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had been once elevated and broken by a subterraneous power. 
The workmen are paid daily, gain about eighteen dollars a month, 
and occupy several houses not far from the mine. They have 
dug a well in the stratum of coal, which furnishes pure and good 
drinking water. 
We rode back to Mauch Chunk on the excellent road, made 
altogether on account of the mine. There is a place on the road 
where iron sand is dug, and whence runs a chalybeate spring, 
which leaves settlings of ochre. Two miles from Mauch Chunk 
we ascended the hill, on the other side of which, again quanti¬ 
ties of coal are found. It is, however, very difficult to reach the 
layer on this high and steep hill, and the transportation of coals 
thence to Mauch Chunk would be attended with great inconve¬ 
nience and expense. To obviate this, the company is cutting 
through the hill at a certain height, a tunnel in the rock, by 
which means the stratum may, to use the expression, be reached 
by the rear, and the conveyance of the coals be much facilitated. 
This tunnel is to be ten feet high and fifteen wide, with a rail-road 
in the middle. They have cut through two hundred feet already, 
and have yet one hundred and twenty feet to work, before they 
reach the coal. This labour is fatiguing and tedious; twelve men 
work day and night. They blast the rocks with powder, and ad¬ 
vance but one foot in twenty-four hours. 
In the valley of Mauch Chunk creek, along the road, two fur¬ 
naces are erected in order to cast the pieces necessary for the 
rail-road, to avoid their transportation and to accelerate the work 
on the road. Two saw-mills have also been built in this valley, 
but the water in the creek is generally too low to depend much 
on their assistance in such works. The company employs about 
one thousand eight hundred workmen, who live partly near the 
mine, but generally in small houses in the place belonging to the 
company. Their habitations form a street along Mauch Chunk 
creek, nearly half a mile long. A great number of them are mar¬ 
ried and have their families with them. The company has given 
them a clergyman, and a school with a good teacher, to instruct 
their children. A massive mill is also erected near the creek, 
in which all the flour necessary for the place is ground; the coun¬ 
try is too rough for culture; the company exchanges in a very 
profitable manner coal for grain. Meadows have, however, 
been laid out in the valley, in order to gain the necessary hay 
for one hundred and twenty horses, which daily work here, 
The creek also works bellows, by means of which the necessary 
draft of air is preserved in the furnaces and in the forges. 
A store belonging to the society, and furnished with all the ne¬ 
cessary articles, is also kept here. In this the workmen and 
