Coal Deposits — Monongahela River. 61 



find it at Blairsville only thirty feet above the surface. Beyond 

 this point I cannot trace it. At Johnstown, a few miles above 

 Blairsville, the stratum of coal is at an elevation of two or three hun- 

 dred feet. Besides, the coal at Johnstown is only about four feet 

 thick, and of a quality greatly inferior to that of Blairsville or Pitts- 

 burgh. Stratum No. 2. is certainly that which appears at Johns- 

 town and Armagh on the Connemaugh. In these places the coal is 

 brittle, and does not contain the same amount of bitumen which 

 No. 3. does. No. 2, I think, makes its appearance at Smithfield, 

 about twenty two miles east of Uniontown, Pa., where the coal is 

 better than at Johnstown, but not equal to the coal at Brownsvilje, 

 Uniontown or Pittsburgh. Deposit No. 2, there is every reason 

 to believe makes its appearance in Cumberland, Maryland, as the 

 coal is very similar, as nearly as I could judge from rather a hasty 

 examination while travelling through that place. Deposit No. 1. 

 I have been unable to find in any other place except near Mor- 

 gantown and Somerset, Pa. There is no bed west of the moun- 

 tains corresponding to this ; for it is No. 3. alone that makes its ap- 

 pearance at so many points on the Monongahela and Youghiogeny 

 rivers, and small streams, except near Morgantown and Greens- 

 boro'. But it must be- recollected that the hills in these neighbor- 

 hoods are prolongations, or spurs of the mountain ranges, which may 

 account for its appearance in these places only. The stratum at 

 Somerset, Pa., appears to be a continuation of No. 1. It is much 

 more elevated than the bed of No. 2. at Smithfield or Johnstown. 

 The coal also is peculiar. It is quite brittle and fissile ; has but a 

 small quantity of bitumen ; is hard to ignite ; produces a dull, feeble 

 flame ; will not burn at all in a grate, but only in a stove. As to 

 the deposits No. 4 and 5, they are below the surface, but we have 

 evident proofs of their existence, as they have been reached in bor- 

 ing for salt water at Pittsburgh, Greensboro', Connemaugh, and at 

 various other places. " Their depth at Pittsburgh, as ascertained 

 from a well just below that place, is as follows : No. 4. at one hun- 

 dred and forty feet, and No. 5. at one hundred and eighty feet below 

 the surface. A short distance from Clarksburgh, on Elk creek, 

 No. 4. was reached at one hundred feet, and at that point is said to 

 be eleven feet in thickness. As to the coal deposits on the Alle- 

 ghany river above the Kiskiminitas, but few facts have been col- 

 lected. At Franklin, and south of that place, coal is abundant. In 

 Mercer and Butler counties, the beds are iew, and the coal of a 



