On the Anthracite Region, &c. of Pennsyliania. 65 
expense of lockage would here have been considerably less- 
ened by adopting the inclined plane. From the Blue Ridge 
the Schuylkill, for forty or fifty miles. winds through a valley 
in which there is considerable limestone, the fissures and cav- 
ities of which in some places rendered the formation of a 
retentive canal difficult. I noticed four miles from Reading; 
and not far from the river, extensive beds of rock, closely re- 
sembling in composition and colours, the calcareous breccia of 
ina canal for most of the distance. Fevers, so generally 
prevalent within afew years in the valley of the Schuylkill, 
ave been attributed by some to water stagnating in the dams. 
The village of Pottsville, of recent origin, contains sev- 
eral good stone dwellings and stores. A weekly journal, 
edited with ability, is here published. A reading room con- 
taining many books and periodical publications, does m 
credit to the village. : 
eds and veins of coal occur in numerous places between 
Pottsville and the Susquehanna, and are found on the side of 
road mountain, a central elevations Mines are opened 
and worked at the head waters of the Swatara and Stony 
creek, at Peters’ mountain, and a few miles east of Dan- 
ville. 
South-west of Pottsville the coal becomes more easily ig- 
nited, and that at Peters’ mountain is reported to contain bi- 
tumen. It is probable that the coal of that vicinity embraces, 
like the Wilkesbarre, much more inflammable gas than the 
Lehigh, which may have led to the supposition that it was bi- 
tuminous. : 
_ The coal from this part of the State can be forwarded to 
Philadelphia by the aid of rail-ways, and lateral canals com- 
municating with the Union Canal, which rans through a fer- 
tile limestone valley, in a parallel course, and at no great 
distance from the coal hills. : 
Anthracite is found on several of the streams that dis- 
charge into the Susquehanna, on its eastern —. A nee. 
d, not yet opened, exists a few miles eastwardly from Ber- 
wick, and numerous veins occur fro f the 
Wilkesbarre mountain, to the Kingston and Shawnese monn- 
VOL. XII.—NO. 1. ? 
