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I again met with a very friendly reception on the part of Mr. Arnold Halbach, and his brother. The former had the kindness to attend me in several of my excursions, as far as his extensive business would allow. He is a patron of the fine arts, and as such, took me to two painters of this place, Eicholz and Birch. The former, from Lancaster, is the son of a coppersmith, in which occupation he himself worked, but having a talent for portrait painting, he has devoted himself thereto with much success. His portraits have the merit of strong resemblance, and are also tolerably well, and correctly painted. The other artist, Birch, possesses a very fine talent for landscape painting, and particularly for sea-pieces. I had hoped to meet with views of the United States at his house, but was disappointed. Mr. Birch told me that landscape painters found so little encouragement in the United States, that they lost all courage to design handsome scenes in their native country. His sea-pieces are very handsome, but none are entirely completed. He is particularly happy in representing storms. Whilst Mr. Eicholz, with moderate talents, does much business, Mr. Birch, with great talent, is often a prey to severe distress.⁷⁰

I saw at the house of a dealer in looking-glasses, a gallery of pieces by living painters, among others, of Sully. One of these paintings is really terrific. It represents a man, who, with his horse, is attacked and entwined by an anaconda. The expression of pain in the horse is very well represented, but the countenance of the man, as well as the whole subject, is horrid. Few of the paintings were very remarkable; I was most pleased with one by Birch: a boat in a storm, in which the crew were saving themselves from a wreck.

I inquired, in company with Mr. Niederstetter after maps, but the result was not very satisfactory. It is very difficult to furnish maps of the United States, as they have not yet been trigonometrically surveyed, and the only astronomical designation of places and maps are founded on common surveys. At a dinner given by General Cadwalader, commander of the Philadelphia militia, and one of the most distinguished citizens, among other new acquaintances, I made also that of General Harrison, of Cincinnati, senator of the United States. He had been a general in the army during the last war, and defeated the English General Proctor, on the boundaries of Canada, on which occasion, the celebrated Indian chief, Tecumseh lost his life. But the general, to the great regret and disadvantage of the army, resigned, on account of a dispute with the then secretary of war, Armstrong.

At a party, which consisted of perhaps thirty persons, I was much questioned about my journey, and particularly about my stay at New Harmony. Mr. Owen’s system does not meet with much favour here, and it is not thought that his society will last long. Much offence is taken at its irreligious principles, and much surprise is manifested, that Mr. M‘Clure, as an old, learned and sensible man, should have been so captivated by this new system, as to declare in a meeting of a learned society, when a proposition was made to buy a new building, that they should only wait a couple of years, till this new social system should be extended over the country, as land would then be so cheap in the cities, that it might be purchased almost for nothing.

I must not neglect to mention a little present from Mr. Vaux. It is a snuff-box, made of the wood of the elm tree at Kensington,⁷¹ under which William Penn made the treaty of 1682, with the Indians. It is very simple, and decorated merely with a silver medal, on which is inscribed “Penn’s treaty, 1682,” and below, “unbroken faith.”

CHAPTER XXVI

Journey from Philadelphia to New York. – Coal-mines of Pottsville and Mauch Chunk. – Bethlehem

I left Philadelphia, June 3d, at four o’clock in the morning, to see the coal-mines beyond the Blue Mountains, and then pay another visit to my friends in Bethlehem; after which, I must repair to New York, as to my great sorrow, the time for my embarkation approached. I rode fifty-two miles in a mail stage to Reading. Notwithstanding a gust on the previous evening, it was again very warm, and on the latter part of the journey particularly, we were much incommoded by dust.

