Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 05.djvu/93

COAL. Crested Butte have been changed locally to anthracite by the metamorphic action of igneous intrusions. Excellent coking coals are found near Trinidad. The New Mexican coals are in part an extension of the Colorado veins, and bear a good reputation, as do also many of the Wyoming coals. California has little fuel of good quality, and has for many years drawn on Australia for its coal-supply, but in recent years the coals of Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia have become a source of supply.

The rocks of the small Rhode Island area have been so highly metamorphosed that the coal has been altered to graphitic anthracite. It is sold on the market as amorphous graphite, and has little value as a fuel.

. The Acadian field includes deposits in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, the former being quite important. The coals are bituminous and of good quality. In the mountain ranges of British Columbia extensive coal-seams have been discovered, and they are now under development. A good quality of coke is made from the coal of Crow's Nest Pass, which finds a market at the British Columbian smelters. The most productive mines of the Pacific Coast are located on Vancouver Island, whence large shipments of bituminous coal are made to San Francisco and other ports in the Western United States.

. Coal, probably of Carboniferous age, is found in the Brazilian provinces of São Pedro, Rio Grande do Sul. Santa Catharina. also in the neighboring Republic of Uruguay. Very little development work has been done in the fields, and the output is inconsiderable. In Argentina and Chile, where Cretaceous coal occurs, there is more activity; but these countries still depend largely upon Great Britain for their supplies. In Peru both Cretaceous and Carboniferous deposits are found at various points in the interior, the former occupying a position on the first rise of the Andes, while the latter occurs in higher ground and at a greater distance from the coast.

. Next to the coal-fields of the United States, those of the United Kingdom are of the greatest economic importance. Within the limits of England, Scotland, and Wales there are more than twenty areas underlain by seams of anthracite, bituminous, and cannel coal. The largest of these areas is that of South Wales, in Monmouthshire and Pembrokeshire, which has a length of about 50 miles and a width of nearly 20 miles. The coal-measures form an elliptical basin, and are several thousand feet in thickness. Coal is found in three horizons, of which the upper has no less than 82 seams, measuring 180 feet in all. The lowest horizon yields valuable steam and blast-furnace coal. In the north of England the coal-fields of Lancashire, Derbyshire, and Yorkshire are the largest. The Lancashire field is of irregular quadrilateral form, with a width of about 18 miles from north to south, and a length from east to west of more than 50 miles. It includes about 100 feet of coal in workable seams, which dip at a high angle and are much broken by faulting. The Yorkshire and Derbyshire measures occupy a single area that extends for a distance of about 60 miles from Bradford on the north to near Derby on the south, and has a breadth of from 3 to 32 miles. They yield bituminous coal, excellent for steaming and iron-making purposes.

North of the Yorkshire field is the large basin of Northumberland and Durham, from which steaming, coking, and house coals are produced. In Scotland the coal-measures are extensively developed in Ayrshire, Lanarkshire, Stirlingshire, and Fifeshire. The productive coal-fields of the United Kingdom belong to the Carboniferous period; brown coal of Jurassic or Tertiary age is known to occur, but the seams are too small to be profitably exploited. The exports of coal from this country are of great importance, amounting in 1900 to 51,638,000 short tons, valued at $193,032,000. Much of the coal goes to Italy, Russia, Holland, and to the European countries that possess small resources of the mineral, while the remainder is exported to the more remote parts of the world.

Further details regarding the distribution of coal will be found under the titles of countries.

. The world's annual production at the present time is about 850,000,000 short tons; the output in 1900, according to The Mineral Industry, was distributed as follows:

It is interesting to follow the progress of the United States as a coal-producer. In 1868 Great Britain produced 3.6 times as much coal as the United States, while Germany's product that year was 15 per cent. greater than that of the United States. In 1871 the United States exceeded Germany's output by about 10 per cent., but afterwards fell back to third place until in 1877 she once more sprang forward, and gained on both Germany and Great Britain. In 1899 the United States led the world, and supplied nearly 32 per cent. of its production.

The average price of bituminous coal at the mines in the United States, per short ton, varied between 1893 and 1900 from $0.80 to $1.04; while that of anthracite was between $1.41 and $1.59 for the same period. The total number of laborers employed during 1900 was 449,181, of which number 144,206 were anthracite miners.

During the closing years of the nineteenth century European countries have been confronted with a most serious problem—the exhaustion of their coal-supply. This condition was emphasized in 1899 and 1900 by the occurrence of strikes in the Wales cool regions, by war in South Africa, and by a stimulation of industries in Germany which required much additional coal. Prospecting having shown but little reserve material, the most natural result was to look to the United States, and in 1900 there began a movement of coal to Europe, which may