After leaving M‘Keansburg we passed valleys and mountains, and reached, in this manner, the narrow and romantic valley of the Lehigh, by a very steep road. Lehighton, which lies at a junction of Mahoning creek and the Lehigh, consists of but few houses, and is supported in a miserable manner; because the land is too hilly and rough for cultivation, and the industrious village of Mauch Chunk, which is but three miles distant, withdraws from it all support. The country, however rough and unproductive as it may be for those who wish to live here, would afford a particular enjoyment to a botanist, and a lover of his science, by its rich and blooming vegetable productions.
It began to grow dark when we reached Lehighton, I nevertheless continued on the road; this grew narrow, was partly cut out of the rock, and closely approached the right shore of the Lehigh as far as Mauch Chunk, which we reached after dark, and in a storm. I took lodging in the only inn, which, however, is very good and respectable, and kept by a quaker, Mr. Atherton. The place has only existed four years, and owes its origin to the neighbouring mines, which, with all the surrounding country, belongs to the Lehigh Coal Company; a company which possesses a large capital, has existed longer than its rival in Pottsville, and conducts its operations more systematically. One of the most important stockholders is a quaker, Mr. White, who lives here, and has properly created every thing, and directs every thing himself. He visited me the same evening, and appeared to be a plain Friend, who however has reflected much on the good of mankind, and speaks very well.
On the next morning Mr. White took me about the place; it lies in a very narrow vale surrounded with high mountains, which rise out of the Lehigh and are covered with trees. The company has made the Lehigh navigable, or rather is at present engaged in this work, by means of dams, locks and canals, in order to transport the coal to Philadelphia with ease and cheapness.
The canal, in which two locks stand at a distance of one hundred and thirty feet from each other, is thirty feet wide between the locks, the sides of which are covered with planks; behind this covering a wall has been erected, the crevices of which are filled with a liquid mortar. Mr. White calculates, that the covering of wood will last about thirty years, and that during this time, the wall will unite with the mortar and form a kind of rock. Neither the locks, nor the canal were finished, so that there was as yet but a temporary navigation. The coal is put into flat boats six feet wide and ten feet long; these are attached, two together and five behind each other, so that a kind of raft of ten boats, or rather a box is formed. When this raft arrives at Philadelphia, and the coal unloaded, these boats are taken to pieces, the boards sold, and all the iron which was in them, brought back to Mauch Chunk in carts. Two saw-mills are in constant operation for the building of these boats, the timber is previously cut in form, so that practised workmen may nail together such a boat in an hour. But as soon as the canal and the locks are finished, even this navigation so expensive and destructive to the wood, will cease, and coal be transported in steam-boats, which will pass up and down the river and canal. The banks of the canal are covered with stones, or rather formally paved, so that they may not suffer from the action of the wheels. The coal is taken from the mine in wagons to the place where it is put into boats, and there weighed. After this the carts move upon a disk which turns, where the horses are quickly unharnessed. The carts are then raised by means of a machine, worked by a horse, and when they have attained a certain height, are brought in an oblique position, so that the coals fall out into a kind of enclosure, where they remain till wanted; the boats are loaded by means of moveable broad iron gutters, which are elevated or depressed according to the height of the water. Grates are put in this gutter, so that the coals which are too small, and the dust, fall through, and merely the larger pieces fall into the vessel.
Considerable quantities of iron ore are found near Mauch Chunk, in a sandy state, and near the surface of the earth, which is melted in furnaces, erected for this purpose. But they have not yet succeeded in doing this by means of stone coal, and are obliged to use charcoal. This iron is used to make rail-roads, which lead to the most important coal-mine, nine miles distant. They will facilitate the transportation of the coal to the water in a very great degree, and make this at least three-fourths cheaper. Iron carts are to be used on this rail-road. Its ascent to the mine amounts to one foot in a hundred; the empty carts are to be drawn up by horses, each of which draws four at the rate of three miles an hour; when they are loaded, they are carried to the river by their own weight, and make the passage in less than an hour. When they reach a certain point not far from the river, they are sent down an inclined plane, at an angle of forty-five degrees, and by means of machinery yet to be attached, they draw the empty carts by their weight up this plane.
