get its wares before the public, granted to Rowland and Butland,
a private firm, free right to operate one of its veins of coal;
but this operation also resulted in failure. In 1813 the company
made a third attempt and granted to a private concern a lease of
the entire property on the condition that ten thousand bushels of
coal should be taken to market annually. Difficulties immediately
made themselves apparent. No contractor could be found who would
haul the output to the Lehigh River for less than four dollars a
ton, and the man who accepted those terms lost money. Of five
barges filled at Mauch Chunk three went to pieces on the way to
Philadelphia. Although the contents of the other two sold for
twenty dollars a ton, the proceeds failed to meet expenses, and
the operating company threw up the lease.

But it happened that White and Hazard, the wire manufacturers who
purchased this Lehigh coal, were greatly pleased with its
quality. Believing that coal could be obtained more cheaply from
Mauch Chunk than from the mines along the Schuylkill, White,
Hauto, and Hazard formed a company, entered into negotiation with
the owners of the Lehigh mines, and obtained the lease of their
properties for a period of twenty years at an annual rental of
one ear of corn. The company agreed, moreover, to ship every year
at least forty thousand bushels of coal to Philadelphia for its
own consumption, to prove the value of the property.

White and his partners immediately applied to the Legislature for
permission to improve the navigation of the Lehigh, stating the
purpose of the improvement and citing the fact that their efforts
would tend to serve as a model for the improvement of other
Pennsylvania streams. The desired opportunity "to ruin