WEST VIRGINIA. 81 



large measure of pecuniary success. In the Kanawlia coal fields there is an 

 inexhaustible deposit of iron ore of good quality. 



The iron of West Virginia is almost coextensive with its coal, and may be 

 said to exist literally throughout the State, and may be worked to advantage 

 at least throughout the mountain districts. 



Specimens of ore from the north branch of the Potomac have yielded some 

 68, and some 78 per cent.; in Monongahela several specimens from GO to 93 

 per cent.; in Preston county 65, G9, 71, and 82 per cent. 



COAL. 



Of the coal of West Virginia it is useless to attempt a description. It is 

 found in immense beds in the Panhandle ; it crops out at different elevations on 

 the banks of the Monongahela and its numerous branches, away up among their 

 sources ; the hills of the Cheat River region are black with seauis that are in 

 some cases ten to twelve feet thick of solid coal ; small quantities are found in 

 the coal-oil region east of Parkersburg. The coal fields of the Kanawha valley 

 are scarcely excelled, and perhaps not equalled, in variety and quantity, upon 

 the continent ; while in the eastern slope of the mountains, among the head- 

 waters of the Potomac, great deposits of bituminous and semi-bituminous are 

 successfully worked. 



The following items relative to coal, from the geological report of Pro- 

 fessor Rogers, made long since and previous to the opening of many successful 

 mines, will give a hint merely of the great wealth of these Allcghanian coal 

 fields : 



"At Clarksburg and northward down the valley of the Monong-ahela, there exists one of 

 the richest coal deposits in the State. One of tlie seams in some places in the nei<:fhborhood 

 of this town is from ten to twelve feet in thickness, below which, and separated chiefly by 

 a heavy bed of sandstone, there lies a thinner stratum of a more highly bituminous charac- 

 ter." * * *■ "We may form some idea of the vast extent of these coal scams from the fact, 

 that from some distance above Clarksburg they may be followed with scarcely any iuterrujj- 

 tious throughout the whole length of the valley of the Monongahela down to Pittsburg. 



" On the Great Kanawha the exposure of coal is one of the most extensive and valuable 

 anywhere in the United States. 



"In Hampshire county, upon a stratum of valuable iron ore not less than fifteen feet in 

 thickness, there rests a bed of sandstone, upon which reposes a coal seam three feet thick ; 

 above this another bed of sandstone, tlien a two-feet vein of coal, then sandstone, then 

 another coal seam of four feet ; again a stratum of sandstone, and over it a seven-feet vein 

 of coal; over this a heavy bed of iron ore; and crowning the series, an enormous coal seam 

 of from fifteen to twenty feet in thickness." 



Benjamin H. Smith, United States dir^trict attorney, resident in Charleston, 

 writes to the department upon this subject : 



"Four-fifths of West Virginia lies on the western slope of the Cumberland range, and nearly 

 all the country west of it abounds in coal ; but in that part of the State on the Great Kanawha 

 and its tributaries, Elk and Coal rivers, and on Guyandotte river, coal is found on a mag- 

 nificent scale. It exists iu numerous strata of difl creut thicknesses, rising from the base of the 

 hills to their tops, all nearly horizontal and slightly dipping to the north. This place is sixty 

 miles above the mouth of the river. Here the hills become lofty, and increase in elevation 

 to Cotton hill or Gauley mountain. Ascending the river a distance of thirty-six miles, coal 

 of all varieties, except the anthracite, is found of superior quality — the canuel, splint, 

 bituminous, and all varieties of each. Geologists and others report, in those thirty-six miles 

 at different points, workable strata of good coals, amounting in all to from sixty to one hun- 

 dred feet in thickness, aggregating the several strata. These strata are severally from three 

 to fourteen feet thick. They extend over the whole country for miles, running from creek to 

 creek, and river to river. They are readily made accessible to the Great Kanawha, Guyan- 

 dotte, or Big Sandy rivers." * * * "The amount of coal on the Kanawha and its trib- 

 utaries. Elk and Coal rivers, is incredible. There is nothing equal to it anywhere." 



(3. S. Richardson, of the Briarport mines, writes thus of the coal in the 

 vicinity of Charleston : 



"In the vicinity of Charleston, to the northeast and northwest, the strata is nearly level, 

 tho rise and dip being mere gentle undulations ; they consist of gray, brown, red, and white 



