204 Mr. R. C. Taylor on the Anthracite 



pressed an earnest wish that the co-operation should be ex- 

 tended towards the north into the countries occupied by the 

 Hudson's Bay Company ; and it cannot fail to be seen, on 

 reading his memoir, how much observations in that quarter are 

 wanted for the elucidation of questions which arise. We may 

 hope that his wishes in this respect will not be disappointed. 



Believe me, sincerely yours, 

 Woolwich, February 12th, 1846. Edward SABINE. 



XXXVII. On the Anthracite and Bituminous Coal-Fields in 

 China. By Richard Cowling Taylor, F.G.S.* 



WE have seen the recent announcement of the sailing, 

 from hence, of a vessel containing 308 tons of Pennsyl- 

 vania anthracite, destined for Hong-Kong in China. Some 

 very natural speculations have arisen from this circumstance, 

 as to the probability of that remote country furnishing a market 

 for American anthracite. As no details accompany the state- 

 ment alluded to, we are not in possession of any material facts 

 whereby an estimate can be formed of the probable success of 

 the undertaking, in a commercial sense ; and we are not sure 

 but the coal may have been employed for convenience merely, 

 as ballast. 



In the East Indies various depots of European coal have 

 been established, for the service of the British government 

 steamers. This fuel, for the most part, it is understood, con- 

 sists of the anthracitous and partially bituminous coals of 

 South Wales, of course obtained at great expense. It appears 

 that 5000 tons of English coal, at a freightage of about £2 per 

 ton, are annually imported into Bombay, for the Company's 

 steamers. Bituminous coals have been derived from much 

 less distant sources ; among which the Burdwan coal-field, in 

 the vicinity of Calcutta, may be named. Mergui Island, also, 

 in the Bay of Bengal, has lately furnished some steam coal to 

 Singapore. The steam ships on the China seas, during the 

 war with that vast country, were supplied from these various 

 sources. 



I do not propose to discuss the profitableness, or otherwise, 

 of a Chinese market for our American anthracite. But as 

 during the process of collecting statistical information for a 

 proposed volume on " The Geological and Geographical Dis- 

 tribution of Coal and other Mineral Combustibles \" some 



* From a pamphlet communicated by the Author. 



\ See in Philosophical Magazine, vol. xxvi. p. 263, the Prospectus of this 

 work, by Mr. R. C. Taylor, for which subscriptions are received by Messrs. 

 Wiley and Putnam. — Ed. 



