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rocks, such as fossil fish of certain genera, or the remains or 

 traces of birds or quadrupeds, or of such species of shells as 

 never occur as low in the rocks as true coal beds. But if 

 the fossils are such as have been described as characterizing 

 a coal series, there is then reason for exploration. It is 

 impossible in this place to give such knowledge as will be 

 practically useful. The inquirer must refer to treatises on 

 geology, or better to the practical geologist, whose judgment 

 in such questions might often have saved much useless 

 mining and wasted expenditure. 



Mineral coal is very widely distributed over the world 

 England, France, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Germany, Aus- 

 tria, Sweden,. ■Poland and Russia, have their beds of mineral 

 coal. It is also abundant in India, China, Madagascar, Van 

 Diem en's Land, Borneo and other East Indian-Islands, New 

 Holland, and at Conception in Chili. But /no where is the 

 coal formation more extensively displayed^han in the United 

 States, and in no part of the world are^lts beds of greater 

 thickness, more convenient for working, or more valuable in 

 quality. There are four extensive/areas occupied by this 

 formation. One of these areas commences on the north, in 

 Pennsylvania and southeastern,/ Ohio, and sweeping south 

 over western Virginia and eastern Kentucky and Tennessee, 

 to the west of the Apalachians, or partly involved in their 

 ridges, it continues to AJaBama near Tuscaloosa, where a 

 bed of coal has been openea. It has been estimated to cover 

 63,000 square miles. It/ embraces several isolated patches 

 in the eastern half of Pennsylvania. A second coal area (the 

 Illinois) lies adjoininafthe Mississippi, and covers the larger 

 part of Illinois, the ^western part of Indiana, and a small 

 northwest part of Kentucky; it is but little smaller than the 

 preceding. A thufcl occupies a portion of Missouri west of 

 I the Mississippi. /A fourth covers the central portion of 

 Michigan. Besjues these, there is a smaller coal region (a 

 fifth) in RhodeJIsland, which appears near Portsmouth, not 

 far from the railroad to Boston, and also in Mansfield, Massa» 

 chusetts. Ouf of the borders of the United States, on the 

 northeast, commences a sixth coal area, that of Nova Scotia 

 and New Brunswick, which covers 10,000 square miles, 



What is said of the distribution of coal over the glebe ? How many 

 \coal areas are there in the United States, and what their positions 

 \VVhat is said of the Nova Scotia and New Brunswick coal beds \ 



