The Adirondacks as a Coal Bearing Region

John J. Owen, geologist, who has been on a tour of inspection in St. Lawrence and Franklin counties, has discovered a superior quality of hard coal in a range of mountains situate on the easterly side of the St. Regis river, in Franklin county. He states that this coal bed is eight feet deep, and he has succeeded in tracing the lead over 21 miles. He has also discovered extensive beds of iron ore, copper, etc. The development of these mines will be of incalculable benefit to the business interests of Northern New York.

The Plattsburgh Republican says: If true it is the most important piece of news which has been published in Northern New York during the last half century, for it will not only result in bringing this section to the very front rank as an iron manufacturing district, but will also upset some geological principles which have heretofore been considered to be as well established as the foundations of the earth itself.

Further developments from the geologist will be awaited with breathless suspense by iron manufacturers, the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, and the scientific world generally. For in case this wonderful intelligence proves true, the iron manufacturers will be pleased to know that they have an abundance of coal right at their back-doors, while the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company will be grieved to reflect that they have just expended some six or seven million dollars in constructing a railway only to "carry coals to Newcastle," and the scientific world will be chagrined by the reflection that they have been building the fair structure of geological science upon a false foundation.