2C0 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



by the same author, on the New American 

 Phalsenidae and the Cave Fauna of Indiana. 



Seventh Annual Report of the Superin- 

 tendent of Missouri Public Schools. 



Eleventh Annual Meeting of the Mis- 

 souri State Teachers' Association. 



MISCELLANY. 



The Coal-Fields of China.— The coal- 

 fields of the Chinese Empire cover an area 

 of 400,000 square miles, and yet China im- 

 ports large quantities of coal from Eng- 

 land. In the great province of Hunan, 

 says Iron, a coal-field extends over an area 

 of 21,700 square miles. Hunan boasts of 

 two distinct coal-beds, one bearing bitu- 

 minous coal, and the other anthracite — the 

 latter being favorably situated for water- 

 transit, covering an area equal to that of 

 the anthracite coal-fields of Pennsylvania, 

 and yielding anthracite of the best quality. 

 The coal-area of the province of Shansi is 

 30,000 square miles, enough to supply the 

 whole world for thousands of years, even 

 at the present rapid rate of consumption. 

 An immense supply of iron-ore adds to the 

 mineral wealth of this great province. 



If it be asked, in view of these facts, 

 why it is that China imports foreign coal, 

 we have only to consider the methods of 

 mining followed by the Chinese, and the 

 want of good roads, in order to get a satis- 

 factory reply. The mode of working, says 

 the writer in Iron, is at once tremendously 

 severe and ludicrously ineffectual : the shafts 

 are not perpendicular, but are inclined 

 planes, 400 or 500 feet in length, running 

 down a slant of about 45°. Up this slant 

 the men carry the coal in baskets, one being 

 attached to each end of a short carrying pole, 

 which is borne upon the left shoulder. The 

 shafts are about seven feet high, and about 

 the same width, with a wooden roof, beams 

 on both sides for support, and wood along 

 the floor, so arranged as to form steps, up 

 which the miner pulls himself by catching 

 the projection of a step above him with a 

 small curved staff, which he carries in his 

 right hand. Even with cheap labor, this 

 barbarous method proves expensive. 



But the great difficulty is conveyance. 

 The famous canals of the Chinese Empire are 



confined to the lower basin of the Yangtsze. 

 The roads are simply in a state of nature. 

 Mere lines of deep ruts mark the track of 

 the primitive vehicles of the country. The 

 only repairs are effected by the rains, which 

 wash them level ; and then the sun hardens 

 the slushy mass. In some provinces two- 

 wheeled vehicles are employed, but in the 

 central provinces only the primeval wheel- 

 barrow, and in the hilly districts these rude 

 machines give way to beasts of burden. 

 The cost of transportation is, of course, 

 enormous. In the province of Shansi, coal 

 which costs about 25 cents per ton at the 

 mine rises to six dollars at the distance of 

 30 miles ; so that only those who live al- 

 most at the pit's mouth derive any benefit 

 from the coal-mines of the Celestial Empire. 

 This difficulty, amounting almost to impos- 

 sibility of transit, presses with equal weight 

 upon every department of Chinese industry. 

 The crops are splendid, but there are no 

 means of reaching the market, and the 

 apathy produced by the want of means of 

 transit amply explains why famine is a 

 chronic scourge in the land of plenty. 



The introduction of a railway system 

 into China would not only enrich the pro- 

 prietors, but would confer immeasurable 

 benefit on the inhabitants of the country. 

 It has been proposed to tap the great 

 province of Hunan by extending a railway 

 from Upper Burmah to the confines of the 

 Celestial Empire, and there is little doubt 

 that within a few years the shriek of the 

 steam-whistle will be heard within the con- 

 fines of the "Empire of the Sun and Moon." 



Sericulture in Brazil. — The Italian 

 newspapers, says La Nature, give some in- 

 teresting information with regard to the 

 measures now being taken in Brazil to for- 

 ward the production of a silk yielded by a 

 peculiar species of butterfly, which is as yet 

 but little known in that country, and quite 

 unknown in Europe. This butterfly {Bom- 

 byx saturnia), commonly called the porta- 

 espejos, has a spread of wings four times as 

 great as that of the common silk-worm 

 moth. The caterpillar feeds on the leaves 

 of the Ricinus communis and also of the 

 Anacardium Occidentale. The cocoon dif- 

 fers very widely in appearance from the 

 common cocoon. It is enveloped in a bag- 



