into a state that state one of the great nations among thirty independent commonwealths.

The time is not distinctly marked when the original fabric, reared sometime in the commencement of the 18th century, was succeeded by the present beautiful mansion-the production of the princely taste and spirit of Pennsylvania's first governor, Thomas Mifflin. Yet it is a fact distinctly established, that some of the most important councils held by Washington during the Revolution, took place on this spot. The grass, spreading greenly before the porch, has been pressed by the feet of a Franklin, a Volney, a Priestley, a Jefferson, an Adams, engaged in careless converse, or philosophical discussions.

The ambassadors of kings have here met the republican fathers of America. The mind wanders back, through the arcades of time, and beholds the rich display of contrasts which were exhibited in the olden time-the handsome apparel of counts, dukes, nay, princes, contrasted with the plain uniform of Morgan, the rifleman, or the modest costume of Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence.

When Washington was president, he was wont to leave his country residence, in Germantown, and stroll by the lake northward of the mansion, his imposing form reflected in its waves; or, seated on the porch, he would gaze on the Schuylkill, thinking over again the trials and battles of his life, from Braddock's defeat to the fall of Yorktown.

These are remarkable associations. Among other memories, we must not forget that the singular round, or sexagonal tower, that rises a hundred yards to the east of the mansion, was once the hermitage of religion and the closet of eloquence. The celebrated clergyman, Dr. Smith, who preached those stirring and remarkable sermons during the war, built this tower, filled it with his books, and here elaborated his most finished productions. The doctor was a Scot by birth, but an American in feeling. His grandson, Richard Penn Smith, now resides on the ground, and inherits in a great degree the genius of his ancestor.

Perhaps not the least interesting reflection of all is presented in the fact that the old mansion, once hallowed by the presence of Washington, Lafayette, and Wayne-enlivened by the visits of noblemen of royal blood, is now the domain of a gentleman whose only heraldry is recorded in his honest rise to fortune and fame, from the walks of toiling life into one of the first publishers and literateurs of the country. We need not refer to Andrew M'Makin, Esq., proprietor of the "Courier," whose delightful family are always ready to extend the old-fashioned rites of hospitality to the stranger, and render a visit to Fountain Park (or Aromana, as the Indians called it and its lakes) a journey of homeborn pleasure. It is rarely that literary labor meets with a repose like this-much more rarely are its honors worn so well, or with such unpretending grace.

READING, fifty-four miles from Philadelphia, is a place of considerable importance, and contains some handsome public buildings. The Union canal begins two miles below Reading, passes up the western shore of the river to the valley of the Tulpehocken, and then follows that valley till within five miles of Lebanon, where begins the summit-level. In all this distance, it rises 311 feet, by numerous locks of four and eight feet lift. The canal is twenty-four feet wide at bottom, four deep, and thirty-six on the surface. On this part of the canal is the tunnel, an excavation bored through a hill for a distance of 729 feet, 25 feet being first cut away. This dark and gloomy passage is eighteen feet in width, and fourteen feet high.

Schuylkill Water-Gap.-This is a narrow gorge, through which the river runs over a steep and rocky channel, for four or five miles, leaving no room upon its banks, which rise abruptly on each side to the height of several hundred feet. The road has been cut out along the face of one of these ranges, at a great elevation, where the surface is in many places of such a declivity as to require it to be supported by walls of stone. The views which are here afforded to the traveller, are romantic and varied in

Fountain Park, the Residence of Andrew M'Makin, Esq., Proprietor of the Philadelphia American Courier.

The Tunnel. This a place where a hill has been bored through 375 yards for a canal, about three miles from Orwigsburgh.

MOUNT CARBON is near several coalmines. The coal-country in this region begins in Luzerne, on the upper part of the Lackawana river, following its course to the Susquehannah, and along that stream, principally on the eastern bank, to eighteen miles beyond Wilkesbarre. It runs south to the Lehigh river, and thence southwest, through Schuylkill county. It extends about one hundred miles, and at the middle of the range is eight or nine miles wide, but narrower toward each end.

At Mount Carbon the coal occurs in beds of four or five feet in thickness, running east and west, and dipping to the south at forty-five degrees, with a slate-rock immediately over it, and strata of sandstone and earth above. The slate presents the impressions of organized substances imbedded in it, as the leaves of laurel, fern, &c.

In consequence of the inclination of the coal-veins into the earth, the miners have, in some places, sunk shafts to the depth of one hundred and fifty feet, with lateral excavations, east and west, of various lengths to three hundred feet. Two small carriages, called "trams,' are used in a sloping shaft to bring the coal out, being made to descend by turns; but in the horizontal one, which has been carried in several hundred feet, they use wheelbarrows.

