FROM NAZARETH TO CARLISLE 197 



discovered in the back-ground. To the left are the 

 Oley hills, a continuation of the Leheigh hills. In the 

 fore-ground, on the lowest of all the hills, by the 

 Schuylkill river, one is pleased to find a neat town, 

 (and not a small one), where only 36 years ago there 

 was mere wilderness for older Reading is not. The 

 town has four principal streets which stand exactly 

 with the compass-points, and where these cross is a 

 fine Court-house. The inhabitants are chieflv Ger- 



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mans, almost all of them in good circumstances. And 

 the farmers living around are all well clad and well 

 fed, few of them owning less than 200 acres of land. 



Mr. Daniel Udree's iron-works lie 10 miles from 

 Reading, in a narrow valley among the Oley hills. 

 The mine which supplies the ore is five miles beyond, 

 and has a depth of not more than 6-7 fathom. Re- 

 cently ore has been discovered still nearer, which in 

 several respects is better than the first, and in future 

 this will be used in mixture ; hitherto they have not 

 known how to apply the advantage to be gained from a 

 mixture of several ores. Nearly at the top of the hill 

 and immediately behind the high-furnace, a mine was 

 formerly worked which is rich in the best and most 

 compact ore. The rock of this hill is a coarse-grained 

 wacke, lying in thick beds running almost north and 

 south. The ore is found at a depth of only 12-20 ft. 

 below the surface mould and in places along the hill 

 even shallower. A gallery-stoll had been driven in the 

 hill, some 12 ft. high, 15 ft. broad, and about 300 ft. 

 long, and then a 60 ft. shaft was sunk, and a beautiful, 

 compact, quartz-ore, shimmering green and blue, was 

 taken out which was the richest and most easilv fluxed 



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of any ore in that whole region. But water broke in 



