be augmented in proportion to the diminution of the distance. By the very near approach of one of these bodies, as of a comet, the water would be heaped up on that side, by the force of attraction, to the height of several thousand feet; and being held there by that power, the earth, by revolving on her axis, would pass its surface through this heap of water, and thus create a current moving from east to west of nearly a thousand miles an hour. Such a current, as we may readily imagine, would strip the surface, not only of the plants, but would plough up the soil itself, mixing the whole in chaotic confusion.

A current like this is a sufficiently powerful agent to have produced most of the extraordinary changes upon the face of the earth, which have baffled the skill of many geological observers. We need no longer wonder that rocks of gigantic size are found transported to great distance from their primitive seats; we need not wonder that the two great continents are nearly severed by the force of the diluvian tides; we need not perplex our imaginations to find out a cause for the appearance of the southeastern shores of the two great continents, which look as if the current, as it subsided, had worn away the solid shores almost to points.

Skepticism can here find not only evidence of a deluge, but a cause powerful enough to produce one. With these proofs of the existence, in former days, of mighty diluvian currents sweeping over the earth, from east to west; with the tradition of a great deluge recorded in sacred writ; it is not a little remarkable that circumstances to which I am about to allude strongly tend to show that the most extraordinary comet that has appeared in the days of modern astronomy, must have been, about the time ordinarily assigned for the Mosaic deluge, within the limits of our solar system. I refer to the comet of 1680, a luminary of remarkable size, with a train extending from the zenith to the horizon, and illuminating the whole heavens with its light, and which at the time of its appearance perplexed all Europe with supernatural fears.

The orbit of this comet was calculated by Halley, and the time of its periodical return was found to be from 575 to 576 years. Modern history has verified the accuracy of this calculation, by recording the appearances of this comet in former times, i. e. in 1106, in 531, and again forty-four years before Christ, at the time of the death of Cæsar.

An anterior appearance of a remarkable comet is recorded in the Sibylline books, as occurring in the year 618, or 574 years before the one above mentioned. Here authentic history is silent; but in the year 1193, or shortly after the siege of Troy, Grecian mythology informs us, that one of the Pleiades, unable to witness the misfortunes of that city, abandoned the zodiac, and fled to conceal herself at the pole, with dishevelled hair; and that, at a fitting period, she would return to affright mankind. This fable plainly alludes to a remarkable comet, and its appearance at that era being the ascertained time for the return of the comet of Halley, justifies us in concluding that it refers to that comet. Another fable of Arabic origin indicates a still earlier appearance of this wandering star. According to their historians, the star Canope or Sokiel had espoused the constellation Orion, whom the Arabians designate as a female. By some misadventure, Canope wounded his wife; and, overcome with grief, he abandoned his place in the zodiac, and traversing the heavenly field, hid himself near the southern pole.

This tale is represented as occurring in 1766 before the Christian era,

or 574 years before the disappearance of the lost Pleiad; and the next anterior periodical return of this extraordinary comet would carry it back to the era ordinarily assigned for the Mosaic deluge. It may certainly be that these two events have no connection with each other. The chronology of the deluge is not very correctly ascertained, nor is the periodical return of this comet to be regarded as fixed within one or more years. Stars with such eccentric orbits, and traversing such immense regions of space, are liable to be affected in their course by the attraction of the planets whose orbits they pass.

Still, with all these allowances, the coincidence is remarkable, and the results which must have been caused by such an approximation, and of which the evidences are to be found in every coal bed, in all our valleys, in the deep gulfs and bays, and in the shape of the continents, afford some reason to conclude that this coincidence did occur, and that it was intended to accomplish the great purposes of infinite wisdom. Whether this conjecture as to the cause of the universal deluge be well founded or not, is not, however, so important to my present purpose. Other evidence exists, presenting the strongest internal force, that such a deluge did occur, and that it was accompanied with a current of the character here described.

In subsiding, it would happen that, as the earth passed through the heap of waters, the large basins formed by the great north and south ranges of mountains would be filled with water surcharged with mineral and vegetable deposits, which would fall to the bottom of these basins, as the waters flowed off through the valleys and lower declivities of the mountain ridges. Time would be afforded after the great diluvial tide had passed, before the revolution of the earth again filled the basin, for a large quantity of the water to run off, and for masses of matter, held in suspension, to be deposited; the heavier particles falling first, and the vegetable remains, saturated with mineral and bituminous substances, next. Another and another tide following, another and another series of deposits would be made, until the cause of the high diluvial tides, passing beyond the influence of attraction, the agitation of the ocean would cease, and the deposits would begin to assume consistency and solidity, and to form part of the outer strata of the earth.

