hayes.] COAL FIELDS OF THE UNITED STATES. 269 
tin* population is scanty and the fuel requirements are consequently 
small. The Pacific coast markets are supplied chiefly by the Wash- 
ington fields, though considerable coal comes from the Nanaimo dis- 
trict in British Columbia, and some also from England as ballast in 
grain vessels, and from Australia as a return cargo. 
The development of the coal resources of Alaska is as yet in the 
experimental stage. A local fuel supply is of the greatest importance 
to this territory, and the present indications are that such a supply 
will be furnished by some of the fields now known or others not yet 
discovered. a 
a Practically all the information at present available concerning these Alaskan coal fields was 
summarized by Mr Brooks in the Twenty-second Ann. Rept. U. S. Geol. Survey, Pt. Ill, pp. 
521-569. 
