THE EXHIBITION OF 1862. 
o5 
discovery of M. Alibert. Of coal there are no very fine 
specimens, such as graced the Exhibition of 1 851, the only 
representative of them being an ugly pile of square blocks of 
poor mineral from Nova Scotia, badly put together, and utterly 
unillustrative, rather resembling a large walking-stick than a 
coal seam, but — by the geologists on the jury — rewarded with a 
medal as “ one of the thickest known seams in the world.'” As 
there are known seams of forty, sixty, and even a hundred and 
fifty feet in thickness, this medal at least seems undeserved. 
The coals, like the ores, are distributed over the whole 
building, and, for the most part, soon became in such a state 
that no judgment could be formed as to their merits. Of the 
whole number, the Austrian are perhaps the most complete, but 
they are badly placed, at the bottoms of wooden boxes, and 
almost out of sight. The Zollverein specimens are well arranged, 
well selected, and instructive ; the Belgian are large, and also 
well selected ; but from other countries the varieties are rarely 
sufficiently marked to justify an opinion. One tiling, however, 
is very clear and very satisfactory. Almost _ every country in 
Europe, and many countries elsewhere, possess coal, and are 
aware of the fact. There is more progress hi this matter than 
might, at first, be supposed, and the progress is steady. It 
might have been made very clear. There are some fair exam- 
ples of coke. 
While coal has long been steadily advancing in use, and is 
constantly better known and more worked, another form of 
carbon — graphite, or plumbago — has very long remained sta- 
tionary. For many years there has been actually no yield 
whatever of the best kinds of this mineral in the old locality, 
and no new deposit has been heard of. Suddenly the Exhibi- 
tion brings us acquainted with M. Alibert, a Frenchman, who 
has found, far away in the wildest parts of Siberia, a mass of 
graphite so large and important that its discoverer makes royal 
presents of it in the most liberal manner, and seems ready to 
supply the European market into the bargain. Russia, on this 
occasion, has again astonished the world. In 1851, the enor- 
mous and costly display of veneered malachite made it impossible 
for other exhibitors of that beautiful stone to be attended to. 
In 1862, the plumbago trophy carries off the palm, and is equally 
unapproachable. 
To those who have not seen this curious exhibition it is 
almost impossible to give an idea of the effect. Cut and broken 
into every shape ; rough and polished, and of many sizes — 
surely so much black lead was never prepared for view before, 
and, probably, never will be again. It is said to be equal in 
quality to the best from Borrodale, and is already largely manu- 
factured into pencils by the celebrated German manufacturer* 
