Fulton.] lob [May 1,1874. 



two benches, the lower, 18 inches thick, is an impure cannel coal inclin- 

 ing to block structure — the u^jper is a medium quality of semi-bitumi- 

 nous coal with the well marked columnar structure peculiar to the 

 Alleghany coals. 



The interval between this and the next small coal seam is composed 

 of thin plates of sandstones with olive colored shales. 



The second workable seam (B) is pre-eminently the bed of the Lower 

 system of coal measures. Not perhaps so much from its size and good 

 quality of coal, as from its ready and sure identification, wherever it 

 exists, by the massive bed of limestone on which it rests. The farmers 

 tra«e it from hillside to hillside, regarding it with peculiar affection as a 

 doiMe gift — not only supplying fuel for domestic use, but also lime to en- 

 rich the "glades" in their mountain farms. 



The coal in this bed is columnar in structure with plates of mineral 

 charcoal disseminated. 



In structure and quality it is closely associated with the best Clearfield 

 coal. It will be found a superior fuel for iron working. 



The third seam (C) is all pure coal of an excellent quality, but as the 

 bed is high in the measures and does not occupy a wide area in this 

 portion of the field, it has as yet received little attention. 



From seam B to the top of the scale the measures are composed of 

 very soft flesh and olive colored shales, which have been loundtd and 

 softened into easy rolling slopes and rounded hills. 



Some pieces of the blue and drab colored carbonate iron ores of the 

 coal measures were shown me, but their places in the &cale were not 

 clearly made out. 



The coals from the Lower Measures have thus far only found a local 

 demand. Evidently the time has not come, or the right channel been 

 opened to this great ocean of mineral fuel. It is yet like the Dead Sea, 

 it has no outlet. True, the Pittsburgh and Connellsville railroad has 

 opened channels to the markets east and west, but the law of supply 

 from the large and excellent "Pittsburgh seam," west and east, is found 

 as inexorable as the law of gravity, in holding back the Somerset lower 

 coals, for the i^resent at least. 



There is one channel to market which is being discussed, that is, by 

 the opening of a railroad connection of 35 miles from Berlin to Mann's 

 Choice on the Bedford Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad. This 

 would furnish a channel for these coals to flow into market side by side 

 with the Broad Top, Clearfield and Cumberland Coals. 



Saxton, Bedford Co., Pa., April 17, 1874. 



