xt7sj38kdt8p https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7sj38kdt8p/data/mets.xml Shaler, Nathaniel Southgate, 1841-1906. 1880 books b92-264-31852113 English Printed for the Company by W.H. Wheeler, : Cambridge [Mass.] : Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Natural resources Virginia. Natural resources Kentucky. Preliminary report concerning the resources of the country adjacent to the line of the proposed Richmond and Southwestern Railway / by Nathaniel Southgate Shaler. text Preliminary report concerning the resources of the country adjacent to the line of the proposed Richmond and Southwestern Railway / by Nathaniel Southgate Shaler. 1880 2002 true xt7sj38kdt8p section xt7sj38kdt8p PRELIMINARY CONCERNING THE RESOURCES REPORT OF THE COUNTRY ADJACENT TO THE LINE OF THE PROPOSED RICHMOND AND SOUTHWESTERN RAILWAY. Br v. S. SHfALER, S.D. State Geologist of Aelmacky. CAMBRIDGE: PRINTED FOR THE COMPANY BY W. 11. WHEELER, I Sso. INDEX. As the resources of the country adjacent to this proposed railway have been considered by districts, it seems desirable to give a brief summary of them in a classified form. The reader will find below, in the form of an Index, reference to each of the important of this road. ASBESTOS. James River District, . BUILDING STONES. Granite of James River, i'1. " Western Kentucky, CLAYS. Tide-water Section, Kentucky River, Madison County, Ky., Western Kentucky, COAL. Alleghany basins, Western Kentucky, Near Richmond, Va., Semi-Bituminous, Eastern Kentucky, Western Kentucky Cannel, BitMir CLIMATE. Virginia and Kentucky, COPPER. James River district, Blue Ridge district, FORESTS AND TIMBER SUPP Alleglhany Mountains, Central Kentucky, James River, Kentucky Valley, Western Kentucky, resources that will affect the future 23 21 21 34 36 44 7 10 23 27 . 29,31, 32 39 IOUs, . . . . . 40 I 1 2, 1, 13 2.3 26 5 9 24 34, 35 43, 44, 45 This page in the original text is blank. INDEX. GOLD. Virginia gold district, GYPSUM. In Washington and Wythe Counties, IRON. James River district, Blue Ridge " Dyestone ore, Ores of Kentucky valley, Western Kentucky, LEAD ORES. Wythe County, MARLS. Tide-water section in Virginia. Western Kentucky, PETROLEUM. Kentucky River valley, Devonian shale, POPULATION. Virginia and Kentucky, PLUMBAGO. James River section, SOILS. Allegliany Mountains, Kentucky, James River Valley, SALT. Saltville in Wythe County, Kentucky River valley, Western Kentucky, SLATE. James River section, TOBACCO. James River, Kentucky River, Western Kentucky, 28 34 . 39 23 24 . 35 35 27 27 23 2.6 2z, 29 33 41' . 27 21 39 34 36 14 23 8, 9 24 H.s PRE FACE. The following report has been prepared in some haste to set forth in a brief way, the general conditions of the dis- trict it is proposed to traverse by the Richmond and South- western Railway. It should be regarded as a mere prelimin- ary statement, which is to be followed up by a very detailed final report for which the field work is now well under way, but which cannot be finished before the end of the year. It is but just to myself and to the reader to give some ac- count of the opportunities I have had of becoming personally acquainted with the country adjacent to the line of this road. Some service as geologist in the Coast Survey in the Virginia district, and later, several summers in charge of the work of the Harvard Summer School of Geology, in central and west- ern Virginia, have served to make me pretty familiar with the districts it is proposed the road shall pass through in that State. A service of over six years in charge of the geological survey of Kentucky has brought me into every county of that State which the road will enter. I may fairly say that I have seen a good deal of every natural division of the line. Others have made more detailed studies on particular divisions' of the belt than I have been able to make, but my opportunities for see- ing the whole line have been better than have fallen to the lot of any other one person. PREFACE. In the published and unpublished reports of the Kentucky survey, I have repeatedly urged the building of a railway through this belt of country, for the purpose of opening up this region, which, considered from the point of view of its mineral resources, is the very heart of the continent. It has long been clear to me that we have here a remarkable combination of the resources best calculated to make the foundations of rzch and prosperous communities: an admirable climate, fer- tile Soil, forests rich in manufacturing woods, and a singularly varied store of mineral wealth. On either side of the great Appalachian mineral and forest belt we have states with large and growing populations, which are just shaking off the leth- ergy that their old conditions imposed on them. These condi- tions insure to the road the large traffic that has been given to every railway that has yet been built across the Appalachian mountains. This road will, it seems to me, enjoy especial ad- vantages from the fact that it not only gives access to a region rich in mineral resources, but also affords a very short line from the Mississippi to the sea, over a country where grades are easy, construction timber cheap, and fuiel very accessible