OCCUEEENCE. 



The useful minerals, which are the object of mining or superficial winning, 

 ranked very nearly according to their importance, are as follows : 



Coal, copper, silver, gold, iron, kaolin, petroleum, sulphur, lead, antimony, 

 tin, cobalt, quicksilver, marble, jasper, agate, amber, graphite. 



Iron consequently at present occupies a rather secondary place. The produc- 

 tion of ore of antimony and of crude antimony is increasing ; lead, tin, copper, 

 quicksilver, petroleum are not produced in sufficient quantities to supply the 

 demand ; nickel, zinc, arsenic have not yet been found in sufficient quantities 

 to be of any practical value. Consequently were in 1878 imported: 



Iron and steel in various shapes about. . . . 36,000,000 catties * 



Lead in pigs, sheets and tubes, about . . . . 520,000 „ 



Quicksilver 79,000 „ 



Tin 212,000 „ 



Smalt for about . . 30,000 rios. 



Nickel-ware . . 25,000 catties. 



Tinned iron-plates .. 9,031 boxes. 



Zinc 1,000,000 catties. 



Coal 47,396,160 „ 



Petroleum . . . . 3,422,400 gallons. 



In the same year were exported : 



Coal, about 160,000,000 catties. 



Copper, in various shapes . . 3,000,000 ,, 



Copper-ore 900,000 „ 



Sulphur 1,500,000 „ 



Sulphuric acid 1,400,000 „ 



Presides at all events also a certain quantity of ore of antimony, the figure of 

 which I, however, am unable to give. As to the form, under which the minerals 

 won by mining occur, magnetic iron-ore, ore of antimony, sometimes also 

 silver-ore are found iii layers, the greater portiou of the iron here produced is 

 the result from the working of alluvial sands of magnetic iron. Gold and 

 silver-ores, copper mostly only as copper-pyrites, lead as galena occur in lodes. 



* 1 Catty=l>3 lb. English avoirdupois. — l£=about 5 rios. 



