196 NOTICE OF A COAL. VEIN NEAR THE HAVANA. 



The outcrop of this singular vein was accidentally discovered where 

 the public road winds down the point of a small ridge, and is worn 

 down sufficiently deep to expose the coal and attract attention. 



In whatever way we may account for the origin of this remarkable 

 coal deposite, in a rock of this age, we must be led to view it, in some 

 measure, in connection with the petroleum which is found in the 

 rocks of this region. We observed it in a liquid form, filling cavities 

 in a mass of chalcedony, a few yards only from this coal vein ; and 

 whilst breaking fragments of various rocks in this vicinity, during a 

 hot day, we perceived a strong odour of pitch or tar arising after every 

 blow of the hammer. 



The Petroleum springs, which rise from the fissures in the serpen- 

 tine at Guanabacoa, two leagues to the west, have long ago attracted 

 attention. 



Round the bay of Havana, petroleum is still collected at low water,, 

 under the name of chapapote^ and is employed, in the manner of tar, 

 for paying vessels. 



It is matter of history that Havana was originally called, by the dis- 

 coverers of the island, by the name of Carine, because there they ca- 

 reened their ships, and pitched them with the tar which they there 

 found washed on the shores of this beautiful bay. 



The position we have described is not the only one in the island of 

 Cuba where this remarkable variety of coal exists. It has been ob- 

 served between the cities of Havana and Matansas, not far from the 

 sea coast. 



We are not aware that any other of the West India islands contain 

 coal in sufficient quantity to be worked. In Jamaica it appears, on the 

 authority of M. De la Beche, coal exists in veins of an inch or two in 

 thickness, occurring stratified with the usual coal measures and carbo- 

 niferous rocks : but these veins are too insignificant to be worth mining. 



Of the geology of St Domingo we know very little, and shall pro- 

 bably remain ignorant for some time to come. 



It were an interesting fact, if it be, as we conceive, that this is the 

 first discovery within the tropics (in this part of the globe at least) of 

 workable veins of remarkably pure coal. 



