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eleven or twelve miles of every residence in Union county, and connecting with the Chesapeake, Ohio and South-western Railroad at Princeton, this road, even if built no further south, affords ample facilities for travel and transportation at rates practically regulated by both railroad and river competition.

Indiana, Alabama and Texas Railroad.

Another important railroad enterprise in the western part of Kentucky is the Indiana, Alabama and Texas road, which starts at Clarksville, Tenn., and for the present terminates at Princeton, Ky. This road was originally projected as a narrow-gauge, and considerable grading and some track-laying was done on that idea. But within the past year the properties and franchises of this company have been purchased by the Louisville and Nashville Railroad Company, which, having changed the gauge from narrow to standard, is now prosecuting the work to a speedy completion. This road, which will probably be completed in the course of the present season, will connect at Princeton with the Chesapeake, Ohio and Southwestern, and the Ohio Valley railroads. The latter will afford direct communication with the Ohio river at DeKoven, Uniontown and Henderson, and with the northern roads at Mt. Vernon, Indiana, and Evansville. And the Indiana, Alabama and Texas will afford an additional southern outlet for the vast and varied productions of Trigg, Caldwell, Crittenden, Union and Henderson counties.

Bardstown Extension of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad.

Among the many good works of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad Company, that of the extension of their road from Bardstown to Springfield is of very considerable local importance. Among the blue-grass and fine stock-raising counties of Kentucky, Washington justly ranks very high. Nowhere perhaps on the planet is to be found as fine a herd of Short-horns as is owned by one of the enlightened and public-spirited citizens of this county. But notwitstanding the wealth of this long established county, and the intelligence of its people, no

railroad had ever penetrated her borders. This desideratum is now about to be supplied by the extension of the Bardstown Branch of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad to Springfield, a distance of seventeen miles. The work is under contract and being pushed to completion.

Cumberland Valley Branch of the Louisville and Nashville. A much more extensive and important enterprise has been undertaken by the Louisville and Nashville management in the construction of a branch road from Corbin, a station on the Knoxville Branch in Whitley county, via Barboursville in Knox, to Pineville in Bell county. This road runs up the Cumberland river valley through and into the hitherto undeveloped, but immensely rich lumber and coal regions of southeastern Kentucky.

The road was put under contract as far as Pineville prior to last October, and it is expected that the entire line will be open for traffic against the first of September, 1887. This road. is destined to be extended through Cumberland Gap into Tennessee, where it will connect with the East Tennessee and Virginia road, and will be the means of bringing the iron ores of that region into contact with the coking coals of Kentucky.

The vast forests of superior timber covering near ninety per cent. of the slopes skirting the North Cumberland Valley are thus noticed by Mr. Procter, the State Geologist, in his report of the resources of this region, made in October, 1880:

"This region possesses such a remarkable combination of soil, climate, water, timber resources, coal and iron, that it needs but to be known to receive proper attention from persons seeking desirable homes and a field for profitable investments. I hazard nothing in saying it is a region of unsurpassed resources."

"As Mr. L. H. DeFriese has made the 'study of timbers a specialty, the following extracts from his report on the timbers of the North Cumberland well attest the peculiar richness of that section in valuable timbers.

"Of a section made by him across the mountains, near the line between Bell and Harlan counties, he says: 'About 500 feet below the crest of the mountain I found a remarkable belt of the finest old forest walnut timber I have ever seen. The walnut is growing on a very rich, loamy soil, partly detritus and partly decayed vegetable matter, about two feet

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deep, almost entirely devoid of undergrowth. walnut-bearing belt winds along the mountain as far as I had time to trace it. * * * On the northern exposure opposite, on the contrary, about thirty-five per cent. of the timber was massive yellow poplar, many trees of which were six and seven feet in diameter, with trunks sixty to eighty feet high. * * * * * The white hickory and blue and black ash rank next in value, and they all abound in the Black Mountains especially. The red maple, which is growing into favor in cabinet work, also abounds in Bell and Harlan counties. The linden (Tilia Americana) is also found in large quantities through these mountains, and is very valuable in cabinet work, etc.

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"The yellow poplars are five to seven feet in diameter, with trunks sixty to eighty feet long. The white ash is also extremely heavy, and the blue ash as fine as I ever saw.' an elevation of 200 feet: 'No perceptible change in the splendor of the forest.' The timber remains of the same character, with such changes as are noticed up to an elevation of 1,050 feet, where he says: The splendor of the forest can hardly be imagined; the belt of walnut before mentioned begins to show itself here, while the yellow poplar, the chestnut, and the white hickory are of the finest.' At this height (1,250 feet) crosses the curious belt, twenty-five per cent. of whose timber is old forest walnut. In size and quality these trees have no superior in this country, so far as I know.'