A very good turnpike, now leads to this important mine, nine miles from Mauch Chunk, along the romantic valley of the same name, which ascends but two feet in a hundred, so that we could trot the whole way. I went in company with Mr. White. The mountain is imperceptibly ascended, and it occasions surprise, when, after a ride of eight miles, the woods, which cover the mountains are left, to see Mauch Chunk creek, whose shore has apparently just been left, rushing deep below, and at the top of the mountain to find oneself in a coal-mine. It is a highly interesting sight, and alone worth a passage across the ocean. The coal does not here run in veins, but the whole mountain consists of a solid mass of coal, covered with a layer of clay at most a foot thick. The earth assumes a dark colour six inches below the surface; coal dust a foot and a half thick, is found at the depth of one foot, then comes the coal in small pieces, which are not used, but at a foot deeper the solid coal begins, which is broken off and sold. They have hitherto bored to the depth of sixty feet, and found nothing but the purest coal; they have however, dug but forty feet deep, and prefer working horizontally rather than perpendicularly. Except some veins of slate, which as solid rocks are not more than two feet thick, no heterogeneous substances are found among the coal. This is entirely black, and only those parts which are more or less exposed to the weather, are iridescent.
These mines, which are not subterraneous, occupy at present a space of nearly four acres. An iron wedge forced by a hammer is used to break the coal. The stratum of coal is partly horizontal and partly at an angle of forty-five degrees; it seems as if it had been once elevated and broken by a subterraneous power. The workmen are paid daily, gain about eighteen dollars a month, and occupy several houses not far from the mine. They have dug a well in the stratum of coal, which furnishes pure and good drinking water.
We rode back to Mauch Chunk on the excellent road, made altogether on account of the mine. There is a place on the road where iron sand is dug, and whence runs a chalybeate spring, which leaves settlings of ochre. Two miles from Mauch Chunk we ascended the hill, on the other side of which, again quantities of coal are found. It is, however, very difficult to reach the layer on this high and steep hill, and the transportation of coals thence to Mauch Chunk would be attended with great inconvenience and expense. To obviate this, the company is cutting through the hill at a certain height, a tunnel in the rock, by which means the stratum may, to use the expression, be reached by the rear, and the conveyance of the coals be much facilitated. This tunnel is to be ten feet high and fifteen wide, with a rail-road in the middle. They have cut through two hundred feet already, and have yet one hundred and twenty feet to work, before they reach the coal. This labour is fatiguing and tedious; twelve men work day and night. They blast the rocks with powder, and advance but one foot in twenty-four hours.
In the valley of Mauch Chunk creek, along the road, two furnaces are erected in order to cast the pieces necessary for the rail-road, to avoid their transportation and to accelerate the work on the road. Two saw-mills have also been built in this valley, but the water in the creek is generally too low to depend much on their assistance in such works. The company employs about one thousand eight hundred workmen, who live partly near the mine, but generally in small houses in the place belonging to the company. Their habitations form a street along Mauch Chunk creek, nearly half a mile long. A great number of them are married and have their families with them. The company has given them a clergyman, and a school with a good teacher, to instruct their children. A massive mill is also erected near the creek, in which all the flour necessary for the place is ground; the country is too rough for culture; the company exchanges in a very profitable manner coal for grain. Meadows have, however, been laid out in the valley, in order to gain the necessary hay for one hundred and twenty horses, which daily work here. The creek also works bellows, by means of which the necessary draft of air is preserved in the furnaces and in the forges.
A store belonging to the society, and furnished with all the necessary articles, is also kept here. In this the workmen and their families receive the necessary articles, the price of which is deducted from their wages. Every workman has his leaf in a large book, wherein his account stands, and besides a small pass-book, wherein a copy of his account is written. Every month, or if the workman prefers oftener, a settlement is made, and he receives a note on the treasurer for the money owing to him, unless he wishes it to remain in the treasurer’s hands. The company makes a great profit in this manner, and the greater part of the money expended flows back again into its treasury. The ground three miles up and down the Lehigh, belongs to the company, so that no one can dispute with them the monopoly of keeping a store. If other companies should be formed to dig coals in the mountains above Mauch Chunk, where great quantities are said to be found, they could not gain much, as this society has taken possession of the only outlet, the Lehigh, and on account of the locks could lay many difficulties in the way with regard to the transportation of other coal.