

I 



COAL. 69 



101°13') and Ma-clvang (lat, 26° 35': long. 101° 27'). The former 

 place is about 80 miles in a straight line to the north-east of Pin- 

 ch'uan Chou and, although the greater part of the intervening region 

 has still to be examined, there is some reason for supposing that 

 it forms part of the Triassic basin of Central Yunnan, and if this 

 should prove to be the case, there is a probability of coal being 

 found in it. 



According to Joubert, (G-., Vol. II. p. 164), the early French 

 fathers seem to have been the first Europeans to recognise the 

 existence of coal in the Yunnan course of the Yangtze. Garnier's 

 mission visited a mine near Ma-ch'ang in 1868 and noticed the 

 seams cropping out on the river banks. One seam was more than 

 seven feet thick and the coal of good quality though friable. Owing 

 to this property it was all coked locally before being sold. (G., Vol. I. 

 p. 505 and Vol. II, p. 165). 



In 1898 the region was traversed by Leclere from whose writings 

 I have translated the following notes. The country between the 

 north and south course of the Yangtze and its tributary the Yalung 

 which flows in a similar direction 1 is not composed of the ancient 

 Sinian rocks as Loczy's map indicates, but is occupied by Mesozoic 

 formations which continue and complete those of Central Yunnan. 

 Superposed in the Ta-li Fu region on Palaeozoic formations, 

 Triassic, Rhaetic and Liassic sediments follow one another towards 

 the east. The ancient shore runs north and south on both banks 

 of the Yangtze for distances that are still unknown and encloses 

 coal deposits of great value. 



The most easterly outcrops of Rha>tic coal are found about 10 

 kilometres down stream from Ma-ch'ang. The principal seam 

 exploited in the vicinity is at the base of a hill called Ke-ti-pin, 

 5 kilometres from Ma-ch'ang. The same easterly-dipping horizon 

 is exploited at a great number of places on the right bank of the 

 river, for example near Ta-pin-ch'ang. From the roof of a mine 

 below Ma-ch'ang, in a seam 6 feet thick, dipping at 40° to the east, 

 plant remains were collected which Zeiller correlated with those 

 from the Rhsetic of Tongking. The gallery of this mine penetrated 

 more than 800 feet into the seam in a horizontal plane and from 

 it about five tons of coal were won daily. The small coal was 

 coked on the spot. The larger coal was sold a day's journey away 

 at about 4.] francs per ton, but the local inhabitants are given to 



1 The distance indicated is about 90 miles across in a straight line. J. C. B. 



