During the night we had passed by several important villages, Manchester, Rome, Rockville, Portsmouth, Wheelersburg, Hanging Rock, Burlington, and Proctorsville, in Ohio; and Concord, Vanceburg, Greenupsburg, and Catlettsburg, in Kentucky.
The face of the country was still interesting, but that of the Kentucky and Virginia side had become less so than the other. We had lost the opportunity of seeing the mouths of the Scioto and Big Sandy Rivers, as well as many other curious and interesting objects.
But what we regretted most was the loss of Portsmouth. This fine place at the mouth of the Scioto River we had hoped to pass by daylight. However, we could not expect to see every place we passed.
We were now approaching the coal country; and this morning we had a fine opportunity of observing the method by which these huge steamboats provide themselves with this important article. Some of them, I believe, use wood for fuel; but not all, by any means.
They do not go to the wharves of the villages they pass and wait to have some twenty, or thirty, or fifty tons of coal shoveled into the boat. They have another and much simpler way, and one which does not hinder them a moment.
Long flats or scows, deeply laden with this necessary article, proceeding from the shore meet the steamer in the middle of the river, and by means of chains or ropes are immediately lashed to her sides—usually two of them—one on each side. The men on board the flats, aided perhaps by the crew of the steamer, immediately fall to work with their shovels and throw the coal on board when it is wanted.
When the flats are emptied, the ropes are loosened, and they are set free to return to their place, now several miles down the river. The steamer is thus supplied for twelve, eighteen, or it may be twenty-four hours.
But what most struck me was the facilities which the miners possess for procuring this coal from the hills: for the reader should know that the hills between which we were now passing, all contain this useful mineral.
This coal is in a layer, somewhat different in thickness in different places, but varying from four to five feet. In the hills which the Pittsburg was now passing, the layer, as I was informed, is about four feet thick.
This layer, in countries west of the Alleghany, is horizontal, or nearly so, and this without reference to the shape of the hill that covers it. At the base of the hills it is usually found pretty near the surface; but as you proceed inward its distance from the surface increases with the ascent of the hill.