I left Philadelphia, June 3d, at four o’clock in the morning, to see the coal-mines beyond the Blue Mountains, and then pay another visit to my friends in Bethlehem; after which, I must repair to New York, as to my great sorrow, the time for my embarkation approached. I rode fifty-two miles in a mail stage to Reading. Notwithstanding a gust on the previous evening, it was again very warm, and on the latter part of the journey particularly, we were much incommoded by dust.
At first we took the same way, which I had taken last autumn to Bethlehem, through Sunville, Germantown, and Chesnut Hill. The present appearance of the country was very different from its aspect at that rough season of the year. Every thing was now alive and green, and the numerous and elegant gardens of Germantown, were filled with the beautiful flowers. Although this place is three miles long, it presents no tedious uniformity. The various country-seats of the wealthy inhabitants of Philadelphia, which are tolerably close to each other, rather present an agreeable change. Chesnut Hill affords a very extensive view over the surrounding handsome and thickly inhabited country. The valley of the Schuylkill appeared to particularly great advantage, which by means of dams and canals, made near shallow places, is navigable till beyond the Blue Mountains. Beyond Chesnut Hill, we left the above-mentioned road and turned on the left to Norristown, a very romantic place on the left side of the Schuylkill. Before reaching this, we passed extensive marble quarries, which are about one hundred feet deep, and form very picturesque hollows. The blocks are raised by means of machines, worked by horses. This marble is gray, and is used in the fire-places of most of the respectable houses in Philadelphia. Several of the mile-stones on our road were also made of this marble. The cuttings are partly burned to lime and partly thrown on the turnpike. The turnpike, as an American one, was on this route tolerably good.
Beyond Norristown we again rode through a very handsome country. Between Chesnut Hill and the marble quarries, we passed a good stone bridge over the Wissahiccon creek, which turns many mills. Between Norristown and Trap, a small place through which the road runs, we passed two other creeks, the Skippar and Perkiomen creeks, and at Pottsgrove, over a third, called Monataway creek, which here empties into the Schuylkill. The road then went over a hilly country through Warrensburg and Exertown, and over the Mannokesy and Rush creeks. At last we saw Reading, in a lovely valley. It had a military aspect, as a company of volunteers had held a review to-day, and were recreating themselves at a tavern near the town, after their toils. At five o’clock we reached Trautman’s tavern, where we found good lodgings.
Reading contains about five thousand inhabitants; it consists of a long principal street, which is very wide, in the middle, and of several other streets, which cross it at right angles. The place depends on agriculture and some manufactories. Many hats, especially felt hats, are made here, which are sent in great numbers to the slave states and the West Indies. I here visited Mr. Hiester, former governor of Pennsylvania. This worthy old man bears his age, which is seventy-four years, remarkably well. He took me to his son-in-law, Dr. Muhlenberg, the German Lutheran minister of this place, son of the celebrated naturalist and learned man of this name, who died about ten years ago. We took tea at his house, and then walked to the Schuylkill, over which a covered wooden bridge led. We saw also a part of the canal, on which coal is brought to Philadelphia from the upper parts of the Schuylkill. Here at Reading, this canal ascends four locks, which appear to be built in a tolerably solid manner. It made a strange impression on me to hear every person speak German. On the road from Philadelphia, I had every where heard this language; but in Reading scarcely any thing else than German is spoken, and better than I had heard in the state of Ohio, or in Lancaster. Reading possesses a good German school under Dr. Muhlenberg’s direction, in which this language is taught in its purity. He himself has a numerous and selected library of English and German books. Two canal boats run at present alternately every week between Philadelphia and Reading, in which about one hundred travellers may be accommodated. They leave the one place at three o’clock in the morning, and reach the other about five o’clock in the evening.
I hired at Reading a carriage with two horses, for three dollars a day, in order to visit the coal-mines beyond the Blue Mountains. I left Reading at seven o’clock in the morning, and rode thirty-six miles to Pottsville. We passed over a turnpike, which was occasionally very rough. It several times led us in the neighbourhood of the canal, the surface of which is about thirty feet wide on an average. It is lead by means of wooden boxes over several deep streams. Between Reading and Pottsville there are about eighty locks, several of which we passed; at one time I saw seven together, which formed a very pleasing sight. About noon we reached a little German place, called Hamburg, half way to Pottsville, at the foot of the Blue Mountains, not far from the Schuylkill and its canals. On the road to Hamburg, we passed but one creek which had a name, Maiden creek. I dined at Hamburg, and met, as it was Sunday, a number of idlers, all Germans, assembled in the tavern. Several Germans of education in the United States, made the remark to me, which I found but too true, that next to the Irish, the Germans form the roughest portion of the emigrants. The truth of this remark again forced itself on my attention in Hamburg, and especially in the case of a young doctor, who had formerly studied in several German universities, and gave vent to his giddiness in a vulgar manner. It was the first time in the United States that the affectation of republicanism arrested my attention.
