GEOGRAPHICAL EXPLORATIONS AND DISCOVEKIES IN 1872. 



335 



atlases and gazetteers. Beginning, now, with 

 the States on the Atlantic coast, we notice 

 that that great engineering work, the Hoosac 

 Tunnel, in "Western Massachusetts a work 

 second in extent only to the Mont Oenis Tun- 

 nel i s rapidly approaching completion. It is 

 expected that not only the tunnel but the ap- 

 proaches to it connecting it with the railways 

 of which it is to form a part, will be finished 

 and in running order by March 1, 1874. The 

 entire expenditure by the State, it is estimated, 

 will not exceed $12,792,234. The great enter- 

 prise of tunnelling under the rocks at Hellgate, 

 on the East Eiver, between New York and 

 Long Island City, is still prosecuted actively, 

 and will probably be completed during 1873. 

 When these mines or headings are blown up, 

 they will render the channel of the East Eiver 

 passage perfectly safe for vessels of the largest 

 draught, and the European steamers will prob- 

 ably prefer the sheltered route via Long Island 

 Sound to the rougher and more dangerous one 

 via Sandy Hook and the Lower Bay. 



Proceeding southward, we notice, as an event 

 of great importance, the completion of the 

 Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, just at the 

 close of the year ; not merely as affording an- 

 other and shorter trunk-route to the Ohio and 

 Mississippi Valleys, and so to the Pacific slope, 

 but because it traverses a region almost wholly 

 unknown hitherto, and one which is richer in 

 valuable minerals than perhaps any other in 

 the world. Every variety of iron-ore known 

 to commerce is found along its roadway, and 

 most of them in great abundance : in its west- 

 ern division, along the deep valley of the 

 Kanawha, and in the canon of New River, 

 coal is found in strata of from 26 to 30 feet 

 thick, and of the best qualities, lying nearly 

 horizontal, and so far above the track of the 

 railway that it can be shot into the cars direct 

 from the mines. This coal is partly cannel, 

 of the well-known Breckenridge and other 

 varieties, equal to the Liverpool cannel ; a 

 splint-coal, pronounced by founders and iron- 

 masters nearly equal to charcoal for iron- 

 making, and other qualities, similar in char- 

 acter to the Western Pennsylvania coals ; 

 limestone, hydraulic cement, petroleum, salt 

 of the very best quality, excellent slate, kaolin, 

 marl, copper, and other metals, numerous me- 

 dicinal springs of high reputation, and vast 

 forests of the finest timber in the United 

 States. The cannel-coals are already shipped 

 to England, the great increase in the price of 

 coal there rendering their exportation profit- 

 able. This new railway must prove of great 

 advantage to Richmond and Norfolk, and will 

 be connected with a line of steamers from 

 these ports to Europe. It will also build up 

 a fine city at Huntington, its terminus on the 

 Ohio River. 



The old project of a ship-canal acros thes 

 Peninsula of Florida has been again revived. 

 The route now proposed is, up the St. John's 

 River 127 miles, thence up the Ocklawaha 



River for 60 miles, then a ship-canal through, 

 the swamps for 40 miles to the Amaxara 

 (Withlacoochee?) River, 35 miles from the 

 point where it empties into the Gulf of Mexico 

 near Cedar Keys. This makes the whole route 

 262 miles in length, but saves 650 miles' (some 

 of it dangerous) voyaging around the capes 

 and keys of the peninsula. As there are no 

 deep cuts required, a more feasible route would 

 seem to be from Port Orange, Mosquito Inlet, 

 by way of the almost continuous water-com- 

 munication, through Indian River, St. John's, 

 and the chain of lakes, to the Withlacoochee 

 River, landing at the same point with the 

 other, the distance across being not more 

 than 175 miles, with not more than 25 miles 

 of canal to be excavated. A party of four 

 naturalists and sportsmen, including Mr. Van 

 Olinda, Captain Mayne Reid, and a Mr. Gordon, 

 explored the Lower St. John's River, in a large 

 sail-boat, in 1871, in the interests of natural 

 science, and report that the number of species 

 of wading and web-footed birds, and indeed of 

 birds generally, is greater than in any region 

 of equal size in North America. They found 

 great quantities of game, and several new and 

 interesting varieties of fish and reptiles, and 

 made valuable observations in regard to the 

 climate, aspect of the country, productions, etc. 

 In the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys, consid- 

 erable attention has been aroused the past year 

 by the publication of the geological surveys 

 which have been for some years in progress 

 in Ohio and Indiana, and the geological recon- 

 noissances in Illinois and Iowa. The Ohio 

 report gives great prominence to the coal for- 

 mations and the iron- ores in the State, though 

 other ores, minerals, and earths, are not over- 

 looked. It seems that in the northeastern and 

 extreme eastern counties of the State, there is 

 a coal, known as the Mahoning Valley Coal, 

 the lowest in place of all the coal-seams of 

 the State, which is an excellent furnace or 

 smelting coal, very free from sulphur and 

 phosphorus, and containing from 58 to 62 per 

 cent, of fixed carbon. It is the analogue of 

 the block-coal of Indiana, from which, how- 

 ever, it is separated by an axis of elevation, 

 or great geological island, which forms the 

 boundary between the Appalachian basin and 

 the Illinois basin, which latter extends through 

 the southwestern quarter of Indiana. Besides 

 this Mahoning Valley Coal, which now sup- 

 plies nearly or quite half the iron-furnaces of 

 Ohio, Prof. Newberry describes six or seven 

 other seams overlying this first, some of them 

 cannel and others bituminous, but, though 

 well adapted for fuel, and especially for steam- 

 engines, having, with one or two exceptions, too 

 much sulphur for furnace or gas-producing 

 purposes. There is, however, in some locali- 

 ties, a splint-coal of fair quality, which may 

 answer for the furnaces, though it has as yet 

 been found only in moderate quantity ; and 

 one or two of the cannel-coals, in some locali- 

 ties, have been used successfully for producing 



