THE PICTORIAL SKETCH-BOOK OF PENNSYLVANIA. OR ITS SCENERY, INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS, RESOURCES, POPULARLY DESCRIBED, BY ELI BOWEN. AUTHOR OF THE U. S. POST-OFFICE GUIDE," AND LATE OF THE GENERAL POST-OFFICE. Illustrated with ober Two Hundred Engravings, AND A COLORED MAP. PHILADELPHIA: WILLIS P. HAZARD, 178 CHESTNUT STREET. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1852, by WILLIS P. HAZARD, in the Clerk's office of the District Court of the United States, for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Stereotyped by SLOTE & MOONEY, Philadelphia. C. SHERMAN, Printer. TO JOHN TUCKER, Esq., PRESIDENT OF THE READING RAILROAD, THE SCHUYLKILL VALLEY RAILROAD, ETC. ETC., THESE SKETCHES OF THE ANTHRACITE COAL REGIONS, AND THEIR PRINCIPAL OUTLET, ARE INSCRIBED AS A SLIGHT INTIMATION OF THE RESPECT WHICH IS ENTERTAINED FOR HIM BY THE THOUSANDS DIRECTLY AND INDIRECTLY CONNECTED WITH THE COAL TRADE. A WORD BEFORE WE GO. In all parts of Europe the traveller is supplied with Guide-books, detailing, for his special information and satisfaction, the leading features of all objects of interest on his route. There is not an antiquated castle, a battle-field, a mountain, or a river, but has its peculiar points revealed for the entertainment of the stranger, as he rambles along from place to place. No doubt this materially adds to the interest and subsequent value of travel; and probably constitutes one of the paramount attractions of a tour in Europe, since all its incidents are thus permanently impressed on the mind. In the United States no such conveniences exist; and this is probably one reason why foreigners generally misunderstand and misrepresent us -they are not sufficiently informed to give a correct estimate of our resources, peculiarities, and institutions. They hastily pass over our railways and rivers, and, for the want of suitable printed-guides, return as profoundly ignorant of the routes traversed as they were at the startingpoint-for seeing is not understanding. In her physical aspect and resources, Pennsylvania is pre-eminently the most interesting State in the Union-yet, for the want of popular descriptions and references, her real character is comparatively obscured from the public view. The most intelligent individual may make the tour from the Delaware to the Ohio by railroad, and yet be unable to identify one-half the towns, or mountains, or streams, or otherwise explain correctly the prominent local characteristics of the route traversed. Thousands of persons, of fortune and leisure, owing to this evil, are intimidated from travelling; while many proceed direct to Europe, before visiting the objects of interest in their own immediate land. It was as much with the hope of converting our time to a useful pur |