308 COAL. 



enumerations, as they afford no geological instruction ; 

 while the information required by the miner demands 

 all the minuteness of local details- 



A few words on the geography of coal deposits, as 

 this is found in authors, will not be misplaced ; though 

 it is probable that very few of those which exist in the 

 world are known. If, for example, the coal strata of 

 England lie, in the south-eastern tracts, beneath the 

 enormous mass of the superior strata, they may equally 

 exist in many other countries, where, from the posi- 

 tion of the strata, their depth, or the want of external 

 indications, they are little likely to be found or sought. 

 If the British islands possess one of the most exten- 

 sive deposits of coal yet discovered, that of the Low 

 Countries, including a considerable territory near Liege, 

 is the next in importance in Europe ; bearing a con- 

 siderable resemblance, in its essential characters, as it 

 is said, to that of Britain. It is also found at Marien- 

 burg in Misnia, at Pecsvar in Hungary, at Rotten- 

 burgh in Silesia, at Bilin in Bohemia, and in upper 

 Styria : and further, in Languedoc, in Artois, and in 

 Auvergne, as well as in other parts of France : being 

 worked in forty-seven departments of the empire, and 

 traced in sixteen others. In America, it has been 

 observed in different places, and wrought in some : as 

 at Cape Breton and in Newfoundland, in upper Loui- 

 siana and in the valley of Bogota. One of the most 

 antient accounts we possess of coal is that of Marco 

 Polo ; and it is now known to exist in the province of 

 Canton and in that of Kiangsee, as well as in Tartary, 

 where its use was long ago understood. In the Bur- 

 man empire, it accompanies the celebrated bituminous 

 wells. In the Waldai mountains it is found near 

 Borowitsch, and it has been discovered and wrought 

 in New South Wales. It is probable that nothing is 



