The two important mineral substances, coal and iron, have, when made available, afforded a permanent basis for commercial and manufacturing prosperity. Looking at the position of some of the great depositories of coal and iron, one perceives that upon them the most flourishing population is concentrated-the most powerful and magnificent nations of the earth are established. If these two apparently coarse and unattractive substances have not directly caused that high eminence to which some of these countries have attained, they, at least, have had a large share in contributing to it.

In preparing this volume, our investigations have in great measure been directed to one only of these simple mineral substances, coal, although the iron has not altogether been lost sight of. We will take the liberty of terminating this passage, in the words of M. Aug. Vischers.

“Coal is now the indispensable aliment of industry; it is a primary material; "engendering force; giving a power superior to that which natural agents, such as water, air, &c., procure. It is to industry what oxygen is to the lungs, water to the plant, nourishment to the animal. It is to coal we owe steam and gas; it replaces, in the workshops and the domestic hearths, the charcoal which had become too costly. Under the last head, in our northerly latitudes, it is destined always to acquire increasing and more general use. The employment of coal will henceforward be no other than a question of cheapness; and, in the present age, the first interest of industry is, above all, to see ameliorated the ways of communication; to lower the tolls upon the routes and the canals. If custom-house officers still oppose shackles on manufactured products, they lower their barriers for the passage of the raw material."

PROPORTIONATE AREAS OF COAL LAND IN EUROPE AND AMERICA.

The following table* shows the relative magnitude of the principal coal producing countries, and their respective areas of coal land, together with the proportions which they severally bear to each other. Those of France and Spain are considerably less than the actual amount. Coal occurs in almost every principal subdivision of Spain, but we have only included the Asturias region.

Hence, as regards European countries, Great Britain takes the first rank: Belgium, as regards territorial proportion, occupies the second rank, although in relative coal area she is the least of the four. Pennsylvania, in respect of territorial proportion, is higher than any of these, being relatively one-third: but in absolute area of coal formation, the four eastern colonies of British America united exceeds them all, being larger than that of Great Britain, France, Belgium and Spain conjoined. This table is not strictly perfect; since we

Six private schools, numbering 479 pupils; eight public schools, numbering 472 pupilsthe annual average expense for each pupil being only $5.82; eight Sunday schools, num*bering 1137 pupils; teachers, 166; total, 2254, with a library of 1659 volumes.

It is but just to add, that of the Catholic school, comprising 439 of this number, every individual had taken the pledge of total abstinence from intoxicating drinks for life.-Notes from the Miner's Journal of Pottsville, January 1, 1842.

*See next page for table.

possess the areas of the concessions only in France; and, in Spain, only the single coal region of Asturias. We add the areas of Prussia and Austria, but cannot state the proportions of coal formations. therein. The American area of coal is nearly three-fourths of the whole amount in our table.

PROPORTIONATE AREAS OF COAL FORMATIONS IN THE UNITED STATES.

The table we here add will be observed with great interest, on account of the enormous breadth of coal formations in the United States. There are yet several coal producing States not enumerated, of which we possess very imperfect information.

In the persuasion that the diagram form always conveys more accurate impressions than mere tables which embrace a number of figures, we have prepared the annexed diagram, showing the COAL AREAS of various countries, and the best illustration of the preceding statement. The details of the coal areas in the United States of America, follow in the next table.

*We have adopted, in the column of square miles, the areas of Mitchell, published, 1836, rather than those of Darby or McCulloch.

The majority of these States show a far greater proportion of coal than in those of Europe. We omit from the above table some detached coal areas in Arkansas, Missouri territory, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island, respecting which our information is incomplete.

GENERAL SUMMARY OF COAL STATISTICS.

We present, in this place, a comparative view of the coal operations of the larger coal-producing countries of the world. We should have preferred to have arranged the results simultaneously, in all of these countries; but as the dates of the latest returns are not, generally, contemporaneous, we are compelled to a slight deviation from an arrangement otherwise desirable. In general, we adopt the year 1845, for the purposes of comparison.

EUROPE.

BELGIUM. In 1844-5 there were in full operation 212 mines, and not in work 97 others, making in all 309 mines, comprising 540 coalpits in operation and construction; and employing 38,500 miners, and 500 steam-engines, of an aggregate force of 22,841 horse power. The product of their labour was 4,445,240 tons, which were returned at the value of 39,844,191 francs, at the places of extraction; equal to $7,689,900, or to £1,660,000 sterling. In 1845, the quantity raised was 4,960,077 tons.

