The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1873-05-01
Tho Richmond Coal Fields.

citizens of Richmond and Manchester, to
the Union Coal Mines in the county of
Chesterfield, where they viewed the works
of Mr.. Ro. Marks, and partook of his
generous Inequalities. A special train
left this city by the Danville railroad at ten
O'Clock in the morning, and reached the
mines about an hour afterwards. These
mines lie on the eastern dip of the Rich
mond coal-felds, which are traversed
diagonally by the Danville road for a dis
lance of some twenty miles or more, and
the coal here, especially that fine
available bed Of it controlled by Mr..
Marks, is of most excellent quality,
rich in bitumen, and essentially unmixed
with impurities. These mines were for
merly worked by the Old Union Pit Com
pany, which sunk some of the existing
Shafts, struck out many OF the drifts in
substantial but rather primitive manner,
extending the same in lateral and cross
sections from one shaft to another, so as to
secure good ventilation the chief obstacle
encountered being that of water, which
is now lifted by powerful steam-pump.
raising between three and four hundred
gallons minute.
These Richmond, or tide-water, coal
fields cross the James river about twelve
miles west of the city and extend in north
and-south direction from point some
twelve miles north of the James to point
about equally distant on the south of the
Appomattox river, and cover an area of
something over one hundred and fifty
square miles. Within this area there are
most extensive deposits ofexcellent bitumin-
Gus coal and natural coke, which rest upon
an irregular surface of fne-grained granite,
resembling somewhat marble or sienite in
its appearance, and afording a most
excellent building material. Indeed,
the granite of Richmond is equally
as beautiful as its coal is fine, and as
remarkable for the irregularities of its
iloor-beds, or cone-lke peaks and basins,
as for its coal deposits and the sedimenta-
ry strata that lie above them. The expe-
rience of capitalists in this field of enter
prise has not been such in the past as
greatly to encourage the energetic men
who have recently taken hold to develop
these mines. AS for instance, the mine:
of the Old Union Pit Company have been
practically abandoned for the last fifty OF
sixty years, and have been worked with
but little advantage or profit for the last
seventy years while other mines in the
vicinity, like the celebrated Black
Heath, have been considered as
worked out or SO full of "troubles'i
Ito use an old miners phrase) as to be
practically useless in the way of further
development. And yet Messrs. Bryant &
Harsin two northern gentlemen are TAX
ing out of this last named mine, and that
of Sallie's Hill, not less than one hundred
tons Of splendid coal day !; while Mr.
Marks (by birth a Scotchman) has enough
machinery already put up and in process
of completion to supply the city of Rich
mond with all the coal it can consume in
the next hundred years. To satisfy yourself
that he knows what he is about in making
this large expenditure at the old abandoned
pits he is now developing and working,
you have only to look at the head he wears
on his shoulders, witness the enthusiasm
with which he enters into his work, see the
beautiful coal he is lifting from half a
dozen new and reclaimed shafts, and 60 be-
low with him into the very bowels of
"black Tartarus," from whose depths, or
those of Erebus and Old Night, he makes
a river run up two-hundred feet spout
and empty itself into the tide-waters Of
our city. By this magician's feat he
has reclaimed a deposit of coal which
it is safe to say is not less than seventy feet
thick, and which, though considered
to have been worked out, never in fact
began to be developed by the old English
company which so long ago abandoned it,.
The secret of his success is to be found
in his knowledge of scientific and practical
mining, so that the wealth to the state, and
to the city of Richmond, comprised in this
mine, lies in the man rather than in the
magnificent deposit of coal which he is
bringing to the surface with the skill of a
Watt, a Stephenson, and Wood, all
put together. 1t is by the application
of science and the high intelli-
gence he brings to the experimental
Or practical part of mining, that ensures
success where individual effort, however
strenuously directed. can only result in
failure. In fact, the success of mining in
these deserted fields is entirely dependent,
except in particular localities, upon the
scientific skill with which it is directed.
The labor required to secure economical
results in mining is simply enormous
when considered as a dead OUTLAY on the
start. Besides buildings, machinery,
tramways, sharting, etc., mines are
only successfully opened by other large
expenditures, such as scientific engineers,
practically educated, only know how TO
meet and overcome. A thorough system
of ventilation and drainage is to be Sc
cured, according to the depth of the shafts
sunk and the extent and character of the
watersheds to be encountered; in all of