The Coal Mines of the United States of North America. 37 



easily, leaves but little residuum, burns with a bright yellow- 

 blaze, without smell or smoke, and is an excellent article for 

 blacksmithing, as well as for parlour purposes. The expen- 

 diture in this region up to 1847 has not been great. In that 

 year 61,000 tons were exported. 



SHARP MOUNTAIN OF THE SWATAEA MINING DISTKICT, PENNSYLVANIA. 



Scale 400 Feet to the Inch. 



Diamond Vein, 3 feet thick. 

 Furnace Vein, 6 „ 

 From South Conglomerate to Furnace 

 Vein, 1680 feet. 



South Conglomerate, about 120 feet 



thick. 

 South Vein, 5 feet thick. 



Peacock Vein, 8 „ 



Zimmerman Vein, 4 ,, 



The Sharp Mountain lies next to the southern boundary of 

 the coal-field. Its length in the Swatara Mining District is 

 more than twenty miles, rising in some places 800 feet from 

 its southern base. On the west side of Lorberry Creek Gap, 

 the pinnacle called the Panther's Head is 725 feet higher than 

 the railroad. The Great Conglomerate is at the southern base 

 of the mountain. Here are no " horizontal heaves/' or 

 derangement of the coal-measures, as is the case in the Schuyl- 

 kill district. The veins at Lorberry Creek run directly across 

 the creek, from the mountain on one side to the mountain on 

 the other. Their course on both sides of the gap, is north 

 68° east. Those in the southern half of the mountain having 

 a south dip of about 74°, and those in the northern half 

 about 67°. 



The Conglomerate, which forms the 4 general base of the 

 coal-measures, is 1500 feet thick in the Sharp Mountain near 

 Pottsville ; whereas it has only a thickness of 500 feet about 

 thirty miles to the north-west, and dwindles gradually away to 

 thirty feet. The Limestones, on the other hand, of the coal 

 measures, augment as we trace them westward. Similar 

 observations have been made in regard to the Silurian and 

 Devonian formations in New York ; the sandstones and all the 

 mechanically-formed rocks thinning out as they go westward, 



