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gap to the Delaware, the river pursues its course in a deep ravine, seldom with alluvial borders of much extent. In this district of country, the soil generally rests on limestone sinks, indicating caves; and fissures in the rocks are often observed, that must, in some places, render canalling difficult. From the confluence of the Lehigh with the Delaware to tide-water, the descent is one hundred and fifty feet.

The village of Mauch Chunk is situated on the western bank of the Lehigh, in a deep romantic ravine, between rocky mountains that rise in some parts precipitously to eight hundred or one thousand feet above the stream. Space was procured for dwellings, by breaking down the adjacent rocks and filling up a part of the ravine of Mauch Chunk Creek. A portion of this stream has been transferred to an elevated railway, and is used to propel a grist-mill. Within a few years the Lehigh Company have erected, and are proprietors of, a large number of dwellings and buildings of every description, including a spacious hotel, a store, furnaces, grist-mills, and . several saw-mills: about eight hundred men are employed by the company.*

The coal is conveyed to Mauch Chunk village, in wagons running upon the railway. Fourteen of them, containing each one ton and a half of coal, are connected by iron bars, admitting of a slight degree of motion between two contiguous wagons; a single man rides on one of the wagons, and, by a very simple contrivance, regulates their movement: a perpendicular lever causes a piece of wood to press against the circumference of each wheel on the same side of the car, acting both ways from the central point between them, so that, by increasing the pressure, the friction retards of stops the motion, and as all the levers are connected by a rope, they are made to act ir concert. The traveller is much interested in seeing the successive groups of wagon:: moving rapidly in procession and without apparent cause; they are heard, at a considerable distance, as they come thundering along with their dark burdens, and give an impression of irresistible energy: at a suitable distance follows another train, and thus three hundred tons a day, and some days three hundred and forty tons, are regularly discharged into the boats as already described. At first, they descended at the rate of fifteen or twenty miles an hour, but they were obliged to reduce the speed, as it injured the machines, and, by agitating and wearing the coal, involved the driver in a cloud of black dust. The empty wagons are drawn back by mules; fourteen wagons to eight mules; twenty-eight mules draw up forty-two coal and seven mule wagons, and the arrangement is so made, that the ascending parties shall arrive in due season at the proper places for turning out. The same is true of the pleasure cars, which are allowed to use the rail-way; only they must not interfere with its proper business, and should they do it, it would be at their peril, as they might be crushed by the momentum of the descending wagons. When they happen to be caught out of their proper place, the drivers make all possible haste to remove them out of the rail-way track; but they carefully avoid these meetings, and they rarely happen, unless the cars go out of their proper time.

The mules ride down the rail-way; they are furnished with provender placed in proper mangers, four of them being inclosed in one pen mounted on wheels; and seven of these cars are connected into one group, so that twenty-eight mules constitute the party, which, with their heads all directed down the mountain, and apparently surveying its fine landscapes, are seen moving rapidly down the inclined plane with a Judicrous gravity, which, when observed for the first time, proves too much for the

severest muscles.

They readily perform their duty of drawing up the empty cars, but having once experienced the comfort of riding down, they appear to regard it as a right, and neither mild nor severe measures, not even the sharpest whipping, can ever induce them to descend in any other way.

The return of the traveller, in the pleasure cars, is so rapid that it is not easy entirely to suppress the apprehension of danger; we perform the eight miles from the summit in thirty-three minutes; should an axle-tree break-an accident which sometimes

Next to Mauch Chunk, Mount Carbon, or Pottsville, as it is now called, situated at the head of the Schuylkill canal, has been the principal source of the supply of anthracite. Many large veins are worked within three miles of the landing; and some have been opened seven miles to the north-east; in the direction of the Lehigh beds.

On almost every eminence adjacent to Pottsville, indications of coal are disclosed. The veins generally run in a north-east direction, with an inclination of about forty-five degrees, and are from three to nine feet in thickness; commencing at or near the surface they penetrate to an unknown depth, and can often be traced on hills for a considerable distance, by sounding in a north-east or south-west direction. Some veins have been wrought to the depth of two hundred feet without the necessity of draining; the inclined slate roof shielding them from water.

