1869.] MEETING OP THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION. 325 



COAL AND IRON IN CHINA. 

 By Prof. A. S. Bickmure. 



The object of the paper was to show that, although China is 

 and has been for many ages the most densely peopled area on the 

 suface of our earth, yet her natural resources remain to be 

 developed, and that these resources are so ample that there is a 

 bright future for China now that the enterprise of Europe and 

 America is to join hands with the untiring industry of her 

 people. Professor Bickmore, who has travelled very extensively 

 in China, gave a full list of the localities where all the above 

 minerals are found, and some statements tending to indicate a 

 great yield in all these mines. Coal was used for fuel ages 

 before its properties were known to Europeans. Marco Polo, 

 the great Venetian traveller, who visited Pekin more than six 

 hundred years ago, found it in common use. The only mode of 

 transporting this mineral in the northern parts of China is on the 

 backs of camels, mules and donkeys. Professor B. described a 

 mine near Pekin, which he descended for a mile, being obliged to 

 crawl on his hands and knees, as the height of the adit or tube 

 was only four or five feet. The coal is drawn up in baskets on 

 sleds, each basket holding from a peck to half a bushel. The 

 only covering of those who drag it up is a thick layer of coal 

 dust. This slow and laborious mode of taking the coal to the 

 surface was the only one seen in all mines visited ; neither are 

 there any adits or tunnels for the admission of pure air. Acci- 

 dents from the explosion of fire-damp rarely or never occur, how- 

 ever, probably because the Chinese are unable to dig lower than 

 the water level for want of proper pumping apparatus. For the 

 same reason the best coal in China remains as yet undisturbed, 

 and awaits the enterprise and improved apparatus of western 

 nations. Coal appears from place to place over the whole 

 empire. It is overlaid with a red sandstone, and the Chinese 

 commence their operations when the strata chance to outcrop, and 

 follow them down at whatever angle they chance to lead. 



Prof. Bickmore showed by extracts from ancient works that 

 petroleum was not only known but used for lamps more than one 

 hundred and sixty years ago. The Chinese name for it is " Oil 

 of Stone," which is identical with our name petroleum. 



Iron, the next most important mineral to coal, is found in the 

 immediate vicinity of coal over most of the northern part of 



