the United States of America, 90^ 



The search for coal in this direction has, however, been re- 

 tarded, in consequence of an erroneous impression that has been 

 given of the character of the rock at the Little Falls. In the 

 published geological survey of the New York canal, it has been 

 classed as a primitive rock, while it is, in fact, a coarse-grained 

 sandstone, retaining, indeed, the crystalline character of its 

 parts in an uncommon degree, but readily distinguished, by 

 the looseness of its aggregation, from the family of gneiss. It 

 is probably similar to the sandstone used in many of the edi- 

 fices of Thebes in Egypt, which was long mistaken for gra- 

 nite, although more close examination has shown that the 

 latter material is only used in a few vast monoliths, and never 

 as the material of buildings. As we have been led, in order 

 to render the objects of several canals obvious, to mention this 

 coal formation, it may not be irrelevant to state, that in the 

 state of Pennsylvania there are other extensive coal fields ; one 

 of these has been lately discovered near the Tioga branch of the 

 Susquehannah river ; another has long been worked in the vici- 

 nity of Pittsburgh, at the confluence of the Allegany and Mo- 

 nongahela ; both of these are bituminous in their characters. 

 Coal of the same species abounds in many places on the banks 

 of the Ohio river, in the states of Ohio and Kentucky. j^ 



As cultivation increases, and the wood is more frequently 

 cut, not only does the space occupied by growing timber de- 

 crease in the Atlantic States, but the power of reproduction 

 appears to diminish ; the demand at the same time becomes 

 greater, in consequence of the greater number of persons to be 

 supplied, and the extension of manufacturing industry. Hence, 

 in the great cities of the sea coast of the United States, fuel has 

 for many years borne a price far greater in proportion than 

 any other necessary of life. With the exception of a small dis- 

 trict in Virginia, and beds of anthracite of very inferior quality 

 in Rhode Island, and at Worcester in Massachusets, no coal 

 has been found to the eastward of the first or primitive range 

 of mountains. Hence a cheap and abundant supply of coal 

 may be considered as almost essential to the continuance of 

 the prosperity that has hitherto attended the progress of that 

 portion of the American Union. The discovery of the great 

 field of anthracite coal in Pennsylvania has hence been consi- 



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