842 



COAL 



lion in the United Kingdom, since 1854 is given in tho following Table, with the rates 

 of increase and decrease in each year : 



The increase in the five years to 1859 was 

 it ! 1864 



it it ,t 1869 .. 



Tons 



7,318,364 

 20,610,108 

 14,639,684 



Or we have an increase in ten years, that is, from 1859 to 1869, of 35,447,792 tons. 



The quantity of coal produced in the years 1854 to 1869, both inclusive, amounts to 

 1,343,793,705 tons, which added to the quantity estimated as having been produced 

 before 1859, namely, 2,850,000,000 tons, shows that up to the end of last year, (1872) 

 we shall have drawn from our original stores of fuel not less than 4,300,000,000 of 

 tons of cod. 



FOBEIGN COAL-FIELDS. 



We have not yet arrived at the period when we could pronounce with any 

 approach to certainty on the actual number of coal-basins in the world ; the total 

 number must, however, amount to at least from 250 to 300 principal coal-fields, and 

 many of these are subdivided by the disturbed position of the strata into subordinate 

 basins. 



The basins or coal areas may be, however, grouped into a comparatively small 

 number of districts, and even many of these are little known and not at all measured. 

 The greater number occur in Western Europe and Eastern North America, while 

 Central and Southern Africa, South America, and a large part of Asia, are almost 

 without any trace of true carboniferous rocks. 



The principal coal-fields of Europe, are those of Belgium, France, Spain (in the 

 Asturias), Germany (on the Khur and the Saar), Bohemia, Silesia, and Russia (on the 

 Donate). 



BELGIUM. The Belgian coal-fiold is the most important, and occupies two districts : 

 that of Liego and that of Hainault, tho former containing 100,000 and the latter 

 200,000 acres. In each the number of coal-seams is very considerable, but the beds 

 are thin and so much disturbed as to require special modes of working. The quality 

 of coal is very various, including one peculiar kind, the Flenu coal, unlike any found 

 in Groat Britain, except at Swansea. It burns rapidly with much flame and smoke, 

 not giving out an intense heat, and having a somewhat disagreeable smell. There 

 are nearly fifty seams of this coal in the Mons district. No iron has been found with 

 the coal of Belgium. 



Belgium is traversed, in a direction from nearly west-south-west to oast-north-east, 

 by a large zone of bituminous coal-formation. The entire region is generally de- 

 scribed under two principal divisions : 



