Page:The History of Oregon Bancroft 1888.djvu/762

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lignites are not formed of wood to any greater extent than are the coals of the carboniferous period. It gives the impression of an inferior coal, which in the main is a mistaken idea, for coals of every quality, and fit for all uses, can be found in the so-called lignites of the Pacific coast. An analysis of Coos Bay coal, made in 1877, gave water 9.87, sulphur 3.73, ash 10.80, coke 50.00, vola tile gases 26.40. S. F. Call, June 23, 1867. Another analysis by Evans gave carbon in coke 60.30, volatile gases 25.50, moisture 9.00, ash 4.70; specific gravity 1.384. Or. Statesman, Aug. 18, 1857. It varies in appearance and character in different localities. At Coos Bay it is described as a clean, black coal, of lustrous chonchoidal fracture, free from iron pyrites, with no trace of sulphur, burning without any disagreeable odor and comparatively little ash. It cakes somewhat in burning and gives off considerable gas. This descrip tion applies equally well to the coal on the Columbia River, where it is has been tested, and to the mines on Puget Sound. In certain localities it is harder and heavier, and the same mine in different veins may contain two or more varieties. Later scientists speak of them as brown coals, and admit that they are of more remote origin, and have been subjected to greater heat and pressure than the lignites, but say that they occupy an intermediate position between them and the true coals. U. S. H. Ex. Doc., x. 206, 42d cong. 2d sess. It would be more intelligent to admit that nature may produce a true coal different from those in England, Pennsylvania, or Australia.

The cost of producing coals at Coos Bay is one dollar a ton, and fifteen cents for transportation to deep water. Transportation to S. F. is two dol lars a ton in the companies own steamers of seven and eight hundred tons. In 1856 it was $13 per ton, and coal $40. The price varies with the market. Relatively, Coos Bay coal holds its own with the others in market. The prices for 1873 were as follows: Sidney, $17; Naniamo (V. I.), $10; Bellingham Bay, $15; Seattle, $16; Rocky Mountain, $16; Coos Bay, $15; Monte Diablo (Cal. ), $12. S. F. Bulletin, Jan. 14, 1873. Prices have been lowered several dollars by competition with Puget Sound mines. The value of the coals exported from Coos Bay in 1876-7 was $317,475; in 1877-8 it was $218,410; and in 1878-9 it was $150,255. This falling-off was owing to competition with other coals, foreign and domestic, and the ruling of lower prices for fuel. Still, as the cost of Coos Bay coals laid down in S. F. is less than four dollars, there is a good margin of profit.

IMPORTS AND EXPORTS,

I will now givea few statistics concerning imports and exports. In 1857 Oregon had 60,000 inhabitants, and shipped 60,000 barrels of flour, 3,000,000 pounds of bacon and pork, 250,000 pounds of butter, 25,000 bushels of apples, $40,000 worth of chickens and eggs, $200,000 worth of lumber, $75,- 000 worth of fruit-trees, $20,000 worth of garden-stuff, and 52,000 head of cattle, the total value of which was $3,200,000. The foreign trade, if any, was very small. In 1861 the trade with California amounted to less than two millions, which can only be accounted for by the greater home consump tion caused by mining immigration, and the lessened production consequent upon mining excitement. This year the imports from foreign countries amounted only to $1,300, and the exports to about $77,000. During the next decade the imports had reached about $700,000, and the exports over $800,000. In 1881 the imports were a little more than $859,000, and the direct exports $9,828,905, exclusive of the salmon export, which amounted to $2,750,000, and the coastwise trade, which was something over six millions, making an aggregate of more than eighteen and a half millions for 1881. or an increase of almost a million annually for the twenty years following 1860. Reid s Progress of Portland, 42; HitteU s Resources Pacific North-wext, 57-8; Smalleifa Hi*t. N. P. R. /?., 374. The increase, however, was gradual until 1874, when the exports suddenly jumped from less than $700,000 to nearly a million and a half, after which they advanced rapidly, nearly doubling in 1881 the value of 1880. \n