Coal Mines in the vicinity of Richmond, Va. 3 



English company are expected out to put these mines under 

 work — the water being kept out, so that they can be put in 

 working operation at any time. On the Maidenhead tract, are 

 two deep shafts, the one in which the explosion took place, 

 about seven hundred feet in depth, and the other completed du- 

 ring the last year, about six hundred feet deep. The coal from 

 these mines is of good quality, averaging thirty six feet in thick- 

 ness, and the two shafts can produce two million bushels of coal 

 per annum. On this estate are all the buildings, engines, and 

 other machinery necessary for a large business, with a railroad, 

 the property of the company, leading from the pits to James 

 river, and passing through the tract of land owned by said com- 

 pany, called Sallee's, containing a valuable deposit of iron ore, 

 which it is presumed will shortly be worked extensively and 

 profitably, as the ore is in the midst of the coal mines, intersect- 

 ed by the company's railroad, within a mile of James river, and 

 not more than about twelve miles from Richmond. Explosions 

 occurred several times in the Maidenhead pits, prior to the great 

 explosion. On these occasions several men were killed and burn- 

 ed. At that time the art of ventilating coal mines was imperfect- 

 ly understood here. Since that period, much greater, if not entire 

 security, exists under the ventilation by Newcastle gas-men. 



On the north of these works lie the mines owned by Thomp- 

 son BUuit, now under a lease to Col. Heth, and best known as 

 the pits of Wills, Brown & Co., of whom Col. Heth purchased the 

 lease ; but one shaft and that about four hundred feet deep to the 

 coal, is in operation at these mines ; at the bottom of the shaft 

 there are two inclined planes, one worked by mule power and the 

 other by steam. These slopes increase the depth about three 

 hundred feet more ; a steam engine is in operation over the pit. 

 A force of about ninety hands is employed, including those at top 

 and bottom and the cartmen ; these pits being about two miles 

 from the coal railroad leading from Manchester, which is the ship- 

 ping point on tide water to most of the mines in the vicinity. 

 The coal, which is about thirty feet thick, is of superior quality 

 for smitheries, and the product about four hundred thousand bush- 

 els per annum. Several accidents by explosive gas occurred in 

 these mines during the last year and preceding years, by which 

 some lives were lost, and several men severely burnt. They are 

 now wrought safely, under the management of Newcastle ven- 



