LIGNITES OF KUPERT'S LAND. 



349 



changed, lessening the draft, is suitable for river naviga- 

 tion. The coal crops out at various points from the 

 British line to near Port Oxford in Oregon, and is acces- 

 sible to sail and steam navigation, and almost inexhaustible 

 in quantity. These coals with imperfect machines and 

 facilities for mining can be delivered ready for shipment 

 at from 2$ to 3$ per ton." 



Beds of Lignite are found at many places in Texas. A 

 bed four feet thick occurs on the Colorado, near Bastrop, 

 beneath a layer of Eocene fossils. This mineral is also 

 found on the Brazos*, and exists in abundance on the 

 Bio del Norte, the river forming part of the boundary 

 line between the United States and Mexico. Some 

 specimens in the last-named locality are so bituminous as 

 to be of no use in the blacksmith's forge, where it runs 

 together and becomes baked into a solid mass. Seams of 

 Lignite three to four feet thick are exposed on Elm Creek, 

 a tributary of the Del Norte, and have been used and 

 found valuable in a blacksmith's forge. This Lignite 

 occurs in Cretaceous formations. 



The occurrence of extensive Lignite beds in the valley 

 of the Mackenzie is well-known, and from the foregoing 

 enumeration of their distribution in Tertiary and Creta- 

 ceous formations, it is evident that more or less continuous 

 areas of this important mineral are to be found, along 

 the flanks of the Rocky Mountains, from Mexico to the 

 Arctic Sea. 



In Europe it is well-known that Tertiary Lignite deposits 

 possess considerable economic value. They are worked 

 in France, Germany, and Switzerland. In England, the 

 Lignites of Devonshire, associated with beds of clay, are 



* Blake, Pacific Railway Reports, vol. ii. 



