328 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 



be brought for the supply of the inhabitants and for the locomotives in 

 cars specially provided for the purpose, and making what is called the 

 water train. The cars, nine in number, have each two tanks about nine 

 feet high and seven and one-half feet average diameter, all of which are 

 connected by a large hose. Following the water-cars is a box car, in 

 which is a locomotive-boiler and a large steam-pump. By means of this 

 the water is pumped into the stationary tanks at the stations, and into 

 the barrels, casks, tubs, and even kettles and cooking- stove boilers, with 

 which the inhabitants near the stations run, on the arrival of the train 

 three times a week, to receive their supplies of water, paying for it at 

 the rate of twenty-five cents a barrel. 



Utah — Uvanston. — The station of this name on the Union Pacific Bail- 

 road is four hundred and forty-one miles from Cheyenne, or one hundred 

 and twenty-six from Bock Springs. The mines are two miles northwest 

 from the station across Bear Biver, in a hill on the north side of the fine, 

 wide valley of this stream. Seen from the mines this valley presents 

 the appearance of a beautiful plain stretching out about four miles to 

 the hills on the opposite side. Were the regions less elevated and the 

 winters less severe, this would be a most attractive site for a large set- 

 tlement. Bear Biver is a swift stream of good water, well stocked with 

 large brook trout. The Wahsatch Mountains, in view to the west, fur- 

 nish pine timber from their extensive forests. Building stone of superior 

 quality is quarried from the sandstone beds near the coal-mines, and 

 clay-beds are worked for the manufacture of bricks at the foot of the 

 hill. 



A branch railroad has been constructed to the mines, and is used for 

 the benefit of both the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific Bailroads, 

 the former being supplied with coal by the Wyoming Coal Company, 

 and the latter by the Bocky Mountain Coal Company, whose mines 

 adjoin each other in the same coal bed. This bed, which is nowhere 

 exposed of its full thickness, is said to measure twenty-six or twenty- 

 seven feet from the floor to the roof. It is evidently a bed of extraordi- 

 nary size; but the workings are limited to the lower portion of it only, 

 not more than eight or ten feet being taken out. This is for the sake 

 of greater convenience in getting the coal now required and of economy 

 in timber for props. It must be, however, at the probable sacrifice of 

 all that is left, which is hardly likely ever to be recovered in good con- 

 dition. The bed dips into the hill at an angle of about fifteen degrees 

 with the horizon, becoming suddenly steeper at the lower end of the 

 slope, which is already down over one thousand feet in the mine of the 

 Wyoming Company. Horizontal levels as long as the slope are driven 

 each way from it, and many rooms worked. Many small seams of slate 

 are seen in the bed, which, not being easily separated from the coal, 

 must considerably impair its value. This damage would be overlooked 

 in analyzing specimens of the coal, which would always be selected free 

 from the slate. Iron pyrites are more abundant than in the coals of other 

 mines ; and it is stated that spontaneous combustion of a waste heap 

 has occurred, attributable, no doubt, to decomposition of the pyrites. 

 The locomotive engineers complain that the coal does not burn up clean 

 and clinkers ; still it is used by blacksmiths, who manage to get up a 

 welding heat with it. The arrangements for working the mines with 

 powerful engines and machinery are those of extensive collieries, and 

 the business is evidently bound to be large. The coal must be obtained 

 in any desired quantity, and at the minimum of cost. The formation 

 containing the coal beds is obviously of the same period with that to 

 which the Colorado coals belong. 



