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Notices of Coal in China.
JULY,
of furnaces now in use. Those deposits which have been mined for the longest period, with which we are best acquainted, and are the most productive, lie in the middle and southern parts of the empire.
That branch of the Himalayan rauge, known as the Yun-ling, forming the prominent topographical feature of the provinces of Sz'chuen, Yunnan, Kweichau, Húnán, Kwángtung, Fuhkien, Kiángsí, and Chehkiáng, has the carboniferous system superimposed on a granitic base through a great part of its extent, in numerous sections of which the coal measures exist, generally interstratified with beds of slaty clay and limestone. Those best known lie in the basin of the Kán in Kiángsí, reposing on old red sandstone and gray compact limestone, in close connection with deposits of iron ore. Those in the valleys of the Siáng, Tsz', and Yuen in Húnán, the western slope of the terminal ridges of the Yun-ling in Chehkiáng, at the sources of the Tsientáng, and the southern aspect of the same range in Kwáng- tung at Nanhiung, all present analogous geological relations. This vast carboniferous tract appears to be continuous in a measure, with that of Assam and Burmah.
The coal most in demand in central China is called "the Kwang coal." It is brought from various districts in Húnán. Súchau is the entrepôt for all that is consumed in Kiángsú and Chehkiáng. It is black, very compact, specific gravity 1.34, columnar structure, oc- casionally iridescent, and from the large quantity of carbon it contains is analogous, though inferior to the American anthracite; it burns intensely with a small blue flame, its ashy residuum being of a red- dish color. That in use at Shinghái is of this description. It is brought from Súchau, viâ Chapú to Ningpo, where it costs $12 per ton, about one third more (the dealers say) than at Shánghái. Its consumption is very limited, being almost wholly confined to the manufacture of brass tobacco pipes. The best quality of this coal, that which most resembles anthracite, is well adapted for grates and stoves, being free from fumes of sulphuretted hydrogen, and is more wholesome than the bituminous coal usually imported from Liverpool and Sydney.
Numerous varieties are produced in the province of Kiángsú, slaty, cannel, bituminous, and anthracite. Portions of the latter are sold at Súchau as the kwáng coal. A considerable quantity from the mines in Kwangsin is carried over the mountains into the province. of Chehkiáng. It is found abundant also in Fungching and Ching- kiáng. The proximity of the coal measures in this province to ferru- ginous ore and lime, facilitates the manufacture of iron,
Some of the