to the road. The rapid growth of the export trade of Baltimore shows that circumstances are not unfavorable to the shipping of produce from ports at this distance south of New York. The port of Gloucester is one hundred and forty miles nearer the sea than Baltimore, and is very much easier and cheaper of access. With the line completed from the Mississippi to the sea this railway would, it seems to me, enjoy peculiar advantages for the export of a very great range of American products. lW. PREFACE. I have not ventured to say very much concerning the ad- vantages of the narrow gauge system of railways. This is a matter on which I cannot consider my opinion of value. I can only say that this system is peculiarly well suited for the pur- pose of developing the mineral resources of the Appalachian district. It is, also, clear to me that the valley of the Ohio has many and is to have many more of these roads, and any trunk line that gives them access to the sea, will, as long as it is the only line of this description, enjoy the monopoly of their trade. In closing, I wish to affirm my conviction that the belt of country lying between the parallels of 360 and 400, and from the Atlantic west to the Mississippi, contains the greatest and most varied mass of mineral resources of any equal area on this continent - resources destined to play a very great part in the future industries of this country. This proposed road will have the advantage of following, perhaps, the best possible line through this belt. N. S. SHALER. HARVARD UNIVERSITY, CAMBRIDGE, MASS., May I, ISa. This page in the original text is blank. PRELIMINARY REPORT. L GENERAL ACCOUNT OF THE PHYSICAL CONDITIONS OF RAILWAYS ACROSS THE APPALACHIANS. Some understanding of the general conditions to which railway lines from the Mississippi to the Atlantic coast are subjected should precede the study of the economic resources of the line now under consideration. This understanding can only be obtained by glancing, first, at certain general struc- tures of the continent. The continent of North America consists, in part, of a wide inland basin occupied in its central and southern portions by the drainage systems of the Mississippi and the St. Lawrence. This basin, containing the largest connected body of arable land in the temperate zone, is separated from the oceans that border the continent on the east and the west, by great mountain systems. That of the Appalachians, on the east, though less difficult to cross than the Cordilleras on the west, is still one of the most continuous mountain systems in the world. On the north, the valleys of the Hudson and the Mohawk give free passages through its wall, but these passages are into the valley of the great lakes and not into the main area of the continental basin. It is only by a considerable detour that access is had to the central regions of the Mississippi valley. South of Albany and north of Chattanooga there there is no break in this line, where the traveler can pass from the Atlantic to the Mississippi waters, without rising about two thousand feet above the sea. 4RICHMOND AND SOUTHWESTERN RAILWAY. On the Atlantic face of this system is a wide border of plain and low table lands which will always contain a large population that must be closely dependent on the agricultural peoples in the central valley. The mountain belt that lies between these regions averages about two hundred miles in width. It consists of two essen- tially different portions,-an eastern and a western section. The eastern is commonly known as the Appalachian range and consists of very old, much altered rocks, granites, syenites, mica schists, etc.; the western and wider section is composed of much newer beds, which extend from the coal measures downwards. These parallel mountain belts differ in their forms as well as in their rocks. The eastern range is narrow and wall-like, the ruined line of one of the oldest mountains. In it, are many low gaps that give ready passage to roads and streams. In a given distance of a few miles it is generally possible to pass this range, at least north of the Carolinas, without rising more than a few hundred feet above the sea. Between the western flank of the old range and the eastern face of the newer mountains on the west, there is a broad mountain trough, -one of the noblest upland valleys of the world. In New York it is called the Hudson valley, in Pennsylvania the valley west of the South Mountain, in Virginia the valley of the Shen- andoah, and in Tennessee the valley of the upper Tennessee. Except when crossed by rivers that cut the eastern range, this valley is a continuous trough, with its floor, in good part, of beds of limestone which furnish a very deep rich soil. The western range of mountains is much broader than the eastern range. It consists of a great number of parallel ridges that rise to a height of about four thousand feet above the sea. These have but one break, through which water runs, in the whole line from New York to Georgia, and this, the New river, practically affords no line of passage through this chain on account of its tortuous and northward course. In Pennsylvania and the northern part of Virginia these mountains are