Frostburg mining journal., 1880-08-07

1t had been driven on fitsen different
courses. There must have been a
cross-eyed gentleman that had charge
Of II, or else a son Of Noah's that
helped the old man TO navigate the
ark. The face Of this heading stands
under the steps Of the former residence
of Hugh Mcclure, near the Neff
farm, and near the bottom Of the old
Etna mine, which is filed up with
water. II is not The intention Of the
Superintendent 10 drive II any further
ahead. There has been a good track
laid into the face Of this heading for
the purpose Of taking out the pillars,
which are thick enough on the head
ing to allow a room to be driven up
through them. This is a double
heading with pillar Of seventy feet
between the tracks. The lower head
ing will be cleaned out, track laid
and rooms driven up through il also.
This body Of coal is equal in quality
to any in the coal field. Sixty.eight
feet further down is the south head
ing. The crosse eyed man must have had
his eyes bandagsd up altogether when
directing the course Of this heading, az
in distance of 1000 feet there are
thirty different courses. This head
log is standing open into the twenty
seventh room; it took a set from that
into near the face on account, il is
said, of fault that was in the head
ing. The face o. the heading is
through the fault and one room broke
off inside. There is a track being
laid down in this heading up towards
where it took the set for the purpose
of taking out the pillars. The inten-
tion is to drive up through them,
The heading being double a new
heading is being driven from the low
er one for thepurpose ofgetting around
the set, and then it will be pushed
rapidly forward to meet a double
heading coming from the Hoffman
Slope. The distance is 5000 feet.
Then the old navigator's sons work
will be Strengthened out, as the coal
from the Hoffman Slope will be
brought to the Eckhart Slope by the
use of steam power, This will be ac-
complished early next spring.
Three hundred feet further down
the slope ! found switch laid into
the north side for the purpose Of driv.
ing heading in that direction. This
will penetrate through the Sheet farm
lying between Eckhart and the old
Allegany mine. Tt will be below the
bottom of the old Etna mine and
clear of all danger from water in that
direction.
A little further down the slope I
found the tail of the water, nearly
three hundred feet from the bottom,
where the lower south heading is
located. This water cannot be
drained off for some time to come,
but it will eventually pass away.
Inthe meantime new south heading
will be broke off at the tail of the
water and driven upon course clear
of the element, striking through
the rooms Of the lower south heading,
with the expectation of striking the
heading road at distance of 700 feet.
This will give the same lift of coal
that would have been gotten if the
water had all been drained off. There
are sixteen double rooms in this
lower south heading, and there can be
no doubt but the face of it is clear Of
water. This heading will take a por-
tion of the Graham property; the
whole of the Vale Farm property,
(about three -fourths of which is yet
to be mined.) 1t will take also about
three-fourths of the Winters property
that remains to be mined, except a
small portion at the lower end. Also
the Ross property.
When this is all mined out there is
not an opening now on our big vein
that will not be recorded in the his
tory of our coal trade as a thing of
the past. This opening, being one of
the first in our coal field, will fulfil
the Scripture where it says "the first
shall be last and the last first" With
the New Hope opening below this,
the whole of that vast body of coal
lying on the east side of the basin
can oe mined and shipped from points
which defy all competition.
timed a trip of empty cars let
down by the use of a break and found
it took only two minutes. 1 timed
also trip Of fifteen loaded cars COM
ing up, the time bsing four minutes
and twenty-eight seconds. The Su-
perintendent puts the capacity at
1900 tons per ten hours. But taking
all accidents and stoppages that arise
about coal mine into consideration,