The Big Stone post. (Big Stone Gap, Va.) 1890-1892, 1890-10-31
OUR MINERALS.
Rrof. n. s. Smaller. Professor Of Physical
Sciences at Harvard University
Writes an Interesting Ar
ticle on the Subject.
PETROLEUM AND NATURAL GAS
tFrom Scribner's Magazine.)

| abundance of mineral wealth, the search
for which has but begun. Gold, iron, cop
per, zinc, and various other substances of
economic Importance abound in the up
land portion of this area, while the low
land parts have as yet afforded but small
supplies of such materials, phosphates
being the only geologic element of any
Importance. 1t is evident, therefore, that
the plain land region of this district is to
develop purely agricultural industries,
while the upland section, by its admirable
combination of soil, noble forests and
mineral resources, is to have more varied
industries, and therefore more diversi-
| fed life.
Although within the above mentioned
States the resources of fossil fuel are lin
tied, we find, Immediately on the west Of
the district, and everywhere convenient to
| it, the vast coal measures of Tennessee,
Kentucky, and West Virginia fields, which
afford bituminous Goals quite equal to
those which have been the foundations of
the commercial industries Of Great Brit
ain. Thus, this region of Southern up
lands has in its SOIL its forests, and its
mineral resources, a combination Of ad-
vantages perhaps greater than those of
any other equal area in the world. In
addition to these favorng conditions the
region possesses an admirable climate.
In winter the temperature falls low enough
to insure the preservation of bodily vigor;
in summer the heat is less ardent than
in the lowcr-lying regions of the New
England and New York group of States.
In the Virginia section we find climate
resembling in its range OF temperatures
those which characterize the most favored
regions of the Old World, and it is there
perhaps we may look for the preservation
of our races best characteristics.
As the geological strata of tho Ohio
Valley vary greatly in their mineral con-
stitution, the soils derived from them are
naturally divided into a good many classes.
Thus we have in Kentucky and Tennessee
a wide range of Silurian limestone, which
bv their decay affords soils of eXtraordi-
nary fertility, those which give character
to the wcll-known bluegrass district. 1t
is worth while to note in passing that this
singular richness of the earth is due to
the fact that in these limestoneS there are
certain thin layers composed almost alto
gethcr of the remains of minute creatures
which had the popularity of taking lime
phosphate from the sea and building it at
their death in the pcposts formed on the
old sea-hoors. When elevated into land
and subjected to the process of decay,
these rocks afford, under the action of the
atmosphere, soils of great fertility; so We
see that the frutfulness of our fields may
depeud upon the nature of organic beings
in the rcmotest past.
Throughout the Ohio Valley, except
along the margins of the streams where
the soil has been brought to its resting
place by flood waters, we find everywhere
sharp contrasts in the fertility of the soil.
Already. although the history Of the
country extends back for but Il century,
we perceive very clearly that these natu-
raj differences have been of great impor-
lance in differcntating the people. There
is no greater contrast in any country be-
tween neighboring people of the same
blood than that which exists between the
sO-callcd mountaineers of eastern Ken
lucky, who occupy the soil of sandy car
bonifcrOus beds, and those who dwell in
the rich grass country of the central dis
trict of the commonwealth. The fertile
soil of the limestone region has given
abundant wealth to the inhabitants Of
that region; wealth has brought culture
and all the circumstances of high civil
ization. The sandy soil giving little to
tillage, the people have remained poor;
their contracts with the world have
been slight, and they yet abide by their
customs and intellectual development in
the conditions OF the eighteenth century
1t is worth while to go one step
further and to note the effect of these
dvcrsties induced By differences of SOIL
When, in 1861, it was to be determined
whether Kentucky should go with the
South or North, the question turned in
the main on the occupations Of the pop
ulation. Where the soils were rich the
plantation system was possible, the slave
element was large, and in general the
voice of the people was for union with
the South. Where the soils were thin
the people had no interest in slavery, for
they owned no negroes. Old frictions
with the slave-holdng portions of the
State existed. and consequently the peo-
pie of this sterile land were generally de-
voted to the Union. A soil map of Ken
lucky would in Il rude way serve as chart
of the politics of the people in this crisis
in the nations history. If Kentucky
possessed soil altogether derived from
| limestone, there is no question but that
it would have cast in its lot with the
| South.
The mineral resources of the Ohio VAL
ley have somewhat singular distribution.
From western Alabama around to the
headwaters of the Ohio in Pennsylvania,
we have continuous belt Of country
Astounding in coal and iron. Nowhere in
the world, so far as it has been explored,
is there any region of equal extent where
these two substances, both of the first i'm
portance to man, each requiring the other
for its most important uses, are grOgraph-
ically so united. In the western part or
the Ohio VALLEY, and separated from this
eastern and southern section by wide in
terva of fertile lands, lies the western
coal fields, extending from central Ken
lucky to central Indiana and Illinois.
Taken as whole, the area OF the Ohio
Valley has more perfect association OF
fuel and iron resources together with
those which are afforded by u fertile soil
than any other part of the world.
In addition to the supply Of energy con-
tanned in the coal beds tributary to this
district there are two other sources OF
power accessible to the inhabitants ofthis
vallev-pctrolcum and natural gas. The
deposits of petroleum appear to be in the
main limited to a field occupying a pOr-
ton of western Pennsylvania, western
Virginia, and eastern Ohio, and to another
smaller and less important district OH thu
waters of the Cumberland River near tn,
point where it crosses the division be