A huntkr's life. 399 



region, producing from eighty to one hundred bushels ol 

 a single acre. It also abounds in coal and iron-ore,, and 

 has ample water-power to propel all kinds of machinery. 

 I will here insert the opinion of the Agricultural Chemist 

 of the State of Maryland, who visited and examined this 

 region. 



In speaking of the various coal-beds, and of the quanti- 

 ties in other places, he says, " By far the largest quantity 

 of iron-ore is found, however, in the coal-fields of the 

 Yough. River and in its tributaries, which lie in the coal- 

 basin. This river cuts through the coal-seams and exposes 

 the raw edges of the coal-beds, and thus makes natural 

 sections of them, which offer great facilities for the exami- 

 nation of this section of the county. These natural sec- 

 tions show the coal-beds which I have mentioned above 

 as existing here, and disclose at the same time very rich 

 and abundant beds of clay iron-stone (carbonate of iron.) 



" I have examined and determined here five distinct beds 

 of this ore ; the thinnest being about one foot, the thickest 

 five feet in thickness, lying parallel to each other and to 

 the coal-veins which accompany them. These veins I 

 found not in one place, nor in one neighborhood only ; but 

 in all the tributaries of these streams which lie in that 

 coal-basin, extending from Selby's-Port to beyond Oak- 

 land, on the Baltimore and Ohio railroad. 



" I cannot but believe this to be one of the richest ore 

 regions in the United States ; and, with its facilities for 

 coal and water-power, it offers inducements for investments 

 rarely equalled. Tliis country has been very little ex- 

 plored ; its merits are not known, and consequently unap- 

 preciated. Its iron wealth by far exceeds that of any 

 other part of Maryland, and lands here are selling for 

 only nominal prices. I earnestly advised the owners of 

 lands here not to part with them at anything like their 

 present prices, but to wait for the advance which is sure 

 to arise as soon as they become perfectly known. Iron ia 



