400 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION B. 



tyj3e of inferior quality. The exports amounted to 2,500,000 tons in 

 1905. The bulk of the coal exported goes to Chinese ports and Singa- 

 pore. The export to China (including Hongkong) for 1896 is stated to 

 have been 994,000 tons. In 1904 the export to California was 45,429 

 short tons, but in 1905 it had fallen to 11,996. Figm-es are not 

 accessible for 1906 and 1907, but it is understood that the exports 

 to California have greatly increased during these years. Australian 

 coal has lately been able to compete to some extent successfully 

 against Japanese in the Singapore market. In 190'7 Japan actually 

 imported 5,300 tons of coal from Australia. The local fuel requii-^^ 

 nients of Japan are veiy great, including coal and coke for copper 

 smelting, as well as for manufacturing and household pui-poses. The 

 coal mines are worked by convict labour. 



Korea is a small producer of coal. The amount for 1906 is given 

 as 5,895 metric tons. 



Siberia has extensive coal deposits along the line of the Russian 

 railway, but the coal is said to be of comparatively poor quality, and 

 it cannot hope to compete in Pacific traffic with the better coal of 

 Manchuria, which has fallen under Japanese control, as it would 

 actually have to pass over the Manchurian fields on its way to 

 markets in the Pacific, with the added drawback of long land carriage. 

 Japan has now the coalfields of Fu Shan, near Mukden, and these 

 can find ready access to the Pacific by rail to Korea Bay or the Gulf 

 of Pechi-Li. These workings are of immense antiquity; supposed to 

 be older than Chinese occupation, and since the Japanese took them 

 over their impoi'tance has been triumphantly demonstrated. 



China is destined to be the leading coal producer of the future. 

 Our knowledge of this vast country is limited, but no reader of the 

 literature of travel, from Marco Polo downward to Richthofen, 

 Schechenyi, Hosie, Parker, Gill, and Little, can entertain any doubt 

 of the value and wide distribution of its coal deposits. A recent writer 

 speaks of China as " one vast coalfield," which is an exaggeration. A 

 British blue book {" Mines and Quarries"), little prone to enthusiasm, 

 as a rule, refers to the coalfields of China as " incomparable," and 

 this is the right note. I have myself travelled slowly by river and 

 road over an 800-raile stretch, and seldom been a whole day without 

 seeing the outcrops of seams of coal. The " one vast coalfield" theory 

 may indeed receive support, in time to come, by the discovery of seams 

 of coal beneath the vast alluvial flats which form the eastern portion 

 of the country. Where river navigation is possible, as on the Yangtse, 

 the coal is distributed to great distances, but the difficulties of inland 

 transport must be seen to be appreciated. An experience of my own 

 may be related in illustration. 



At Takwan, 48 miles up the river from Cheng tu, the capital of 

 Szechuan, a nearly vertical bed of shale, about 2 ft. in thickness, con- 

 tained scattered through it films of coal up to the thickness of a knife 

 blade, and aggi^egating at the most a thickness of 2 in. This seam 

 was mined by a tunnel di-iven into the hillside. Air was supplied by a 

 fan worked by hand. The miners picked the face, and sent out the 

 whole in baskets carried by boys. The product was washed at the 

 pit-mouth, and the coal having been separated from the clay was 



