CHAPIER: ALY. 
ON MINING. 
In our methods of mining the coal seams of Alabama, 
where the rate of dip is less than ten degrees, we have 
adopted for the past thirty or forty years, the cars and sys- 
tem very generally used along the Monongahela River, Pitts- 
burgh, Pennsylvania, and for seams having a rate of dip of 
from twenty-five to sixty degrees, we have adopted the meth- 
ods generally used at the Anthracite Mines in Pennsylvania. 
For distinction we will name the first one the “Mononga- 
hela Method,” and the other the “Anthracite Method,” and 
for the rates of dip above mentioned, they are the best 
methods knowa, but they do not work well in seams having 
a rate of dip between ten and twenty-five degrees. 
In seams having a rate of dip from forty to sixty degrees, 
it has been our custom to drive the rooms square off from 
the gangway, up the “rise” of the seam, and have the coal 
to run down the shute into the tram at the bottom of it; 
with this rate of dip the shute does not require planking at 
the side or bottom to make the coal run, and by keeping the 
shute full, except three or four feet working room at the 
“breast of the room,” there is very little coal lost by pul- 
verizing in its descent down the shute, as by that method 
it descends by slow settling in proportion as it is allowed 
to run into the trams at the bottom; this method miners 
designate as “working it on the run.” 
In seams of from thirty to forty degrees rate of dip, the 
miners are compelled to plank the sides of the shute to 
some extent, in order to enable the coal to slide down with- 
out assistance. In seams of from twenty-five tu thirty de- 
grees the coal will not descend in the shute unless the sides 
of the shute are partly. planked, and the bottom covered 
with sheet iron. In working our seams, having a rate of 
dip of ten degrees or under, with the Monongahela ton car 
we are compelled to drive our rooms diagonally to the di- 
