The beds and veins of anthracite range from north-east to south-west, and may often be traced for a considerable distance by the compass. The veins have the inclination of the adjacent strata of gray wacke, with which they often alternate, usually between twenty and forty-five degrees. In a few places they are horizontal and vertical. The beds and veins of anthracite have narrow strata of dark colored, fine grained, argillaceous schist, for the roof and floor. This slate generally contains sulphuret of iron, and disintegrates on exposure to the air. The sulphates of iron and alumine are often observed in the schist, and it frequently presents impressions of plants and sometimes of marine shells. Impure pulverulent coal is usually connected with this slate, and is said to be a good material for printers’ ink. Anthracite has been found in the greatest quantity in sections of coal regions most accessible by water. Extensive beds and veins range from the Lehigh to the Susquehanna, crossing the head-waters of the Schuylkill and Swatara, about ten miles north-west of Blue Ridge, and it abounds contiguous to the Susquehanna and Lackawanna. But in no part of the district does anthracite occur in such apparently inexhaustible beds, or is so abundantly raised, as in the vicinity of Mauch Chunk, a village situated on the Lehigh, thirty-five miles from Easton, and one hundred and eight by water from Philadelphia. The coal is there excavated on the flat summit of a mountain that rises nearly fifteen hundred feet above the ocean. It is of good quality, and presents beds of unparalleled extent; is disclosed for several miles on the summit, wherever excavations have been made, and is indicated in many places by coal slate in a pulverulent state, on the surface. The mountain rises with a steep acclivity, particularly on the north-west side, and when penetrated at various altitudes, discloses coal at about the same distance from the surface. Strata of grey wacke slate, containing mica, sometimes rest on the coal, parallel with the mountain side. In the deep excavations made on the summit, no termination of the coal bed has been found, and it is not improbable that the anthracite forms the nucleus of the mountain for a considerable distance.