The coal beds in the Wyoming portion extend to K (fig. 1), but in the Lackawanna the number is less, extending only to II or I. The coal of the entire field is anthracite. - The first or southern and middle anthracite fields are the next in size and importance, and in order of development. Their topography and geology differ materially from the northern field, as shown by fig. 2 from Lesley. The valleys in which the coal exists are comparatively narrow, while both anticli-nals and synclinals and the strata of the measures are more abrupt than those of the former.

This field terminates in the east on the Lehigh river, in a single point or synclinal trough. In the west are two terminal points or prongs, which are wide apart at their extremities near the Susquehanna. Its extreme length is 73 m. to the end of the Dauphin or south fork, and 10 m. less by the Lykens Valley or north fork. Its mean breadth is 2 m., and its maximum, at Pottsville, 5 m. The number of coal beds is greater in this than in any of the other anthracite fields. The coal of the E. end is hard anthracite; of the Lykens Valley fork, semi-anthracite; and of Dauphin fork, semi-bituminous. The middle anthracite field is divided longitudinally by the Locust mountain anticlinal, over which the coal beds connect at several points. It is divided into two regions. The Mahanoy region is 25 m. long, with a mean breadth of nearly 2 m. Its basins are narrow and deep, and the strata abrupt. The Shamokin or northern part, not shown in fig. 2, is 20 m. long, with a mean breadth of 2 1/2 m. The basins are wider, of less depth, and the strata of less inclination, than the former.

The highest bed in this field is K. The coal is generally anthracite, except at the W. extremity, where it is semi-anthracite. The earliest records we find of the existence of coal in the southern and middle coal fields are those on Scul's map of Pennsylvania and Fa-den's "Atlas of North America" (1810-'17). The first discovery for practical purposes, however, was made in 1791 by a hunter named Philip Ginter on the Lehigh end of the southern coal field, and on the site of the since famous Lehigh coal quarry at Summit Hill. In the following year the "Lehigh Coal Mine Company" was formed by Robert Morris, J. Anthony Morris, Cist, Weist, Hillegas, and others, who secured 6,000 acres of land and opened the quarry the same year (1792) to test the character and value of the coal. In 1798 a charter was obtained by this company for a sluice navigation on the Lehigh, and in 1803 six arks with 600 tons of coal, from the Summit Hill quarry, were started down the river; but only two, with less than 100 tons each, reached Philadelphia. The city authorities purchased the coal to supply a steam engine used at the water works, then in Broad street; but it could not be made to burn, probably because it was tried in large lumps, and was broken up to gravel the walks of the grounds.

In 1806 another ark load was taken to Philadelphia with no better success. It appears, however, from a brief account of " The Discovery of Anthracite on the Lehigh," in the memoirs of the historical society of Pennsylvania, written by Dr. T. C. James of Philadelphia, who had visited the mines, that he hod commenced using stone coal in the winter of 1804, and, having laid in a supply from this and the former cargoes, continued to use it to the day of publication in 1826. About this time (1800) William Morris, whose mines were near Port Carbon, Schuylkill county, took a load of coal to Philadelphia, but did not succeed in selling or bringing las new "stone fuel'1 into notice. In 1814 two arks of coal reached Philadelphia, of five which wore started from the mines, and these two cargoes were sold to Messrs. White and Hazard at the Schuylkill Falls wire manufactory, at $21 per ton. But previously, in 1812, Col. George Shoemaker of Pottsville had taken nine wa^on loads of coal from his mines at Centreville, near Pottsville, to Philadelphia, and had disposed of two loads at the cost of transportation to these gentlemen, who desired to succeed in using it at their manufactory. Mr. White and his firemen spent half a day in the attempt to burn it without success.

At noon they closed the furnace doors and went to their dinner in disgust with "stone coal;" but on their return they were astonished to find the doors red-hot and the furnace in danger of melting. Since then anthracite has been a desirable and eminently available fuel for all purposes. Col. Shoemaker, however, had disposed of the other seven loads to others who did not succeed in making the coal burn, though this was the free-burning red-ash variety, and they obtained a writ from the city authorities for his arrest as an impostor and swindler, who had sold them rocks for coal. The Lehigh navigation was improved in 1820, and during that year 365 tons of anthracite - which heads the column of the trade - was sent to Philadelphia and sold at $8 50 a ton. From this time the anthracite trade has steadily increased. Previous to 1847 most of the Lehigh coal was obtained from the open quarry in the mammoth or E bed (not an accumulation of beds, as is generally supposed), on the spot where the coal was first discovered. In 1847 about 2,000,000 tons had been sent from this quarry, and 30 to 40 acres had been excavated from the bed, which is here 50 ft. thick. Since this date the quarry method has been abandoned for regular mining operations by tunnels and slopes.

The original "Coal Mine Company" leased in 1817 their whole property and privileges to Messrs. White, Hazard, and company, for 20 years, at an annual rental of one ear of corn ! but they were bound to deliver for their own benefit 40,000 bushels of coal annually in Philadelphia. These gentlemen formed their interests into a stock company - the "Lehigh Coal Company" - and also organized the Lehigh navigation company, afterward incorporated as the Lehigh navigation and coal company, and subsequently changed to the Lehigh coal and navigation company. The stock of the old coal mine company was bought up by the new organization. At first the shares, representing 50th parts of the whole property, were bought at $150 each; the last brought $2,000. The number of tons shipped by the Lehigh canal in 1871 was 740,630, and the total amount by canal from the commencement of the trade is 26,139,540 tons, of which, however, a considerable portion was mined in other regions. The Schuylkill canal was projected in 1814, and so far completed in 1822 that 1,480 tons were shipped over it to Philadelphia.