Iron County register., 1885-06-04

and modern Newcastle come in piquan,
contrast, hard by the elliptic railway
arch. ST. Nicholas fiying-but.
tressed steeple is anonymously grated
on the arch, and the bulging old houses
| of the side and sand-hill look like jolly
old burghers lounging in dingy shirt
| sleeves, with modern dudes superciI-
| iously scrutinizing through their eye
glasses, in juxtaposition with the prim-
| plate-glassed piles of offices, the expan-
sion of the towns trade has caused to
be their neighbors.
| Coal lies at the bottom of the wealth
| of Newcastle. though, as we shall
presently see. man has done much to
make the mouth of the Tyne what it is.
! For miles both banks are lined with
| shipyards. with smoky factories, and
most excellent docks. Here is pic
ture of a trip say from Blaydon to
| North and South Shields. The popula-
ton along the river from these points,
! including Newcastle and Gateshead,
must number half million. A tumble
of smoke-dried brick and stone works,
of new brick works, fast blackening. OF
| huge sheds, of colliery staiths. rafting
black avalanches of coal down hinged
shoots, or dropping coal trucks from
giddy heights through traps. rises
| above the shipping on either hand.
| Cranes swing, yellow water cascades
into the river, tire-glowing steam
| engines send out angry white puffs,
chimney stacks pour out black
coils, machinery clanks, tools rattle
| with a ceaseless savage energy. There
are foundries, fort-like blast-furnaces,
torrid pudding forges, whirring, rat
Ting rolling-mills, chain and anchor
works. lead works, copper works.
plump-coned glass works, potteries,
chemical works, fetid manure works,
grindstone wharves, saw-mi1ls. oil
mills, cement works, Bessemer steel
plants, brick works. coke ovens, patent
slips, iron and wooden ship-building
yards, graving-docks. timber docks,
and docks crammed with shipping OF
every flag. for the Tyne stands second
only in Importance as port to the
Mersey.
'.But what we are chiefly concerned
to see,' says Escott. lin this coal
blackened antique Northumbran cap
ital, with its immemorial past and 1T:
infinite future, its old buildings, ven.
cradle churches, hoary traditions, its
inventions, improvements and de-
vices of yesterday, its busy plot
tlngs and cunning contrivances fol
tomorrow, is the influence exer
cised by science upon the course of the
river" The Tyne is no longer the
stream which nature made it. Its bed
is deeper, its channel changed. Head
lands and promontories have been re-
moved, and millions of tons of soil
have been uplifted from its depths in
order that ships of heavy burden may
float up to the walls of the town. The
width of the river has been increased
from $50 to 800 feet. A po Mt seventy
five feet above highwater. which pre-
vented those in charge of vessels from
seeing vessels approaching on the inner
side, has been cut away. The docks
have been enlarged, and a new one
with an inclosed water space of nearly
one hundred acres, surrounded by 3d.
$50 lineal feet of deep-water quays.
has been built. In consequence OF
these improvements, in twenty years
the average tonnage of vessels has
risen from 149 tons to more than 500.
Cor. San Francisco Chronicle.