READ IN THE SENATE, MARCH 4, 1834, AND HARRISBURG : PRINTED BY HENRY WELSH 1834. UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN LIBRARIES 6.30 ན་ཚོ REPORT, &c. THE committee appointed in pursuance of a resolution adopted by the Senate at the last session of the Legislature, upon the subject of the coal trade, and to whom was referred the memorial of sundry Coal dealers in the county of Schuylkill, respectfully submit the following REPORT: The coal trade of Pennsylvania, recently and suddenly starting into existence, now constitutes one of the main branches of our domestic industry, and an important portion of the commerce of the State and the Union. It has given a new stimulus to individual as well as national enterprize, and affords active and profitable employment for numerous and various classes of the community. It has produced a spirit of improvement, interspersing the country with canals and railroads, which, by connecting the distant parts together, promote the convenience and prosperity of the people, while they add to the strength and elevate the character of the State. It has raised up in our formerly barren and uninhabited districts, an intelligent and permanent population, and converted the mountains into theatres of busy life, and our hitherto waste and valueless lands, into sites for flourishing and populous villages. It has opened a new field for the investment of capital, the expenditure of labour, and the pursuit of all the purposes of civilization and society. Its benefits are not alone confined to those engaged immediately in the trade, but are becoming general and universal. Possessing all the varieties of their species, anthracite and bituminous; furnishing a cheap and preferable article of fuel; and affording new facilities to the manufacturer, whose products enter into all the ramifications of domestic as well as foreign consumption, the mineral coals of Pennsylvania now exert an influence upon every other branch of trade, and afford the means of rearing and permanently supporting, on this side of the Atlantic, all the mechanic arts. and handicraft of the old world. It will readily be admitted, that any legislation calculated to affect, either immediately or remotely, an interest thus important, and yet in its infancy, ought to be guarded with peculiar care; and that grants of perpetuity, or privileges having a tendency to a monopoly of an ar ticle that must soon become the staple product of the State, ought only to be conferred in obedience to the clearest and most irresistible demands of public policy and paramount necessity. Viewing the sub. ject committed to them in this light, the committee have devoted a due share of attention to it, and now submit to the Senate the result of their best reflections: THE ANTHRACITE of Pennsylvania, so far as its presence has been ascertained, would seem to exist in three separate and distinct beds or fields, bearing to each other a striking similitude in geographical position, extent of area, and geological character: The first, or Mauch Chunk, Schuylkill and Lykens valley coal field; the second, or Beaver Meadow, Shamokin and Mahanoy coal field; and the third, or Lackawanna and Wyoming coal field. It is believed by some, and would seem not improbable, that there is another and distinct coal field between the second and third, running parallel with them, and extending near to and perhaps across the river Lehigh, in the direction of Wallenpaupack, in Pike county. Indications of coal appear, it is said, on the waters of the Wallenpaupack, head waters of Nescopeck, Bear creek, Beaver lake, and Drinker's creek. There is certainly sufficient room for the existence of such coal field between the second and third; but the country being for the most part wild and unexplored, the fact is not sufficiently established to gain full credence, nor yet can it be wholly disbelieved. The eastern termination of the second field, near the Lehigh, not having yet been accurately defined, it may be of sufficient width at Beaver Meadows, Pismire hills, Sandy run, Wright's creek, &c., to embrace a part, if not the whole of the territory where these indications are exhibited. The committee are inclined to believe this is the fact, and that, as before stated, the anthracite is confined to three fields or deposites. Possibly these might be correctly termed parts only of one entire coal region, embracing the whole country between the Dial mountain, bounding the third coal field in Luzerne county, on the north, and the Sharp mountain or southern boundary, in Schuylkill county, on the south. Like the question, whether the coal itself be of mineral or vegetable production, or of secondary or primitive formation, having existed from the beginning" in the midst of the waters," and presenting itself at these places when "the dry land was commanded to appear," this fact is of little practical importance, and may rather serve to amuse the curious, and to occupy the time of those skilled in the doctrine of the earth. It will not be deemed as having been improperly adverted to, if it shall be found to have had any influence in inducing the Legislature to authorise, at some future time, a full topographical and geological survey of the State. To enable the committce more satisfactorily to discharge the duties. assigned to them, and to ascertain more particularly the extent of the coal trade and the various improvements consequent upon it, they visited, during the recess of the Legislature, many of the principal mining establishments, in person. They also addressed to the principal coal dealers in the different districts, whose opportunities and intelligence, it was believed, enabled them to give the information required, and upon which the Senate could rely, a number of queries, with such variations and additions as the nature of the respective cases seemed to require. These queries, as also the answers, which are generally full and satisfactory, are inserted in the appendix, from No. 1 to 16.. THE FIRST, OR MAUCH CHUNK AND SCHUYLKILL COAL FIELD, Commences near the river Lehigh, in Northampton county, on the east, and extends through the heart of Schuylkill county to Wicinisco creek, emptying into the river Susquehanna, in Dauphin county, on the west. Here it has generally been supposed to terminate; and for all practical purposes, it may, perhaps, be so considered. It has been supposed by some, however, that it extended originally across the river, and west of it, some three or four miles, in Perry county. The red shale, which appears to form the base of the anthracite, and which is found to form a regular and uninterrupted circle or border around each of these deposites, does not terminate east of the river, but continues on either side of Wicinisco creek, and is crossed by the Susquehanna immediately above Millersburg, and also below it, between the Wicinisco and Peter's mountains. A vein of coal has also been discovered in the bed of the river, opposite Millersburg, as also several small veins in the mountain on the west side, on lands of Peter Ritner, below Liverpool. From the summit, between the head waters of the Swatara and Wicinisco creeks, toward the Susquehanna, the mountains diverge, and are considerably depressed, the whole descent from the short mountain or Wicinisco mines to the river, (sixteen miles,) being 305 feet. It is therefore probable that the mountains at the river do not contain any workable or profitable beds, and that none will be found on the east side, much nearer the river than those now worked by the Wicinisco coal company. The river has apparently broken through the immense barrier, or chain of mountains, at this point, nearly at right angles, and it is probable has, in its course, greatly interrupted the regular strata of coal, (if they ever extended to this point,) leaving in the "crush of matter," particles and fragments only of the mineral deposite. Opposed to this theory, we have all the characteristic features of a well defined coal formation, terminating at Short mountain, on the waters of the Wicinisco, bounded by a first and second mountain barrier, and similar in all respects to those of the second and third coal fields. Assuming this to be the western termination of the first coal field, it is about sixty-five miles in length, averaging about five miles in width, and is enclosed or bounded by a continuous mountain, forming a trough, or longitudinal basin. This boundary, called the Broad mountain, on the north, and Mauch Chunk or Sharp mountain on the south, is cut down to a greater or less extent, at various places, by the different streams that take their rise in the coal field, or pass through it. At the south, it is penetrated by the Little Schuylkill, or Tamaqua river, at Tamaqua; by the river Schuylkill at Pottsville by the West branch at Minersville, and by the head waters of the Swatara creek at Pine Grove; and at the west by the Wicinisco and Stoney creeks. The northern boundary is also cut through by Roush's creek, a branch of Mahantango, and also, to some extent by the west branch of the Schuylkill, Mill creek, and a branch of Ta |