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Over the mountain passes, however, and in many of the smaller valleys, roads are so narrow that carts can not be used, and so here pack animals, particularly horses and mules, are substituted. The traveler in this part of China is often reminded of his proximity to Mongolia by the frequent sight of camels. They are nevertheless not indigenous beasts of burden and the inhabitants themselves do not use them.

In consequence of the swampy state which prevailed in this part of China far back in the Carboniferous period, thick deposits of coal were formed. These are now exposed in the deep valley slopes between beds of limestone and sandstone, and the circumstance has made Shansi province the principal coal-producing district of China. The coal is mined by very primitive methods and as there is still no adequate system of railroads in this or any other part of the empire, the product can be transported only in carts or on pack animals. Either of these modes of carriage is so expensive that it becomes unprofitable to transport the coal more than 60 to 100 miles from the mine, and so the denizens of a great part of northern China, where fuel is scarce and the winters are severe, are no more able to obtain it than as if the United States contained the only coal fields in the world. The advantages that will accrue from the building of railroads in northern China are many, but one of the greatest will be the wide distribution of this essential fuel.