The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1891-12-02
PooAnoNrAs COAL.

IHe trouucC VI the ciat Top Region the
Great Steamship Fuel.
From the London Financial Times.
Some sensation has bcen caused in
shipping circles by tho fine record
made by one or two of tho crack White
Star Liners while burning Pocahontas
coal. Fired by the example of the
White Star, tho Cunard Company is now
giving tho fuel a trial and other Atlantic
lines are likely to follow suit. Owing
to this threatened new departure con.
siderable attention has boon attracted
to the curiously named Pocahontas Flat
Top Coal Region in Southwest Virginia,
where the coal that has given such
good results as n steam generator is
mined. Even without this extraneous
interest, the Pocahontas region is we'll
worth description, aifordipg, as it
does, one of the most astonishing ex-
amples of American progress in recent
years.
1t is not too much to say that the
Pocahontas coal mines, as far as their
commercial utility is concerned, are the
creation Of the Norfolk and Western
railroad, an organization to which
Southwest Virginia owes heavy debt
of gratitude. Tho great coal beds in
which they are situated stretch through
many counties Of the state, and include
two other districts, the Bluestone and
the Elkhorn, besides that of Pocahontas,
though the namo of the Indian heroine
is applied generally to tho whole of tho
so-called Flat Top field. Tho total
extent is about 800 square miles. So
great is the productive capacity of the
region that Mr.. McCreath, of the Penn
vlu NJ IN,
that an outputof 10, 600 tons day would
only exhaust one acre daily.
We are accustomed to hear, of rapid
development in the Central and West
ern States of America, but the South,
which for some time hung behind in the
race, now bids fair to Guido the record
for industrial progress. In no part has
the advance been more rapid than in
Virginia, and moro particularly in the
coal mining regions of that State.
Ten years ago the district where the
town Of Pocahontas now stands was lit
tie better than desert covered in part
with dense underground, and inhabited
chiefly by bears and other wild animals,
which take very little interest in coal
measures.
In 1881 n score of adventurous miners
began to work tho coal in an amateurish
kind of way, and their operations
gradually extended during the next few
years. But it was not until 1885, when
n branch road of the Norfolk and Wes-
tern tapped tho north side of the Flat
field that tho real development began.
What that development has been may be
Judged from tho fact that the Pocahon-
tas Coal Company estimate their output
for the year at 2, 300, 900 gross tons. 1t
is not surprising, therefore, to learn
that land which went begging early in
the eighties at 25 or Is cents per acre,
and could be got even in 1855 at from
one to three dollars, is now worth from
thirty TO seventy-fve dollars an acre.
AS steam generator, Pocahontas
coal has now attained for itself first
class rank. Its qualities have for some
time been recognized by the United
States Government, who use 1T in the
trial trips Of their cruisers. Tho min
.eral is extracted from the lower coal
measures and is semibituminous, con-
tanning about Is per cent. of volatile
matter and TAX per cent. OF pure car
bon. AS we have said, the English
shipping companies are at last begin
ming to find out it's merits, and the pro-
duction, large as it is, will probably be
greatly extended in the near future.
Besides the enormous shipment of
coal, as much as 100000 tons of coke
have been manufactured from it in the
first half Of the present year. The i'm
portance of these magnificent coal-beds
as factor in the industrial progress Of
Virginia can hardly be over-estimated,
while their development will add
greatly to the prosperity Of the Nor
folk and Western, a company which
has been mainly instrumental in bring
ing all this hidden wealth to light.
SPARTACUs at the Opera House to-
night. He is favored personally for the
part, nature having given him the
splendid physique and powerful voice
which are physical necessities to the
PRESERVATION.