At first we took the same way, which I had taken last autumn to Bethlehem, through Sunville, Germantown, and Chesnut Hill. The present appearance of the country was very different from its aspect at that rough season of the year. Every thing was now alive and green, and the numerous and elegant gardens of Germantown, were filled with the beautiful flowers. Although this place is three miles long, it presents no tedious uniformity. The various country-seats of the wealthy inhabitants of Philadelphia, which are tolerably close to each other, rather present an agreeable change. Chesnut Hill affords a very extensive view over the surrounding handsome and thickly inhabited country. The valley of the Schuylkill appeared to particularly great advantage, which by means of dams and canals, made near shallow places, is navigable till beyond the Blue Mountains. Beyond Chesnut Hill, we left the above-mentioned road and turned on the left to Norristown, a very romantic place on the left side of the Schuylkill. Before reaching this, we passed extensive marble quarries, which are about one hundred feet deep, and form very picturesque hollows. The blocks are raised by means of machines, worked by horses. This marble is gray, and is used in the fire-places of most of the respectable houses in Philadelphia. Several of the mile-stones on our road were also made of this marble. The cuttings are partly burned to lime and partly thrown on the turnpike. The turnpike, as an American one, was on this route tolerably good.

Beyond Norristown we again rode through a very handsome country. Between Chesnut Hill and the marble quarries, we passed a good stone bridge over the Wissahiccon creek, which turns many mills. Between Norristown and Trap, a small place through which the road runs, we passed two other creeks, the Skippar and Perkiomen creeks, and at Pottsgrove, over a third, called Monataway creek, which here empties into the Schuylkill. The road then went over a hilly country through Warrensburg and Exertown, and over the Mannokesy and Rush creeks. At last we saw Reading, in a lovely valley. It had a military aspect, as a company of volunteers had held a review to-day, and were recreating themselves at a tavern near the town, after their toils. At five o’clock we reached Trautman’s tavern, where we found good lodgings.

Reading contains about five thousand inhabitants; it consists of a long principal street, which is very wide, in the middle, and of several other streets, which cross it at right angles. The place depends on agriculture and some manufactories. Many hats, especially felt hats, are made here, which are sent in great numbers to the slave states and the West Indies. I here visited Mr. Hiester, former governor of Pennsylvania. This worthy old man bears his age, which is seventy-four years, remarkably well. He took me to his son-in-law, Dr. Muhlenberg, the German Lutheran minister of this place, son of the celebrated naturalist and learned man of this name, who died about ten years ago. We took tea at his house, and then walked to the Schuylkill, over which a covered wooden bridge led. We saw also a part of the canal, on which coal is brought to Philadelphia from the upper parts of the Schuylkill. Here at Reading, this canal ascends four locks, which appear to be built in a tolerably solid manner. It made a strange impression on me to hear every person speak German. On the road from Philadelphia, I had every where heard this language; but in Reading scarcely any thing else than German is spoken, and better than I had heard in the state of Ohio, or in Lancaster. Reading possesses a good German school under Dr. Muhlenberg’s direction, in which this language is taught in its purity. He himself has a numerous and selected library of English and German books. Two canal boats run at present alternately every week between Philadelphia and Reading, in which about one hundred travellers may be accommodated. They leave the one place at three o’clock in the morning, and reach the other about five o’clock in the evening.

I hired at Reading a carriage with two horses, for three dollars a day, in order to visit the coal-mines beyond the Blue Mountains. I left Reading at seven o’clock in the morning, and rode thirty-six miles to Pottsville. We passed over a turnpike, which was occasionally very rough. It several times led us in the neighbourhood of the canal, the surface of which is about thirty feet wide on an average. It is lead by means of wooden boxes over several deep streams. Between Reading and Pottsville there are about eighty locks, several of which we passed; at one time I saw seven together, which formed a very pleasing sight. About noon we reached a little German place, called Hamburg, half way to Pottsville, at the foot of the Blue Mountains, not far from the Schuylkill and its canals. On the road to Hamburg, we passed but one creek which had a name, Maiden creek. I dined at Hamburg, and met, as it was Sunday, a number of idlers, all Germans, assembled in the tavern. Several Germans of education in the United States, made the remark to me, which I found but too true, that next to the Irish, the Germans form the roughest portion of the emigrants. The truth of this remark again forced itself on my attention in Hamburg, and especially in the case of a young doctor, who had formerly studied in several German universities, and gave vent to his giddiness in a vulgar manner. It was the first time in the United States that the affectation of republicanism arrested my attention.