only rounded in form, like overturned boats: as 4 PRELIMINARY REPORT. we pass south from the Potomac, however, these ridges begin to be broken by long faults, the rocks on either side of the break being forced out of their original positions. As we pass further to the southward these breaks increase in impor- tance, so that from southern Virginia southward, all semblance of distinct folds is lost, and in their place we have a succession of long wall-like ridges that run in the same N. E. and S. W. direction as the ordinary ridges in the northern section. These ridges are much more nearly parallel to each other than in the more northern range of mountains. They are oftener cut through by streams, as, for instance, by the branches of the New River and the Tennessee; and through their num- erous gaps it is easy to make a general easterly and westerly roadway, with less tunnelling than in the ordinary mountains of Pennsylvania. Although these two mountain ranges are a considerable obstacle to water communication between the coast region and the Mississippi valley, they are, in the physical resources they afford, of immeasurable value to the whole country. It is well known that mountains differ much among themselves in the extent to which their soils are barren, though the Appa- lachian mountains, from the Potomac southwards, have less of the disabilities ordinarily found with mountains than any other such structures that are known to me. North of the Potomac, where these mountains have been recently (in a geological sense) ground over by the glaciers, their surface is generally too rude for agriculture, owing to the small amount of soil upon them and the coating of boulders that lies upon their surface; but as we pass south of Maryland the ice sheets only crowned the highest hills, and along the line of the Richmond and Southwestern Railway there is scarcely a trace of this ice work. The slow decay of many geological periods has accu- mulated a deep coating of soil upon the highest, and often upon the steepest hills. This soil bears heavy forests of varied hard wood timber, with some areas of yellow pine upon the higher ridges, and of hemlock along the mountain streams. Not one per cent of all this mountain surface is without a forest cover- ing except where it has been removed by man. 5 RICHMOND AND SOUTHWESTERN RAILWAY. The salme quality of soil that gives heavy forests on this belt makes the greater part of its surface fit for tillage. All through this region extensive settlements of farmers may be found, on the very tops of the highest ridges, at heights of two to four thousand feet above the sea. In this regard the region south of the Potomac is in marked contrast with the region to the north of that line, for the mountains are generally untillable, either from the poverty and thinness of the newly made soils, or from the thick covering of boulders that lies upon them. The same cause diminishes the size of the for- ests, which are not nearly as good in that region as in the country to the southward. I am satisfied that the average agricultural value of the mountain belt between the Potomac and the North Carolina line is nearly as great as the average of the Ohio valley. Although the food producing capacity of this district is a matter of importance in considering the prospects of its future, it is not in the resources of this character that we find the ele- ment of greatest interest to the economist. Its economic future lies in the fact that it is the richest field of mineral wealth known in any country. Placed between the agricul- tural districts of the Atlantic slope and the Mississippi valley, these vast stores of coal, iron, copper, zinc and other mine products are admirably situated for the use of the populous states that are now growing up in those sections. No one can doubt that this peculiarly fortunate relation of rich mineral re- sources to the rich tillage soils of this continent will lead to a great commerce between the two. The two elements of these mountains, the old Appalachian axis and the newer Alleghany chain, are very happily com- bined for the commercial future of the regions where they lie and for those adjacent to them. In the older eastern axis and upon its foot hills on the east, we have the metallic products characteristic of the older rocks. Gold bearing rocks occupy a wide area there, and even with the older mining processes in use from 1820 to i86o many million dollars worth of bullion was produced from them. Iron ores of the magnetite 6 PRELIMINARY REPORT. 