There are three principal seams in these coal-fields. The lower bed ranges from 2 to 4 feet in thickness, and contains about two-thirds its dimensions of pure coal,—anthracite in Price's Mountain, resembling the red-ash of Schuylkill in character, but in appearance more like the splint of Kanawha, but semi-bituminous in the North Mountain, with much the same appearance. This coal is remarkably free from sulphur, but contains much earthy impurity, averaging from 10 to 20 per cent. of ash. It burns beautifully, and makes a lasting rather than a hot fire, except under strong draft. The next or middle bed ranges from 6 to 10 feet in thickness, and produces about one-half its dimensions in available coal, rather softer than the lower bed, and more "shelly" in character and appearance, but in fracture and uses much the same. It is about 50 feet above the lower, and divided by coarse flags or laminated sandstones and slates. The upper bed has not been developed to any extent, but it contains less available coal than the middle bed, and is of a softer and more unreliable character.
All these beds are subject to frequent changes, resulting from original imperfection or subsequent crust-movements. " Dirt faults," " slate faults," and "rock faults" are common occurrences. The dirt and slate faults are in the usual form, as shown in Chapter XIV. The rock faults are slip dikes, or " upthrows" and " downthrows," and are frequent and serious impediments in the way of mining operations. Sometimes the beds are thrown down 20 or 30 feet, and in a few yards thrown up again 10 or 15. Several mining operations on a small and primitive scale are conducted in these coal-fields. In Price's Mountain basin, a slope, known as Kyle's mines, was sunk in 1857-58 to the depth of 150 feet, and consider able valuable coal extracted. We believe those mines are still in opera tion. The other mines are small drifts or tunnels in the North Mountain, —the whole productive of less than 10,000 tons per annum.
The extent of this coal formation, as before stated, has a wide range ; but its outcrops are better developed along the eastern front of the Alie ghany ranges, or the mountains parallel with the Great Valley range, than elsewhere. Though open at many points, and productive of valuable coal beds at but few, this formation, under future developments, may be of great value to the districts through which it ranges, as an article of fuel when the country becomes more thickly peopled. It lies parallel with, and in close proximity to, the richest and most productive district on the Atlantic slopes,—the Great Valley range; and, though the coal may be im pure and the beds uncertain, a great amount of valuable fuel may be obtained cheaper than it can be transported from the more reliable but dis tant coal-fields of the North or West.
In the New River coal-field, which is part of this proto-Carboniferous formation, a bed of pea conglomerate exists in its natural position as the floor of the coal measures. It ranges from 10 to 30 feet in thickness, and
is so nearly like the conglomerate of the eastern margin of the Great Alle ghany coal-field, that, were the other conditions identical, we should not hesitate to pronounce it on the same horizon and the production of the same era. But since the red shale is over the coal measures, and the fossils those of the Subcarboniferous, we cannot assign it to the true coals; while its range is coincident with the lower or false coal measures.
The anthracite of this region has been used successfully in the cupola in the production of castings, but we have not heard of its use in the blast-furnace. We have no doubt, however, of its value for such purposes, if divided from its earthy impurities.
The difficulties of mining this coal, and the irregularity of the beds, will always be great, and make the cost much beyond a reasonable limit for the production of iron to compete with other and more favored sections in this respect.
The coal has been used during the war, at Lynchburg and the towns along the line of the Virginia & Tennessee Railroad, in place of the Penn sylvania anthracite formerly used, for the purpose of producing castings from the cupola or in the foundries; but no pig-iron was produced from the blast-furnaces in Virginia with coal as a fuel.
The ores in Southwestern Virginia, and in the vicinity of these coal fields, are abundant and rich, principally of the varieties known as the red and brown hematites; but the red oxides or fossiliferous, and some magnetic, also exist. While there may be some doubt as to the propriety of using the coals of the vicinity in the blast-furnace for the production of pig-iron, there can be none in relation to the value of the ores; and the day may not be far distant when enterprise shall open the way for their transit to the magnificent coal-beds of the Kanawha, where iron can be made with the assistance of the ores of the Southwest as cheaply as it can be made in any other part of the world under the same rate of labor.
The coals of this region, however, will find their uses for domestic pur poses. The surrounding country is unusually rich and inviting; the soils are productive, and the valleys extensive and beautiful; the climate is delightful, and the scenery charming. It is naturally the richest and most attractive spot, we think, in the Great Valley range, though not so well developed or so wide as in Pennsylvania nor so level and extensive as in East Tennessee. But it is rich in soils and minerals, and located in a high mountain-valley, where the extremes of north and south are modified. Copper, lead, and iron ores are abundant, and only waiting their natural outlet down the New River and through the Kanawha Valley to the great West. Such a development would not only enrich this section of Virginia, but would be of immense advantage to the manufacturing interests of the Kanawha and the valleys of the Ohio and Mississippi.