Not far beyond Hamburg, we came to a defile where the Schuylkill forces a passage through the Blue Mountains. This narrow vale was very romantic, and my interest in the scene was greatly increased by the numberless blooming kalmias, improperly called laurel, the rhododendra, which offered a splendid sight amidst the rich vegetation of chesnut trees, butternuts, oaks, elms, sycamores, blooming tulip-trees, and sumacs. How frequently I thought of the great pleasure which my father would enjoy, if he could travel with me among these mountains, and admire the treasures of the vegetable world with his experienced eye! The way led along a mountain over the Schuylkill, which lay deep below me. It forms here a curve, and is made navigable by means of dams, as there was too little room to continue the canal on the side of it. After we had passed the chief defile of the Blue Mountains, we left for a time the navigable Schuylkill with its canal, and passed through a narrow vale, through which the little Schuylkill flows, which is covered with kalmias, rhododendrons, and some azaleas. Afterwards came another vale, formed by Scrub Hill and Scollop Hill; then a long mountain, called Limestone Ridge. Beyond this mountain we reached Orwigsburg, which, entirely enclosed by mountains, occupies a romantic situation; it is built in the form of a cross, and contains about eight hundred inhabitants. We rode farther, through a valley covered with trees, again reached the Schuylkill with its canal, and at length arrived at Pottsville.

This place is scarcely to be found in any map, as it arose but three or four years ago, and owes its existence to the neighbouring coal-mines. The navigation of the Schuylkill commences here; this is the place where the vessels which navigate this canal and river, small keel-boats, are built. A couple of saw-mills are erected for this purpose, as well as a high furnace, in which the iron ore found in the neighbourhood is smelted. The coal-mines are worked under the direction of the Schuylkill Coal Company, which has made the Schuylkill navigable at its own expense, in order to transport the coal to Philadelphia and New York. A bushel of coal, weighing eighty pounds, is sold at Philadelphia for twenty-five cents. The river was made navigable only about eighteen months ago, and it is only since this time, that they have commenced to dig out coal.

Pottsville consists of a single street, lying in a somewhat narrow vale on the right shore of the Schuylkill, and owes its name to a Mr. Pott, who commenced the first iron works. The entrances of two coal-mines are seen on the shore opposite the place; there are some which, however, are not worked on account of scarcity of labourers. I became acquainted in our tavern with a Mr. Baker from New York, who is one of the chief men in this undertaking, as well as with a Mr. Taylor, editor of the paper called the Miner’s Journal, which bears a good character.

I rode with these two gentlemen to the coal-mines, two miles and a half from Pottsville, and not far from Norwegian creek. The coal appears almost on the surface of the ground, in which a certain dark colour denotes its presence. No one thoroughly understands the business of coal-mining, and therefore it has hitherto been conducted in a very unsystematic and expensive manner. Shafts are made wherever it is thought that coal would be found, and when a vein is discovered it is worked. The veins run from east to west, and then descend in a southern direction at an angle of forty-five degrees; between the veins, slate is commonly found about twelve feet thick. Under the lower layer of slate, coals have been again discovered by boring, but have not yet been farther worked. The shafts are not much above twenty feet deep; the coals are brought up in buckets by means of two windlasses; at one place machinery worked by a horse is employed for this purpose. One shaft contains water, which, as the pumps are not yet in order, must be drawn out in buckets in a very tedious and expensive manner. The coal is of a superior quality, burns very well, and contains no sulphur. About fifty men work in the mines, each of which on an average receives monthly fifteen dollars. Hitherto the society has employed thirty vessels to transport the coals to Philadelphia. They are brought from the mines in large wagons to the head of the navigation, and are weighed before unloading. A profit of a certain amount is expected to arise from the working of these mines, which, however, will only be properly calculated, when the mines are worked more systematically. They design to connect the works with the river, which certainly would be a considerable saving, by means of a rail-road. A mountain, which runs parallel with that containing the mines, and which is yet covered with trees, is also said to contain great quantities of coal, but has not yet been worked.

