SOURCE OP ST. Peter's river. 21 



these beds extend over the whole country, for the same 

 may be traced for miles without any sensible alteration in 

 its appearance. There are various beds at different levels 

 and of different qualities, and it is from this circumstance, 

 probably, that the coal of one neighbourhood is considered 

 preferable to that of another, because they work upon beds 

 at different levels ; yet it may be also that in some cases 

 they work upon one and the same bed, the quality of 

 which may be improved or impaired from accidental cir- 

 cumstances. Small excavations are made in numberless 

 places so as to answer the wants of the consumers. It is 

 generally obtained at the mouth of the pit for five dollars 

 per hundred bushels, and is sometimes sold as low as four 

 cents per bushel. In the town of Cumberland it usually 

 sells for about ten dollars per hundred bushels. 



The abundance of timber in that district, and the thin- 

 ness of the population, have not yet rendered coal the ex- 

 clusive fuel used, and it was not until we approached the 

 vicinity of Wheeling that we found coal exclusively used 

 in lime and brick kilns. 



The most common disposition of the strata presents the 

 sandstone as the lowest member of the formation, above it 

 is the coal, which is itself overlayed by the slate, and the 

 limestone covers the whole, and becomes itself a substratum 

 for a superior bed of sandstone, &c. 



The only substances of any importance which accom- 

 pany these rocks, are iron pyrites, and probably the white 

 pyrites. These minerals are so abundant throughout the 

 rocks, that they in many places produce a very rapid de- 

 composition and destruction, and unfit them for many uses 

 of domestic economy ; thus many of the beds of coal which 

 would otherwise prove valuable, are so completely pervad- 

 ed with pyrites that it is impossible to use them as fuel in 



