and northward down
the valley of the Monongahela, there ex-
1918 oio VI eilS iicASoe Coal uepoelts III Ile
State. One of the seams in some places
in the neighborhood of this town is from
ten to twelve feet in thickness, below
which, and separated chiefly by Il heavy
bed of limestone, there lies thinner
stratum of a more highly bituminous
character" ave may form
some idea Of the vast extent Of these coal
seams from the fact, that from some dis
lance above Clarksburg they may be fol
lowed with scarcely any Interruptions
throughout the whole length of the val
ley Of the Monongahela down to Pitts
burg.
con the Great Kanawha the exposure
OF coal is one Of the most extensive and
valuable anywhere in the United States.
SIN Hampshire county, upona stratum
of valuable iron ore not less than fifteen
feet in thickness, there rests bed of
sandstone, upon which reposes a coal
seam three feet thick; above this anoth-
er bed Of sandstone, then two-feet vein
of coal, then sandstone, then anothercoal
seam Of four feet; again a stratum of
sandstone, and over it a seVen-feet vein
of coal over this heavy bed of iron
ore; and browning the series, an enor-
nous coal seam OF from fifteen to TWEEN
| ty feet in thickness
DcllJdilllu IL. olIllltl, I lltSu States uIs>-
trict attorney, resident in Charleston,
writes to the department upon this sub
jeet:
.'Four-tifths OF West Virginia lies ON
the western slope of the Cumberland
range, and nearly all the country west
of ii abounds in coal; but III that part
the state on the Great Kanawha and its
tributaries, Elk and Coal rivers, and on
Guyandotteriver,c coal is found on a mag
nificent scale. 1t exists in numerous
strata ofditferent thicknesses, rising from
the base OF the hills to the tops, all near
ly horizontal and slightly dipping tothe
north. This place is sixty miles above
the mouth Of the river. Here the little
hills become lofty, and increase in ele-
walton to Cotton hill or Gauley noun
tain. Ascending the river a distance of
thirty-siX miles, coal of all varieties, eX-
cept the anthracite, is found of superior
quality the camel, splint, bituminous,
and all varieties OF each. Biologists and
Others report, in those thirty-siX miles
at different points. workable strata OF
good GOALS, amounting i'll all to from
sixty to one hundred feet in thickness,
aggregating the several strata. These
strata are severally from three to four
teen feet thick. They extend over the