After this fatiguing excursion, as I had seen most of the mines, I left Pottsville on the 5th of June, and rode forty miles to Mauch Chunk at the junction of a creek of this name with the Lehigh. After passing Orwigsburg we turned to the left towards M‘Keansburg, through a woody valley not well settled, and this only near Pine creek. M‘Keansburg is a small place, and lies on an eminence, which affords a prospect of a romantic valley, through which Little Schuylkill flows. M‘Keansburg adjoins on one side a wood swarming with locusts, which made so much noise that they might be heard at a great distance. These locusts are seldom seen, and their present appearance is ascribed to the uncommonly dry spring. I walked among the trees, and found under the stones several crystallizations; I found among others, a stone perfectly resembling a petrified bird’s head with the beak. Many vegetable petrifactions, such as fern and leaves of the kalmia, are found in the slate between the veins of coal. I was told that the impression of a whole collection of snakes was found in a cavity in the slate, and that the impressions of the heads, particularly, were very distinct.

After leaving M‘Keansburg we passed valleys and mountains, and reached, in this manner, the narrow and romantic valley of the Lehigh, by a very steep road. Lehighton, which lies at a junction of Mahoning creek and the Lehigh, consists of but few houses, and is supported in a miserable manner; because the land is too hilly and rough for cultivation, and the industrious village of Mauch Chunk, which is but three miles distant, withdraws from it all support. The country, however rough and unproductive as it may be for those who wish to live here, would afford a particular enjoyment to a botanist, and a lover of his science, by its rich and blooming vegetable productions.

It began to grow dark when we reached Lehighton, I nevertheless continued on the road; this grew narrow, was partly cut out of the rock, and closely approached the right shore of the Lehigh as far as Mauch Chunk, which we reached after dark, and in a storm. I took lodging in the only inn, which, however, is very good and respectable, and kept by a quaker, Mr. Atherton. The place has only existed four years, and owes its origin to the neighbouring mines, which, with all the surrounding country, belongs to the Lehigh Coal Company; a company which possesses a large capital, has existed longer than its rival in Pottsville, and conducts its operations more systematically. One of the most important stockholders is a quaker, Mr. White, who lives here, and has properly created every thing, and directs every thing himself. He visited me the same evening, and appeared to be a plain Friend, who however has reflected much on the good of mankind, and speaks very well.

On the next morning Mr. White took me about the place; it lies in a very narrow vale surrounded with high mountains, which rise out of the Lehigh and are covered with trees. The company has made the Lehigh navigable, or rather is at present engaged in this work, by means of dams, locks and canals, in order to transport the coal to Philadelphia with ease and cheapness.

The canal, in which two locks stand at a distance of one hundred and thirty feet from each other, is thirty feet wide between the locks, the sides of which are covered with planks; behind this covering a wall has been erected, the crevices of which are filled with a liquid mortar. Mr. White calculates, that the covering of wood will last about thirty years, and that during this time, the wall will unite with the mortar and form a kind of rock. Neither the locks, nor the canal were finished, so that there was as yet but a temporary navigation. The coal is put into flat boats six feet wide and ten feet long; these are attached, two together and five behind each other, so that a kind of raft of ten boats, or rather a box is formed. When this raft arrives at Philadelphia, and the coal unloaded, these boats are taken to pieces, the boards sold, and all the iron which was in them, brought back to Mauch Chunk in carts. Two saw-mills are in constant operation for the building of these boats, the timber is previously cut in form, so that practised workmen may nail together such a boat in an hour. But as soon as the canal and the locks are finished, even this navigation so expensive and destructive to the wood, will cease, and coal be transported in steam-boats, which will pass up and down the river and canal. The banks of the canal are covered with stones, or rather formally paved, so that they may not suffer from the action of the wheels. The coal is taken from the mine in wagons to the place where it is put into boats, and there weighed. After this the carts move upon a disk which turns, where the horses are quickly unharnessed. The carts are then raised by means of a machine, worked by a horse, and when they have attained a certain height, are brought in an oblique position, so that the coals fall out into a kind of enclosure, where they remain till wanted; the boats are loaded by means of moveable broad iron gutters, which are elevated or depressed according to the height of the water. Grates are put in this gutter, so that the coals which are too small, and the dust, fall through, and merely the larger pieces fall into the vessel.