7 and specular groups abound here. Extensive deposits of copper, such as those which further south, in North Carolina, are now yielding great profits to the miners, occupy a large field along the main axis of the range. Other metallic pro- ducts and a great variety of building stones, such as are found among our older or hypogene rocks, abound in this moun- tain system. In the western, or Alleghany mountains, we have the mineral resources of the newer rocks of the geologi- cal series. Coal of fair quality and in great quantity exists along this range, nearly fifty thousand square miles of it, an area at least seven times as great as that of Great Britain - lying in this system, between New York and Alabama. This coal varies from the non-flaming anthracite to the torch- like cannel coal. In the section proposed to be traversed by this railway, the amount of anthracite is quite small and may not be of great relative value, but the less changed coals are practically limitless in quantity and of such varied qualities as to fill all the needs of the arts that depend upon them. In this western belt there are also great quantities of iron ores belonging to the group Qf clay iron stones (limonites, sider- ites, etc.), which though lower in their per cent of metal than the older ores, are yet, on account of their close proximity to the coal and of certain peculiar properties they possess, of great value. This Alleghany range of mountains also contains in its folds and on its flanks, great areas of petroleum, and several levels where waters thickly charged with salt are found. There are also abundant deposits of fire and pottery clays in the coal series. Taken in its entirety, this coal bearing belt is, by the quality of its coals and their fitness for use in all the arts that demand fuel, the richest field in either America or Europe. Thus we see that the Appalachian system of mountains, while it seems to form a barrier between the plains of the the east and west, is, in fact, a most beneficial arrangement of surface for the whole adjacent region. But for these fold- ings of the earth's crust, the mineral resources of its deeper beds could not have been made accessible to man. 8RICHMOND AND SOUTHWESTERN RAILWAY. The peculiar advantage promised by railways across the Appalachians, one that will secure them a certain basis of large profits, is found in these conditions of the mountains they trav- erse. At either end of the route are vast districts occupied by agricultural and manufacturing populations, which will afford a large and constantly growing market for the prod- ucts of the mines as they are opened up along the lines. This advantage is shared to a greater or less degree by all the roads that cross both these mountain ranges, from New York southward. The line of the Richmond and Southwestern road has, it seems to me, certain especial advantages over any other, in that it crosses the coal and iron belt at its widest part, where there is the heaviest timber, and where, moreover, the peculiar configuration of the surface is most favorable to the construction of a road with low grades at smnall cost. Other advantages afforded by this mountain region will be made evident in the further consideration of the subject. Beyond the Appalachian mountain belt, the line of this road enters into the great plain of the Mississippi river system, and in the five hundred miles of its proposed course in Ken- tucky, it traverses the eastern half of those rich lands that characterize the Ohio valley. To show the peculiar advantages of this section, it will be necessary, first, to notice that the regions north and south of the Ohio differ widely in the character of the rocks that come to the surface, and consequently in their soils as well as in their underground productions. North of the Ohio, we have rocks of a tolerably uniform character, lying in perfectly hori- zontal positions; but from a point a little north of Cincinnati, southward to Alabama, we have a distinct geological ridge that passes through the central portions of Kentucky and Ten- nessee. This ridge, though it does not appear as a mountain ridge, lifts the whole district of central Kentucky into a table land that averages one thousand feet in height above the sea. It also exposes a lower series of rocks than those that appear on either side of it. North of the Ohio, the soils have generally been affected by 8 PRELIMINARY REPORT. the drift period, which by mingling the waste of many different regions gives to the soil a rather uniform character. South of the Ohio, the soils are derived from the rocks immediately beneath, and are, on account of the great variety of the rocks exposed by the tilting action of the Cincinnati axis, much more varied than in the northern region. The result is a wide, and on the whole, an advantageous difference in the natural fertility of the various areas of land in this southern district. This difference is marked in the variety and distribution of the timber,-the natural crop of the soil, and also in the tillage crops. The timber along this section is more varied in its species than that alone any other east and west line in the district east of the Mississippi. The subsequent chapters of this Report will give more of the details of this difference and show that over thirty species of economic woods arc found, in varying quantities, along this line. In the tillage crops we find the same variety. The fact that within the last four decades the United States census show Kentucky to have been at various times the first of the States in the production of corn, wheat, tobacco, and hemp, is a slight indication of the natural variety of the agricultural pro- ducts within her borders. It is a fact that the variety of crops in this area is greater than in almost any other State in this country, though the State itself has not half the climatal variation