326 



TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



ON THE ANTHRACITE DEPOSIT AT TAMAQUA, SCHUYLKILL 

 COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, WITH A MAP AND SECTION. By 

 H. KoEHLER, Esquire. 



Plate 20. 



The anthracite region, confined between old red sand- 

 stone, both at its southern and northern limits, occupies 

 at Tamaqua the space of one mile in breadth, and is 

 distinctly marked by the summit of Sharp and Locust 

 mountains, which are the highest levels of a basin, in 

 which thirty-two large coal beds at present known, and 

 a great number of small veins occur. Within this basin 

 thinly stratified sandstone of greyish or darker colour 

 prevails, and with slate impregnated with carbon and 

 filled with petrefiictions of palm stems and leaves, ferns 

 and reeds, forms the walls of the coal veins. This sand- 

 stone and slate, frequently containing layers of small 

 grained conglomerate, rest upon conglomerate made up 

 of large pebbles, and forming the crests of Sharp and 

 Locust mountains, exhibiting grotesque masses of rock. 

 On the south side of the Sharp mountain, near the ledge 

 of conglomerate rock called the ^' back bone of the coal 

 region," commences red shell ; and although some beds 

 of conglomerate are often found alternately with the 

 strata of the red sandstone south of Sharp mountain, no 

 distinct coal veins have been discovered therein. On the 

 northern declivity of Locust mountain, the red shell is 

 again in situ, and limits the extent of the coal field on 

 that side, at which, after a distance of about four miles 

 north, conglomerate reappears to embrace the coal beds 

 of the Broad mountain. The principal coal beds of Ta- 

 maqua vary from 3 to 28 feet in width. Those of the 



