Miscellaneous. 



457 



The slate-clay is, as it were, pounded on the surface, and forms a 

 kind of alluvium which covers its flanks. Thick beds of cotal are 

 likewise found in this rock, but their quality is very inferior to 

 that of the coal which lies under the sandstone. The coal which 

 the pounded slate covers varies in its properties. It is often decom- 

 posed, and its particles have so little cohesion between them, that they 

 are almost reduced to a state of powder. 



Beds of ferruginous sandstone, of little hardness, under which are 

 sometimes found rich beds of coal, lie under the slate-clay. Thus 

 the Western Mountains abound so much with coal, that two or three 

 versts cannot be passed over without meeting with outcrops indicating 

 the presence of a great quantity of this combustible substance, which 

 has never as yet been touched by the hand of man. 



The coal used for fuel in Pekin, where wood is very dear, is worked 

 on a great scale ; but whether in consequence of the abundance of this 

 mineral, or of the obstinacy of the Chinese in rejecting improvements, 

 the result is that the process of mining is still in its infancy with 

 them, while the preparation of charcoal is carried on there with more 

 success and economy than any where else. 



Generally speaking, we may consider that the art of mining is still 

 in its infancy in China. They know nothing of the machines which 

 give facility to the work ; they have not even a notion of the pumps 

 which are indispensable for the exhaustion of the water. Vertical 

 shafts are not used by them. The imperfection of the works renders 

 the air very dense in the mines, often to such a degree that it is 

 necessary to make openings above on that account, in which are 

 placed ventilating wheels put in motion by the hand. This wheel, 

 although turning incessantly, introduces very little fresh air into the 

 mine. The galleries of the mines are so low that the workmen can 

 scarcely move in them except by crawling. 



When the horizontal beds are to be won, continued timbering is 

 used ; but in winning the vertical beds, only the roofs and floors are 

 timbered, particularly the latter, in order that the trains which are 

 employed to transport the coal to the surface should slide easily 

 upon them. 



Timbering employed by the Chinese is not above two or three 

 vershoks in thickness. It costs, nevertheless, about two copecks 

 per poud.* 



The winning of the horizontal bed is carried on in the following 



* Note \>y the author.— Wood in China is sold by weight. 



3 N 



