307 [Hayes. 



characters, that it received a distinctive name, by which it is now known. 

 Meantime observations have multiplied over a larger surface, and in 

 our own country, two discoveries have been made, which render the 

 reception of a new fact less difficult. 



1. The discovery, some seven years since, of the bitumen of 

 Ritchie County, Va. This is a true bitumen, filling a chasm in the 

 sandstones of the coal formation, without shales or clay, and the 

 deposit is extensive above the surface, and continuous more than one 

 hundred feet below it. 



The physical characters of this bitumen do not dlifer from those of 

 bituminous coal of the prismatic form. Geologists and mineralogists 

 have carefully examined and pronounced it coal. In place, it is a 

 bitumen, and all its chemical characters and composition fix it firmly 

 in the class of bitumens. 



Here we have a bitumen with the external characters of coal so 

 distinct as to place it among the more common coals on inspection. 



2, Prof Denton has made knoAvn a most valuable deposit of oil- 

 producing bitumen, whose external characters are exactly those of 

 the so-called Albertite, while the mineral in place fills a fracture in the 

 rocks, without shales or clay. Either in its bed, or in the laboratory, it 

 is a true bitumen, differing from Albertite, as bitumens differ from coal. 



I think these discoveries diminish the apparent objections urged to 

 receiving the Albertite as a cannel coal, in the way of presenting a 

 coal on the one hand which is a bitumen, and an Albertite on the 

 other, which is also a bitumen. They show, too, the important aid 

 which may be derived from chemical inquiries, connected with geolog- 

 ical observations. 



In physical characters, this mineral resembles the Albertite of New 

 Brunswick. The same variety of fracture is observed, and hand spec- 

 imens side by side hardly differ. Specific gravity varies from 1.055 

 to 1.075 ; electric by friction. 



When heated it loses 0,33 per cent, of moisture, and at 340° F., 

 begins to emit vapors of hydrocarbons, soon melts and intumesces. It 

 expands about five times its volume in decomposing, and affords a 

 porous brilliant coke. 



It partially dissolves in the lighter hydrocarbons from coal and 

 petroleum. In petroleum naphtha, of 39.67 per cent, of dark brown 

 bitumen separated from residuary humus, one hundred parts afforded 

 when distilled — 



Moisture ^-^^ 



Bitumens and Gas 7 7.67 



Carbon as Coke 20.80 



Ash 1-20 



100.00 



