. Off-hand sketches : a companion for the tourist and traveller over the Philadelphia, Pottsville, and Reading railroad . eces of richly figured carpet, whilethe stately pines give them a border of the darkest and softest one after the other, like an army of soldiers, to the mountaintop, their tall spear-shaped plumes pierce the region of clouds, whilebeneath they bury their quivering shadowy in the solemn depths ofsolitude; for The sound of the church-going bellThese valleys and rocks neer heard,— Neer sighed at the sound of a knell,Or smiled when a Sabbath appeared. At the termi
. Off-hand sketches : a companion for the tourist and traveller over the Philadelphia, Pottsville, and Reading railroad . eces of richly figured carpet, whilethe stately pines give them a border of the darkest and softest one after the other, like an army of soldiers, to the mountaintop, their tall spear-shaped plumes pierce the region of clouds, whilebeneath they bury their quivering shadowy in the solemn depths ofsolitude; for The sound of the church-going bellThese valleys and rocks neer heard,— Neer sighed at the sound of a knell,Or smiled when a Sabbath appeared. At the terminus of the railroad flows the Lehigh river, a stream ofno great volume, except in times of long continued rain. At suchseasons the banks are overflowed, and some of the villages andproperty on its banks occasionally suffer material injury. The banksare deep and much worn in consequence of the velocity of the stream,and the large amount of debris collected in the mountains are carrieddown in the current. The Lehigh empties into the Delaware river atEaston, a distance of thirty-six miles from Mauch Chunk. It is made. M A U C II CHUNK. 115 navigable to Easton, and also to AVhite Haven, twenty-six miles above,for coal boats of one hundred tons. Beyond White Ilavcn to Stod-dai-tsville, the river has been improved for descending lumber, whichforms a large trade on this river, besides that of coal. The LehighCoal and Navigation Company, under whose auspices these stupen-dous improvements were made, own upwards of ten thousand acresof the coal land embraced in this region^while their works afford anoutlet for the adjacent coal districts of Beaver Meadow, Spring Moun-tain, Ilazleton, Buck Mountain, White Haven, etc. Projects for thenavigation of the Lehigh were set on foot as early as 1792 ; but itwas only after the discovery of coal, and when its importance beganto be righly appreciated, that its entire completion was effected. Avast amount of capital has been sunk unnecessarily, whi
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1850, bookidoffhandsketc, bookyear1854