The important uses of coal, in administering to the wants of society, give to us all a direct interest in the geological events of those early stages of creation. The most ancient period to which its origin can be traced, was among the swamps and marshes of the primeval earth, where it ex isted in the form of stately ferns, and gigantic plants of the cryptogamous class. We next find it torn from the surface of the mighty diluvian current that swept over the earth, mingling its vegetable productions in chaotic disorder, with all the looser portions of its surface.

Upon the subsiding of the flood, these plants sunk, saturated, to the bottom of their present basins; and, after a long course of ages and chemical changes, they became converted into enduring beds of coal, which, in these latter days, have proved the sources of heat, and light, and wealth to the human race. It converts the barren stone into a metal that gives to man the mastery over all the elements which form the materials of his mechanical industry. It is in the mill, and in the workshop. It warms his domestic hearth, and prepares his food. It spins, it weaves, it ploughs, it prints, it carries, it draws, it lifts, it forges. In the form of gas, it furnishes his

apartments with brilliant light, and gives a respite to the persecuted leviathan of the deep. It takes the road; and the iron horse, with centuple force, dashes by with a train of enormous weight, and with a speed which outstrips the fleetest race-horse. It appears upon the water; sails are furled, the boatman reposes on his oars, and the rivers and lakes are made to convey passengers and their goods with certainty and speed. The current of the Mississippi is no longer an obstacle to the ascending trade of that fertile valley. The ocean is no more faithless and uncertain. It has been bridged by steam, and the force of the waves and the power of the storm, terrible as they have been throughout time to those who go down in ships to the great deep, are shorn of their terrors and deprived of their destroying energy, by the power created by this useful material.

Among the most remarkable coal fields, or basins, we may class that formed between the Alleghany and Rocky Mountains, and drained by the Mississippi; and it would be difficult to imagine any large tract where the shape of the country is better calculated for the preservation of large diluvial deposits, of the carboniferous order, than the great valley lying west of the Alleghany Mountains.

From the superficial examination which has been bestowed upon this coal field, and the numerous specimens of coal found in all directions, we may safely conclude that there is stored up, in that region, a greater mass of fuel, in the concentrated form of coal, than is to be found in all Europe; probably greater than is afforded in all other parts of the ancient world.

In Great Britain, (distinguished as that island has been for mineral riches, and great as have been the effects resulting from their development,) inconsiderable, indeed, are the carboniferous deposits, when compared with those which break through the eastern face of the Alleghanies, on the Susquehanna, and spread themselves in one broad field of mineral wealth through the immense valleys of the Ohio and Mississippi.

The coal fields are found in almost every part of this vast tract of country. They exist in Alabama. In Virginia they have been worked for many years. In Cumberland, on the Potomac, extensive mines of bituminous coal are found near the Chesapeake canal, which have lately commanded great attention. At Blosburg, in Tioga county, a large mine is now worked, from which the Erie canal boats are receiving 200 tons per day. At Tonawanda, on the east side of the same mountain, there are coal strata, which I have examined, five feet thick, and which are worked for the use of the vicinity. Other mines are found in Jeffer son and Clearfield counties, near Olean, which seem to be provided for the supply of the western part of this state. It is, however, on the western side of the Alleghany range, that the great coal field is to be found; there it extends in broad and almost uninterrupted strata, as if the great mass of vegetable remains of the antediluvian world had been swept before the mighty current, until they found a shelter in the eddies formed by the projecting ridge of the Alleghanies, and were there stored up for the use of the enterprising people now occupying this highly favored country.

The field of bituminous coal is not even now fully explored. It is, however, found almost everywhere, and generally easy of access; often in mountains, and so situated that the mines can be drained without machinery into the natural water-courses of the country.

It has not yet been discovered in New York, nor in New England; but the examinations there have not been sufficiently exact to warrant the conclusion that those states are without coal deposits, and the appearance of the carboniferous strata in Nova Scotia, where coal of excellent quality is obtained from the Sidney and Pictou mines, affords strong evidence that the causes which produced the great Alleghany coal field operated over the whole tract of country, from Alabama to Cape Breton.

