262 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1884. 



This colliery is operated by the Philadelphia and Beading Coal and 

 Iron Company. The soft or free- burning anthracites were obtained from 

 the Brookside colliery, a very pure variety, from the Lykens Valley dis- 

 trict, and the Loyalsock mine in Sullivan County. For convenience of 

 reference, the Geological Survey of Pennsylvania has designated the 

 Bernice basin, in which the Loyalsock mine is located, as the Western 

 Northern Anthracite Field. The Pennsylvania semi-bituminous coals 

 were obtained from the basins north of Bernice, the Long Valley mine 

 in the Barclay basin, the Aruot and Antrim mines in the Blossburg 

 basin. The bituminous coals of Virginia were obtained from the Bich- 

 mond basin, lying within the limits of Henrico, Chesterfield, Goochland, 

 and Powhatan Counties. A specimen of anthracite from the vespertine 

 of Virginia was presented by Col. Philip G. Pendleton, of West Virginia, 

 and came from Berkeley County, near the line of Morgan County, West 

 Virginia. 



In West Virginia the Eagle, Crescent, Coal Valley, Paint Creek, 

 Winifrede and Peerless mines, in the Kanawha district, contributed 

 specimens of coal, including cannel, gas, splint, and bituminous, with 

 their associates, to the collection j and from the New Biver district ex- 

 amples of coal and slate were forwarded to the Museum from Stone 

 Cliff, Nuttallburg, Fire Creek, and Caperton. Coke was also received 

 from some of them. 



Coal and sand rock were obtained from the crest of the arch of an anti- 

 clinal axis on the east end of Mine Hill, in Schuylkill County, Pa., where 

 the Coal Measures cross over from the Schuylkill basin, and a piece of 

 coal that was evidently the crest of a miniature axis from the Palmer 

 Vein colliery. 



Forty-eight hour coke and seventy-two hour coke, of especial impor- 

 tance for metallurgical purposes, and the different sizes of crushed coke 

 for domestic use, are fully represented; examples of the former were 

 receive^ i from both Pennsylvania and West Virginia, and of the latter 

 from Connellsville, Pa. The preparation and shipment of domestic 

 sizes of coke is a new departure in the coking industry. This suite of 

 samples was solicited by the curator, and consists of pea, nut, small 

 stove, and egg, together with the lump coke and the coal from which 

 the coke is made, and was contributed by the H. C. Frick Coke Com- 

 pany of Pittsburgh, Pa. 



Samples of pyrites were obtained in well-defined cubes, and in crys- 

 talline aggregates, from the washings of coal in a jigger, finely dissemi- 

 nated in slate, and in ovoid and globular masses of greater or less di- 

 ameter in the coal itself. The latter are called u sulphur balls" by the 

 miners, and their presence is strongly objected to, as they are imper- 

 vious to the pick and a source of considerable annoyance and delay 

 in cutting coal. They are also a source of danger in "fiery" mines on 

 account of their hardness, which causes them to throw off sparks of fire 

 (strike fire) when struck with sufficient force with a pick or other tool. 