PRUSSIA. In the year 1840 there were about 752 mines or pits

of coal, anthracite and lignite in operation. These employed 24,024 miners, and produced 3,245,607 tons, whose value is given in the official returns at 19,687,704 francs, equivalent to $3,806,289, or to £793,860 sterling.

In 1844, the four coal provinces of Prussia produced 3,650,000 tons, of the value of 22,500,000 francs. Three German States of the Zollverein yielded 250,000 tons of the value of 2,250,000 francs. The Prussian collieries in 1844 employed 25,000 miners :-these returns appear to be incomplete.

FRANCE.-During the year 1845, there were, according to official documents, 449 coal mines worked and unworked; employing 30,778 miners, and producing 4,141,617 tons of mineral fuel. Their value at the pit's mouth was 39,705,432 francs = $7,663,000, or to £1,603,106 sterling.

The average quantity raised in each of these three kingdoms in 1845 was remarkably similar; but there is a material difference in the value assigned to the coal at the point of production.*

GREAT BRITAIN. As the details of the production and distribution of the coal in this country (except as regards the coasting trade and foreign exportation), are not officially registered, as in the Continental States we have previously cited, an exact comparison with them can scarcely be instituted. We may state, however, that about 1845-6, the current estimate of the total production of coal in the British mines was thirty-one and a half millions of tons; whose value at the place of extraction was considered to be £9,100,000 sterling,† 232,000,000 francs, or $44,000,000 annually.

We have before us, however, another statement, in which the production for the year 1845, is rated as high as 34,754,750 tons; of which one third was exported or shipped coastwise, and two thirds were consumed in the interior. The value assigned is £9,450,000, equal to $45,738,000.

AUSTRIA. The fifth European government in whose provinces coal or lignite abounds, and in which there has been a considerable increase in the extraction of those substances of late years, is the Austrian Empire. We are, however, unable to institute, with accuracy, a comparison with those countries we have just cited. The provinces which contain coal and lignite comprise an area of about 150,000 English square miles, but how much of this is covered by coal formations does not appear to be determined, except partially. In 1845, there were only 659,340 tons produced. The consumption since that period has greatly increased, owing to the extension of iron works, manufactures, railroads, and steam navigation on the Danube, on the Adriatic, &c. Bohemia alone produces the greater half of this coal.

The Prussian official valuations and the English estimates are much lower than those of France or Belgium. While the aggregate cost of all descriptions of mineral fuel in France was fixed at more than 11 francs per English ton, the coal and anthracite of Prussia were at 7 francs, and lignite only 2 francs. While the coals of France are valued at 14 francs per ton, and those of Belgium at 13.93 francs, those of Great Britain have only been nominated at 7.43 francs.

† Mr. Tennant, in 1846.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

One of the most characteristic features of this immense country, is that of the enormous area of forest and mountain, which remain almost in their primitive solitude. Within these regions, vast ranges of coal formations exist; their limits, imperfectly defined by the geologist, and scarcely more productive now than at the period of the earth's first occupation by the aboriginal races. Under such a

condition of things, it were scarcely just to compare them with the well worked fields of European industry. It must suffice that we exhibit the proportionate extent of surface, occupied by coal formations, as compared with the aggregate area of the whole country. This we have partly effected in a previous page, and we can, to some extent, show an approximate estimate of the annual production.

In a few of the older States which border on the Atlantic, the extraction of mineral fuel commenced, as it were, but yesterday. Yet has it advanced with a rapidity unprecedented in the world, and already has attained an importance among the industrial occupations, which it would be difficult to estimate in figures.

Proportionate Areas of Coal to the whole of the United States, and to the Coal producing States.

The United States contains, exclusive
of Texas and Oregon,
The exact boundaries or areas of coal
and anthracite formations cannot yet
be exactly defined, in each State: in
a previous table we have detailed the
closest approximation to those re-
sults at present attainable.
The aggregate area of the twelve coal
producing States is,

Acres.

Square miles.
2,280,000 1459,200,000

133,132 =

85,204,480

565,283 = 361,781,120

The United States coal area is thus shown to be one seventeenth part of the entire area of the States (with the exceptions stated), and to be one fourth part of the aggregate area of the twelve principal coal States.

If we are to credit the Census returns in 1840, the relative proportions of capital employed in coal mining, iron making, and lead and other minerals mined, was then as follows, viz. :— Employed in the iron trade in the United States, In lead and other minerals,

In coal operations,

$20,432,131

1,820,061

6,224,464

$28,476,656

We shall demonstrate, in the progress of this volume, how rapid and enormous has been the increase in these matters, but especially as relates to coal operations in the United States.