Polytechnic Association. 735 



but some are disturbed so as to be vertical or to change their natural 

 inclination. The following presents the position of these by a section 

 through the point of which the North and South railroad passes over 

 them, and also indicating the position of the immense beds of fossil- 

 iferous iron ore. 



Leaving the line of the S. R. and D. R. R. going north, the country 

 through which the North and South road passes is, for about twenty 

 miles underlaid with limestone. This gives a rich soil well fitted for 

 the small grains and grasses. The great market for any produce 

 which may be raised there, and much more, will be at the mines and 

 iron works which must eventually be worked on its line. Through 

 the kindness of Mr. A. Shaw, superintendent of this road, I went 

 over the greater portion of it on a platform car, very slowly, stopping 

 whenever fancy dictated. The road cuts through the outcrops of 

 eight coal veins, and runs so near the openings of several mines that 

 a miner could, from them, throw a shovel of coal in a car passing 

 along the track. Immediately on the line six mines are being worked, 

 and four more two to three miles distant. The coal is shipped to 

 Montgomery, and sold at eight dollars to eight dollars and fifty cents 

 per ton. Some idea of the cost of mining may be had when one 

 mine-owner offers to contract to deliver his coal on the cars at two 

 dollars and fifty cents per ton in quantities. The coal varies in 

 quality ; some of it makes a beautiful coke ; none yet mined seems to 

 stand exposure to the weather. I have no doubt that good coal for 

 iron making can be found here. Taken in connection with the fossil- 

 iferous ore, it must become a great iron-making section. The road 

 at one point cuts through the edge of a mountain, and exposes a vein 

 of this ore thirty feet thick. Taking the proposition of Mr. Gould, 

 the mine-owner alluded to, and we have : 



Four tons coal (two tons coke) $^0 00 



Two tons iron ore 1 50 



Limestone 50 



Add labor and interest and we have the cost of making iron on this 

 road. The ore need not cost one dollar and fifty cents, as it is not 

 to be mined, but simply quarried. The railroad for more than half 

 a mile is ballasted with thousands of tons of the ore, including a high 

 embankment, built almost entirely of it, yet the rails on this road are 

 of English iron. 



The coal mines along the line of this road were worked during the 

 war, it having been graded and an apology for track laid to them. It 



