the company to abandon their undertaking. Some of the coal, it is said, was tried under the boiler of the engine at the Centre square, but only served to put the fire out, and the remainder was broken up and spread on the walks in place of gravel!

The legislature were early aware of the importance of the navigation of the Lehigh, and in 1771 passed a law for its improvement. Subsequent laws for the same object were enacted in 1791, 1794, 1798, 1810, 1814, and 1816. A company was formed under one of them, which expended upwards of $30,000 in clearing out channels; one of which they attempted to make through the ledges of slate which extend across the river, about seven miles above Allentown; but they found the slate too hard to pick, and too shelly to blow; and at length considered it an insuperable obstacle to the completion of the work, and relinquished it.

The Coal Mine Company in the meanwhile, anxious to have their property brought into notice, gave leases of their mines to different individuals in succession, for periods of 21, 14, and 10 years, adding to the last the privilege of taking timber from their lands for the purpose of floating the coal to market. Messrs. Cist, Miner, and Robinson, who had the last lease, started several arks, only three of which reached the city, and they abandoned their business at the close of the war, in 1815.

In 1812, Messrs. White & Hazard, who were then manufacturing wire at the falls of Schuylkill, induced a number of individuals to associate and apply to the legislature for a law for the improvement of the river Schuylkill. The coal which was said to be on the head waters of that river, was held up as an inducement to the legislature to make the grant, when the senator from Schuylkill county asserted that there was no coal there-that there was a kind of "black stone" that was "called" coal, but that it would not burn!

During the war, Virginia coal became very scarce: and Messrs. White & Hazard having been told by Mr. Joshua Malin, that he had succeeded in making use of Lehigh coal in his rollingmill, procured a cart-load of it, which cost them $1 per bushel. This quantity was entirely wasted without getting up the requisite heat. Another cart-load was however obtained, and a whole night spent in endeavoring to make a fire in the furnace, when the hands shut the furnace door and left the mill in despair. Fortunately one of them left his jacket in the mill, and returning for it in about half an hour, noticed that the door was red hot, and upon opening it, was surprised at finding the whole furnace at a glowing white heat. The other hands were summoned, and four separate parcels of iron were heated and rolled by the same fire, before it required renewing. The furnace was then replenished, and as letting it alone had succeeded so well, it was concluded to try it again, and the experiment was repeated with the same result.

In July, 1818, the Lehigh Navigation Company, and in Oct. the Lehigh Coal Company, were formed, which together were the foundation of the present Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, as will appear by the preamble to their charter, passed in 1822. The improvement of the Lehigh was commenced in Aug. 1818. In 1820, only two years from the commencement, coal was sent to Philadelphia, by an artificial navigation, and sold at $8 40 per ton, delivered: 365 tons completely stocked the market.

In 1821 and 1822, the quantities were so much increased, that the public became secure of a supply, and its own good qualities, together with its reasonable price, gave it an extensive and rapidly increasing demand. At this period, anthracite coal may be said to be permanently introduced into use. In 1824, the Lehigh Company reduced the price of coal to $7. In 1825, coal first came to Philadelphia by the improved navigation of the Schuylkill-the quantity was 5,378 tons. In 1826, 16,265 tons of coal were transported on the Schuylkill, and 31,280 tons on the Lehigh. And now anthracite coal promises to become the largest and most profitable staple of Pennsylvania.

Nature did not furnish enough water, by the regular flow of the river, to keep the channels at the proper depth, owing to the very great fall in the river, and the consequent rapidity of its motion. It became necessary to accumulate water by artificial means, and let it off at stated periods, and let the boats pass down with the long wave thus formed, which filled up the channels. This was effected by constructing dams in the neighborhood of Mauch Chunk, in which were placed sluice-gates of a peculiar construction, invented for the purpose by Josiah White, (one of the managers,) by means of which the water could be retained in the pool above, until required for use. When the dam became full, and the water had run over it long enough for the river below the dam to acquire the depth of the ordinary flow of the river, the sluice-gates were let down, and the boats, which were lying in the pools above, passed down with the artificial flood. About 12 of these dams and sluices were made in 1819.

