p. 12

10

inches in thickness, and from a recent analytical ex-
periment and comparison with other bituminous coals,
it is found that the five feet three inch vein is equal,
if not superior in quality, to the best Ohio coals.
The five feet vein is now worked, and one hundred
tons per day are being delivered on cars and wagons
to the immediate home trade, which can be increased
to one hundred and fifty tons per day with additional
miners. The capacity of the machinery, all now in
good working order, is equal to one ton per minute, or
six hundred tons per day of ten hours. As to the qual-
ity of these coals, it is simply necessary to state that
it is the only coal in the State that has been success-
fully [illegible] in the rude way usual at mines, thus prov-
ing its superiority in this respect for smelting pur-
poses. It is contemplated to erect at once, ovens of
sufficient capacity to coke fifty tons of coal per day
for the Chicago market. This city having the advan-
tage of a direct trade with the Lake Superior iron
regions, will attract the attention at once, of manufac-
turers and smelters of iron to this point, where that
business can be profitably prosecuted, when they
learn that the right kind and quantity of good fuel can
be cheaply obtained. It is acknowledged by those
who have carefully examined the coal from the five
feet three inch vein, that there is scarcely a trace of
Sulphur found in it, and Professor Mahla also confirms
this assertion by actual experiment.