320 Notice of the Anthracite Region in the 



Roads, 4^c. 



There is, at present, a forest which extends eight or ten miles south 

 of Carbondale, and through which there is only a very muddy and 

 rough road, hardly to be passed with comfort and safety, except 

 on horseback. Still a good road can be made here, at a moderate ex- 

 pense, and when this is done, there will be nothing to obstruct the pas- 

 sage of the traveller to the valley of Wyoming. From this valley, 

 he can easily pass to Mauch Chunk, and then to Pottsville, and thus 

 take in his way the mines of the Lehigh and Schuylkill, and end at 

 Philadelphia ; or the opposite course can be, in some cases, more con- 

 veniently, pursued. The time is probably not distant, when this will 

 become a favorite tour, as it must always be an interesting one. 



There is nothing now to hinder the construction of a rail road 

 from Wilkesbarre to Carbondale, and then the mineral riches of the 

 valley, may obtain also a northern, as they now have a southern vent. 

 The Baltimore coal company have a receiving establishment within 

 the Susquehanna, at Port Deposit, not far from the Chesapeake ; and 

 the coal of Wyoming, may hereafter reach Philadelphia by the interior 

 canals and rail ways that are to connect the Susquehanna with that 

 city, as it already passes through the Chesapeake and Delaware canal. 



Mines. 



It seems to be litde known abroad, that several of the coal mines, 

 on and near the Susquehanna, and Lackawanna, are already works 

 of great magnitude ; vast excavations either open to the heavens, or 

 between roofs and pavements of solid rock. In several of them 

 there are rail ways, and carts and waggons are driven into others, 

 and return from the bowels of the mountain, laden with coal. Some 

 of these mines are objects of great curiosity, and the most remarka- 

 ble may be visited with no inconvenience, as they are dry, roomy, 

 and well ventilated ; many others are approached only with toil and 

 difficulty, but such places will be interesting only to the scientific or 

 speculating traveller. 



J^egetahle Remains. 



In visting several of the mines of the Susquehanna and Lackawanna, 

 the naturalist is gratified, by seeing the vast deposits of vegetable impres- 

 sions and remains which accompany the coal, usually in the slate that 

 forms the roof, and occasionally in that of the floor; they exist also, al- 

 though, in a smaller degree in the sandstone, and sometimes, but much 



