New York City Paper - The Source and Behavior of Fire-Gas in the Johnstown Mines

Johnstown is the site of the extensive iron, steel, and wire-works of the Cambria Iron Company. It is situated at the western base of the Alleghany Mountain, 275 miles from Philadelphia, and 78 miles from Pittsburgh. The valley in which the town and its ironworks are located, has an average elevation of 1160 feet above tide water. Johnstown, in its main features, is a modified duplicate of Pittsburgh. It is located at the confluence of the Little Conemaugh and Stony Creek rivers, which, by their union, form the Conemaugh River, just as Pittsburgh is situated at the junction of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers, which together make the Ohio River. The site of Johnstown is in a cutting through the lower productive coal measures, 500 c feet deep, with steep slopes along the valleylimits, exposing, in sharp-cut terraces, the outcrops of the coal and iron-ore beds; the whole surmounted by the shales and sandstones of the barren measures.