318 



ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



tions subsisting between the consumption of British coal and its 

 future supply. Should the consumption of coal in this country, it 

 is argued, progress at the same rate as now, the supply will be 

 exhausted at no distant date, and with such an exhaustion there 

 must ensue a cessation of most of those industries which have 

 hitherto characterized us. So energetically was this alarm sec- 

 onded by one of our most distinguished economists, that a finan- 

 cial operation was proposed, with a view to palliate some of the 

 evils which might be likely to ensue from such an event. Now, 

 the real question is, it seems, when will the scarcity-price operate 

 on consumption, and when it does so operate in what will the 

 saving be effected ? That the scarcity-price is not yet operative is 

 manifest from the increase in the aggregate consumption of coal, 

 and from the increased production of metals ; for it is in the 

 smelting of metals that the largest consumption occurs. Nor 

 can it be doubted that when the saving becomes necessary from 

 enhanced price the economy will be exercised in this direction. 

 But the total value of all metals produced in this country in the 

 year 1864 (the largest in value, though not the largest in amount, 

 yet recorded) was worth little more than 16,000,000, a great 

 but not a dominant quantity in the annual aggregate of British 

 industry. It would seem, then, that the alarm, if it be not pre- 

 mature, is certainly excessive. The material wealth of this 

 country, it may be observed, greatly as it is related to its manu- 

 factures, one of the raw materials of which is locally limited, is 

 far more fully derived from its geographical position, and tlu-re- 

 upon its trade, the advantages and aids of which are permanent. 

 Occupying, as Great Britain does, the most central position be- 

 tween the New and the Old World, it is, and will be, so long as 

 the people are industrious and resolute, the highway and the mart 

 of nations. Its commerce, by virtue of causes which cannot be 

 reft from it, increases at a far more rapid rate than its manufac- 

 tures ; and if that commerce remain unfettered and unshackled, 

 there seems no limit to the width which its markets may attain. 

 Prof. Thorold Rogers. 



COAL MINES OF THE WORLD. 



M. A. Burat, in a work entitled "Situation de rindustrie 

 Houilltere," gives the following as the statistics of the extent of 

 known coal-fields and their annual productions : 



British Isles . 



France 



Belgium 



Prussia and Saxony 



Austria and Bohemia 



Spain 



North America 



Extent in hectares, 

 1 hectare being equal 

 to 2.47J acres. 

 . 1,570,000 . 

 350,000 . 

 150,000 . 

 300,000 . 

 120,000 . 

 150,000 . 

 . 30,000,000 . 



Tons. 



86,000,000 



10,000,000 



10,000,000 



12,000,000 



2,500,000 



400,000 



20,000,000 



