144 The National Geographic Magazine 



tain region there are nearly 45,000 

 square miles of anthracite, bituminous, 

 and ligni tic-bituminous coal and 56,500 

 square miles of lignite. The results of 

 the investigation are published in the 

 twenty-second annual report of the Sur- 

 vey, part III, now in press. 



Mr. Storrs believes the available coal 

 of Colorado alone is thirty-four billion 

 tons. The coals of Wyoming, lying 

 largely in the plains region, are of a 

 lower grade than the mountain coals of 

 Colorado and Montana. The coal-fields 

 of New Mexico have been explored only 

 near the railroads, and those of Utah 

 but little explored, so that no estimate 

 can be formed of the coal resources of 

 these two states. North Dakota's coal 

 is lignitic and must be used very soon 

 after leaving the mine, because it dis- 

 integrates so rapidly. There are no 

 important coal mines in South Dakota. 

 No careful exploration, however, has 

 been made of the northwestern part of 

 the state, where there is coal of more or 

 less value. In Nevada coal of any 

 value has been found only at one point, 

 in the Eureka district. No coal is 

 mined on a large scale in Idaho. In 

 ,1900, from the Rocky Mountain coal- 

 fields 13,496,555 short tons were mined, 

 worth about $17,400,000. 



WORLD'S SUGAR PRODUCTION AND 

 CONSUMPTION 



AVERY timely bulletin has recently 

 been issued by Hon. O. P. Aus- 

 tin giving the present statistical posi- 

 tion of sugar. Fifty years ago about 

 all the sugar consumed in Europe came 

 from the tropics; from the West Indies, 

 Louisiana, and the South American col- 

 onies in the Western Hemisphere, and 

 from Java and parts of the East Indies 

 in the Eastern Hemisphere. During 

 the last half of the nineteenth century, 

 however, the sugar-producing area of 

 the world has been slowly shifting from 

 the tropics northward to the temperate 



zone, due to the development of the 

 beet-sugar industry. Practically all 

 the countries of Europe are now en- 

 gaged in the production of beet sugar. 

 Spain, within the last five j-ears, has 

 developed a beet-sugar industry that 

 supplies her home market and is now 

 seeking for foreign outlets. Italy also 

 within the last decade has made such 

 progress in producing sugar that nearly 

 two-thirds of the sugar used is produced 

 within her borders. In 1900 Germany 

 exported nearly one million tons of 

 sugar — 988,703; Austria-Hungary, 657, 

 492 tons; France, 587,063 tons; Bel- 

 gium, 300,757 tons, and Russia, 201, 

 330 tons. 



Two-thirds of the world's sugar sup- 

 ply is now produced from beets. Prior 

 to 187 1—' 72 the world's production of 

 beet sugar had never exceeded 1,000,- 

 000 tons for one year. In thirty years 

 sugar produced from beets has quin- 

 tupled, and for 1900 reached an esti- 

 mated grand total, of 5,510,000 tons. 

 Meanwhile the sugar produced from 

 cane has not quite doubled in quantity. 

 In i87i-'72 the estimated production of 

 cane sugar was 1,599,000 tons, while in 

 1900 it had reached a total of 2,904,000 

 tons. 



The Coast and Geodetic Survey has 



just published a chart showing the lines 

 of equal magnetic declination and of 

 equal annual change in the United States 

 for 1902. The chart is based on all 

 known observations to date. 



A topographic map of Philadelphia 

 and vicinity has been recently issued 

 by the Geological Survey. The map 

 shows the city and suburbs on the south 

 and west, and connects with another 

 map, also just published by the Survey, 

 showing the city of Chester and sur- 

 rounding country to the Delaware line. 

 The Survey had previously issued two- 

 sheets of the Norristown and German- 

 town suburbs, so that by mounting the 