that may be found in some others, and its area is much less. In the central region of Kentucky, after passing beyond the coal bearing series of rocks, the line of this railway descends quickly upon the limestone rocks that underlie the fertile blue grass district of that section. This region includes about ten thousand square miles, an area almost as large as Massachusetts and Connecticut combined, and is probably the most perma- nently fertile body of land in this country. Many of the prairies are, at the outset, as fertile as the best of these limestone soils, but cultivation soon exhausts their store of phosphates and rap- idly diminishes their yield. In this central Kentucky region, the subsoil and the rocks below it contain the same substances 9 10 RIcHMOND AND SOUTHWESTERN RAILWAY. as the soil, and deep plowing will restore worn fields to their pristine fertility. Though manuring is much neglected, yet the soils have not been lessened in their fertility by eighty years of cultivation. I am personally well acquainted with the con- ditions of the fertile lands of this country and of Europe, and I have never seen another body of land equal to this for the purposes of a cheap and varied tillage. Passing out of this central belt of the Cincinnati axis, we come upon the western coal field, which, in a remote day, was con- nected over the central geological arch with the eastern field, but has since been worn away from it. This western coal field is the southward extension of the area commonly known as the Illinois coal field. It includes in Kentucky, an area of about four thousand square miles of country, and though, on the whole, less advantageously placed than the eastern or Alle- ghany field, it is still the best of the central coal districts of the Mississippi valley; and on account of its position, may be regarded as being as valuable as any part of the eastern field. Owing to the lower level of the surface of the country, which here falls to about three to four hundred feet above the Mis- sissippi and to about seven hundred feet above the sea, the coals of this area are generally below the drainage level of the country, while those of the eastern field are generally above that level; but this, as well as other disadvantages, are compensated for by their close proximity to the waters of the Mississippi, and to the great centres of population that are rising along its course. This region contains about twelve known workable coals, including a total thickness of about forty feet. Amongst these we have cannel of excellent quality, though limited in area, and a considerable variety of bituminous coals, of both the caking and block varieties. In this area we have also several very rich varieties of iron ore of three main classes, stalactitic, fossiliferous, and black band. Some of these ores have been proven to be of excellent quality for the manufacture of a good grade of iron and steel. They need only transportation to bring them into prominence and to make them the basis of extensive industries. This PRELIMINARY REPORT. mineral belt is bordered on either side by a wide extent of country that must always look to it for those twin staples of modern industry- coal and iron. This advantage it possesses in common with other portions of the Appalachian district; but more fortunate than they, it is swept on the west by all that immense number of navigable waters included in the Mississippi system. It also shares, in a fair degree, the agri- cultural capacities of the whole region, for though the soils are thinner than those of central Kentucky, yet the majestic forests of white oak which it carries, and the vast amount of tobacco it now produces, sufficiently attest its strength and fertility. Marls, fit for agricultural purposes, are also found in great abundance, though as yet the beds have never been worked. Compared with other railways, running east and west, across the Appalachians, it may be claimed that this road, whilst it shares with any and all others, the general resources of the Alleghany system of mountains, crosses a wider mineral belt than any other; that the average soil of this mineral belt is better, and, furthermore, that the other sections of the coun- try through which it is proposed to pass, possess a far greater natural range of agricultural products. These and other advantages, however, will be treated more in detail in the subsequent chapters of this Report. I. CLIMATE OF VIRGINIA AND KENTUCKY. The climatal relations of a district give us some of the most important elements of its economic conditions. The district now under consideration consists of several diverse areas, the differences being produced by the various levels of the land above the sea. Along the sea shore, we have a belt of country which may be regarded as extending as far west as Lynch- burg, where the general level of the country is less than three 11 12 RICHMOND AND SOUTHWESTERN RAILWAY. hundred feet above the sea. This is a region the climatal con- ditions of which are well known. The mountains in this belt are on the whole of temperate heat; snow rarely lies on the ground for more than three or four days at a time, and the ground rarely remains frozen for