COAL 



Bassins du Nord et du Pas-de-Calais. 



847 



Lignite du sovs-arrondis.icmcnt mineralogique d 1 Avignon. 



Coal and Jjignite, VHtrault ct TAude. 



SPAIN. Spain contains a large quantity of coal, both bituminous and anthracite. 

 The richest beds are in Asturias, and the measures are so broken and altered as to bo 

 worked by almost vertical shafts through the beds them selves. In one place upwards 

 of 11 distinct seams have been worked, the thickest of which is only 14 feet. The 

 exact area is not known, but it has been estimated by a French engineer that about 

 12,000,000 of tons might be readily extracted from one property, without touching 

 the portion existing at great depths. In several parts of the province the coal is now 

 worked, and the measures seem to resemble those of the coal districts generally. The 

 whole coal area is said to be the largest in Europe, presenting upwards of 100 workable 

 seams, varying from 3 to 12 feet in thickness. 



The Asturias Mining Company are working many mines in this region, and they 

 are said to produce 400,000 tons annually, or to be capable of doing so. In Cata- 

 lonia and in the Basque Provinces of Biscay there arc found anthracite and bituminous 

 coals. 



In the Balearic Islands also coal exists. 



PORTUGAL. Beds of lignite and some anthracite are known to exist, but the pro- 

 duction of either is small. 



ITALY. The principal coal-mines of Italy are in Savoy and near Genoa. In the 

 Apennines some coal is found, and in the valley of the Po are largo deposits of good 

 lignite ; and a small quantity of good coal is worked in Sardinia. 



SWITZERLAND. Coal has only been found in the cantons of Berne, Fribourg, and 

 the Valaia. Beds of anthracite coal are developed in the Central and Western Alps. 



GERMANY. The Germanic Union the Zollverein embraces the following prin- 

 cipal coal-beds : 



{Saxony. 

 Bavaria. 

 Duchy of Hesse. 



["The Ruhr, in Westphalia. 

 Prussian States < Silesia. 



I^Saarbriick, and provinces of the Bas Ellin. 



The true coal of Prussian Silesia stretches fora distance of seventeen leagues. The 

 most recent information we have been able to obtain as to its production would appo;ir 

 to give above 850,000 English tons. The coal-fields of Westphalia were described 

 by Sedgwick and Murchison in 1840. The productive coal-beds are on the right 

 bank of the Rhine, and possess many features in common with the English coal-fields. 

 Bituminous coal, and lignite or brown coal occur extensively in some districts. 

 The coal-basin of Soarbriick, a Rhenish province belonging to Prussia, has thus 

 been described by Humboldt, chiefly from a communication received from M. Von 

 Dechen : 



