Page:Atlantis Arisen.djvu/429



distant, which led to a thorough examination of the country for twenty-five square miles, and to the working of the mines at Wilkeson and Carbonado. Quite recently the coal-beds in the Skagit Valley have been opened and to a considerable extent developed. One vein in what is known as the Cumberland District is thirty feet in thickness, and another fourteen. The quality of the coal is said to be excellent, and the field very extensive. Its analysis gives fixed carbon 65.70, volatile matter 30.30, ash .038, sulphur .005. Its freedom from sulphur and low percentage of ash are remarkable, promising a coking coal of great density and purity. A third vein five and a half feet through at the surface and gaining thickness with depth is also being opened. This mine belongs to the Skagit Coal and Transportation Company, or Nelson Bennett and associates, who own about three thousand acres of coal-lands near Sedro, twenty-nine miles east of Fairhaven, with which it is connected by railroad.

The comparative values of the Seattle and Tacoma, or Green River and Puyallup coals, is given in the following table:

Seam.

1 Moisture.

Volatile

Hydrocarbon.

Fixed Carbon.

Ash.

C3

1 V.H. C.

Coke.

Lignites.

Newcastle.

4.16

44.84

43.86

7.14

0.98

None.

Green River, Seam (?).

7.27

36.02

28.48

28.23

0.

.79

"

" "" 33.

9.98

40.63

41.07

8.32

1.01

"

" "" (?).

8.68

35.90

47.07

8.35

1.31

"

Bituminous Lignites.

Green River, Seam 18.

2.50

45.71

48.37

3.42

1.06

Poor.

" "" 9.

4.82

42.02

37.12

16.04

0.88

None.

" "" 6.

3.34

39.39

41.49

15.78

1.05

"

<. 3.

3.24

39.52

48.39

9.85

1.22

Worthless.

Bituminous Coals.

Wilkinson Field, Wingate Seam.

1.80

42.27

52.11

3.82

1.23

Very good.

" "Seam 123 ... .

3.98

28.64

54.10

13.28

1.88

None. (?) (b)

" "" 18 ....

1.33

25.88

60.67

12.12

2.34

Excellent.

" "" 5 . . ..

1.16

29.09

60.38

9.37

2.07

"

" "" 1 . ..

1.54

28.17

59.70

10.59

2.12

Poor. (?) (b)

" "" 53 ....

0.61

29.58

56.18

13.63

1.89

Black and friable.

Extensive deposits are known to exist in the Chehalis Valley, and, although geologists assign this to the tertiary period, I see no reason why these coals should not be as valuable as those on the coast, at Coos Bay or Bellingham. The cost of