Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1891-03-10
MISCELLANEOUS.
Our Mineral Resources.


quet at Charleston, Maj. Jed. Hotch-
kiss (than whom there is probably
no better authority on geological
matters pertaining to Virginia and
West yirginia) said:
In the little Mountain State of
West Virginia are seventeen of the
great geological formations of the
world. No other State in the Union
las such an extent of mineral wealth
as the territory that once composed
the State of Virginia. have only
time to mention too or three of
the minerals. There is one thing to
which wish to call your attention.
The nations that rule the earth are
those thai have iron and coal. They
are not the, nations that have gold in
ttheir hills; they are not the nations
that have silver; they are not to any
extent the nations that have copper;
but they are the nations that have
bunbounded stores of. iron and coal.
They are the worlds kings and it is
they that make and unmake tho
world s kings. The nations that nave
iron and coal can defy the world in
all that pertains to wealth and growth
and lofty position. They are the en-
pires Of all peoples.
Referring to a large map Of the
/ tViFginias, he traced the dividing line
hetmeen the States and compared it
Ito the line ina mans skull. scarcely
a dividing line at all. But where
/ Virginia has thousand miles of coal
West Virginia has sixteen thousand.
They lie along the shores of that an
cient sea which rolled from the Blue
Ridge to the Rockies, and which the
/ Great Maker filled in his wisdom with
| the material to make one ,swampy
forest which made these beds of coal.
| The rocks of this sea were by d
mighty force pressed westward, and
it is on the western side that the
openings give forth the greatest
| wealth. There is no other land in
4 the world so rich in stores of iron as
the western side OF the Blue Ridge.
From Canada to Alabama there is al
most q continuous deposit of iron
ore. The time was when Virginia
was the leading State IN the Union in
iron manufacture. They used char
coal then in its manufacture, but it
was stopped The country has been
filled with vast, amount of i'm
| ported nonsense on the subject of
timber. Ours is a land of perennial
rains, says the distinguished Henry
A. Wise, OF Virginia. Our noun
tains rise till they meet the heavens
and spread, the land with the fatness
thereof and iclothe it with vegetation,
Forests cover our mountains from
base to summit and will do so as long
as we keep down forest fires and pre-
vent the cattle from browsing on
them. This is a land of perennial
rains and1it is. alsota land of peren-
NAL forests. Each generation may
have a new forest if it will. The
Blue Ridge, is now covered with a
new forest, and the day is not far dis
tant when iron will again be made with
charcoal, for these forests may be
cut every sixteen years and make
good cord wood every time.
This mountain range for 1,500
miles, from the st. Lawrence to Ala
bama, is the, backbone of fertility,
lands without any peer that the sun
ever shone. upon, the Valley OF the
| Virginia, the Shenandoah, and others.
The Shenandoah Valley alone raises
annually enough to feed three mil
| lion people, aud has only two hun
dred thousand.
Here the geological formations are
each filed with its own kind of iron
ore. -Four lines of iron ore extend
up to the very border of the coal
field iron ores. some of them the
richest known. Some of them run
up 20 81 per cent. of pure iron and
have never been touched save by the
hammer of the geologIst, who has
penetrated the forests 100 miles from
any railroad to find them. An alI-
wise Providence has placed in close
proximity to these ores the limestone
necessary for their manufacture. and
! valleys of sufficient fertility to sup
ply all the population necessary for
the development. This is a land of
fertility, a land of national wealth, a
land with an aIl-the-year-round eli
mate. There are few days in the
\ year when men. cannot work out of
doors. Many of DER houses are
/ built without windows, for the rea-
! son that it is pleasanter TO have the
doors open than to have windows.
Many men for haIt a life time ruffsr uatoId q