The Sun.
London, England, 1866-05-03 00:00:00

The American Coal Fields.

Mr. II1:3rE BURNLEY, in a report sent to the
Foreign Office on the coal-fields of America, informs
us that the whole extent of the coal area in th a
United States has been usually divided into four
principal coal-fields or tracts, viz. :—The Great
Central, Alleghanian or Appalachian coal-fields,
extending from Tuscaloosa in Alabama, through
Eastern Tennessee and Kentucky, Western Vir-
ginia, Maryland, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, and re-,
appearing in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
This field has been computed to cover within the
United States an area of 50,000 or 60,000 squaro
miles, of which about 40,000 square miles, or
25,600,000 acres, are considered workable area.
It is subdivided into eight minor divisions produc-
tive of bituminous coal. The second coal-field ocan_.
pies the greater part of Illinois and Indiana, and in
extent is nearly equal to the first. A third f:teid
f ourth
tchoevegrrseaatelarrgpearptoorftiotnheof
sAtaltisesooufriiiaienidligatlnie‘
The
Chesterfield bituminous coal-field, a detached dis-
trict of small area near Richmond, Virginia, con,
tains the oldest-worked collieries in America, and
for many years furnished the only supply of coal
for the seaboard towns. The greater part of the
area of workable coal in the bituminous coal-fields
above-mentioned remains as yet undeveloped.
detached basins of anthracite coal in Pennsylvania,
which form one of the most interesting of this great
coal-producing territory, though limited in aggre-
gate area, as yet produce considerably more than,
all the others put together.

The coal area of the United States, according -to
Taylor's " Statistics on Coal," a work publish rd in
1855, was estimated in 1845 to cover 1...53,132
square miles, or 85,204,480 acres, which was, nearly
one-fourth of the total area of the twel ge States
in which the coal formation lay. It was equiva-
lent to nearly three-fourths of the coal areas of the
principal coal-producing countries of the world.
st of the
were
ee eu p .
Of this area 8,397 square miles were to the west,
side of the Missouri River, and 124,372 squar.,.e
miles ea
Mississippier by Rthiveer:v anthracitehilst 4dt!
square miles
posits of Pennsylvania.
More recent estim %%tea
(from the report of the Ctnnmissioners of. the
General Land Office) have made the America-
.° coal-
fields, so far as they have been developed, t/3 cover
nearly 20,000 square miles. The coal areas of Great
Britain and Ireland, by far the most Prwiluctive in
the world, are estimated to cover b
a (-Alt 12,000
square miles, or one-tenth the entire area of the
kingdom. The coal formations of British America
are computed to have an area of 18,000 square
miles.
In 1815 the production of the British coal-fields
was set down at 31,500,000 tans annually. The
product of 1858 was stated to be upwards of
65,000,000 tons, worth at the pit's mouth
£16,700,000, and in 1863, according to the
Philadelphia Board of Trade, quoting from British
official sources, 86,292,215 tons, valued at
£20,572,945. An eminent geologist estimates the
average thickness of the workable coal in Great
Britain at 35 feet, and the total quantity of work-
able coal at 190,000,000,000 tons. If the whole area
of the productive coal-fields of North America be
taken at 200,000 square miles, and the average
thickness at 20 feet, Mr. KENNEDY calculates that
their product will be 4,000,000,000,000 tons. The
relative size of the coal-measure of the United
States and other countries has been made more ap-
preciable by taking the amount of workable coal in
Belgium as 1, then that of the British Islands
becomes rather more than 5, that of all Europe
841, and that of North America 111. Professor
ROGERS, in a work on the coal-fields of the United
States as compared with those of Europe, calculates
that the United States has 1 square mile of coal-
field to every 15 square miles of territory ; Great
Britain, 1 to every 30 of surface ; Belgium, 1 to
every 22i- ; and France, 1 to every 200 miles of
surface. The relative superficial magnitude, he
observes, of the coal-fields of the countries posses-
sing coal will be recognised if we compare them by
some simple unit of measure. Let this be 100
square miles. In this case—Russia will be repre-
sented by 1 ; Spain, 2 ; anthracite fields of Penn-
sylvania, 4 ; Westphalia and Bohemia, 4 ; Belgium,
5 ; France, 10 ; Rhenish Prussia, 10 ; British
Provinces of North America, 17 ; British Islands,
40 ; Europe, 75 ; Pennsylvania, 126 ; Appalachian
coal-field, 556 ; the entire coal-fields of the United
States, 2,200. Whichever way the foregoing
figures are taken, they clearly represent the enor-
mous coal-producing power of North America and
the vast wealth of mineral possessed by that
country.

