F. V. Hayden on the Lignite deposits of the West. 203 
The percentage of carbon is shown to be in one case, 59-20, 
and in the other, 58°70, which shows at a glance the superiority 
of the western lignites over those found in any other portion of 
the world. Anthracite is regarded as so much superior a fuel, 
on account of the large per cent of carbon, and also the small 
amount of hydrogen and oxygen. e bituminous coals con- 
tain a large percentage of hydrogen and oxygen, but not enough 
water and ash to prevent them from being made useful, but 
the calorific power of lignite is very much diminished by the 
quantity of water contained in it, from the fact that so valuable 
a portion of the fuel must be used in converting that water 
into steam, 
The day of my visit to the Marshall coal mines on South 
Boulder creek, 73 tons of lignite were taken out and sold at 
the rate of $4 a ton at the mine, andfrom $12 to $16 at Den- 
ver. This lignite is somewhat brittle but has nearly the hard- 
ness of ordinary anthracite, which it very much resembles at a 
distance, 
In some portions there is a considerable quantity of amber. | 
I'spent two evenings at Mr. Marshall’s house, burning this 
fuel in a furnace, and it seemed to me that it would prove to 
smelting ores. 
Throughout the intercalated beds of clay at Boulder creek 
fa ki f concre’ 
_ like rusty yellow agates. It is said to yield 70 per cent of me- 
tallic Sind The first smelting furnace ever erected in Colorado, 
was established here by Mr. Marshall, and he informed me that 
