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 rocky 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 luxuriance and 

 dark tints of the herbage, so late as the 12th of November, indicated 

 a soil capable, with judicious management, of everlasting fertility ; 

 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 flpur, we may suppose there can be no lack 

 of moisture ; and doubtless when reviewed with a farmer's eye, it 

 must 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 limestone, and we 

 may 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- 

 ces, is called Shavers, in Maryland : the same ridge in Pennsylvania 