The boats used on this descending navigation consisted of square boxes or arks, from 16 to 18 feet wide, and 20 to 25 feet long. At first, two of these were joined together by hinges, to allow them to bend up and down in passing the dams and sluices; and as the men became accustomed to the work, and the channels were straightened and improved as experience dictated, the number of sections in each boat was increased, till at last their whole length reached 180 feet. They were steered with long oars, like a raft. Machinery was devised for jointing and putting together the planks of which these boats were made, and the hands became so expert that five men would put one of the sections together and launch it in 45 minutes. Boats of this description

were used on the Lehigh till the end of the year 1831, when the Delaware division of the Penn. sylvania canal was partially finished. In the last year 40,966 tons were sent down, which required so many boats to be built, that, if they had all been joined in one length, they would have extended more than 13 miles. These boats made but one trip, and were then broken up in the city, and the planks sold for lumber, the spikes, hinges, and other iron work, being returned to Mauch Chunk by land, a distance of 80 miles.

The descending navigation by artificial freshets on the Lehigh is the first on record which was used as a permanent thing; though it is stated that in the expedition in 1779, under Gen. Sullivan, Gen. James Clinton successfully made use of the expedient to extricate his division of the army from some difficulty on the east branch of the Susquehanna, by erecting a temporary dam across the outlet of Otsego lake, which accumulated water enough to float them, when let off, and carry them down the river.

The celebrated Summit mines, which have furnished nearly all the coal of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company for many years, are situated nine miles west of Mauch Chunk, on the summit of the Mauch Chunk mountain. The coal is brought to the landing by a railroad which was commenced in Jan. 1827, the materials, except the iron, (which was in Philadelphia,) being at that time growing in the forest, and was completed and in operation within three months from its commencement! Most of the route, however, had been previously graded for a turnpike. This was the first railroad in the United States, except that at Quincy. Every thing about this road-the mine-the descent-the scenery-the chute at the landing-is well worthy the attention of a stranger. The road descends from the mine to the top of the chute at the rate of 100 feet per mile, and the descent is accomplished, by means of gravity, usually in about half an hour, the empty coal wagons being returned to the mines by mules, which ride down with the coal. This novel arrangement was made at the suggestion of Mr. Josiah White, and enables the mules to make two and a half trips to the summit and back, thus travelling about 40 miles each day. The mules cut a most grotesque figure, standing, three or four together, in their cars, with their feeding troughs before them, apparently surveying with delight the scenery of the mountain; and although they preserve the most profound gravity, it is utterly impossible for the spectator to maintain his. It is said that the mules having once experienced the comfort of riding down, regard it as a right, and neither mild nor severe measures will induce them to descend in any other way. The wagons, both of coal and mules, run down in gangs of 16 each, under the charge of one brakeman. It creates thrilling impressions upon the traveller, to stand near the road, and first to hear something thundering and rattling through the forest, and then to see the dark procession suddenly turn some point in the mountain and dash past with irresistible energy towards its destination. When they arrive at the head of the inclined plane at Lausanne, each car is detached and shot down the plane by itself, its weight drawing up an empty car. A rope round a drum at the top regulates the motion; and other contrivances below direct the cars into the proper track. A strong barrier of logs in the form of a blockhouse is placed across the plane to arrest any car that might leave the track. About 700 tons are mined, sent down to the landing, screened, and shipped in one day.