Considerable quantities of iron ore are found near Mauch Chunk, in a sandy state, and near the surface of the earth, which is melted in furnaces, erected for this purpose. But they have not yet succeeded in doing this by means of stone coal, and are obliged to use charcoal. This iron is used to make rail-roads, which lead to the most important coal-mine, nine miles distant. They will facilitate the transportation of the coal to the water in a very great degree, and make this at least three-fourths cheaper. Iron carts are to be used on this rail-road. Its ascent to the mine amounts to one foot in a hundred; the empty carts are to be drawn up by horses, each of which draws four at the rate of three miles an hour; when they are loaded, they are carried to the river by their own weight, and make the passage in less than an hour. When they reach a certain point not far from the river, they are sent down an inclined plane, at an angle of forty-five degrees, and by means of machinery yet to be attached, they draw the empty carts by their weight up this plane.

A very good turnpike, now leads to this important mine, nine miles from Mauch Chunk, along the romantic valley of the same name, which ascends but two feet in a hundred, so that we could trot the whole way. I went in company with Mr. White. The mountain is imperceptibly ascended, and it occasions surprise, when, after a ride of eight miles, the woods, which cover the mountains are left, to see Mauch Chunk creek, whose shore has apparently just been left, rushing deep below, and at the top of the mountain to find oneself in a coal-mine. It is a highly interesting sight, and alone worth a passage across the ocean. The coal does not here run in veins, but the whole mountain consists of a solid mass of coal, covered with a layer of clay at most a foot thick. The earth assumes a dark colour six inches below the surface; coal dust a foot and a half thick, is found at the depth of one foot, then comes the coal in small pieces, which are not used, but at a foot deeper the solid coal begins, which is broken off and sold. They have hitherto bored to the depth of sixty feet, and found nothing but the purest coal; they have however, dug but forty feet deep, and prefer working horizontally rather than perpendicularly. Except some veins of slate, which as solid rocks are not more than two feet thick, no heterogeneous substances are found among the coal. This is entirely black, and only those parts which are more or less exposed to the weather, are iridescent.

These mines, which are not subterraneous, occupy at present a space of nearly four acres. An iron wedge forced by a hammer is used to break the coal. The stratum of coal is partly horizontal and partly at an angle of forty-five degrees; it seems as if it had been once elevated and broken by a subterraneous power. The workmen are paid daily, gain about eighteen dollars a month, and occupy several houses not far from the mine. They have dug a well in the stratum of coal, which furnishes pure and good drinking water.

We rode back to Mauch Chunk on the excellent road, made altogether on account of the mine. There is a place on the road where iron sand is dug, and whence runs a chalybeate spring, which leaves settlings of ochre. Two miles from Mauch Chunk we ascended the hill, on the other side of which, again quantities of coal are found. It is, however, very difficult to reach the layer on this high and steep hill, and the transportation of coals thence to Mauch Chunk would be attended with great inconvenience and expense. To obviate this, the company is cutting through the hill at a certain height, a tunnel in the rock, by which means the stratum may, to use the expression, be reached by the rear, and the conveyance of the coals be much facilitated. This tunnel is to be ten feet high and fifteen wide, with a rail-road in the middle. They have cut through two hundred feet already, and have yet one hundred and twenty feet to work, before they reach the coal. This labour is fatiguing and tedious; twelve men work day and night. They blast the rocks with powder, and advance but one foot in twenty-four hours.

In the valley of Mauch Chunk creek, along the road, two furnaces are erected in order to cast the pieces necessary for the rail-road, to avoid their transportation and to accelerate the work on the road. Two saw-mills have also been built in this valley, but the water in the creek is generally too low to depend much on their assistance in such works. The company employs about one thousand eight hundred workmen, who live partly near the mine, but generally in small houses in the place belonging to the company. Their habitations form a street along Mauch Chunk creek, nearly half a mile long. A great number of them are married and have their families with them. The company has given them a clergyman, and a school with a good teacher, to instruct their children. A massive mill is also erected near the creek, in which all the flour necessary for the place is ground; the country is too rough for culture; the company exchanges in a very profitable manner coal for grain. Meadows have, however, been laid out in the valley, in order to gain the necessary hay for one hundred and twenty horses, which daily work here. The creek also works bellows, by means of which the necessary draft of air is preserved in the furnaces and in the forges.

