468 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



large as ail of Peiiusyivaiiia. The i'iUybiny bed witLiii oui burdeis 

 is 2,015 miles in extent, with, in many places, from three to six 

 other good coal beds either above or below it. Whoever says there 

 is to be a natural coal famine in this century or the next has either 

 not reckoned at all or gone wild in his calculations. 



The increase in the price of copper from 12 to 25 cents per pound, 

 and the price rising, has stimulated the mining of copper ores wher- 

 ever found. The output of copper in Pennsylvania this year will 

 probably outstrip any previous twelve months. It may be of inter- 

 est to state that the Coruv^all ore banks iu Lebanon county have also 

 produced all told over $700,000 worth of metallic copper. 



Corundum and emery are now mined successfully in Berks, Ches- 

 ter and Lehigh counties. 



The fluorite deposit of northern Fulton county remains undevel- 

 oped, while manufacturers of hydrofluoric acid at Easton and Phila- 

 delphia are obtaining their supplies of the crude mineral from South- 

 ern Illinois. 



Gold bearing ores have been found in 29 counties of the State, 

 but in no instance has the gold been extracted at a profit sufficient 

 to warrant extensive mJning. The largest known gold placer de- 

 posit lies under the most populous part of Philadelphia. Where ex- 

 cavations have been made for cellars along Market street from Third 

 to Broad, free gold could have been extracted from nearly every 

 cubic foot of earth or gravel taken from a depth of 12 to 20 feet. This 

 has been demonstrated a number of times by the use of a mi^ier's 

 pan. Some of the material from a large cellar recently dug at the 

 southwestern corner of Thirteenth and Market streets would have 

 been found to yield at the rate of 25 cents per cubic yard, or nearly 

 100 per cent, richer than the best paying larger placer in California. 

 This gold that underlies riiiladelphia has apparently been carried 

 there from some point on the Schuylkill or Delaware rlA^er. The 

 source has never been discovered. 



The graphite industry of the State is making good headv\'ay, the 

 product coming principally from Berks, Chester and Delaware coun- 

 ties. 



Ganister rock (another silicate) is shipped in immense quantities 

 from Blair, Huntingdon and Mifflin counties for furnace purposes, 

 there being a good market also iu other states. From some of it 

 quantities of silica brick are made near the source of supply. There 

 are large bodies of this rock in northeastern Fulton county. 



Iron ores are attracting more attcMition than for years. New pro- 

 cesses of iron manufacture permit the use of Pennsylvania ores and 

 these, combined with the gradual rise of crude ores from the great 

 northwest, have led to the revival of an old industry, which w^ill be 

 more and more marked from this time forth. 



The large deposit of melanterite (native copperas) near Olivet, 

 Armstrong county, remains undeveloped. 



Manganese ores have been found near the northern boundary of 

 Indiana county; but little has been done there in exploitation of the 

 extent of the deposit. In the meantime similar ores are brought into 

 Pennsylvania from as remote points as Asia Minor. 



Magnesian ores of fair quality have recently been found in the 

 Bouthwestern corner of Bucks county. 