Not far beyond Hamburg, we came to a defile where the Schuylkill forces a passage through the Blue Mountains. This narrow vale was very romantic, and my interest in the scene was greatly increased by the numberless blooming kalmias, improperly called laurel, the rhododendra, which offered a splendid sight amidst the rich vegetation of chesnut trees, butternuts, oaks, elms, sycamores, blooming tulip-trees, and sumacs. How frequently I thought of the great pleasure which my father would enjoy, if he could travel with me among these mountains, and admire the treasures of the vegetable world with his experienced eye! The way led along a mountain over the Schuylkill, which lay deep below me. It forms here a curve, and is made navigable by means of dams, as there was too little room to continue the canal on the side of it. After we had passed the chief defile of the Blue Mountains, we left for a time the navigable Schuylkill with its canal, and passed through a narrow vale, through which the little Schuylkill flows, which is covered with kalmias, rhododendrons, and some azaleas. Afterwards came another vale, formed by Scrub Hill and Scollop Hill; then a long mountain, called Limestone Ridge. Beyond this mountain we reached Orwigsburg, which, entirely enclosed by mountains, occupies a romantic situation; it is built in the form of a cross, and contains about eight hundred inhabitants. We rode farther, through a valley covered with trees, again reached the Schuylkill with its canal, and at length arrived at Pottsville.
This place is scarcely to be found in any map, as it arose but three or four years ago, and owes its existence to the neighbouring coal-mines. The navigation of the Schuylkill commences here; this is the place where the vessels which navigate this canal and river, small keel-boats, are built. A couple of saw-mills are erected for this purpose, as well as a high furnace, in which the iron ore found in the neighbourhood is smelted. The coal-mines are worked under the direction of the Schuylkill Coal Company, which has made the Schuylkill navigable at its own expense, in order to transport the coal to Philadelphia and New York. A bushel of coal, weighing eighty pounds, is sold at Philadelphia for twenty-five cents. The river was made navigable only about eighteen months ago, and it is only since this time, that they have commenced to dig out coal.
Pottsville consists of a single street, lying in a somewhat narrow vale on the right shore of the Schuylkill, and owes its name to a Mr. Pott, who commenced the first iron works. The entrances of two coal-mines are seen on the shore opposite the place; there are some which, however, are not worked on account of scarcity of labourers. I became acquainted in our tavern with a Mr. Baker from New York, who is one of the chief men in this undertaking, as well as with a Mr. Taylor, editor of the paper called the Miner’s Journal, which bears a good character.
I rode with these two gentlemen to the coal-mines, two miles and a half from Pottsville, and not far from Norwegian creek. The coal appears almost on the surface of the ground, in which a certain dark colour denotes its presence. No one thoroughly understands the business of coal-mining, and therefore it has hitherto been conducted in a very unsystematic and expensive manner. Shafts are made wherever it is thought that coal would be found, and when a vein is discovered it is worked. The veins run from east to west, and then descend in a southern direction at an angle of forty-five degrees; between the veins, slate is commonly found about twelve feet thick. Under the lower layer of slate, coals have been again discovered by boring, but have not yet been farther worked. The shafts are not much above twenty feet deep; the coals are brought up in buckets by means of two windlasses; at one place machinery worked by a horse is employed for this purpose. One shaft contains water, which, as the pumps are not yet in order, must be drawn out in buckets in a very tedious and expensive manner. The coal is of a superior quality, burns very well, and contains no sulphur. About fifty men work in the mines, each of which on an average receives monthly fifteen dollars. Hitherto the society has employed thirty vessels to transport the coals to Philadelphia. They are brought from the mines in large wagons to the head of the navigation, and are weighed before unloading. A profit of a certain amount is expected to arise from the working of these mines, which, however, will only be properly calculated, when the mines are worked more systematically. They design to connect the works with the river, which certainly would be a considerable saving, by means of a rail-road. A mountain, which runs parallel with that containing the mines, and which is yet covered with trees, is also said to contain great quantities of coal, but has not yet been worked.
After this fatiguing excursion, as I had seen most of the mines, I left Pottsville on the 5th of June, and rode forty miles to Mauch Chunk at the junction of a creek of this name with the Lehigh. After passing Orwigsburg we turned to the left towards M‘Keansburg, through a woody valley not well settled, and this only near Pine creek. M‘Keansburg is a small place, and lies on an eminence, which affords a prospect of a romantic valley, through which Little Schuylkill flows. M‘Keansburg adjoins on one side a wood swarming with locusts, which made so much noise that they might be heard at a great distance. These locusts are seldom seen, and their present appearance is ascribed to the uncommonly dry spring. I walked among the trees, and found under the stones several crystallizations; I found among others, a stone perfectly resembling a petrified bird’s head with the beak. Many vegetable petrifactions, such as fern and leaves of the kalmia, are found in the slate between the veins of coal. I was told that the impression of a whole collection of snakes was found in a cavity in the slate, and that the impressions of the heads, particularly, were very distinct.