56 On the Anthracite Region, &c. of Pennsylvania. 
horizontal and vertical. The beds and veins of anthracite 
ceous ‘schist, for the roof and floor. This slate generally 
contains sulphuret of iron, and disintegrates on exposure to 
the air: The sulphates of iron and aluminé are often ob- 
served in the schist, and it frequently presents impressions of 
plants, and sometimes of marine shells. Impure pulverulent 
coal is usually connected with this slate, and i is said to be a 
good material for asap s ink. 
An been found in greatest quencitg in sections 
of the coal region most accessible by water. Extensive veins 
and beds range from the Lehigh to the Susquehanna, cross- 
ing the head waters of the Schuylkill and Swatara about ten 
miles north-west of the Blue Ridge, and it abounds contigu- 
‘ous to the Susquehanna and Lackawanna. But in no part 
haustible beds, or is so abundantly raised, as in the vicinity 
-of Mauch Chunk, a village situated on the Lehigh, thirty- 
five miles from Easton, and one hundred and eight, by water, 
from Philadelphia. 
The coal is there excavated on the flat summit of a moun- 
tain that rises near 1509 feet above the ocean. It is of good 
quality, and presents beds of unparalleled extent; is disclosed 
for. 1 miles on the summit, wherever excavations have 
been andi and is indicated in many places by coal slate, in 
a pulverulent state, on the surface. The mountain rises with 
steep acclivity, particularly on the north-west side, and when 
netrated at various altitudes, discloses coal at about the same 
distance from the surface. Strata of gray wacke slate, con- 
taining mica, sometimes rest on the coal, parallel with the 
mountain side. In the deep excavations imade on the sum- 
mit, no termination of the coal bed has been found, and it is 
not i e that anthracite forms the nucleus of the moun- 
tain for a ‘considerable distance. 
coal is rendered accessible by removing from the flat 
summit, gravelly loam, which is from a few inches to four 
feet in depth, and disintegrated slate with impure coal, 
from two to four feet. coal rests in a horizontal posi- 
trong 
beate springs, holding in solution sulphate of iron, issue from 
the mountain’s side. * The coal excavation on the surface is 
extensive, and from thirty to forty feet in depth, forming a 