A store belonging to the society, and furnished with all the necessary articles, is also kept here. In this the workmen and their families receive the necessary articles, the price of which is deducted from their wages. Every workman has his leaf in a large book, wherein his account stands, and besides a small pass-book, wherein a copy of his account is written. Every month, or if the workman prefers oftener, a settlement is made, and he receives a note on the treasurer for the money owing to him, unless he wishes it to remain in the treasurer’s hands. The company makes a great profit in this manner, and the greater part of the money expended flows back again into its treasury. The ground three miles up and down the Lehigh, belongs to the company, so that no one can dispute with them the monopoly of keeping a store. If other companies should be formed to dig coals in the mountains above Mauch Chunk, where great quantities are said to be found, they could not gain much, as this society has taken possession of the only outlet, the Lehigh, and on account of the locks could lay many difficulties in the way with regard to the transportation of other coal.

I visited Mr. White in his tasteful house on the declivity of a mountain, whence he may see the whole of Mauch Chunk. He has a park behind his house, with tame game, which eat out of his hands. They consist of two stags and a female elk and her young one, which is already nearly as large and strong as a horse. They were obliged to shoot the male elk last autumn, as he attacked Mr. White and gave him eight wounds in the legs, with his horns, which confined the poor man about a month to his bed. The assistant of Mr. White ran to aid him, but received some wounds himself in the body, and would have been killed by the furious animal, if, at the cry of the two unfortunate men, a number of people had not hastened with poles and clubs to relieve them.

At five o’clock in the evening, I left the interesting Mauch Chunk and went sixteen miles on the road to Bethlehem, as far as Cherryville. At Lehighton I took the left shore of the Lehigh passing two small creeks, Big creek, and Aquanshicola creek, and at last, (for the fifth time,) the Blue Mountains, through Lehigh Water Gap. This country must be very handsome, and it was with regret that I saw so little of it, but it began to grow dark, was very rainy weather, and thick clouds covered the Blue Mountains. Two miles from Water Gap we passed through a small place called Berlinville, and were yet two miles distant from Cherryville. In the darkness we could not see the posts which stand wherever roads cross, and there was no turnpike. We accordingly lost our way, and at a cross road knew not which direction to take. We ran about in the rain and the darkness, but found nothing which could have directed us. At last we took a road at random, fortunately the right one! But it was midnight before we reached Cherryville, where we found lodgings in a very good tavern. This whole country is inhabited by Germans, and the German language is the only one spoken.

Cherryville consists of but few houses, has, however, an open and handsome situation, and the roads in the vicinity are planted with handsome and large cherry trees, whence the name of the place. I left this place, June 7th, at eight o’clock in the morning, and rode fourteen miles to much-esteemed Bethlehem. We passed through two small places, Kreiderville and Howardtown, and through a well-cultivated country; the grain and fruit, however, were suffering much from the drought, and beyond Howardtown we rode in a thick cloud of dust. I was uncommonly pleased, and felt quite at home, when, on leaving the woods, I saw the friendly Bethlehem before me. But it was quite different from what it was last autumn; it was then cold, and the trees beginning to lose their leaves; now summer had given every thing new life.

At Bethlehem I went to my old quarters at Bishop’s tavern, and soon after my arrival visited the worthy Mr. Frueauf. He was the more pleased with my visit, as no one in Bethlehem believed that I would fulfil my promise of returning, except himself. He took me to his brother-in-law, the Reverend Mr. von Schweinitz, who, at the very time I was at Bethlehem last autumn, had visited my father in Weimar, and spoken with my wife. Mr. von Schweinitz is on the mother’s side a great grandson of Count von Zinzendorf, and the brother of a deceased Lieutenant von Schweinitz, with whom I had been in early years in a company of the Saxon Guards. He is a very agreeable man, who unites a polished education with an excellent character. At dinner I met with pleasure with the old Dr. Stickel. After dinner I walked with Mr. Frueauf and Mr. von Schweinitz, across Lehigh bridge, to a promenade along the river, leading to a semicircular place. Benches were placed here, and a spring was overarched to keep wine, &c. cool. We then went below the garden of the girl’s school to the mill of the congregation, where there is also a place under a handsome linden tree, affording a very pleasing view into the vale. But Mr. von Schweinitz was unfortunately obliged to leave here this afternoon on business of the society, and I could enjoy his extremely agreeable acquaintance but for a short time.