The evening herald. [volume] (Shenandoah, Pa.) 1891-1966, 1892-03-30

president Of the Lehigh Goal and Naviga.
tion Company, and has attracted wide
spread attention. The HERALD readers
will read it with interest The subject has
been so fully considered the paper cannot
be published in its entirety.
The greatest known deposit of anthracite
coal is that of eastern Pennsylvania, in
which locality it occurs over region con-
tanning about l,7C0 lquare miles, though
the area which is actually underlaid with
workable beds does not exceed 483 square
miles. It's chief geological divisions are
known as the Wyoming, the Lehigh and
the Schuylkill regions, and the Goals these
districts produce are similarly designated.
They diff somewha. in their chemical and
mechanical peculiarities, though in many
instances their chief distinction is that they
reach their market by certain transportation
routes, for it has often occurred that the
coal produced at certain colliery was
classed as Lehigh coal if it were carried
over either of the Lehigh roads, and was
cal ed Schuylkill coal II carried over the
Reading r. h.
1t may, however, be said that in general
in the Wyoming region the coal beds are
more nearly horizontal, are geologicslly
less disturbed, and, the gaseous ingredients
not having been so thoroughly driven Off
the Goals are more free-burning than those
of the other districts. The latter eharac.
teristic makes their smeiler Goals, which
are used largely for the production Of
steam, more desirable than the same sizes
of the harder Goals, as they are more easily
ignted and more quickly responsive to in
creased draft when the fire burns low and
needs to be quickened to greater activity.
The process of coal formation seems also to
have gone on in this region with less in
terruption from the interealstion of beds ol
other material forming slstes, SO that the
coal is much more rapidly prepared for
market, and to that extent is more eheaply
produced than that of the other regions
The Lehigh region is characterized by
Goals of denser structure with little volatile
matter so that they do not readily ignite
They last we'll in the fire, and are therefore
specially in demand for metallurgical pur.
poses requiring high and continuous heat
but the small Goals are difficult to burr
steadily and respond slowly to forced
draft so that while they produce great heat
they are not fsvorites with fremen, beinl
troublesome in comparison with Wyoming
Goals.
During the period of coal formation tn,
Schuylkill region was subject to interrup
tions of the plant growth, and to tn
deposit of strata of slate and other i'm
purities between the beds of coal. Wher
these are intercalated and interstratifeC
with the subdivisions of the coal beds anC
cannot be separat d from the coal befor,
they are taken from tho mine, it follow
that much refuse must be hoisted to th'
surface and afterward laooriously picked
out from the coal, which processes con.
siderably increase the cost OF producing
coal 10 this region.
TheIdividing line between the Lohigh
and the Schuykill regions has been var
iously drawn, and the estimates of the
areas of the two regions are therefore
somewhat disorepant. There are also diff,
fcring estimates of the average aggregate
thickness of the coal beds in the three
regions, but one of the most careful esti-
mates is as follows;
Per cent. OF tota