GEOLOGY. SOI 



REVENUE OF COAL ESTATES. 



Comparatively few have an adequate conception of the magnitude and real 

 value of the coal estates of the three great anthracite regions. In Schuyl- 

 kill county, where operations have been carried on more extensively, and 

 for a longer period than elsewhere, the revenue derived is truly astonishing. 

 From a single tract of 200 acres, in that county, the income, since 1836, we 

 have been informed, has averaged $18,000 per annum. This is but one of 

 many cases that have come to our knowledge. There are, indeed, other estates 

 that yield even more abundantly. In the Luzerne region, the profits that attend 

 mining operations are equally remarkable. The Baltimore Company, located 

 two miles from Wilkesbarre, cleared in 1853, $60,000. Their investments in 

 lands and machinery have been but $130,000 which, therefore, is returned 

 to the stockholders every two or three years. The Pennsylvania Coal Com- 

 pany, in the same region, though laboring under great disadvantages in the 

 shipment of coal, netted the same year, $330,000. The coal department of 

 the Scranton Company, also, during the same tune, cleared a profit of $76,000 

 upon but 100,000 tons mined, although most of their large expenditures for 

 development were increased during this period. 



Waste of Coal. Mr. Holmes, in his Treatise on Coal Mines, states the waste 

 of small coal at the pit's mouth to be one fourth of the whole. The waste in 

 the mines is computed to be one third. Mining Journal. 



ASCENT AND MEASUREMENT OF MOUNT HOOD. 



The California papers give an account of the ascent of one of the Oregon 

 Peaks, known as Mount Hood, which has been ascertained by measurement 

 to be 18,361 feet. This is the highest peak on the North American continent, 

 and one of the highest in the world. The mountain was ascertained to be 

 volcanic, smoke being seen to issue from the summit. The peak of Mount 

 Hood is thus described: 



" "We found the top similar to that of Mount Helen extremely narrow, 

 laying in a crescent shape. Mount St. Helen's facing the northwest by a 

 crescent, while Mount Hood's faces the southwest. The sharp ridge on top 

 runs from the southwest to the north, making a sharp turn to the west at the 

 north end. The main ridge is formed of decomposed volcanic substances, of a 

 light reddish color, with cones from twenty to fifty feet high at intervals of a 

 few rods. These cones or rocks are full of cracks or fissures, as if they had 

 been rent by some convulsion of nature at a remote period. Between these 

 cones there are numerous holes, varying from the size of a common water 

 bucket down to two or three inches in diameter. Through these breathing 

 holes as we shall call them and through the crevices in the rocks there is 

 constantly escaping hot smoke or gas of a strong sulphuric odor. In passing 

 over the ridge for near hah" a mile we discovered a large number of these 

 breathing holes ; through some the heat was more intense than in others. 



" We did not carry up a thermometer; therefore, we could not get the ex- 



