165 



found. Coal has been dug in France, Germany, and Sweden ; and 

 especially at Liege there are very considerable coal mines : but the 

 mines of this island exceed, both in quality and extent, any that 

 have yet been discovered. In Wales, coal is found almost through 

 the whole principality. Ireland is also very far from being deficient 

 in coal mines; although they have not yet been found in such 

 abundance as in other parts of the United Kingdom. 



It has been found on the other side of the Atlantic ocean, in 

 Newfoundland, Cape Breton, Canada, and some of the New Eng- 

 land provinces. Mr. Jefferson informs us, in his Notes on Virginia*, 

 that the country on James river, from fifteen to twenty rniles north- 

 ward and southward, is replete with mineral coal of a very excel- 

 lent quality. In the western country, he says, coal is known to be 

 in so many places, as to have induced an opinion, that the whole of 

 the tract between the Laurel mountain, Mississippi, and Ohio, yields 

 coal. It is also known in many places on the north side of the 

 Ohio. The coal of Pittsburg is of very superior quality. Dr. An- 

 derson*)- states, that coals have been discovered also at Madagascar. 

 At the Cape of Good Hope, where fuel is very scarce, we learn, by 

 the accounts of Mr. Barrow :, that coal has been lately discovered 

 coming out to day, at the depth of two feet, along the banks of a 

 deep rivulet flowing out of the Tygerberg hill. 



In China, it is probable that coal was discovered long before it 

 was known in the western world. About the middle of the thir- 

 teenth century, a noble Venetian, in his description of China, ob- 

 serves, " That through the whole province of Cathay, certain black 

 stones are dug out of the mountains, which, being put in the fire, 

 burn like wood, and when kindled, they continue burning a long 



r Notes on the State of Virginia, by Thomas Jefferson. London, L787, p. 43. 

 t Anderson's Dictionary of Commerce, vol i. p. 229. 

 I Travels in Southern Africa, by Capt. Barrow. 



