3o8 MINING. 



the south-east. The mine yields a very good gas coal, and has 

 been known for some 400 years. It passed into private hands 

 about ten years ago, and is now, with one much like it on the 

 island of Sakashima, by far the most productive, especially for 

 export to China. 



The Takashima coal is black, lustrous and firm, but light, like 

 almost all Japanese coal when compared with older, qualities. It 

 breaks in irregular, prismatic pieces, exhibits a black streak, and 

 furnishes a brownish black powder. It is the best known of 

 Japanese coal, as it supplies every ship bound for Nagasaki, and 

 on account of the favourable location of the mine is most ex- 

 ported. 



Taka-shima, a little island of only 54 hectares extent and perhaps 

 100 m. above the sea level, is situated at the entrance of the long 

 narrow bay of Nagasaki, eight or nine nautical miles from the capital 

 city of Hizen. Grey-white, micaceous, cross-grained sandstone, 

 friable clay in thin layers, and coal strata lean toward the north 

 at an angle of 20-25°. The inhabitants of the island, distributed 

 among a few small villages, earn their livelihood principally in the 

 mines which lie close to the sea on the side toward Nagasaki, and 

 have been worked for about eighty years. In 1875, a private company 

 purchased the mines of the government for the sum of ^^122,550 

 In the spring of that year the longest shaft was only 50 meters, 

 still the gallery slanted considerably from this point, following the 

 principal stratum, which is on an average 2 m. in thickness. 



The larger coal basin of the province of Hizen, of which Taka- 

 shima appears to be an outlying member, lies farther to the north, 

 and embraces a number of mines, among which the best known is 

 that of Karatsu, lying not far from the sea. 



The occurrence of coal on the island of Amakusa, in the 

 southern part of Hizen, deserves mention also, and in Shiki-mura, 

 near the little city of Tomioka on the northern side. The strata 

 of Oniki, however, on a little bay at the south-west, are thicker and 

 much more valuable. 



The foregoing statements regarding Japanese coal were written 

 before the November number of the German " Handels-Archivs " 

 for 1885, with its short statement of the "Import and Export 

 of Coal, and the Coal Production of Japan,"^ came to hand. I 

 extract very gladly some interesting facts which supplement and 

 corroborate my own observations and opinions. According to 

 this the coal export of Japan for the three years 1882-84 was 

 as follows : — 



Production. Value in Yen. Export. Value in Yen. 



1882 327,240 tons 1,197,053 128,230 to China 455,146 



1883 39i>944 M 1,373,570 126,155 „ 407,185 



1884 522,211 „ 1,828,263 180,950 „ 604,676 



^ The statement is made probably by our Consul- General Zappe. 



