432 Scientific Intelligence. 
rious parts of this range. The mine in Chesterfield County, between 
the James and Appomatox Rivers, in Virginia, has been wrought to 
some extent, and furnishes at present a considerable article of com- 
* * 
merce. 
“In the third place, in addition to the foregoing presumptions that 
coal might be found in the district of country under consideration, we 
have it in our power to say, that coal has actually been discovered in 
this region, and that a bed of considerable extent has been opened not 
far from the Gulf on Deep River. 
“It is about fifty years since this coal-bed was first discovered. 
g 
cording to Mr. Tyson, the proprietor, is about one foot. The water 
and rubbish with which the pit was encumbered, did not permit my as- 
certaining the facts respecting it so much from personal observation as 
] desired, but the respectable proprietor assured me, that waggon loads 
of the coal could be obtained with ease. The coal is highly bitumin- 
ous, burns readily ‘with a bright flame, and is, I think, of much the same 
quality with the Richmond, or the Liverpool coal. 
‘** With regard to the extent of this coal mine, I have no means of 
judging with much certainty. On the road from Salem to Fayetteville, 
by way of Tyson’s Mills on Deep River, the traveller crosses a numbe 
of ridges of that shelly kind of black slate which is the accompani- 
ment of the coal, and may be considered as a symptom of it wherever 
it occurs. This however passes under a soft red rock, called by geol- 
ogists slaty clay, which extends southward towards Moore Court House, 
and nothing is seen of the black slate on the south side of the River. * 
“Coal is found also in the County of Rockingham, and the subject will 
be resumed should a subsequent Report lead me to speak of the geology © 
+ oe 
does p 
unsuitable for making good quicklime, it would probably be found a use- 
Sis kind of manure. These soft and marly kinds of limestone, when pul- 
better quality, may be 
