ers. . The coal is raised by propelled by -mules- 
A steam engine was ac S8 = = one of oerde pits, but abandoned, — 
as the sulphuric acid of the water raised from the mine 
used in the boiler, corroded and soon destroyed the iron. 
The coal in a few places approaches the surface, and quanti- 
ties were one obtained with little labour, but-it 1s now 
generally procured by ae shafts from fifty to four hun- 
dred feet, at * engage of from seven thousand to twenty 
thousand dollars. A considerable proprietor is said to have 
the past poate profit of forty thousand _ dollars, 
ager mostly grains of 
feldspar and quartz apparently from the: veins'of e, is 
granite 
the predominant rock penetrated in sinking the shafts. Finer 
and more compact and: micaceous sand stone occurs below. 
Adjacent to the coal the strata are more .argillaceous and bi- 
tuminous. The coal beds are from thirty ‘to fifty feet in. 
retted hydrogen gas seldom occur. Some instances of the 
combustion and explosion of the latter gas at the Richmond 
sa were mentioned. Safety lamps have not been used, and a 
ge proprietor of coal beds had not heard of the invention. 
The. coal in pits nad masses on the surface, are liable to 
us. combustion, from the action of sulphur and iron 
the rocks, and from those in the earth ; beds of coke will 
be the result. 
The extent of the coal region: has not been ascertained, 
