The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1878-08-29
Pennsylvania & Erie Railway.
[CONTINUED.J

From Falls Creek route has been ex-
amined following the Sandy in
southeasterly direction to the summit
between the Sandy and Anderson
Greek, and thence down Anderson
Creek to Curwensville, making the
distance from Carrollton to Curwens-
vile 10 miles, and from Buffalo to
Curwensville 17S miles. AT Curwens-
vile the line connects with the Tyrone
and Clearfield railroad, by which road
it is "A miles to Tyrone on the Penn
sylvania railroad. The distance from
| Buffalo to Tyrone would be by this
route 222 miles. The distance between
the same points by way of the Buffalo
New York and Philadelphia railroad,
the Philadelphia and Erie railroad and
the Bald Eagle Valley railroad, is as
follows: Buffalo to Emporium, 121
miles Emporium to Lock Haven, IA
miles; Lock Haven to Tyrone, SIS
miles, or, in all, 25O miles, difference
of % miles in favor of the Pennsylva-
MIA and Erie railway. Curwensville is
placed in the second coal basin, which
runs parallel with the other bitumin-
Gus basins of this region. The natural
outlet for the coal of this basin, and
also for the first basin, is to the east.
from which it may be inferred that
this road, even if built to Curwens-
vile, would carry little or no coal
north from that region. The deposits
of bituminous coal which this road
crosses, and which lie to the west and
south of it, have been compared to the
human hand-the solid continuous
portion to the southwest forming the
palm; while, as we go toward the
northeast the strata rise and partly
disappear, leaving what remains in the
shape of long strips, or Basins"
represented by the fingers of the hand.
Still further toward the northeast, the
strata still rising, one coal vein after
another disappears until finally near
the line of New York even the lowest
workable ones are no longer found.
These basins are curved and nearly
parallel, and have been numbered
from the east toward the west, the east
ernmost one being called the First
Basin. The Philipsburg, Snow Shoe
and Farrandsville coal fields are in
this basin. Curwensville' Clearfield
and Karthaus are in the second basin.
The dividing line between the second
and third basins would cross the pro-
posed line of this road probably on
Warrant No. POOP. Reynoldsville,
Falls Creek, Dubois aud nearly the
entire length of Benefits Branch. of
the Sinnemahoning are in the third
basin. The dividing line between the
third and fourth basins is crossed by
the line of the railroad OH the ridge
between the Rattlesnake and Falls
Creek. st. Mary's, Centerville and
the entire valley of the Little Toby
down as far as Galusha's and most all
of ifs tributaries are III the fourth
BASIN. The dividing line between the
fourth and the fifth basins crosses the
Little Toby and the line of the rail.
way between Galusha's and Blue
Rock, crosses the Shawmut railroad in
Warrant No. 1892; crosses Elk Creek
and the Philadelphia and Erie railroad
near the mouth of Mohan Run, and
continues northeasterly, passing nearly
midway between st. Mary's and John
sonburg. The coal fields about Port
land, Johnsonburg and New Flanders
are in the fifth basin. The dividing
line between the fifth and sixth basins
is not as well defined as the divisions
east of it; it crosses the Philadelphia
and Erie railroad, the Clarion river
and the line Of this railway not far
from Wilcox, thus leaving all the re-
naming coal fields to the north of this
point, along the line of the railway, in
the sixth basin. The divisions be-
tween the various basins have been
treated as "lines," but in reality the
separations are in some localities so
wide that there are large tracts of land
lying between the basins, in which no
coal is found The important streams
run sometimes lengthwise and some
times across the basins in deep, and, in
some instances, quite wide valleys,
from which the coal has nearly, or
quite all, disappeared 1t, therefore, be-
comes necessary, when estimating the
quantity of coal in q certain district,
to make very liberal deductions from
the entire area in order to allow for
these valleys and separations. The
hills and ridges, in some instances
only few feet wide on top, widen out
as we go down toward the streams;
consequently, the first vein of coal
which we meet in going down will be
considerably less in extent than the
vein which lies below it and the
second one, in turn, will spread over a
smaller area than the next one below
it and so on down to the lowest which
will be the largest in area of all. If,
by any process, the tops Of these hills
were worn away, of course the upper
most strata and veins of coal would
disappear first, leaving only the lower
veins in the hill. From all of which
it will readily be seen that, in the alb.
sence of actual measurements, there is
ample room for a diversity of opinion
as to the amount of coal that may be
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