Directory_and_Chronicle_1850 — Page 426

Notices of Coal in China.

July,

all day without further care, at a cost of a cent and a half. The same rude apparatus, with slight modifications, is in general use, wherever coal from its proximity is not expensive. Sometimes the brickwork is inclosed in boards, elaborately carved and varnished. Were grates or fireplaces constructed with suitable flues and chimneys, coal would be found a more useful article, be in greater demand, and the mines consequently be better worked. Even the miners find it more con- venient and cheaper to burn the shrubs and grass of their sterile hills than the coal they dig from their bowels.

Twenty thousand tons of coals are annually brought from these mines to Hangchau, which at the hills cost $5.75 per ton; the bas- kets in which the mineral is packed bring the cost up to 86.50; and the expense of transportation to Ningpo raises it above $8 per ton. The annual production and value of the Chehkiang coal mines may be computed with considerable accuracy, and thus afford data for a national estimate, which may be thus given

Chelikiảng.. Kingsí.

Húnán......

Northern Provinces.

Kwangtung and Western Provinces

.60,000 tons.

.160,000

".

.230,000

"1

.280,000

"}

..... 100 000,„, Total 820,000 tons.

This portion of the mineral wealth of China may be computed at nearly six millions of dollars. The paucity of the supply is owing not to the poverty of the mines, but chiefly to the want of those facilities for mining, which the steam-engine can alone supply. Mines often, when they become most productive, are suddenly filled with water and rendered useless. In this manner, an immense number of shafts of great extent are unavailable. Provided with the steam-engine and the safety lamp, the Chinese miner could doubtless bring to light inex- haustible supplies of this subterranean treasure.

Chinese miners are extremely poor and rude mountaineers; it is said they often relieve hunger by eating coal, and if it be true, as has been represented, that pigs fatten on this mineral in some western countries, this report respecting Chinese miners is not incredible. For the most part, the mines are worked in horizontal shafts, though pits are sometimes dug. At one period, powdered coal was mixed with flour and the juice of dates, and burned in chafing-dishes for pro ducing a fragrant perfume. For such pastils, charcoal has been sub- stituted. This mineral, the source of so much wealth and power in the West, does not appear to have been known to Europe more than