POTTSVILLE. This is the capital of Schuylkill county, and the centre of the coal-business, on the western part of the great anthracite region, extending eastward to Mauch Chunk. It contains nearly eight thousand inhabitants, and enjoys a romantic situation in the midst of the mountains, whose mineral treasures, so recently brought to light, em

Lehigh Coal-Mines.-The first discovery of coal at Mauch Chunk is said to have been made by a hunter, as late as 1791. The first indications he noticed were bits of anthracite adhering to the roots of a fallen tree. A company was formed for the purpose of mining it the following year, called the Lehigh CoalMine company, who secured a tract of land embracing the present mine, made a rough road to it from the river, and began to dig the coal, and transport it to the stream. But the navigation was so difficult that the enterprise failed.

The improvement of the navigation of the Lehigh was commenced by the legislature of the colony, as early as the year 1771. Laws for the same object are found in the statute-book of the state, under the dates of 1791, 1794, &c. A company undertook to clear the channel, and, after spending thirty thousand dollars, gave up the attempt. Different persons, in the meantime, who had taken leases from the coal-mine company, made unsuccessful exertions to transport the coal to Philadelphia; the last of whom, Messrs. Cist, Miner, and Robinson, have been before mentioned. They abandoned their attempts in 1815.

Wonderful as it now appears, the difficulty of igniting anthracite coal was sufficient to prevent its introduction for many years; and the incredulity of the public continued to be too great to be overcome by the exertions made, until the year 1818, when two mining companies were formed; and, in 1820, three hundred and sixty-five tons were brought down, and sold in Philadelphia at eight and a half dollars a ton, delivered, which fully satisfied the demand. Both companies were soon formed into one; since which its operations, much facilitated by great improvements in the navigation, have been vast and beneficial. By means of dams, the water of the Lehigh, which is insufficient for continual use, is stopped, and occasionally allowed to flow for

a short time, floating down at once numerous rude boats or boxes, called arks, laden with coal, from sixteen to eighteen feet wide, and twenty to twenty-five in | length. It was soon found convenient to connect two of these, and afterward, three, four, and more, so that the temporary flood might carry them down together, without separating them or striking them against each other, while at the same time they would conform to the rough surface of the water, as no single vessel of great length could possibly do, and might be navigated and managed separately at pleasure. Ingenuity devised improvements of other kinds also; for machinery was soon brought into use, by which planks were joined for an ark, put together, and launched, in forty-five minutes, by five

men.

A branch of the Pennsylvania canal was finished not long after, along the western bank of the Delaware; and thus the only remaining work, necessary to a convenient and uninterrupted communication between the mines and the city, was completed.

The Delaware and Hudson Canal commences at Kingston, on the Hudson river, and runs over to the Delaware river, through the valley of the Neversink creek, thence up the valley of the Delaware to the Lackawaxen creek, and up that creek to the foot of the railway. This is a continuous canal of 117 miles in length. The railway commences at the termination of the canal, and runs over Moosick mountain to the coal-mines at Carbondale, on the Lackawana creek, sixteen and a half miles, overcoming an elevation of 858 feet.

At Easton is the dam over the Delaware, at the termination of the works for improving the navigation of Lehigh river, from Mauch Chunk to this place. BETHLEHEM is a neatly-built place, in a romantic and delightful situation, along the course of a swift-running brook. It is inhabited by Germans, and is the seat of an old Moravian school.

The works on the Lehigh river are on a large scale. The river descends 365 feet, and requires fifty-two locks and twenty-one dams. The locks are in

tended for steamboats capable of carrying 150 tons of coal, one hundred feet long and thirty feet wide.

The Lehigh water-gap is twenty-five miles from Easton, and eleven from Lehighton, six miles from Mauch Chunk. The first objects that attract attention, near the village of Mauch Chunk, are the lock in the river, and the chute, or inclined plane, at the end of the railway, down which the loaded coal-cars slide to the wharf on the river, where they load the boats and arks. The latter carry about ten tons. The trains of cars coming down the railway will often be heard rumbling as the traveller approaches the village.

Mauch Chunk, ninety miles from New York, and seventy from Philadelphia, is shut in by rude mountains, of such height that the sun is invisible to many of the inhabitants during the short days.

The railway leads from near the coalmines to the Lehigh river. This was the second ever constructed in the United States-the Quincy railway, in Massachusetts, being the first. It extends a distance of nine miles, along the side of a mountain.

The coal-mine lies a little on the opposite side of the mountain; and the coal-cars are first made to ascend to the summit of the railway up an acclivity of five eighths of a mile. The summit is 982 feet above the river. The average rise of the way is eighteen inches per one hundred feet, which is scarcely perceptible to the eye, and enables a single horse-power to draw up three empty cars.

The cars are made of strong oak timbers, and planked up on three sides, with a swinging door in the rear. They are six feet four inches long, three feet wide at top and two feet at bottom, and about three feet in depth, resting on wheels with cast-iron rims or felloes two feet in diameter, one inch thick, and about four inches in breadth, with a strong edge or flanch, one inch in thickness, and about two inches wide, which prevents them from slipping off the rails.

The cars may be stopped immediately, by a long lever, which brings strong bearers against two of the wheels, and