60 THE IRON ORE DISTRICT OF EAST TEXAS.. 



tons of coal, to one hundred and eighty-six presses in constant operation, 

 working two and one-half million tons of the brown coal per annum. 



In the Tertiary lignitic basin of Bohemia brown coal deposits which crop 

 out in places dip to a depth of not less than twelve hundred feet, disturbed 

 by basaltic and phonolitic eruptions. 



In the lignitic basin of Albona, Istrien, the brown coal has been mined for 

 the last sixty years, and, notwithstanding the deposits are very irregular in 

 that region, disturhed and of varying thickness, the annual production of 

 the coal has been increased from fifteen thousand tons in 1883 to from sixty- 

 five to seventy thousand tons in 1888. The brown coal is of a bituminous 

 character ("Pechkole"), and used in the factories of Triest, Fiume, Pola, and 

 Venice, on steamers, and in the industrial establishments along the eastern 

 coast of Italy. 



The extensiveness of the works may be judged from the fact that in 1882 

 about fifty-two miles of railway were used in the mines to win the coal.* 



How different are the conditions in our State at the present time. There 

 is no risk to take; the experience of Europe for the last fifty years is at com- 

 mand. With little trouble drawings for machinery, furnaces, and ovens of 

 latest construction and highest perfection can be procured, and all that is 

 necessary to complete a factory, and which at the present can not be manu- 

 factured in this country, can be forwarded from Europe with little cost. Ex- 

 perts who have devoted a lifetime to the brown coal industry can be induced 

 to initiate and conduct the process, saving costly experience which is only to 

 be acquired through many years of actual work in a factory. 



Abundant quantities of the most excellent material exist for operation, and, 

 if judiciously selected, for all the different branches of the manufacture of 

 products from lignites. 



These coal beds, located in a rich agricultural section with productive soils, 

 a congenial climate, and growing population, where immense quantities of ex- 

 cellent iron ores await the development of the lignite industry, and by their 

 vicinity to the Gulf, offer a limitless market to the ready product. 



These are conditions which insure success to the manufacturer, prosperity 

 and wealth to the people. 



LITERATURE. 



Jahres Berichte uber de Leistungen de Chemischen Technologie, von Dr. 

 Rudolf Wagner, from 1855 to 1889. 



This work and the following authorities cited therein have been drawn upon: 



PARAFFINE, MINERAL OILS, AND TAR. 

 Reichenbach (1830) Journ. f. Oekonom. Chem., viii, p. 445. 

 * Berg und Huttenmaenn. Zeitung, No. 15. 1884. 



