Remarks on the Coal Formation of Pennsylvania. 343 
a section of the whole chain of the Alleghanies, from their base at 
Cumberland. But I must premise that I have no pretensions to any 
attainments in geological science, further than what pertains to a sin- 
gle branch, and that to a single object of practical utility, namely, the 
coal formation in the valley of the Ohio. To this pursuit my atten- 
tion has been sedulously directed, ever since steam-boats began to 
ply on the western waters. And eighteen years ago, a faithful and 
intelligent agent, who when a stripling, emigrated with the first set- 
tlers, and subsequently acted as a land surveyor in search for salt 
springs, became intimately acquainted with the country, and by my 
direction, explored the banks of the Ohio and their vicinity, for coal, 
from Pittsburgh to Louisville, a distance of seven hundred miles. 
Having myself since verified, personally, most of the facts stated in his 
report, and made further researches, I am enabled to say that all the 
localities worthy of note, bordering near the Ohio and its tributaries, 
that are accessible for water transportation, are familiar to me, having 
seen most of the strata in place, and I have also witnessed the com- 
bustion in the large way, of the coal from a great portion of them. 
Before proceeding over the mountains, it may be well to remind 
you of the recky strata for some distance before approaching them 
from the east. A day’s stay at Hagerstown afforded an opportunity 
of viewing a part of that charming vale, where the Juxuriance and 
dark tints of the herbage, so late as the 12th of November, indicated 
asoil capable, with judicious management, of everlasting fertility 5 
being incumbent on strata of blue limestone, lying near the surface, 
and often appearing above it. From the extent of water power in 
the district, which I was told sends annually to Baltimore near a hun- 
dred thousand barrels of flour, we may suppose there can be no lack 
of moisture ; and doubtless when reviewed with a farmer’s eye, it 
‘aust be pronounced (combining, as it does, wheat and grazing sys- 
tems,) the “heart of Maryland.” 
_The road from Frederick to Cumberland is a macadamized turn- 
Pike ; and for some distance before entering Hagerstown, to its unit- 
ing with the national road, a distance of more than sixty miles, the 
surface material is mostly of the same dark blue jimestone, and we 
tay therefore infer that the formation extends to the foot of the Al- 
leghanies. I would’here remind you, that some of the ridges of this 
| Stupendous chain, including their adjuncts, are designated by local 
names. For instance, the mountain over which the ascent commen- 
Cesy IS called Shavers, in Maryland: the same ridge in Pennsylvania 
