STATEMENT SHOWING THE NUMBER, LOCATION, AND NAMES OF COLLIERIES OF THE REGION, WITH NAMES OF OWNERS AND OPERATORS.
"In addition to the above 25 shipping collieries, several new mines are being opened. The Broad Top Coal & Iron Company are opening a col liery up Coal Creek, two miles south of Coalmont; the Huntingdon & Broad Top Railroad Company are opening a colliery near Crawford; the Riddlesburg Coal & Iron Company are opening a colliery opposite their Mount Equity colliery on Six Mile Run. The three branches of the rail road can be extended and new collieries opened as the increase of business may require. The shipments of the region have thus far been retarded by the inadequate supply of cars furnished operators by connecting roads.
"The workings of all the collieries of the region, excepting Dudley Slope, Scott, and Duvall shafts, are above water-level, worked by adits or gang ways driven into the hillsides in the coal-seam. From the gangways headings are driven,—generally up the dip,—from which ranges of rooms are laid off: each room is 27 feet wide, with 10 to 15 feet of coal-pillar between. Two miners work in each room, averaging 3 tons each per day. The mine-cars, carrying 2 tons, follow the miners up the middle of each room.
"All slate, whether free from roof or floor, is separated from coal before loading into the mine-car, so that nothing is sent out of the mine which cannot be dumped into railroad-cars and sent to market. 15 to 20 per cent. is usually allowed in estimating loss of coal in pillars and waste in mining. This expresses the whole loss, being the distinctive feature between the bituminous and anthracite coal-working.* "As no gases are liberated in working the coal, the means of ventilation are simple. The main object kept in view is to conduct a sufficient supply of pure air through the mine in order to displace the vitiated air where the miners are at work. This is accomplished by natural means, the cur
rents of air being produced by the difference of density between the air of the mine and that of the atmosphere, motion being communicated by the difference in altitude between the mine-shaft and the mouth of the alit or gangway.
"The valley west of the Broad Top coal-field and railroad, stretching along the eastern base of Tussey Mountain, abounds in rich deposits of superior hematite and fossiliferous iron ores, producing, when smelted, the celebrated 'Juniata iron.' The outcrops of these deposits have been traced from McConnellstown, in Huntingdon county, to beyond Bloody Run, in Bedford county, a distance of over 40 miles.
"A furnace was put in blast at Hopewell in September, 1863, receiving its ore from an open quarry of hematite, 15 feet thick, near Bloody Run, and carried over Bedford Railroad. The fossiliferous seams are 3 and 5 feet thick : the latter is the soft quality, and similar to the Montour ore.
"Considerable and deserved attention is now being paid to the iron ores of the region, and explorations in progress are developing new deposits. Large quantities of the fossiliferous ore are being shipped from Pleasant Grove station to Danville for the Montour Iron Works, and from Marklesby station for Conemaugh Furnace. When it is considered that the Broad Top coke has been found on trial to be a superior fuel for smelting these ores, it is singular that this extensive source of mineral wealth should have so long escaped the eagle eye of capital in a region possessing railroad facilities and abounding with all the elements required for its successful manufacture.