370 First, or Southern Coal Field of Pennsylvania. 



ter the manner of this ore. Peroxide of iron was thrown down 

 on the addition of ammonia to the solution. 



Water boiled in contact with the iron, afforded, when treated 

 with nitrate of silver, a copious precipitate of chloride of silver. 

 Faint traces of cobalt were also detected in the iron. But the 

 small quantity of the mineral at my command, prevented me 

 from attempting to estimate the proportions of these ingredients. 

 The same reason also precluded the search after other principles 

 often found in meteoric iron. The following presents the results 

 obtained : 



Iron, 92.750 



Nickel, 3.145 



Magnetic iron ? - - - - 0.750 



96.645 



Charleston, S. C, Feb. 3d, 1841. 



Aet. XII. — On the First, or Southern Coal Field of Pennsylva- 

 7iia ; by M. Carey Lea. 



Among the numerous sources of wealth possessed by Pennsyl- 

 vania, are her inexhaustible iron mines and coal beds. It must 

 be acknowledged by all, that they constitute her true wealth, and 

 they will contribute greatly to elevate her in the scale of national 

 prosperity. 



Her coal beds are peculiarly valuable, possessing as she does, 

 every variety of this fuel, from the hardest anthracite, to the most 

 highly charged bituminous coal. She can supply those kinds 

 most suitable for economical purposes, for generating gas, for 

 making and working iron, in a word, for all the many uses to 

 which this substance is applied. It is chiefly to her mines that 

 the steam navigation of the Atlantic coast must look for its sup- 

 plies, and the quantity thus consumed, though at present it may 

 appear inconsiderable, will probably be soon enormously increased. 



It has been the opinion of my father for many years, that the 

 hard or highly carbonized anthracite of the eastern end of the 

 Southern Coal Field, changes to the bituminous in the western 

 end, by nearly regular gradations, the veins probably being con- 

 tinuous from the one point to the other. A case analogous to this 

 is presented by the anthracite and bituminous coal of South 

 Wales. 



