Pewabié fluctuates between 4 and 5, and is rather a favorite with buyers. The product for 1856 will exceed 100 tons, the largest first year's work of any mine at the Lake; and it has been so economically managed, that this will yield a clear profit of some $12,000. Possibly this will place the concern beyond farther assessments, though this is not a certainty, but a result hoped for. The amount paid in is $1.75 per share on 20,000 shares. Quincy is wanted at 7 bid, and 9 asked. This Company has only 8,000 shares, and is doing well. Owing to some discrepancy in the past issue of certificates the stock has been suspended at our Board here for about two months, but introduced again recently, and will probably be dealt in to considerable extent. The whole value of the mine at the present selling price (say $9), is but $72,000, while the Superior, at $10 per share, would be $200,000. Flint Steel is dull and not wanted at 4, without sales for many weeks. This is also an "off-shoot" of the Minnesota, but does not, as yet, seem to have found the famous vein of that successful concern. Central is also dull at about $5, and no transactions have been made publicly for some time past. Norwich sells occasionally at about $3, but is not much known in this market. Phoenix would bring 1 to 2, but is very seldom sold, being mostly in the hands of parties who are bound to "hold on," and wait quietly for future results. Star is seldom quoted, and would not sell for more than $2 to $3 per share. Huron is quoted at about $2, but finds neither buyers nor sellers to any extent. Nebraska sells at 14 to 2, and comes into the market but little. Copper Falls has settled down to $1 per share, from expectation that farther assessments are inevitable. The above summary includes all the mining stocks known to this market, which would bring $1 per share or upwards. CORRECTION.-In our last month's article it was stated that Copper Falls had receded to "811" per share, which would have read more correctly with the "8" omitted. Although so much depressed now, the stock once sold at about $65 per share, and since then at least $10 has been assessed. The increasing demand for this article of fuel is such, that every avenue to market is likely to be soon crowded to accomplish its transportation. We have been induced to make some inquiries, in quarters likely to afford reliable information prespecting its peculiar characteristics as compared with other coals. The analysis of Cumberland coal exhibits the following constituent elements: Carbon, 77 to 85 per cent. These proportions vary within the limits above expressed in various specimens, but the general uniformity of result, in many analyses by different chemists at different times and from various localities in the coal region, is remarkable. The best anthracite exhibits under analysis from 80 to 90 per cent. of carbon, from 10 to 16 per cent. earthy matter, and in many specimens a very considerable quantity of sulphur, but no bitumen. By comparing the above, it will be seen that the small proportion of earthy matter, the absence of sulphur, and the presence of inflammable bitumen, makes the Cumberland a free burning coal, readily combustible in the ordinary draft of stearn chimneys, chiefly distinguishing it from the anthracites, which latter, from the very nature of their constituent elements, and the absence of bitumen, can never so readily be brought into ignition. The process of coking which bituminous coals undergo in combustion, liberates the highly inflammable gases which are thus more readily brought into contact with the flame in the one case than the other. The circumstances attending the combustion of the two varieties of coal, illustrate the theory developed by the analysis; the one burning freely with much flame, some smoke, and long endurance, under a natural draft; the other refractory, difficult to ignite, and only giving out a high degree of heat, by the application of a strong artificial blast by means of blowers. It has taken ten years to demonstrate the superior qualities of Camberland coal, but wherever introduced it has uniformly asserted its superiority. Experiment shows that the evaporative power of Čumberland coal is 25 per cent. greater than that of Anthracite under a steam boiler; to say nothing of the less amount of injury to which the furnace is subjected, owing to its freedom from sulphur. The cost of the two coals as now delivered in the Eastern market bears the same relation, and it has been by its superior qualities alone that the Cumberland coal has at last slowly won for it a consumption rapidly approaching a million of tons per annum. A new and wider field is about opening to it in the vast passenger and freight traffic upon our railroads, where it is being introduced to displace the wood hitherto furnished from our luxuriant forests, and which ere long must have entirely disappeared to feed the insatiable demands of the locomotive engine.-Baltimore American. RAILROAD FUEL. The subject of providing fuel, to supply the motive power of railroads, grows every year more interesting and important. The number of miles of railroad in the United States, at the commencement of the present year, was about twenty-two thousand; and the locomotive engines on these roads must be not less than five thousand. Supposing each to use wood, as a large proportion do, and the amount consumed in a year by each locomotive to average eight hundred cords, and we have between four and five millions of cords of wood annually burned; the product of at least one hundred thousand acres of woodland annually swept off. In the consumption of wood in stationary fires, for whatever purpose, the ashes enter into useful purposes, for manures, and for chemical uses, but the wood burned on railroads is a dead loss, except for the driving of the locomotive. One effect of this consumption, we perceive already, in the increased price of wood as fuel. Wherever the railroad competition directly affects the market, the price first rises; and in sympathy with the increased price at certain points, all others feel it, more or less. The conveniences of transportation, which railroads have not only directly increased, but indirectly promoted, equalize the prices of all commodities. Wood now, in our cities and in their neighborhood, has risen to a price which compels the consumption of coal. Many farmers burn coal, and send all, except their refuse wood, to market. Mechanical ingenuity has opened the way to make even refuse wood mer.. chantable; and already it is sold in lots in New York at the small groceries, in quantities of pennyworths and upwards. Private individuals and house holds are compelled to the use of coal as fuel, by motives of economy, and the poorer the consumer the more absolute is the compulsion. This result is, in no small degree, to be attributed to the increase of railroads. Having thus forced the use of coal upon private individuals, a result at which we have no reason to complain, it becomes the railroad interest to be looking to its own profit. It is an axiom in political economy, that an increased demand for any article of which there is an unlimited supply lessens the price. The value of coal has diminished, while that of wood has increased. When the value of any commodity rises above the profitable