Coal Mines tn the vicinity of Richmond, Va. 7 
square, divided into four chambers by timbers, and from the 
samples of metals sent, you will see that sandstone and slate, in 
alternate layers, form the covering over the coal. The last shaft 
was recommenced at the beginning of the present year, and is 
now pene three hundred and fifty feet, and it is expected coal 
will be reached by the first of next June, at the depth of six hun- 
dred feet. The last year about three hundred thousand bushels 
of coal were hoisted; the present year about six hundred thou- 
sand bushels will be raised, and the quantity would have been 
enlarged had the demand justified the increase. Coal in the 
working shaft was found, as before stated, at the depth of seven 
hundred and twenty two and a half feet from the surface—the 
coal in the shaft was thirty six feet thick, and the sink below 
the coal is sixteen and a half feet deep, making the whole depth 
of the shaft seven hundred and seventy five feet. I write now 
from memory, and may not be critically correct as to a foot. In 
the journal sent you of the metals,* the specimens and list com- 
mence about two hundred and forty feet below the surface. 
The upper metals in the samples kept, got mixed or deranged, 
and were thrownaway. Any discrepancy (if any) in the journal 
of metals as kept, with the depth of the shaft as here given, 
must have been produced by the difficulty of measuring the 
thickness of the metals on the side of the shaft in sinking. The 
coal lies at an angle of about thirty five degrees, dipping to the 
west. The thickness of the coal varies, which is, I presume, 
— by the form of the rock upon which it is deposited 
‘uneven; in some places the coal rises to fully fifty feet 
in thickweade: The whole — was expended in sinking as 
above described; in procuring a large steam-engine, buildings, 
mules and mule-power a cy railroads above and under 
ground, besides some eighteen laborers, and a coal-yard and fix- 
- tures. ‘The whole of the lands are supposed to contain coal. 
The exploring drifts now in progress, extend north and south over 
a quarter of a mile; the coal on the west being the dip, and on the 
east being the rise, seems to indicate great regularity,—a drift 
now going on to the southwest on a slope, shows that the coal is 
flattening off, it not dipping now more than one in ten feet, and © 
in quality is of the most promising character. It will be seen by 
Sa SS ors aise et 
a a rT - sc gt - the rock q matte S raised with the coal.—Eps. | 
