304 COAL-FIELDS OF UNITED STATES. 



to October, 1838, about 1500 tons had been raised, 

 worth 6000 dollars, at an expense of 15,000 dollars, 

 and the proprietors were prosecuting the work with 

 strong confidence in a successful result. The coal 

 is a very pure anthracite, containing from 94 to 98 

 per cent, of carbon. The graywacke formation in 

 which the Mansfield coal occurs, embraces a large 

 part of Bristol and part of Plymouth counties, as 

 well as a part of Rhode Island. All this space is con- 

 sidered by some geologists as a coal-field, and, in- 

 deed, for a distance of 30 miles on its northern side, 

 coal has been found in many places. In Foxbor- 

 ough, two miles from Mansfield, coal has also been 

 found, but not in very large quantity. Small quan- 

 tities of bituminous coal have been found in the new 

 red sandstone near West Springfield, where there 

 is an upward bend in the rock, which Prof. Hitch- 

 cock imputes to the protrusion of a basaltic dike 

 from below.* 



Anthracite Coal-fields of Pennsylvania. — No 

 part of the world can boast of such inexhaustible beds 

 of anthracite as the State of Pennsylvania. To use 

 the language of Prof. Rogers : " Embracing a terri- 

 tory where the upper coal-bearing rocks of the great 

 ancient secondary basis of the Continent terminate 

 towards the east and north, the revolutions which 

 have stripped other states of their treasures have 

 left us in possession of some of the largest and 

 most richly-supplied coal-fields of which any coun- 

 try can boast. When we regard their immense ex- 

 tent, comprising either the whole or a part of the area 

 of 30 counties out of the 54 in the state, and the 

 wide range and great thickness of many of the coal- 

 seams ; and when we contemplate the amazing va- 

 riety in the character of the mineral itself, showing 

 every known gradation from cannel coal to anthra- 



* Hitchcock's Report of a re- examination of the Economical 

 Geology of Massachusetts. 