PROVIDENT CLERKS' BENEVOLENT FUND. The
annual public festival in aid of the Provident Clerks'
Benevolent Fund was held last night in the London
Tavern, Mr. R. W. Crawford, M.P., presiding. There was
a large attendance. The chairman, in proposing the toast
of the evening, gave a brief sketch of the establishment
and progress of the society, and referred to the great
amount of good which had been accomplished through its
agency. He pointed out the benefits that wore to be de-
rived from it, and warmly urged the claims which the
society had to the sympathy and support of charitable
persons. The association had at its command a sum of
£30,000, but the demands made upon it were such as to
afford room for increased liberality. The institution had
been iu existence for about a quarter of a century, and
had been found useful and efficient, and he trusted means
would be afforded it still further to extend its benevo-
lence. He stated that a Bombay merchant had placed at
his disposal the sum of £15,000, to be distributed amon
the charitable institutions of the metropolis, and that he
had given £5OO out of this amount towards the funds of
the Provident Clerks' Benevolent Fund. The Secretary
read the first list of subscriptions, which stated that
£3,196 had been contributed by friends of the society.
Thi a announcement was received with loud cheers. A.
number of toasts followed, including those of the chairman
and the treasurer.

THE SALMON FISHERIES.—The Special Com-
missioners appointed under the Salmon Fishery Act of
last Session to decide upon the legality of the weirs and
fixed nets and engines as at present used in the English
salmon rivers, and to put down those that are illegal
and to certify those that are legal, will commence their
inquiries next week, taking first in order the rivers
and estuaries connected with the Bristol Channel
For the district the Special Commissioners will hold their
courts in the following order :—May 7, at Newport for the
river Usk and estuary; May 18, at Glocester, for the
Severn and estuary. The commissioners appointed by her
Majesty under the Act are Rear-Admiral Houston, Mr. F.
Eden (one of her Majesty's Inspectors of Fisheries and a
special commissioner• for inquiring into the Irish fixed
engines, &c.), and Mr. James Paterson, M.A., barrister-at-
law. Mr. Brady is secretary to the commission.
RATCLIFFE'S
listen,
RATCLIFFE'S LATIN LESSON. N
thrust off or
" Tuin then Dido—Dido—denzissa, having
Kathy, and tell mo if that sounds right,"
t I'irt
face ; san
castaway. Lev ter voltum, her shortad to go together,
coax
afraid those two words can't be Ratcliffe began.
. a face, so don't
Then
try again.
let's
bother to look for i
,it away her face profatur, set
Dido having, in short, thurno
nwnuntied or unfastened heart
but at all events I know voltum la .
forth, solvite corder
with
titthe l'eucrans." " Oh, but stop a
meleainied Kathleen ; " how could Did()
mecum Tellers; to
minute, Ratty,",oeuxerac
us,
crans'—yes, that goes very
if she had thrown away her face?
and, besides,
sure it
can.....e, disgusting supine, you may
go to meet thennan
flown
depend
possibly be a verb?" " Oh, bother!
well. It is
meet the et' _i to
about Dido 's face certainly ; but, never mind, she's
oddish .
something odd. There's no • •
always doing
nominative case
in the next sentence, I declare. Well, Mr. Ward will have
odo without a nominative case, that's all."—Aunt Judy's
magazine for May.
yes, to be T

THE MAILS, &C.—SOUTHAMPTON, Wednesday.—
The Royal Mail Company's screw steamship Tasmanian,
Captain T. W. Sawyer, sailed to-day with the West India,
Pacific, and Mexican mails. She takes out £lB,OOO in
English, and £598 French specie, 22 bottles of quick-
silver, English jewellery value £3,862. French jewellery,
value £8,775, and a full cargo. Among the passengers
(79 in all) are Staff-Surgeon Davys, Staff Assistant-
Surgeon Campbell, Dr. and Mrs. Bowerbank, for Jamaica;
Commander Commander 11. E. G. Earle, for Demerara;
CcinifmoranColon ;
E. Smith, R.N., and Rev. W. W. Parry,
Col. Bolognesi for Callao. The Harnburgir-A.
En
Ehlers, which
Com-
pany's screw steamship Germania, Capdt.ay
after a flue run
arrived at this port at 4 p.m. on Monday
and also in the
a t R 1
.:Ine":7Nli th the
of 33 hours from the Elbe, sailed tor-k.
jewellery from
a9she is full of pas-
United States mails for New
Havre, value 181,300 f.
ss et
enegreargse i, naubdothhasupapelra:s.gnodelaorgwocY,rilalluoodliins,g j
at New York on London for bills at
60 days' sight is 106 i
importation orta:lon of go d from the United
107 per cent. At these rates these
States,
the price of gold Is 427 per mark
By advie:o from Hamburg ,
ii
on London is 13.5 i per £1 stcr n.!.
is 'fnicileplufirste of
exthesban—g:
and the short esdhan
urg tiaxr, la London
cent. dearer in Liam)? _
about 2-_lothe per
Standard gold at thegte'nglias Mint price is, there ore, at