The Summit mine lies near the eastern extremity of the great southern or Pottsville coal basin, which extends from this point nearly to the Susquehanna in Dauphin co., where it is divided into two prongs. There is every reason to belive that this basin has received its peculiar shape

by the upheaving of the vast ridges of Sharp mountain on the south, and Broad mountain on the north, and the contemporaneous or subsequent denudation of the tops of these mountains by the action of a deluge. There are also several minor ridges, known among geologists as anticlinal ridges, crossing the basin in an oblique direction, which imparted to its strata those peculiar contortions exposed at the Summit mines and other openings. But the limits of this work will not admit of extended geological descriptions. Professor Silliman, who visited these mines in 1830, says―

This great excavation is at the termination, and nearly on the summit of the Mauch Chunk mountain. Nothing can be more obvious and intelligible than this mine. They have removed the soil and upper surface of loose materials, and come directly down upon the coal or upon the rocks which cover it. The geological structure is extremely simple. As far as we saw, the upper rock is a sandstone, or a fragmentary aggregate, of which the parts are more or less coarse or fine in different situations. In this region there is much puddingstone and conglomerate, and much that would probably be called graywacke, by most geologists. In the mechanical aggregates, which abound so much in this region, the parts are of every size, from that of large peb. bles to that of sand. The pebbles are chiefly quartz, and even in the firmest rocks they are usu ally rounded, and exhibit every appearance of having been worn by attrition. The cement appears to be a silicious substance, and the masses are frequently possessed of great firmness. Be neath this rock, there is usually some variety of argillaceous slate, which commonly, although not universally, forms the roof of the coal: sometimes the sandstone is directly in contact with the coal, the slate being omitted; the slate also forms the floor.

The mine at Mauch Chunk occupies an area of more than eight acres, and the excavation is in platforms or escarpments, of which there are in most places two or three. The coal is fairly laid open to view, and lies in stupendous masses, which are worked, under the open air, exactly as in a stone quarry. The excavation being in an angular area, and entered at different points by roads cut through the coal, in some places quite down to the lowest level; it has much the appearance of a vast fort, of which the central area is the parade-ground, and the upper escarpment is the platform for the cannon. The greatest ascertained thickness of the coal is stated at about 54 feet; in one place it is supposed to be 100 feet thick; but that which is fully in view is generally from 12 to 20 or 25, and even sometimes 35 feet. Several banks of these dimensions are exposed, interrupted only by thin seams of slate running parallel with the strata. The latter are inclined generally at angles from 5 to 15 degrees, and they follow, with very great regu larity, the external form of the mountain. In some places they are saddle, or mantle-shaped; in some positions they and the attendant strata are wonderfully contorted, twisted, and broken, and in one place, both are in a vertical position, while at a little distance they return to the general arrangement. It is impossible to avoid the impression that some great force has disturbed the original arrangement, and either elevated or depressed some of the strata.

The various entrances to the mine are numbered. At No. 3 there is a perpendicular section through all the strata down to the floor of the coal, and the graywacke, the slate and the coal, are all raised on edge; the strata are in some places vertical, or curved, or waving, and they are broken in two at the upper part, and bent in opposite directions.

Has subterranean fire produced these extraordinary dislocations? It would seem to favor this view, that the graywacke has, in some places contiguous to the coal, the appearance of having been baked; it appears indurated; it is harsh and dry, and it is inflated with vesicles, as if gas, produced and rarefied by heat, was struggling to escape. The appearance is, in these respects, very similar to that which was described in Vol. XVII, p. 119, of this Journal, [of Science] as exhibited in connection with the trap rocks near Hartford, Connecticut, although it is less striking. Since the visit of Prof. Silliman the mine has been much enlarged by the additional labors of twelve years, but its general appearance is nearly the same. The annexed view shows an immense mass, or sort of island, in the mine, produced by the successive abstractions from its circumference. Above the black strata of coal are seen the thinner seams of slate; and above that the thick beds of sandstone, and its superincumbent soil, with the ancient pines of the forest rooted in it. When this sketch was taken in 1842, the workmen were undermining the coal on the further side, intending to let the sandstone tumble over into the cavity behind it, and leave the coal stripped for quarrying. This process, however

can only be resorted to when there is some old excavation to receive the useless sandstone. From nearly all the remainder of this vast quarry, these immense masses of sandstone, clay and rubbish, have actually been taken away by the cart-load on temporary railroads from the mine to the brow of the hill. Here the rubbish has been deposited by successive loads, until nearly a hundred artificial hills have been made, radiating in all directions from the centre of the mine. These hills overtop the highest trees of the valley below, and have buried many of them alive. Annexed is a sketch of several of them. On the right is seen Mine hill, stretching away towards Pottsville.

