70 COGGIN BROWN : MINES & MINERAL RESOURCES OF YUNNAN. 



using outcrop coal which they gather themselves. A French mis- 

 sionary stationed in the vicinity could obtain good coal by 

 sending out his servants for a day to collect it. 



Between Ma-ch'ang and Chiu-ya-p'ing Hsien coal outcrops are 

 found on the lower slopes of the hills, overlain by limestones. The 

 little mines made by the people of Sin-kai and Chiu-ya-p'ing Hsien 

 yield the best coal that Leclcre met with. Coal is the only fuel 

 used in the district though wood is by no means scarce. It burns 

 with a brilliant flame and very little smoke in the open grates of 

 the houses. Leclere gives the following assays of these coals : — 



Locality. 



Moisture. 



Volatile 

 matter. 



Fixed 

 carbon. 



Ash. 



Calorific power. 



Tai-pin-ch'ang (1) . 



2-G 



32-4 



59-0 



(>•() 



[ 7,8f)4 



Tai-pin-ch'ang (2) . 



... 



[36-6 



... 



4 -56 



... 



Near Sin-kai* . 



fl-G 



39 1 



47-3 



4-0 



... 



Near Sin-kaif . 



... 



18-25 



• . . 



3-6 



8,389 



Personal Observations. 



I made a rapid traverse across this region in May 1009, but I 

 fell ill in Chiu-ya-p'ing Hsien and was not able to add very much 

 to Leclere's work. He is certainly correct in assuming the existence 

 of a wide Mesozoic basin between the eastern part of the Yangtze 

 bend and the Yalung. On the west the Red Beds are followed 

 by the Trias between Ta-lu and Wei-sha, and on the east they 

 overlap on to the igneous rocks of the Permo-Carboniferous in the 

 neighbourhood of Hsin-chuang. Thus the basin has an approxi- 

 mate width of 50 miles, measured in a straight line from east to 

 west. We have no knowledge as to its northern limit but it would 

 appear to reach the valley of the Li-t'ang river in Ssu-ch'uan. 



The first coal outcrops are found near Chiu-ya-p'ing Hsien, some 

 18 miles from the western edge of the basin. This town lies at an 

 elevation of 4,200 feet in the narrow valley of a small tributary 

 flowing from the north-west to join the Hsien-chuang Ho, a tribu- 

 tary of the Yangtze on its north bank. Coal seams crop out on 



* Outcrop material. 



f Picked up from road where it had fallen in transport. Lo., pp. 38G-389. 



