LOCALITIES OF COAL. 



of the globe is still unknown ; but it appears from those parts with 

 which we are acquainted, that coal is found principally in temperate 

 regions, between thirty five and sixty five degrees of latitude. In 

 Europe, — Great Britain, France, Flanders, and Germany, (particu- 

 larly Silesia, Saxony, Bohemia, and Thuringia,) contain large coal 

 formations ; but in the southern and more northern parts of Europe, 

 coal is of rare occurrence. In North America, coal is found in great 

 abundance on the western side of the Alleghany mountains ; it has 

 also been discovered in Pennsylvania, extending westward towards 

 Pittsburgh, over a space of three hundred miles. Coal occurs also 

 near Richmond, in Virginia, and in Missouri. American coal* is 

 said to be found in quartz rock, which I apprehend to be merely 

 siliceous grit, composed of nearly pure granular silex, such as 

 abounds in the lower part of the Yorkshire coal-fields. The coal, 

 in a great part of the United States, contains little bitumen, and 

 hence is called anthracite : it is not, however, the true anthracite of 

 mineralogists, but far more valuable for fuel. The discovery of this 

 immense repository of coal, accompanied with ironstone, must prove 

 of the highest importance to a nation so industrious, intelligent, and 

 enterprising, as the inhabitants of the United States. In the vicinity 

 of Pittsburgh, I am informed, that the strata of coal are nearly hori- 

 zontal, and that in one situation, the same stratum of coal forms the 

 bed of a river for several miles. Coal has been discovered in New 

 Holland. The only great coal formations in Asia that we know of, 

 are in China, where coal is described as existing in large quantities, 

 and as being extensively used for fuel in that vast empire. 



As France will probably continue to be, for many centuries, our 

 great manufacturing rival, it is interesting to know what are her re- 

 sources, for the supply of an article found so essential to almost all 

 the principal manufactures of Great Britain. Before the late peace, 

 forty seven of the departments contained coal districts, and the annual 

 consumption was stated to be about five millions of tons ; but a great 

 part of the rich and extensive coal-field extending from Valenciennes 

 to Aix-la-Chapelle, is comprised in that part of Flanders, which was 

 separated from France at the peace. There are, however, extensive 

 coal districts in the north-eastern, the western, the middle, and the 

 southern parts of France. Two miles from Lyons there are coal 

 mines; the coal of St. Etienne and the ironstone beds accompanying 

 it, about twenty miles north-west of Lyons, are of the very best qual- 

 ity. In the year 1822, when I passed through that country, many 

 English workmen were employed in the iron-works, which were rap- 

 idly increasing. It cannot be doubled, that, from its soil, its climate, 

 and its mineral resources, France possesses every advantage which a 

 great manufacturing nation can require. 



* Fof an account of American coal, the reader is referred to the conclusion of 

 this volume, where will be found more full and precise statements. 