use of the consumer, the trade must be abandoned which absorbs the article, or a substitute must be found for a material which does not yield a living profit. The railroad interest, the great carrying trade of the world, cannot be relinquished. Neither, we apprehend, will the public submit to a rise in the price of conveyance, which will compensate for what must be ultimately the increase in the price of wood. The obvious alternative is the substitution of coal as fuel. It is attended with no difficulties which mechanical ingenuity cannot overcome. Experiments have demonstrated its practicability; and that ingenuity has not been more turned to the subject, results only from a disinclination on the part of railroad companies to institute new experiments while they can avoid them. The objections to denuding the country of its forest trees, based on general and on agricultural considerations, are weighty; but we do not press them, because it is next to impossible to satisfy any corporation or individual, that it is a duty to sacrifice private present considerations for the public prospective good. Interest is and must be the main lever in all the single operations which make up the aggregate of the national business or benefit. Add to the present demand for coal the supply of railroad fuel, and the increased market would, by stimulating the mining interest, still farther reduce the price of fuel. New coal fields would soon be opened, and not only Pennsylvania, but all the States in which coal lies would be benefited. Without the use of coal the railroad system of the United States cannot be much farther permanently extended. With the use of coal the railroads will make a good portion of their own business. All over about thirty-five cents in the price of a ton of coal delivered to the consumer is money paid for labor and transportation, except the dealer's profit. But a cord of wood is worth almost nine-tenths of its value before it is cut down, and its bulk is so great that it will not pay, except for water carriage, to any great distance. From the introduction of coal on railroads as fuel, we may date a great increase of their usefulness to the public; first, in the employment of laborers, and increase of the mining business, and next in the reduction of the price of fuel to every body. A diminution in the running cost of railroads is a great desideratum; and there is nothing which promises to do so much towards it as the general substitution of coal as fuel for locomotives, instead of wood.—Philadelphia American. WARD COAL AND IRON COMPANY. Below we present a portion of the report of Prof. James Hall, of this State, relative to the property of the Ward Coal and Iron Company, which is located in the Cumberland region of Maryland. Coal, clay, iron ores, limestone are abundant on the property: GEORGE C. RIPLEY, Esq., President of the Ward Coal and Iron Company: SIR-In accordance with your request I have examined the estate of your Company, at Barrallville, near Cumberland, Maryland, with a view to the determination of the extent and value of its coal, iron ores, fire clay, &c. The estate embraces two thousand nine hundred and twelve acres, having an extension north-east and south-west of about four miles, and a width of one mile and a quarter. The village of Barrallville, containing tenements for about forty families, a school-house, store, tavern, barns, stables and outbuildings, is situated near the centre of the estate, and belongs entirely to the company. In addition to this, there is a steam saw-mill, a brick machine, brick works and kilns, cooking ovens, &c. These improvements, together with the coal openings, have communication by a railroad branch with Mount Savage Railroad, thence to Cumberland, Md. This tract is situated upon both sides of Jennings' Run, and upon the north fork of that stream. It lies upon the easterly margin of the Cumberland Coal Field, extending thence to within two miles of the centre of that basin; and its northern boundary is the Pennsylvania State line. It is nearer to the city of Cumberland and to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, as well as to the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, than any of the tracts within this basin from which coal has been wrought to any extent. This position, upon the easterly side of the basin, the general direction of which is from north-east to south-west, presents the strata all dipping to the north-west or west-north-west; their out-crop on the line of strike being along the higher parts of the track towards the east. The valley of the north fork of Jennings' Run, however, lies in a manner parallel to the line of strike, and to the west of the centre of the tract; and the denudation along this line has removed the superincumbent strata so that the two lower coal beds are reached at their present openings at about twenty feet above the level of the stream. This allows of working the beds in the direction of their rise along the slope of the hill; the loaded cars move along a descending grade, and the coal is deposited at the mouth of the same into railroad cars, which have communication with the Mount Savage Railroad, and thence at Cumberland with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. The valley of this stream has rendered accessible the beds of coal, iron ore, fire clay, &c., along one or both sides of its course, and offers every required facility for concentrating these products at any point along a distance of a mile or more, and particularly towards its junction with the main stream. The estate, in its relative position to the railroads and to Cumberland, has superior advantages. About two thousand acres of the tract are heavily timbered; the remainder consists of farms, the valley of the stream, in which is situated the village, &c. This valley, along its central portion, gives access to all parts of the tract. It becomes further necessary to consider in detail the condition, quantity and accessibility of the mineral products; and it is proper to state that these examinations of the coal, ores, &c., were made at points previously opened for the purpose of testing the quantity and quality of the material. On approaching Barrallville by the road from Cumberland, we find that the coarse sandstone and conglomerate, which every where underlies the coal measures, is cut through and exposed at the level of the stream, thence rising to the east and north-east, and in the opposite direction passing beneath all the coal beds. It is above this rock, therefore, that we are to look for any productive coal seam. A short distance above the out-crop of the conglomerate, the lowest coal seam is exposed on both sides of the north branch of Jennings' Run. It has been penetrated by a shaft on the north-east side, and also opened upon its out-crop and rather extensively worked. This bed is known upon the estate by the name of the Bluebough coal bed. Entering the opening of this mine. I penetrated its main passages to their extremities. The works are in good order, and the mines in a workable condition at this time, although no coal, except that used upon the place, has been mined for some time past. The actual measurements of this bed, in detail, give 6 to 8 inches coal, 12 to 16 inches shale, 24 to 32 inches coal. |