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A 1844. Jany 19.

Left Huntsville for Cincinnati distant 12 miles. This is a small town on the Trinity surrounded by farms & plantations and is the port if so it may be called farther part of the country. A Steamboat had just left with some German Emigrants for Fort Houston, which locality is highly spoken of for farming and stock raising & in a healthy range of country. There is iron in Trinity river some 40 feet depth of water, & during high freshets 20 feet more. 20. At Noon left Cincinnati by Steam Boat for Alabama. Some ten or twelve miles up the Trinity passed what is laid down as "Oceola" & marked as containing "coal beds."

 Much has been said and written upon the extraction of coal, particularly in this river. I have examined many of the localities and the substance called coal, which by a stretch of imagination in the fevered brains of speculators has been compared even, if not superior to the best Wallsend!
 The geological character of the country, above & below this, is sand; in some places the sand is somewhat indurated, & called by some rock. I don't know for what reason
 What is called coal is recently decomposed or bituminized vegetable matter, having a black appearance, & at times, for short distances, putting on the appearance of being

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