GEOLOGY. 243 



COAL IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS. 



The Union Pacific Railway is not likely, as was at first antici- 

 pated, to suffer any inconvenience from the absence of steam fuel. 

 A coal-field, almost unlimited in extent, showing outcroppings 

 for 300 miles on the road, has been "struck" in Wyoming 

 Territory, in the heart of the Rocky Mountains. The locomo- 

 tives are now fed almost entirely by coal, worked by the com- 

 pany itself, or by contractors, who furnish it at a low price. All 

 the coal for 15 miles in the " alternate sections" on either side of 

 the line is owned by the company. There are 6 mines in work- 

 ing order; there are others in progress. The principal mine, at, 

 Carbon station, yielded 4,000 tons to the railway company in the 

 first three weeks in April. One of the drifts is already 540 feet 

 in length ; and there is an excellent shaft, with the usual gear, 

 pumps, etc., worked by steam-power. The thickest part of the 

 seam so far opened is 9 feet high. Hitherto, neither fire nor 

 choke-damp has troubled the miners ; but there is a certain amount 

 of water in the deepest part. The miners are at present earning 

 from 7 to 12 dollars per day. The coal is of good quality. There is 

 neither bitumen nor sulphur in it. It contains, by anh,lysis, nearly 

 GO per cent, of carbon, 12 per cent, of water, and 26 per cent, of 

 inflammable gases. It is to bear a new name, — one which is, 

 perhaps, tolerably appropriate. It is to be called " anthra-lig- 

 nite ; " and as coal has been sold lately in Omaha, on the Missouri, 

 at the rate of 21 dollars a ton, whilst the company will probably 

 sell it at half that fn'ice, it will be seen that the discovery is one 

 of the greatest importance to the whole central portion of the 

 continent. Iron ores have been found near it ; and a good collec- 

 tion of coal fossils has been collected at the Carbon Station. A 

 coal seam has also been recently discovered at Elko, on the Cen- 

 tral Pacific Railway, which is the continuation of the Union Pa- 

 cific line already referred to. 



CHINESE GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY. 



Professor A. S. Bickmore, of INIadison University, read a paper 

 to the Association at Salem, relating his observations during a 

 journey of some 2,000 miles in the interior of China. 



It fortunately happened that the rivers, ut the time, were low, 

 as their lieds in China constitute the only access in most cases to 

 geological outcrops, there being no railroad and similar excava- 

 tions there as here. Professor B. found first a basis of granite, 

 overlaid with grits and shales, with no fossils, as yet found. 

 Then ancient limestones, with fossils thought to be Devonian, then 

 limestones equivalent to the carboniferous. (A hill of limestone 

 was visited, which was inter stratified ivith coal, and burnt di- 

 rectly to lime by the Chinese. Fossils brought from coal rocks at 

 Pekin are regarded by Dr. Newberry as probably Triassic.) 

 Next over the limestone, a red sandstone. 



