18 % New Mines. 



ny, and when the remaining beds shall be perforated there can be no 

 doubt that the entire thickness will exceed two hundred feet,* which 

 is almost three times that of the great mine at Mauch Chunck. 

 From that place these new mines are distant between four and five 

 miles ; they are about the same distance from the village of Mauch 

 Chunk, and are all included within a circuit of two or three miles ; 

 they open into one defile and will be approached from one rail road. 



The discovery of these mines is owing to the sagacity and good 

 judgment of Mr. White, who, reasoning upon the dip and direction 

 of the mines at Mauch Chunk, was led to believe that the continu- 

 ation of their beds ought to be found here, and his success has giv- 

 en a brilliant confirmation to his prediction, which redounds the more 

 to his honor, as the surface of this region is very much obscured by 

 enormous masses of loose rocks and stones, which, in several places 

 where the coal has been found, so entirely cover the surface with 

 piles of fragments, the fallen ruins of the mountains, that at first view, 

 nothing seems less probable than the discovery of coal beds beneath. 

 The superficial rocks are however of the same fragmentary compo- 

 sition which prevails throughout these coal regions. Most of these 

 mines are situated on declivities very favorable for drainage, and a rail 

 road of very easy construction over a very practicable country, 

 will conduct the coal with great safety and velocity to the company's 

 establishment at Mauch Chunk. This coal appears to be of the first 

 quality and some of it, in the high lustre and perfection of its frac- 

 ture, exceeds any thing that I have elsewhere seen. 



If there could be any doubt before as to the sufficiency of the com- 

 pany's resources (which certainly could never have been the fact upon 

 any rational view) there cannot now be any hesitation in saying that 

 their mines are entirely inexhaustible. f Among some sections of 

 the Lehigh mines taken by Mr. Jones, and which, with a map of the 

 Mauch Chunk mountain, will be appended to these remarks, will be 

 found one illustrating the peculiar formation of the great bed of fifty 

 feet in thickness and of the strata by which it is accompanied. It 

 will be seen that the strata rise in the form of a half ellipse, placed on 



* Since the above was written, a letter has been received from Mr. White, in 

 which it is stated that eight beds have been discovered since our visit. These are of 

 19, 10, 5, 20, 11, 6, 5, and 5 feet, and tlic aggregate now ascertained in this valley is 

 240 feet, more than four times the thickness of the great mine at Mauch Chunk. 



+ So that the old gentleman in a neighboring city, who was unwilling to alter his 

 fire place, because, the coal might be exhausted, and he might have to alter it back 

 a<vain, may now proceed with safety, and rest assured, that the smi and the Pennsyl- 

 vania anthiacite mine?, will bunKHif together. 



