CHAP. XXV.] MOBILE TO TUSCALOOSA. 77 



CHAP. XXV. 



Voyage from Mobile to Tuscaloosa. Visit to the Coal-Field of 

 Alabama. Its Agreement in Age with the ancient Coal of 

 Europe. Absenteeism in Southern States. Progress of 

 Negroes. Unthriftiness of Slave-Labour. University of 

 Tuscaloosa. Churches. Bankruptcies. Judges and Law 

 Courts. Geology on the Tombechbee River. Artesian 

 Wells. Limestone Bluff of St. Stephen s. Negro shot by 

 Overseer. Involuntary Efforts of the Whites to civilise the 

 Negroes. New Statute in Georgia against Black Mechanics. 

 The Effects of speedy Emancipation and the free Com 

 petition of White and Black Labourers considered. 



Feb. 8. 1846. THE Tuscaloosa steamer was just 

 ready to sail the next morning from Mobile, up the 

 great western tributary of the Alabama, called the 

 Tombeckbee (or more familiarly &quot; the Bigby &quot;) ; I 

 determined, therefore, to embark in her for the capital 

 of the State, about 400 miles distant by water to the 

 north, where I wished to explore the coal-field in 

 which the coal used for gas and fuel at Mobile is pro 

 cured, and to ascertain its geological age. Our steamer 

 was 170 feet long, and made about ten miles an hour 

 against the stream. She carried stores of all kinds to 

 the upper country, but was not heavily laden ; and, on 

 her return, is to bring down a large freight of cotton. 

 By means of the high pressure principle and the 

 horizontal movement of the piston, she draws only a 



