MINERAL RESOURCES OF UNITED STATES 3 



ground exploration or actual mininj}^ oporationw. It is thrrc- 

 fore quite impossible to submit more than a very vague data 

 relative to the magnitude of the mineral wealth of any coun- 

 try. In a very rough way we may do so, of course^, so far as 

 coal is concerned. How rough that is will be readily under- 

 stood when the statement is made that out of an estimated 

 coal area of about 4,650,000 square miles in the world, China 

 is credited with 4,000,000 square miles. Our o\\ti country is 

 put down at about 280,000 square miles, and this compares 

 with 11,900 square miles for Great Britain, 1,770 square miles 

 for German}', 2,086 square miles for France, and 510 square 

 miles for Belgium. Considering the enormous tonnage which 

 the European countries named are furnishing from their rela- 

 tive restricted territory, our possible reserves look huge. Of 

 course, areas are not a true measure of value or importance. 

 Thus om' Pennsylvania anthracite fields eml^race a territory 

 of only 468 square miles, and yet outdo in value probably any 

 coal area of like extent anywhere in the world. 



We must, therefore, leave to the imagination the pleasure 

 of dealing with the magnitude of our mineral wealth. All we 

 do know is that it is very great, not alone in its magnitude but 

 also in its variety. 



There is hardly a state or territory in the union which 

 does not possess and is not utilizing mineral property, par- 

 ticularly when we include clays and stone and mineral springs. 

 Maine has her granite and stone ; Vermont her marbles, gran- 

 ite, and copper; Connecticut her iron ore; Massachusetts her 

 granite, pyrites, and iron ore; New York, salt, stone, petro- 

 leum, natm-al gas, clays, cement, gj^sum, graphite, and iron 

 ore; New Jersey, clays, marls, zinc, and iron ore; Pennsyl- 

 vania, petroleum, coal, iron ore, natural gas, cement, rock, 

 and clays; Maryland, iron ore; Virginia, coal, u'on ore, zinc 

 ore, pyrites, and copper ore; North Carolina, gold, stone, 

 corundum, mica, copper, and iron; South Carolina and Flor- 

 ida then- phosphates; Tennessee, coal, copper, non ore, and 

 phosphate rock ; Alabama, coal and iron ore ; Louisiana, sul- 

 phur and salt; Kentucky has coal, iron, zinc, and lead; West 

 Virginia, petroleum, natural gas, coal, and salt; Texas, petro- 

 leum, coal, iron ore, quicksilver and silver; Ai'kansas, zinc, 



