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Wheeling and Grave Creek they abound with 

 coals, and generally of a good quality. 



In many of these hills are quarries of excellent 

 free stone, capable of a good polish, and make 

 beautiful walls in buildings. Some of these 

 stones, when first taken out of the ground, are 

 so soft that they can be worked into various 

 forms with carpenter's tools. On the side of a 

 hill above Steubenville, it is said, there is a spot 

 of ground, that when covered with a considera- 

 ble depth of snow, a smoke is seen to rise from 

 it, as if it were heated by a subterranean fire. 

 And that near the base of the same hill, if an hot 

 sun succeeds a shower of rain, an excellent 

 white, fine salt may be collected from the sur- 

 face of the rocks. Not far from Georgetown, 

 38 miles below Pittsburgh, it is said, a gold 

 mine has lately been discovered. A specimen, 

 it is reported, has been tried by a silver-smith 

 at Pittsburgh, who declared it to be pure gold, 

 without alloy. The lump had the appearance of 

 being found*in running water. 



The base of some of the hills extends to the 

 bank of the river, others recede leaving wide 

 bottoms of a very rich and deep soil. When 

 the hills approach the river on one side, they 

 usually recede from it, on the other, so that 

 there are wide bottoms, alternate!)', on both 

 sides the river. Much of the soil in these bot- 

 toms, especially the first, (for there are two and 

 three bottoms rising one above the other, form- 

 2 