In Rhode Island and in Massachusetts, near Worcester and Taunton, anthracite coal is found; and although this species of coal is more completely mineralized, it is obviously produced by similar causes. great anthracite coal beds of Pennsylvania appear to the east of the great bituminous coal field, and afford some ground to believe that the great coal strata on the eastern side were first formed, and being less protected from the current, became more completely mineralized. Hitherto the anthracite coal, being of more easy access, has come into more general use, and the rapid increase of that trade is a striking proof of the grow. ing importance of this branch of national industry.

In 1820, this article was first made known; and 365 tons were brought to market. In 1826, the consumption had increased to 48,000 tons, and last year it was augmented to 845,000 tons.

The bituminous coal business has scarcely yet commenced. In Virginia, it is true that bituminous mines were long since opened; but the trade has been carried on in an easy, careless, unenterprising manner, so characteristic of that venerable commonwealth, that we can scarcely wonder that it has grown into the currency of a proverb, that " Old Virginny never tires." The sensation of fatigue is rather produced in the observer of her movements.

The amount of bituminous coal consumed in the west, at Pittsburgh and other places, is great, but the source of supply is so near at hand, that it can scarcely be yet enumerated among the branches of internal trade.

In this state the business has been lately commenced. A railroad forty miles in length was recently completed, connecting the Chemung canal at Corning with the Blosburg mines in Pennsylvania. When I was there, in August, the railroad was just put in operation; the wharf, where the coal was transferred from the cars to the canal boats, was not finished; the streets of a future city were still crowded with stumps and the trees of the forest; the work, however, was going on with vigor; stores and dwelling-houses were building; a church and schoolhouse, and an iron foundry, were completed. The locomotives, with their trains of coal cars, were arriving twice a day, bringing 100 tons of coal to be discharged into the canal boats, and the men were then employed in landing another locomotive, in order to increase the force on the road.*

In the enterprise might be plainly traced the commencement of a new internal trade of great importance. On the northwestern base of the Alleghany bordering on the Erie railroad, and approaching near to the termination of the Genesee valley, the Chemung and Chenango canals, are bituminous coal mines, which are of indescribable importance to the

* At Blosburg, there are several coal companies, all of whom are entitled to use the road; each coal company furnishing its own cars, brake-men, &c., and the railroad company furnishing the road and motive power. The Arbon Coal Company has made four drifts into the mountain, each of sufficient capacity to yield 250 tons daily. It has

state. In those mines, the coal strata alternate with limestone, fire clay, and iron stone, in layers. Here are destined to be great iron works, upon which we must mainly rely for our supply of that great necessary of life.

The demand for iron is daily increasing, and that so rapidly as to make it difficult to say from what quarter the demand can be supplied.

In 1740, the amount of iron made in England and Wales was but 17,000 tons. In 1796, it had increased to 125,000 tons; and when, in 1820, it had increased to 400,000, and in 1830 to 700,000 tons, some doubt began to be expressed whether the sources of this enormous supply might not be exhausted. What must be the apprehension of these doubters when they find the annual consumption more than doubled, it having last year come up to the enormous amount of 1,512,000 tons! In France, it amounted to 600,000 tons, and the total amount made in Europe is 3,000,000 tons. In the United States, the amount now made annually is about 250,000 tons; but it is fast increasing.

It is in reference to iron that the consideration of this topic becomes extremely interesting in a national point of view. The yearly importation of iron into the United States, in bars or pigs, or in massive articles, amounts to near $5,000,000, and the manufactured articles on that material, to a much larger sum. Nearly $400,000 are required for our railroads, and the demand from that quarter must increase. But our attention is scarcely directed to that subject. We have been too much occu

pied with commerce and agriculture. We have just begun to inquire into our mineral wealth, and already a process has been discovered by which anthracite coal is used in smelting iron, and its cost of production is reduced 40 per cent; and we are enabled to use pig iron of greater weight as a substitute for bar iron for railroads.

Those acquainted with the subject assert that in the Cumberland district the facilities for manufacturing iron with bituminous coal are so great, that it can be afforded for from $12 to $15 per ton, or much less than the price of iron in Europe.

The bituminous coal in the United States, except the Virginia and Ohio, is much heavier than that of Europe. The Blosburg, the Pennsylvania, and the Tennessee coal, all exceed in weight a ton to the cubic yard; and that in Bedford county (Penn.) exceeds it by 629 lbs.

None of the European coals weigh a ton. The anthracite, too, are all heavier than those of Europe.

With coal of so excellent a quality, and so abundant in quantity, a new feature is developed in the character and resources of the United States.

also 100 coal cars, each carrying 3 tons. Already 230 tons have been delivered in one day, and the force employed there is constantly increasing. The weight of the Blosburg coal is as follows;