a longer period. The springs are early, fully a month or six weeks earlier than in New Eng- gland. The summers are long and rather hot, though the heat of any single days does not exceed that of warm days in northern New England. That this region is on the whole favorable to human life and strength is shown by the excellent condition of the people, who having been for two centuries or more on this soil, furnished as enduring and valorous a body of infantry as fought in the Confederate army. Than this there could be no better test of climatal conditions. In this belt consump- tion is rather rare. That part near the shore, where there is a good deal of swamp land is somewhat malarious, but even throughout this section there are abundant high lands for residence where settlers can escape this evil. The fever is of a simple type, not worse than that common throughout the States of Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and Kansas, and settlers readily become acclimated to it. In the higher lands west of the meridian of Richmond, this disease disappears except in very peculiar positions. On this more elevated land, typhoid fever is the prevailing disease, due probably, in all cases, to carelessness in placing wells near the house drainage. The disease is generally of a very mild form, and although somewhat more prevalent than in New England, does not contribute a larger share to the deaths. No other types of fever of an epidemic character occur here. This somewhat greater liability to fever is more than compensated for by the relative freedom from consumption that charac- terizes this belt of country. Statistics show that the average death rate in this section is lower than in equal areas in the storm belt of New England. At this distance south there is no neces- sary process of acclimatizing gone through, by settlers from more northern countries; persons from New England or from Europe, do not find it more difficult to become accustomed to PRELIMINARY REPORT. the conditions than do those who settle in Pennsylvania or New York. Beyond Lynchburg the country rises rapidly in height until we attain an average elevation of from one to two thousand feet. This brings about two somewhat important changes in the climate. The rainfall rapidly increases, and the average temperature is lessened. The climate, by these changes, becomes admirable in all regards. The greater rainfall causes a more luxuriant vegetation and a greater abundance of streams and springs. It is an assertion that any one conversant with the climatology of this country will warrant, that the elevated level between the eastern face of the Blue Ridge and the upper part of the Kentucky and thence, at the same height above the sea, southward to Georgia, is the most favored region in this country. I have spent a number of summers in this region in the most active out-door exercise, afoot, and have always had with me from twenty to sixty persons, entirely unaccustomed to the climate, mostly students and teachers from the northern part of the northern States, and have never had a serious case of illness in my parties. Twice these expeditions have been in seasons when the towns in the extreme southwest, along the Mississippi, were stricken by yellow fever, and when even the lowlands, exempt from this disease, were suffering from other high grade malarial fevers. These mountain valleys were crowded with fugitives from the infected districts, but in not a single case north of Chattanooga did the pestilence take root, though many persons who came with the disease died of it here. It may well be doubted whether such immunity would have been given to the lowlands of more northern districts under similar circumstances of exposure. This section apparently enjoys a singularly low rate of mor- tality from consumption. Statistics are not sufficient to show the full facts, but a long experience in the district and much questioning of the local physicians have convinced me of this fact. As a whole the death rate of this district is low. The State of Kentucky has a mortality assigned to it by the statis- tics of the last United States census as low as eleven per thou- 13 14 RICHMOND AND SOUTHWESTERN RAILWAY. sand, which seems almost incredibly small, but there is an apparent justification for the statistics in the large per cent of very old people in this section. The general character of the climate in this region is well shown by the fact that the section from central Kentucky to Richmond is peculiarly favorable to the growth of apples, pears, and peaches. This assemblage of fruits, when grown as they are here, with peculiar success, is good proof of a climate of a strictly temperate character. Great excesses of heat or cold are certain to render one or the other of them unsuccessful. It is only in a few perfect climates that they will attain their best growth together. The fact that wheat, maize, and oats are successfully grown in every county west of Rich- mond, is also another though less essential proof of the general goodness of the climatal conditions. But of all the evidence, I prefer that given us by the admirable physical condition of the people whose race has been many generations upon th