The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1873-02-19
evening Stats gu'trttal.
WEDNESDAY EyEN'G. FEB. 10. 1873.
chesapeake and Ohio Railroad
Mineral Wealth and Picturesque
scenery.

chesapeake and OHIO Railroad
Mineral Wealth and Picturesque
scenery.
The advantages to be derived BY
the completion and opening of this greaI
central artery Of travel and transportation
are two-fold. First it "Opens up to the world
immense beds of Goals and ores Of various
kinds second, the shortness of transpor.
f., tation and the consequent reduction of both
coal and iron East and West. All along
the road either coal or iron abound to an
extent, in richness and thickness, une.
qualled by any other section of country
on the globe. There is enough coal in the
county of Fayette alone to Supply the
world for thousand years to come. Prof.
Ridgeway, the distinguished geologist, tells
me that the thickest vein of coal
is from eleven to thirteen feet
thick, and that the aggregate
thickness of the coal beds in West Vir-
ginia is forty-two (42) feet. A four foot
vein of coal will yield one hundred and
twenty-five thousand bushels to the acre,
and as there are, in round numbers. fif-
teen thousand square miles of coal lands
in Virginia, l leave it to some cooler head
to figure up the number of bushels await
HlR ucfciopIHcuIs Lie aIHOunG OF wealth.
in her bowels is incalculable. The fossil
and mineral wealth Of the Old Dominion is
nowhere equalled in the western or eastern
hemisphere. Iron, lead, gypsum, slate,
limestone, coal, salt, marble, granite, and
timber of nearly every variety-all in great
abundance. The coal and iron mines of
the two Virginias the world cannot exhaust
for generations upon generations to come,
and to reap the benefit to be derived
therefrom it only needs capitalists to come
and develop their untold wealth. The ex-
tent and value of the iron mines of Bath.
Allegheny, Rockbridge and Augusta coun-
ties have never been discovered or estima-
ted, and the same may be said of her coal
mines and salt wells-some of the latter
turning cut 100000 bushels of salt per
annum in Kanawha county. Some of those
on the Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio rail-
road manufacture 100000 bushels annu-
ally at the present time of writing. With
increased facilities for transportation 1.-THE
present are inadequate), of course the
amount could and will be augmented. In
the little state of West Virginia alone the
extent Of her coal fields exceeds those of
Pennsylvania by one thousand square
miles!
The waters Of the New, Gawley, Elk
and Coal rivers diverging from the Great
Kanawha, and spreading their branches
over one Of the richest and most magnifi-
cent coal regions in the world, bring down
their inexhaustible wealth to one common
centre-the Great Kanawha. The Kama
wha region is still undeveloped, and the
prize long sought after by the dilatory Vir-
ginian is still to be won by enterprise and
capital. In no other portion of our coun-
try, north or south, are there more invit-
ing prospects to labor, enterprise and CAPT.
tai than is now presented in the coal field
Of the Great Kanawha Valley, and the iron
mines of Bath, Allegheny, Rockbridge and
Augusta counties. At one point-within
one mile of the track-there is solid vein
Of hematite iron ore with front thirty feet
in depth and extending for thirty miles.
There are also veins of fossil ores eighteen
inches thick IN two miles of the road.
The Goals of Kanawha Valley are better,
purer, and more available, the seams more
numerous, their thickness greater than any
other section Of the Allegheny coald.sfeld,
and can be mined cheaper under the same
rates of labor than any other portion of
the country.
The recent remarkable advance in the
prices of coal, iron, steel and allied manu.
factures, in the markets of Great Britain
and Continental Europe, is giving great
impulse to the rapid development of coal
mining and iron manufacture in this coun-
try, and especially on the line of the
Chesapeake and Ohio railroad. Coal and
pig iron have advanced in price in England
50 to $50 per cent. within the past few
years, owing to the demand being
greater than the supply. The limited coal
bearing territory Of England is being
probed and bored anew, and every
device tried to supply and satisfy the de-
mand for coal and iron, for be it known
John Bull is manufacturing gentleman,
and his very existence depends upon it.
The novel spectacle is now presented of
coal being imported from Holland and
Belgium to the north of England, while
iron ores have long been exported from
Sweden, Norway and Spain. to supply