78 Bituminous Coal of Fennsyhanicf. 



discharge of its waters, through its distant and widely extended boun- 

 dary. It has evidently been drained by the Mississippi, the St. 

 Lawrence, the Susquehanna and the Hudson ; and it is a curious 

 and interesting fact, that near the northern termination of this coal 

 field, in Potter county, the head waters of the Alleghany, the Sus- 

 quehanna, and the Genessee rivers, flowing into the gulf of Mexico, 

 the Chesapeake and the St. Lawrence, take their rise in an area or 

 space of about five miles. 



With the exception of the Susquehanna and its tributaries, and 

 Wills' creek, emptying into the Potomac, all the streams rising in 

 the coal field, west of the mountains, flow into the lakes, or into the 

 Ohio river, and consequently the ground falls off or recedes in the 

 same direction, and becomes too low, as is generally supposed, to 

 contain the coal measures. Its northern termination or boundary 

 may be traced from the head waters of the Towanda creek, in Brad- 

 ford county, thence across the high lands or dividing waters of Ti- 

 oga, Potter, McKean, Warren, Venango, fcc. to the Ohio state line. 

 The Tioga river and its tributaries penetrate the coal field in the vi- 

 cinity of Blossburgh and Wellsborough in Tioga county. A recent 

 and interesting mineralogical report, upon this region, has been made 

 by R. C. Taylor, a practical engineer and geologist, for the Bloss- 

 burgh rail road company, in which it is satisfactorily shown that the 

 coal runs out as the streams decline to the north. " There would 

 need," says the report, " a total height of mountains of five thou- 

 sand, one hundred and twenty feet, at the state fine between New 

 York and Pennsylvania, to contain the coal measures, whereas the 

 hills, there, are probably below six hundred feet in altitude. This 

 calculation is entered into with a view of showing the futility of the 

 expectation, not uncommonly expressed, of tracing these coalfields 

 in a northerly direction beyond the limits at which they are at pres- 

 ent discoverable." — " This field being bounded on the south by the 

 Alleghany mountain, extending into the state of Virginia, and west- 

 ward ; coal may be said to be present, to a greater or lesser extent, 

 in all the western counties, with the exception of Erie, in which it 

 has not been discovered. The counties of Bradford, Lycoming, 

 Tioga, Potter, McKean, Warren, Crawford, Bedford, Huntingdon 

 and Centre, lie partly in and partly out of the coal field. The 

 counties of Alleghany, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Cambria, Clear- 

 field, Fayette, Greene, Indiana, Jefferson, Mercer, Somerset, Ve- 

 nango, Washington and Westmoreland, are wholly within its range^ 