So much coal has been removed from the Summit mines, and the process of stripping is becoming so expensive, that the company, while they do not abandon the system of quarrying, have opened their mines at Room run on the Nesquihoning, by means of tunnelling and drifting, and

are about making a tunnel into the Mauch Chunk mountain. The Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, frequently called by the people along the Lehigh the "Mauch Chunk Company," own the following property:

1. The eastern end of the first coal region, with the improvements thereon, capable of supplying coal of the best quality at the rate of a million of tons annually for a century.

2. The water power of the Lehigh, sufficient to drive 200 furnaces for smelting ore; which would require, annually, to keep them in operation, 1,000,000 tons of coal, 1,500,000 tons of ore, and 500,000 tons of limestone.

3. The strips of land along the navigation, in most cases, which will be required to use the water power upon.

4. The land in all the leading places along their works necessary for town plots as places of business, as South Easton, Mauch Chunk, White Haven, and Nesquihoning.

5. The slackwater navigation (72 miles) and descending navigation (12 miles) of the Lehigh. The former calculated for boats of 120 to 150 tons, and capable of passing more than 2,500,000 tons annually, connecting with the railroad to Wilkesbarre. The descending navigation penetrating into the immense forests of white pine and other lumber.

6. The railroad of 20 miles connecting the slackwater navigation of the Lehigh with the Pennsylvania canal, along the north branch of the Susquehanna. Fifteen miles of this road are now in use, and the remaining five miles will be passable in a few months, and capable of transporting more than 500,000 tons a year.

BEAVER MEADOW is a pleasant village of framed white houses, on the Mauch Chunk and Berwick turnpike, 12 miles from the former place. It contains the office and stores of the Beaver Meadow Co., one or more churches, two or three taverns, &c. Near the village are several small hamlets occupied by the miners, most of whom are Welsh. The Beaver Meadow coal mines are about a mile and a half west of the village. The Stafford Co. have a mine a little nearer the village.

The Beaver Meadow railroad commences at the mines, passes near the village, and thence down the valleys of Beaver Meadow and Quakake creeks to the Lehigh, and down that river to the landing on the Mauch Chunk basin, opposite the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Co.'s landing. The railroad was intended to be continued to Easton, and was actually constructed as far as Parryville, crossing the river on a fine bridge below Mauch Chunk. But the memorable flood of Jan. 1841, swept away the bridge, the culvert at Mahoning, and tore up the road in many places. The company has not since repaired the road below Mauch Chunk. Steam locomotives are used on the road. A railroad was commenced and partly completed up the Quakake valley, intended to connect with the Susquehanna at Catawissa; but for want of funds it has never been finished, and the design for the present appears to be abandoned. Prof. Silliman has the following remarks in relation to this mine :

This mine was opened in 1813, and as the title was contested, Mr. Beach of Salem, on the Susquehanna, who claimed it, could not give a clear title till last winter, when he gained the suit, and sold 550 acres to Judge Barnes of Philadelphia. A company is about to be formed to carry on the business of the mine. A railroad is in contemplation either to the Schuylkill or to the Lehigh. If to the latter, it is said that it will be constructed down Beaver cr. to the Lehigh, and down the stream to Mauch Chunk; the whole length to be 18 miles-11 to the Lehigh and 7 down that stream. Active exertions are now making in Philadelphia to accomplish the object of working this mine, and conveying its coal to market. It is well worthy of the effort. The coal is universally regarded as being of the best quality. All persons whom we heard speak of it agreed in that opinion. The appearance of the coal corresponds with that impression, and its burning too, as far as we could judge by limited opportunities of observation. The mine is in the side of a hill; there is no roof, or only a very thin one. It is worked open to the day, like a quarry. It is already fairly disclosed, and there is no apparent impediment to obtaining any quantity of the coal that may be desired. The situation of the mine is not, however, much elevated above the general surface of the country in its vicinity; but there is descent