"In addition to the valuable timbers enumerated above, the region described abounds in valuable white walnut, cherry, elms, magnolias, sweet gum, beech, and other timbers. On the slopes of Pine Mountain to the west, and Cumberland Mountain on the east, are the timbers usually found on the conglomerate sandstone hemlock along the base of the mountains, pitch pine (Pinus rigida), and the yellow pine (Pinus mitis), and chestnnt oak, are very abundant and of the best quality. Excepting the clearings in the valleys, the timbers of this section remain almost untouched. The difficulty of running logs over the falls of the Cumberland and the Smith's shoals has been the cause of the preservation of this magnificent timber region. According to the best estimates I can make, at least ninety per cent. of this area is yet covered with primitive forest growth. Taking the population of Bell and Harlan counties as returned by the census of 1870, and the area as returned to the State Auditor, the population of these counties is 5.2 per square mile. The population of Massachusetts was, in 1875, 211.78 per square mile, and as this region is capable of supporting a larger population per square mile by agriculture than Massachusetts, and the manufacturing capabilities are as great, as will presently be shown, it is reasonable to expect a great development in the near future."

But this wealth of timber is not the only advantage possessed by this country. The coal is of superior quality and inexhaustible in quantity. In the same report Professor Procter, writing of these coals, says:

"The quality of the coals of this valley is most excellent. The proportion of ash and sulphur is very low in all that have been analyzed, with the exception of one cannel coal, and the fixed carbon is high."

"At one place where the bed had been dug a little into, it yields the best kind of bituminous coal, fat and caking, but friable, with no appearance of sulphur, and making no clinker. It is a good blacksmith coal, and no doubt will make a good coke. A piece of ill-made coke shows that the best coke can be got from it."

The coals of the Upper Cumberland Valley are not only very thick, but are above drainage, and can be opened at small cost and mined very cheaply."

With regard to the iron ores of this region and the neighboring States of Tennessee and North Carolina, Professor Procter, in the report before quoted, says:

"The position of the rocks, and the relation of the Clinton Group, in which this ore, known as 'Clinton,' 'Dyestone,' and Fossil' ore is situated, to this region is shown in the section on page 5. This Clinton ore extends irregularly along the eastern_escarpment of the Alleghenies from Canada to Alabama. It is the principal source of local supply for the furnaces of Pennsylvania, and is the source of supply for the furnaces of the Roan Iron Company, Tennessee; the furnaces in the Sequatchie Valley, and most of the furnaces in Eastern Alabama. This ore is very persistent, and of good workable thickness along the entire eastern edge of the region under consideration, from Elk Gap in Tennessee to and beyond Big Stone Gap in south-western Virginia. The ore at Elk Gap can find easy access to the coals of this region by way of the proposed extension of the Knoxville and Ohio Railway down the Elk Fork of the Cumberland. There has been a development of this ore near Speedwell, in Tennessee, where it has been smelted in a charcoal furnace. The ore can be brought to the coal by tunnelling the Cumberland Mountain at one of the gaps near that place. At Cumberland Gap and eastward there is a large deposit of this ore, well shown in the accompanying plate, taken from Mr. P. N. Moore's report on 'The Iron Ores in the Vicinity of Cumberland Gap.' The several beds of ore in this section, near the Gap, range in thickness at from 22 inches to 27 inches. Eighteen miles east from the Gap it is found 52 inches thick; at Pennington

Gap, yet further east, 35 inches thick, and at or near Big Stone Gap the several beds range in thickness from 25 inches to 7 feet 2 inches.

"The quantity of this ore along the eastern outcrop of this coal is unlimited. In quality an examination of the following analysis will show that it is superior to the Clinton ores of other localities."

"During the high price of iron in 1872 the Clinton ores were carried from Alabama to Louisville by rail, carted from the railway through that city, and loaded on boats, and carried to furnances in Ohio and Western Pennsylvania.

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"The excellent ores described above can be delivered to furnaces along the Eastern border of the Kentucky coal-field at prices ranging from 50 cents to $1.50 a ton. Prof. Stevenson estimates that pig iron can be made at Big Stone Gap at $8.25 per ton. The above is but a small part of the ore supply to be relied on by this region. The writer, in a report made to the Kentucky Legislature in the winter of 1875, says: The great Pine Mountain fault, extending across the State from Pound Gap to the eastern portion of Whitley county, brings the level of this ore (Clinton) above the drainage, but it is so covered by the talus from the mountain that the ore has not yet been seen. If this ore extends so far west, we can reasonably expect to find it by drifting for it near the base of Pine Mountain. The dislocation of the rocks in Elk Fork, Tennessee, and the Sequatchie Valley anticlinal bring up this ore and prove its westward extension, and as these disturbances are but an extension of the Pine Mountain dislocation, the evidence is strong that the ore is in place along the base of Pine Mountain. Fragments of this ore have been found in the valley of Straight creek, along the base of Pine Mountain."

"It is evident that this region has an abundant supply of ores, and that only transportation to the markets of the country is needed to insure the building up of an extensive iron industry. In no region in the United States can iron be produced cheaper than in this area between the Pine and Cumberland Mountains."

And in summing up the resources of this remarkable region the same author, in the report aforesaid, says:

"I have in the foregoing report but glanced briefly at some of the most important resources of this valley. There are others which, with the development of the future, may assume equal importance with those mentioned. To the north, in Perry and Breathitt and Clay counties, salt brine is ob tained from borings, and near Whitesburg brine was obtained at 300 and 400 feet depth. Favorable results may be anticipated from borings in this valley. I believe it is an established fact that the petroleum of this country is derived directly or indi

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