268 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



were, to their roots, in a manner which the piety of the capitalist is 

 tempted to recognize as quite providential. 



The country between the ridges is a succession of hills and ravines. 

 At the bottom of the ravines flow the streams, some of which we have 

 mentioned, and which, flowing into the Potomac, drain the whole 

 region. Cropping out on the sides of these hills, and in successive 

 layers, from the bottom to the top, are found beds of coal, iron-ore, 

 sandstone, and limestone. The coal-beds are from two to seventeen 

 feet in thickness. In order to get at these mineral treasures, there is 

 no necessity of shafts sunk deep into the earth, nor will machinery 

 be required to pump water from the mines. The region is already 

 drained to hand. The coal and iron can be reached by lateral cuts into 

 the hill-sides. 



The coal-field extends through the whole length of the valley, and is, 

 therefore, about thirty-four miles long. Its average breadth is four 

 miles; it contains, therefore, about 140 square miles, or 90.000 acres. 

 The capacity of the basin has been variously estimated. One estimate 

 makes the yield of a portion of the field at fifty thousand tons the 

 acre, of available coals, lying above the bed of the Potomac. " The re- 

 sources of this region," says Mr. R. C. Taylor, in his Statistics of Coal, 

 "are demonstrated to be of a very productive character: surpassed, 

 probably, by none on the eastern margin of the Alleghany mountain 

 range." 



It is the peculiar character of the coal of the Cumberland region, 

 which gives it, at this juncture, its chief interest. At this juncture, we 

 say, for we seem to be approaching a turning-point in the history of 

 steam-power ; a stage when the inquiry as to the future supply of fuel, 

 vegetable and mineral, to supply the fires of the steam-furnace, which 

 burn higher every day, and the consideration of the comparative value 

 and capacity of the different varieties of coal, become matters of no 

 little moment. The value of a large and easily accessible supply 

 of semi-bituminous coal becomes evident from a few obvious consid- 

 erations. 



For all locomotive purposes, whether on land or water, the fuel that 

 is capable of generating the most steam, within the shortest time, at the 

 shortest notice, and at the same time occupies the least space in bulk, is 

 obviously the most desirable. Such is the distinguishing excellence of 

 the semi-bituminous coals. In England the We'sli coals are for this 

 reason called, by way of distinction, steam coals. The Cumberland and 

 Welsh semi-bituminous coals prove, upon analysis, very similar in the 

 proportions of carbon, and volatile or bituminous and gaseous matter. 

 Mr. Taylor, in his " Statistics," gives a classification and analysis of 

 some thousand varieties of coals, of the three great classes, bituminous, 

 semi-bituminous, and anthracite, into which they are divided. Of the 

 Welsh coals the average of five varieties is about 81 per cent, of carbon 

 to about 15.5 of bituminous matter. Of the Cumberland, specimens 

 from Savage River contained 77 per cent, of carbon to 16 of bituminous 

 matter, and 78 to 19; Maryland Company's 82.01 to 15; George's 

 Creek, 70.75 to 16.03; Stony River, 83.36 to 13.28; Abrarn's Creek, 

 72.40 to 15.20. 



