Miscellanies. 389 



' " The abundance and good quality of the coal are the two particulars 

 embraced in this article to which we should like most assuredly to give 

 a greater extension. Almost at the lower extremity of a hill whose 

 inclination is not very steep, they have opened a rectangular well of 

 four yards in superficies, and eighteen in depth, and at one yard exca- 

 vation they met the coal, which continues to the above mentioned depth, 

 the quality of the ground being, as well at this point as in the others, a 

 calcareous and ferruginous layer. At the distance of forty five yards 

 up the declivity, they have opened another well, three yards wide, two 

 broad and forty deep : in this place, the coal was found at the depth of 

 seven yards, and continues to the bottom, at which point and in the cen- 

 t-er of it, they made a bore of fifteen yards, always meeting with coal. 

 At the four sides of the bottom, they have opened a straight gallery,, 

 thirty yards in length, in which the vein continues horizontally without 

 any interruption. In this well, terminates another galleiy, which open- 

 ing from the bottom of the other, communicates with this, the drain 

 being obtained by means of oxen. 



" On the road to Tapaste, and on the summit of the hill, at a distance 

 of four hundred yards from the preceding well, they have opened ano- 

 ther, the vein of coal beginning at the depth of fourteen yards. It re- 

 sults then, that in the small space above mentioned, is found a vein of 

 coal of forty eight yards perpendicular, and more than sixty in surface, 

 in the part bored up to the month of April last, interrupted with layers 

 of stone, and some spots of chalk, though of small extent and rare. 

 The bed of coal is almost horizontal ; the difference of the depth at 

 which it is found, is one yard in the first well, seven in the second, 

 and fourteen in the third, depending upon the variation of the surface 

 of the declivity of the hill. 



" The mine Prosperidad was examined by Mr. San Richard, an English 

 engineer, who came to Cuba for this purpose : he wrote to the Society 

 the following, which we take froiTi a copy now under our eyes : — ' De- 

 ■scending into the well, I became astonished at seeing such a vein of 

 of coal ; never have I seen or heard till now, that there is in other 

 places a similar vein, and I believe that I should not be mistaken in say- 

 ing that there are few persons who have seen another so extraordinary 

 as this. The coal from the surface, to the depth of a few yards, appeared 

 to me to be charged with bitumen, and a coal of very good quality for 

 coke ; that which I have seen made with it, is, in my opinion, of su- 

 perior quality. From the above mentioned distance to that of forty or 

 fifty yards that I descended, the quality of the coal changed much to 

 its advantage ; it is less bituminous, contains a greater quantity of oxy- 

 gen, and is much more compact. I saw at the bottom of the well gal- 

 leries opened to the four winds, to the length of twenty or thirty yards, 



