WEST VIRGINIA.
contains a larger portion of the Alleghany coal-field than any of the States enumerated through which it extends. Over 16,000 square miles of this great coal-field lie in Western and Eastern Virginia: of this area, however, only a few miles exist in Old Virginia, on the eastern edge of the field, in the southwest,—perhaps less than 150 square miles of available coal. But the best and most available portion of the Alleghany coal-field lies in West Virginia, and the greater portion of its vast area is naturally opened to development by the numerous streams which traverse its face from east to west.
The Great Kanawha River, running off at right angles from the Ohio, traverses the richest portions of the Great Alleghany coal-fields, cutting the coal measures of the region-2000 feet thick—to their base, and de veloping their exhaustless mineral treasures in the most available manner for practical production. But, after performing this most acceptable service to the future prosperity of the West, it renders the benefits con ferred still more valuable, by dividing the otherwise impassable Appa lachian chain at right angles, and taking the nearest course to the waters of the East, thus opening the most available route from the great rivers of the West to the seaports of the East, and connecting the minerals of the older geological formations—the iron, lead, copper, &c.—with the coal
of the Alleghany.
The Kanawha region is still undeveloped, and the prize long sought by the dilatory Virginian slave-master is still to be accomplished by the enter prise of free labor. In no other portion of our country, North or South, are there more inviting prospects to labor, enterprise, and capital than is now presented in the Great Kanawha Valley. Not only its unlimited mineral resources invite attention, but the best portion of the trade of the great Mississippi Valley may be diverted into the channel of the Kanawha by ordinary means. To those who have observed the prodigious growth of that trade, and the still superior proportions it must assume in the future, the questions we are discussing of this new route to the East will not be a matter of speculation, but of necessity. The routes now provided will not accommodate it, while the superior advantages offered by this route, in the hands of a free and enterprising people, cannot fail to attract attention. The distance, the elevation, the freedom from ice, and the constant supply of water from the mouth of the Kanawha, all present im portant and available advantages which cannot be overlooked.