Where the ground admits, it is considered the best mode of working veins, to commence at the back of a coal eminence, or as low as possible, and work up, filling the excavation with slate and fine coal, leaving a horizontal passage for the coal barrows. A section of a wide vein near Pottsville, has been wrought by this mode several hundred feet into the hill. The same vein is explored from parts of the summit by vertical and inclined shafts. The coal and slate handled, are raised by horse-power, in wagons by a rail-way that has the inclination of the vein. Veins of coal alternate with gray wacke slate in the hill. Vegetable impression sometimes occur in the argillaceous schist that forms the roof of the Pottsville coal veins.

The western part of Pennsylvania is abundantly supplied with bituminous coal, as the eastern is with anthracite. It is found on the rivers Conemaugh, Alleghany, and Monongahela, and in numerous places to the west of the Alleghany ridge, which is generally its eastern boundary; it occurs on this mountain at a considerable elevation, and elsewhere, in nearly a horizontal position, alternating with gray sand-stone that is often micaceous and bordered by argillaceous schist. The veins are generally narrow, rarely over six feet in width. This mineral is abundant and of good quality near Pittsburg, where it is valuable for their extensive manufactures. Beds of bituminous coal are reported as occurring in Bedford county, in the north-west part of Luzerne, and in Bradford county. In the last county, nine miles from the Susquehanna, there is an extensive bed of coal, regarded as bituminous. It has been penetrated thirty feet without fathoming the debth of the strata.

Bituminous coal is abundant in Tioga county, state of New York. The summit level is forty-four feet above the river, and upwards of four hundred above the lake. It occurs on the Tioga, and on the Chemung, a branch

happens with the coal wagons-it would be impossible that the passengers should escape unhurt, especially in the turnings of the road, and in places where trees, rocks and precipices allow no safe place of landing. All danger would however be avoided by checking the motion, so that it should not exceed eight or ten miles an hour, and this is easily done in the same way as that practised in the coal wagons. Happily, no accident has yet occurred. It would be prudent, at least, to require the manager to check the motion of the car at the steepest places; but these are the very situations where he chooses to make a display of cracking his whip and cheering his wheels, instead of his horses, and the increased impulse, given by gravity, as he relaxes the pressure of the lever, when the car springs forward like spirited horses at the word of their master makes the illusion almost complete.-Silliman's Journal.

of that river. Bituminous coal exists on the numerous streams that descend the western side of the extensive peninsula, situated between the north and west branches of the Susquehanna.

The appearance of the Tioga, or bituminous coal, differs but little from the best Liverpool or Newcastle coal. Its color is velvet black, with a slight resinous lustre, its structure is slaty or foliated, and its layers as in the best English coal, divided. in prismatic solids, with bases slightly rhomboidal; it is easily frangible, and slightly soils the finger. It burns with a bright flame and considerable smoke, with a slight bituminous smell, a sort of ebullition taking place, and, as the heat increases, an appearance of semi-fusion leaving a slight residue or scoria.

Graphite or plumbago, commonly but improperly called black lead, occurs extensively in primitive and transition rocks; from that which is obtained in New York, excellent pencils have been made. There are also numerous localities of petroleum, or mineral oil. It usually floats on the surface of springs, which in many cases are known to be in the vicinity of coal. It is sometimes called Seneca or Gennessee oil. In Kentucky, it occurs on a spring of water in a state sufficiently liquid to burn in a lamp; it is collected in considerable quantities.

Salt appears to be abundant in the United States, but it has not been found in the mass. It is principally obtained from the springs which have been noticed in another part of the work. Professor Eaton has suggested doubts whether masses of salt really exist. He conceives that an apparatus for the spontaneous manufacture of salt may be found within the bosom of the earth, in those rocks which contain the necessary elements, and in this opinion he is supported by experiment. Subsequently, however, Mr. Eaton had reason to think that salt has existed in a solid state in cubical crystals, the hollow forms of which he discovered abundantly in the lias and saline rocks of the west, and it seems still to be highly probable that masses of salt exist in the neighborhood of the salt springs. The brine contains, besides the muriate of soda, a considerable proportion of muriate of lime and magnesia. Recently, also, bromine has been detected in the brine of salina, by Dr. Silliman. Saltpetre is abundant in the west, being found in numberless caves along the Missouri; and the shores of the Arkansas are almost covered with nitre. The testimony of Mr. Schoolcraft, in relation to the recent formation of quartz crystals, is very striking. They have been found, it appears, upon the handle of a spade, and the edge of some old shoes, which had been left for some years in an abandoned lead mine of the Shawnee Mountains. Crystals of great beauty and dimensions have been found in numerous localities. Many minerals which are rare in Europe, are found abundantly, and often in finer forms, in the United States; some, which have subsequently been detected elsewhere, were first discovered here, and not a few may still be claimed as the peculiar treasure of our country.

