The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-07-02

The following article from the FL
nancial Times, London, will give our
readers some idea as to the extent
coal fields:
THE PoCAHONTAS FLAT TOP COAL
FIELD.
Some sensation has been caused in ship
ping circles by the fine records made by one
or two of the crack White Star liners while
burning Pocahontas coal. Fired by the ex-
ample of the White Star, the Cunard COM
pany is now giving the fuel a trial and
other Atlantic liners are not unlikely to fol-
low suit. Owing to this threatened new de-
parture considerable public attention has
been attracted to the curiously named Poca-
hontas Flat Top Coal region in Southwest
Virginia, where the coal that has given such
good results as "a steam generator is mined.
Even without this sextraneous interest, the
Pocahontas region is well worth a descrip-
ton, afording, as it does, one of the most
astonishing examples of American progress
in recent years.
1t is not too much to say that the Poca-
hontas coal mines,4 as far as their COM
mercial utility is concerned, are the creation
of the Norfolk & Western railroad, an
organization to which Southwest Virginia
owes heavy debt of gratitude. The great
coal beds in which they are situated stretch
through many counties of the state, and in
clude two other districts the Bluestone and
the Elkhorn, besides that or Pocahontas,
though the name of the Indian heroine is
applied generally to the whole Of the So
called Flat Top" field. The total extent
is about 300 square miles. So great is the
productive capacity of that region that Mr..
McCreath, of the Pennsylvania geological
survey estimates that an output of IL, 600
tons a day would only exhaust one acre
daily. We are accustomed to hear OF rapid
development in the Central and Western
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 more par
ticularly in the coal mining regions of that
state.
Ten years ago the district where the town
of Pocahontas now stands was little better
than a 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, a
score of adventurous miners began to work
the coal in an amateurish kind of way,
and their operations gradually extended dur
ing the next few years. But it was not
until 1886 when branch road of 1.-The Nor
folk & Western tapped the north side of
the Flat Top field, that the real development
began. What that development has been
may be judged from the fact that the
output for this year at 100000 gross tons.
1t is not surprising therefore to learn that
land which went begging early In the ~ $
at rs or Is cents per acre, and could be got
even in 1895 at from 81 to 50, is now worth
from $50 to $75 acre.
AS a steam generator Pocahontas coal has
now attained for itself frst-class rank.
Its qualities have for some time been recog-
who use 1t in the trial trips of their cruis-
ers. The mineral is extracted from the
lower coal measures and is semi-bitumin-
Gus, containing about IL, per cent OF VOLATILE
matter and 7414 per cent of pure carbon.
AS we have said the English shipping COM
panies are at last beginning to find out its
merits and the production Large as 1t rs Is,
near future. Besides the enormous snip
ment of coal. as much as 25O,00O tons OF
coke have been manufactured from 1t in the
first half Of the present year. The 1mpor-
lance of these magnificent coal beds as a
factor in the in1uctrial progress of Virginia
can hardly be over estimated, while their
development will add greatly to the pros
perity of the Norfolk & Western, COM
pany which has been mainly instrumental
in bringing all this hidden wealth to light.
The record made by Pocahontas coal is
unique in the history of the coal trade. The
mines were not sopened until 1888. and with
in ten years it has passed all its competi-
tors and established its reputation as the
undoubtedly the best known COAL not only
in America, but in Great Britain and
throughout the continent of Europe, and
during the brief period its tonnage has
increased with marvellous rapidity.
But the purpose Of this article is to
advise the public as to how the smoke
nuisance may be abated without in
curing additional expense, and in do
ing so we,
LIST. Quote from Prof. McCreath,
the eminent geologist of Pennsylvania,
as follows:
For steam purposes the Pocahontas coal
cannot be excelled, as recommendations from
those, who have used it upon locomotives,
steamboats,, and in factories and mills, show
it to be unusually free from smoke and
leaves but little ash. 1t does not clog or
choke the fues of the boilers, or of the
chimneys, as nearly all the coal is consumed
in making an intense fire, thus generating
more steam and doing more work per pound
If coal than any other kind
End. We submit the following analysis OF
Pocahontas coal: