1854.] 



SUMMARY OF A REPORT BY SIR CHARLES LYELL. 



3S 



Suminary of a Report by Sir Charles Lyeil, 



On, the Industrial Exhibition at New York. — Geological 

 Section.* 



Ths milling products wliieh formed the most prominent 

 features of that department of the Exhibition, consisted of the 

 different varieties of coal and metallic substances. The coal 

 and iron ore v^ev& derived chiefly from the Eastern or Alleghany 

 coal field ; the lead from limestone and other rocks of Silurian 

 age, as well ^as from the metamorphic formations ; the zinc 

 from the rocks of the latter chavacter in New Jersey ; and the 

 copper from the similar regions in the eastern part of the 

 States, but chiefly from the sandstone and trap district of Lake 

 Superiorv lu the existing condition of the States, mining 

 operations are, according to the repoi't, for the most part iu 

 their infancy, beyond mining operations in coal and iron ore ; 

 and, perhaps, copper and lead may be now added. The min- 

 ing enterprises hitherto undertaken have been more the result 

 of chance and speculation than of any systematic effort to 

 develope the mineral resources of the country ; it consequently 

 happens that the districts in which metallic products of value 

 may be looked for, are but little known beyond their general 

 geological feature.s, and a few attractive or accidentally dis- 

 covered localities of mineral wealth. Sir Charles observes, 

 that in considering the industrial resources of a country of such 

 vast extent, and which is still in its infancy, a juster idea of 

 Its capabilities can be formed by studying its leading physical 

 and geological features, than by examining collections of its 

 minerals and rocks in any place of exhibition. Gold is found 

 in the Eastern States, or those on the eastern side of the 

 Appalachian chain, occurring in the alluvial and drift formations 

 and derived from the destruction of certain auriferous meta- 

 morphic rocks. The gold bearing drift extends from the 

 northeiT limits of the States, iu Vermont and New Hampshire, 

 along the Green 3Iountain range, through the south-eastern 

 part of New York, over the eastern flank of the Appalachian 

 chain, to Georgia and Alabama. Gold has been obtained from 

 the drift, in considerable quantities, in Georgia, North and 

 South Carolina, and Virginia, but it has not been wrought for 

 gold further north within the limits of the States, although it 

 has long attracted attention in the same direction in Canada, 

 and a considerable quantity of gold has been obtained from 

 washings on the Chaudiere River. In California, the gold- 

 bearing alluvium is derived from rocks of similar character : 

 these auriferous sands and gravels are very extensively distri- 

 buted ; and the collections in the Exhibition showed samples 

 of gold from nearly 200 different washings or localities in 

 California alone. 



Magnetic iron sand is a very general accompaniment of the 

 same drift in the vicinity of mountain ranges ; it has not, how- 

 ever, been applied to economic uses. Bog iron ore is almost 

 universal, though in quantities to be valuable only in compara- 

 tively few places. The carbonates and per-oxidc of iron occur 

 in the coal fields, which contain rich deposits of those ores. In 

 Pennsylvania and Ohio, whore they are wrought to a greater 

 extent than elsewhere, the beds appear to be inexhaustible, and 

 will supply, for an indefinite period, the requirements of ad- 

 vancing phy.sical improvements and civilisation. In Tennessee, 

 Alabama, and Western Virginia, the coal formation abounds iu 

 iron ores ; in the western coal field there is far less iron mauu- 



* From the Mining Journal. 



factured than in the east. The geological survey of Illinois, 

 now in progress, has already shown that this state is richly sup- 

 plied with iron ore in the midst of its inexhaustible coal fields, 

 although they are as yet but two furnaces iu that state. The 

 iron ores from the coal formation presented at the Exhibition, 

 were principally from Pennsylvania. The red shale formation 

 in that state has a thickness of 2049 feet at Pottsville, and ex- 

 tends in a broad belt aloncc the ea.stern marq-in of the coal fields. 

 The ores of the red shale are chiefly carbonates of iron, with 

 variable proportions of silica, alumina, &c.; they yield from 60 

 to 80 per cent, of carbonate of iron, and some of them give per- 

 oxide of iron in about the same proportion. The collection 

 exhibited from Pennsylvania comprised the ore and furnace 

 products — viz., ore, coal, slag, pig-iron, as well as manufactured 

 iron ; ores from geological formations below the coal, and occur- 

 ing in the midst of the coal fields, having been exhibited in 

 company with the coals by which they were smelted. 



It is well known that the Americans set a far higher value 

 on anthracite than on bituminous coaLs, although the United 

 States are rich in va.st coal fields of both descriptions. The 

 anthracite basins of Pennsylvania produce coal of that charac- 

 ter of a superior quality, and from its accessibihty, it furnishes 

 a large portion of the fossil fuel now used in the towns and 

 cities of the Atlantic coast. A specimen of anthracite coal, of 

 enormous size, from the Mammoth vein, Wilke.sbarre, Penn- 

 sylvania, was presented to the exhibition by the citizens of 

 that town, showing a vertical section of the vein, being a shaft, 

 5 feet square at the ba.se, 30 feet high, and weighing 60 tons. 

 Several other large masses — one 10 feet long by 4 ft. wide, and 

 3 i ft. high — were exhibited, from the same locality, with spe- 

 cimens of the same bed from other places. Coals from the 

 Carbondale and Pittstown Mine, a collection of about 60 varie- 

 ties of anthracite from the Schylkill County, were also presented 

 with specimens of bituminous coal from Pcnnsj-lvania, accom- 

 panying samples of iron ore, and likewise from ^laryland, in 

 large masses, showing the thickness of beds, 11 and lo feet 

 respectively. Some of the coal seams are underlaid with beds 

 of fire-clay, of greater or less thickness ; and in some parts 

 there are extensive beds of fire-clay not directly a.ssoeiated with 

 coal seams, but they are everywhere co-extensive with the 

 great coal fields. The iron ores of the coal formation, with 

 their accompanying mineral fuel, are distributed more or le.«s 

 abundantly over an area exceeding 160,000 square miles ; we 

 are, from this extent, enabled to furm some faint conception of 

 their vast amount, and of the important results of their influ- 

 ence on the future industrial interests and prospects of such a 

 country as the United States. 



Galena, and the carbonate, sulphate, and pho.sphato of lead, 

 have been found, but their economic value has not been as yet 

 fully tested ; and the .sulphuret of lead occurs in considerable 

 quantities in some of the copper mines recently opened in 

 Maryland. The lead-bearing rock, or " galena limestone," of 

 Wisconsin, Northern Illinois, Iowa, and part of Missouri, is a 

 lower Silurian limestone, which has yielded immense quantities 

 of lead ore for many years past. The products of a lead mine 

 now wrought in the Shawangnnk Mountain, iu Ulster County, 

 are galena, copper pyrites, and a small quantity of blende ; and 

 this mine has yielded some remarkably large iua.sses of galena, 

 one of which weighed 16,000 pounds. Native silver occurs in 

 Davidson County and other counties in North Carolina. The 

 native copper contains a small amount of native silver; and re- 

 cently a vein of silver has been T\Tought upon the north shore 



