Stripped
clean, he got out his map, such geological reports as he could
find and went into a studious trance for a month, emerging
mentally with the freshness of a snake that has shed its skin.
What had happened in Pennsylvania must happen all along the great
Alleghany chain in the mountains of Virginia, West Virginia,
Kentucky, Alabama, Tennessee. Some day the avalanche must sweep
south, it must--it must. That he might be a quarter of a century
too soon in his calculations never crossed his mind. Some day it
must come.
Now there was not an ounce of coal immediately south-east of the
Cumberland Mountains--not an ounce of iron ore immediately north-
east; all the coal lay to the north-east; all of the iron ore to
the south-east. So said Geology. For three hundred miles there
were only four gaps through that mighty mountain chain--three at
water level, and one at historic Cumberland Gap which was not at
water level and would have to be tunnelled. So said Geography.
All railroads, to east and to west, would have to pass through
those gaps; through them the coal must be brought to the iron ore,
or the ore to the coal.
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