146 LOWER PENINSULA. 



the fact that we have no large stores of coal to invite the capitalist 

 to invest his means in the trade. 



The best coal seam we have is not over 4 feet thick, while often 

 the average thickness of a vein does not exceed 3 feet. We have 

 discovered only one practically useful coal seam as far as the series 

 is explored. This, however, does not explain why our already 

 opened mines, in profitably workable beds, do not produce more coal 

 through the employment of a greater force of men, when our de- 

 mand for coal is so great that millions of dollars are yearly sent 

 abroad for the article. It is not the lack of coal ; our now known 

 beds would supply for a long time to come all we want for consump- 

 tion. One of the reasons for so large an import of foreign coal is in 

 the quality of the home production ; its highly bituminous quality 

 and rather large percentage of pyritous admixture unfit it for cer- 

 tain purposes, for iron smelting and for blacksmiths' use, for in- 

 stance, while for family use a highly bituminous coal is rendered 

 objectionable by the large quantity of foetid smoke evolved through 

 imperfect combustion. For gas production, the coal, otherwise 

 very suitable, is little used on account of the inconvenience of puri- 

 fying the gas from sulphur. 



As fuel for steam production, Mie Michigan coal can compete 

 with any coal imported for that purpose, and is superior to 

 many of them. The production of our mines is far behind the 

 consumption of coal for steam generation. Let us hope, however, 

 that the coal-mining industry of the State, as long as it offers an 

 article equally useful and fully as cheap or cheaper than the article 

 imported, will receive the patronage of our manufacturers to a 

 greater extent than it has heretofore done. 



I have attempted, in the foregoing part of the report, to de- 

 scribe the geological structure of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan 

 as accurately as the conditions allow. 



From the statements made, we learn that the formations compos- 

 ing it are exclusively of sedimentary origin, and the deposits all su- 

 perimposed on each other in undisturbed horizontal or nearly hori- 

 zontal position. In some parts of the continent where the strata 

 are disposed with similar regularity, they are found deeply eroded, 

 and the valleys and ravines carved through them present oppor- 

 tunities for observing the rock beds, exposed in sections of large 



