Anthracite Coal of Rhode-Island. 87 
ene, there will always be more or less of inconvenience, and 
there may be even danger, as the gases emitted by i a de- 
pect of fuel are deadly. 
. The Rhode-Island anthracite produces a heat of long 
contiatcats 
ere, again, I must remark, that not having had an 9 
portunity to burn this fuel in the severest weather, I cannot, in 
this icular, compare it exactly with the Pennsylvania an- 
thracites, but I have perceived no-remarkable difference. 
The furnace being filled at 10 o’clock P. M., burns through 
the night, maintains the apartments at a comfortable tem- 
temperature,* and contains = eae coals at 6 o’clock in the 
morning, sufficient to re-establish the fire, without any = 
added, except more fragments of the anthracite 
8. In general, the a Lsland anthracite, although dis- 
similar in appearance, is very similar in its effects, to the an- 
thracites of Pevnsiliteatts and remarks made in the no- 
tice in Vol. X. may be considered as substantially 
cable to both. I do not mean to interfere with the claims of 
proprietors, or with the preferences which komcnesioee per- 
haps) are influenced by local considerations. In a national 
point of 4 view, all these anthracites are to be ‘Sealand da as emi- 
nently valuable ; they are a vast treasure to the community, 
as well as to the proprietors, especially as most of the beds of 
bituminous coal are remote from our maritime regions, with 
which the anthracites of Pennsylvania hold an easy com- 
munication, by rivers and canals, and the coal of Rhode-Isl- 
and is contiguous to the sea, so that being once on ship board, 
it may easily be conveyed to any ‘place accessible to ships. 
Our territory is rich in mineral combustibles ; the east in an- 
thracite, and the west in innumerable mines of bituminous 
coal. 
Characters of the Anthracite of Rhode-Island. 
The Colour is steel gray—greatly resembling that of 
plumbago, to which substance it often approximates. 
Many of its surfaces are covered with a thin film of a sub- 
stance not to be distinguished from plumbago, as it has the 
same lustre and softness, and stains the s and marks 
paper in the same manner. At true plumbage is found occa- 
* 60 to 65 — in the morning, when the thermometer out of doors is 
degrees 
