GEOLOGY. 267 



" Of the quantity which can be procured, no doubt can be entertained 

 that it is sufficient to supply the steamers on the Pacific for ages, since 

 indications and features of a coal deposit have been traced for miles in 

 extent." 



The harbour of Costa Rica is easy of access to the largest vessels, 

 and affords peculiar advantages for the shipment of the coal and other 

 productions. Native copper, and copper ore of great variety and rich- 

 ness, have also been found in this vicinity. 



At Vancouver's Island the coal is worked so near the surface that a 

 British steam-sloop was lately supplied with sixty-two tons by the natives 

 within three days. Specimens of this coal have been examined for the 

 English Board of Admiralty, and although it yields a considerable per- 

 centage of ash, it is not much inferior to the coal of South Wales. In 

 addition to this, the coal-fields of Chili are found to produce a fuel in 

 many respects equal to the coal of Newcastle. These discoveries of 

 coal, and the more recent one at Port Famine, insure the success of 

 steam navigation on the Pacific Ocean. 



DISCOVERY OF COAL IN EGYPT. 



THE Journal des Debats publishes a letter from Cairo, of the date 

 of Aug. 1st, which announces the discovery by a French civil engi- 

 neer of a stratum of coal in the vicinity of the Nile, towards Upper 

 Egypt. This discovery will relieve the ., government of the tribute 

 paid to England for the purchase of this indispensable article. Two 

 engineers, an Englishman and a Frenchman, were employed about three 

 years ago to examine the country in the vicinity of the Nile, to see if 

 any coal existed there. They reported that none did exist, and that 

 further search would be useless. But now it appears that they were 

 mistaken. 



THE CUMBERLAND COAL. 



THE Cumberland coal-basin lies in the trough, or valley, formed 

 by the two ridges into which the Alleghany range forks as it advan- 

 ces in a northeasterly direction towards Northern Virginia, and, 

 crossing the western part of Maryland, enters Pennsylvania. The 

 valley is about thirty-five miles long and ten wide. Its southern half 

 is drained by the north branch of the Potomac, which, after flowing 

 half way up the valley, and receiving the waters of numerous 

 streams, the chief of which are Abram's Creek, Spring River, and 

 Deep Run, in Virginia, and Three Fork River, Savage River, and 

 George's Creek, in Maryland, suddenly turns to the southeast and 

 cuts a way for itself out of the valley, (and, as we may add, cuts a 

 natural canal for the miner into the valley,) through the east ridge 

 of the range. A similar natural channel and passage is afforded by 

 the Savage, which, in like manner, makes its Avay through a pass in 

 the West, or Back-bone ridge, cutting through the mountains, as it 



