ANTHRACITE COAL-FIELDS. SOS 
cite, Siting it thus for every possible adaptation in 
the art« or as a fuel, and then turn our attention to 
the geological and topographical structure of the re- 
,^ions, affording a ready access to their most seclu- 
ded districts, we behold such a prodigality of happy 
circumstances as may well inspire exultation. It is 
estimated that the anthracite coal conveyed to mar- 
ket from our mines in the course of the last year 
(1837) has nearly amounted to 900,000 tons ; yet 
this large quantity sinks into insignificance when 
we look at what the coal trade even in the next 10 
years is destined to become. If we turn to the 
southern anthracite basin, the present seat of the 
most extensive mining operations in the state, we 
behold a mass of coal measuring nearly 60 miles in 
length and two in average breadth, having in the mid- 
dle an aggregate thickness of good and available 
coal exceeding probably 100 feet! When we con- 
sider that from this basin and its branches above 
730,000 tons have been sent to market in the course 
of the past year from six districts only, and when we 
reflect that nearly all this coal has been taken from 
the strata above the water-level, below which hun- 
dreds, nay, thousands of feet of coal, following the 
dip of the same, lie still untouched, we are made 
aware of the enormous amount of undeveloped re- 
sources in this coal region alone." 
The anthracite coal-fields of Pennsylvania lie 
chiefly to the northeast of the Susquehanna River. 
If we trace a parallelogram, one line following the 
Kittatinny or Blue Mountain from the Water Gap 
of the river Lehigh to the Susquehanna; another 
from that mountain up that last river to its north 
branch ; and a third along the north branch and its 
tributary the Lackawanna, until we reach a point 
almost due north of the point we started from, we 
shall then enclose nearly all the genuine anthracite 
seams hitherto discovered in Pennsylvania. 
The most southeastern range of coal-seams may 
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