GENERAL REMARKS ON MINERALS.

It is observed by Dr. Mead, that a general resemblance can be traced between the minerals of North America, and those which have been found in the north of Europe, particularly in Norway and Sweden. This resemblance is stated to exist, not merely in the properties of the minerals themselves, but in the geological character, and geognostic situation throughout the whole series. It is observed more particularly in those specimens which are found to accompany the primitive formation at Arendal, in Nor

way; it is not confined, however, to the primitive range of mountains alone, as the same resemblance can be frequently traced, on comparing American minerals with those of Piedmont, and even of the Hartz Mountains. Among the principal minerals of the north of Europe, there are none of more importance than the ores of iron for which Norway and Sweden are so remarkable; and every variety of this mineral which has been met with there, has been found in the same class of rocks in America, in the greatest abundance, and of equally good quality. Titanium is one of those metals which have been found more particularly in the north of Europe. It is said to occur frequently in those primitive aggregates which contain beds of magnetic iron ore, associated with augite, scapolite, epidote and hornblende, precisely the same rocks in which we find it in this country. There is scarcely any part of Europe where a greater variety of augites are found than in Norway and Sweden; ror can there be any class of minerals in which the similitude between the specimens from those coun tries and America is more striking.

Mineralogy, considered as a pure science, is of very recent date. Early observations related merely to the usefulness of minerals to the purposes of society, and it was not before the lapse of many ages that they came to be investigated on account of their great variety, and the beautiful arrangements of which they are susceptible. No attempt was made to classify them before the introduction of alchemy into Europe by the Arabians; and to Avicenna belongs the merit of the first arrangement. He divided minerals into stones, metals, sulphurous fossils, and salts. In 1774, Werner published his great work on the External Properties of Minerals, which was of eminent service in first calling the attention of naturalists to the only correct method of arriving at a Knowledge of this department of nature. The study of minerals has received con siderable attention during the last twenty years in the United States.

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CHAPTER XVI.-ANIMALS.

I. QUADRUPEDS.

THE Black Bear (ursus Americanus) is found in considerable numbers in the northern districts of America. In size and form he approaches nearest to the Brown Bear; but his color is a uniform shining jet black, except on the muzzle, where it is fawn colored; on the lips and sides of the mouth it is almost gray. The hair, except on the muzzle, is long and

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straight, and is less shaggy than in most other species. The forehead has a slight elevation, and the muzzle is elongated, and somewhat flattened above. The young ones, however, are first of a bright ash color, which gradually changes into a deep brown, and ends by becoming a deep black. The American Black Bear lives a solitary life in forests and uncultivated deserts, and subsists on fruits, and on the young shoots and roots of vegetables. Of honey he is exceedingly fond, and as he is a most expert climber, he scales the loftiest trees in search of it. Fish, too, he delights in, and is often found in quest of it on the borders of lakes and on the seashore. When these resources fail, he will attack small quadrupeds, and even animals of some magnitude. As, indeed, is usual in such cases, the love of flesh in him grows with the use of it.

As the fur is of some value, the Indians are assiduous in the chase of the creature which produces it. About the end of December, from the abundance of fruits they find in Louisiana and the neighboring countries, the bears become so fat and lazy that they can scarcely run. At this time they are hunted by the American Indians. The nature of the chase is generally this: the bear chiefly adopts for his retreat the hollow trunk of an old cypress tree, which he climbs, and then descends into the cavity from above. The hunter, whose business it is to watch him into this retreat, climbs a neighboring tree, and seats himself opposite to the hole. In one hand he holds his gun, and in the other a torch, which he darts into the cavity. Frantic with rage and terror, the bear makes a spring from his

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