86 STEVENSON 



Feet. Inches. 



4. Parting . . 



5. Coal o II 



6. Clay o 2104 



7. Coal I 7 



8. Rock, sandy o 3 to 5 



9. Coal I o 



The measurements are exact only for the place at which they 

 were made and the portion, Nos. i to 5 inclusive, averages not 

 more than i foot 3 inches. The whole of the coal is mined, 

 but the character is not the same throughout. The '* top," that 

 above No. 8, is hard, grayish black, with fracture more or less 

 conchoidal and much like a splint coal ; the "bottom " is black, 

 lustrous, with layers of brilliant coal and a somewhat prismatic 

 structure. It is tender and shows some mineral charcoal, but 

 this is not abundant. The composition is shown by the follow- 

 ing analysis, for w^hich I am indebted to the courtesy of Mr. 

 Andrew S. McCreath, so long the chemist of the Second Geo- 

 logical Survey of Pennsylvania, who has added this to the series 

 of similar favors for which I am under obligations to him. 



" The two samples of Spitzbergen coal yield on analysis 

 respectively : 



Top. Bottom. 



Moisture 3-3^^ 4.696 



Volatile matter 19.790 '28.560 



Fixed carbon 62.763 57-I7I 



Sulphur 467 .413 



Ash 13-670 (gray) 9.160 (light brown) 



100.000 100.000 



" The ratio of fixed carbon to volatile matter differs consider- 

 ably in the tw^o coals ; but three determinations were made in 

 each case. Such a difference has already been noted between 

 the coal of the upper and lower benches, but it is unusual ; and 

 generally the coals in a vertical section show approximately, at 

 least, the same ratio of volatile matter to fixed carbon. (See 

 Survey Report, MM, pages 94 to 97.) 



" The coals yield gases burning with a luminous but feebly 

 smoky flame, and neither of them shows the slightest tendency 

 to form a coherent coke. 



