Littell's Living Age/Volume 173/Issue 2235/Coal

— From time to time discoveries of coal mines in Italy are reported in the Italian newspapers, and the intelligence invariably elicits gratifying comments, and hopeful speculations as to the industrial future of the country. As these reports, however, have never been confirmed, it is generally assumed that they were either unfounded, or that they merely referred to some strata of lignite. One or two papers have quite recently received communications respecting some work of exploration that is being carried on in the Val Trompia (Province of Brescia), on account of a Venetian contracting company, and the result of which is calculated to raise fresh hopes in the same direction. What gave rise to these hopes is the reported fact that the different strata through which shafts have been sunk are of the same nature and appearance as the strata which, in mining districts, generally announce the presence of a bed of fossil coal.