CUMBERLAND COAL. 



315 



mmous coals, is still sufficient to produce a ready 

 combustion, which is very enduring on account of 

 the large quantity of carbon. In general, this coal 

 burns with little or no odour, and exhales so little 

 smoke or fume, that it does not line the chimney 

 with any combustible matter ; the chimney, there- 

 fore, needs no cleansing ; no exhalation is emitted to 

 soil the furniture of a room ; and it is even asserted, 

 that any white substance held in the current of a 

 chimney contracts no fuliginous tint from the burn- 

 ing of this coal. In a grate it kindles easily, and 

 burns with a degree of vivacity intermediate be- 

 tween that of bituminous coal and anthracite, while 

 the heat and its endurance are in the same relation ; 

 it lasts through the night, affording a mass of fire 

 in the morning which is easily revived by adding 

 more coal. 



It possesses the usual slaty structure of the bitu- 

 minous coals, is intensely black and brilliant, and is 

 preferred by those who have used it both to the an- 

 thracite and the common bituminous coals. Pro- 

 fessor Silliman, from whose late able Report to the 

 New- York and Maryland Coal and Iron Company 

 we have obtained these facts, remarks, that the dis- 

 covery of this coal u is a very important acquisition 

 to the nation. It has for ages reposed, almost un- 

 known, in the bosom of its native mountains, and 

 would still, as regards the public, have remained a 

 sealed treasure, had not the great canal opened a 

 channel, by means of which it will soon be brought 

 into the market, and placed in competition with the 

 coal of other regions."* The above description will 

 also apply to the coal found in the Savage Mount- 

 ain, on what is called the Howell Estate, in the 

 same vicinity ; which embraces three distinct beds 

 of from three to twelve feet thick, also associated 



* This coal-field rests upon old red sandstone, and this upon 

 transition limestone, full of encrinites and trilobites. 



