HALIBURTOX ON COAL TRADE OF THE NEW DOMINION. 83 



able to pay back to her mother more than she herself received. 

 May we not look forward to a time when those ' water lanes ' 

 which both dissever and unite the old and new world, shall be 

 trod by keels laden with the coal produce of America for the 

 ports of Britain ?" By the term exhaustion is meant, not the 

 working out of all the coal in Britain, but of that portion which 

 is at such a moderate depth that it can be worked profitably and 

 can compete with the product of foreign coal fields. The Quar- 

 terly Journal of Science for October, 1866, has an interesting 

 article on the subject, which while opposing Mr. Jevous' theory to 

 a certain extent, admits that the price of British coal must, before 

 many years elapse, increase to such an amount as to render the ex- 

 portation of coal for ballast no longer practicable, and to transfer 

 the smelting of iron and the heavier branches of iron manufac- 

 ture to foreign countries ; and it points to Pennsylvania as the 

 future inheritor of the present profitable branches of industry 

 connected with the coal fields of Great Britain. It supposes 

 that the lighter and more elaborate manufactures requiring little 

 fuel will engross her industrial energies, and suppl}^ the loss that 

 the supposed advantages enjoyed by American coal and iron 

 will entail on her. A map of the coal fields of the world, that 

 accompanies the article in question* suggests some important 

 views as to the future of Nova Scotia, and may lead us to hope 

 that the mantle of British industrial wealth connected with the 

 use of cheap iron and coal will descend, not upon our American 

 cousins, but upon Nova Scotia. In point of position her mines 

 compare favourably with those of Britain. The Belgian and 

 French coal fields are not very far removed from the sea coast, 

 and might, if not exhausted as soon as those of Britain, compete 

 with her collieries at some future day when the price of British 

 coal increases as has been anticipated. But Nova Scotia need 

 fear no competition on this side of the Atlantic. No ingenuit}^ 

 can overcome the difficulty of a long land transport. Railways 

 are expensive luxuries. The freight over every mile of railwaj^ 

 represents so much outlay actually lost to the nation — so much 

 deducted from the value of its products. The manufactures of 



*The map accompanying this paper is, M'ith some slight additions, copied from 

 portions of the map in question. 



