The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1872-12-28


Etieune, tse home of tine French coal mi
ners- In the beginning Of the seventeenth
century Sc. Etienne was pretty village in
hAbited BY o few hundred skillfal ar@ore-
and blacknmiths two centuries later the
place contained %, 900 people, Who had i'd
ded 70 their fcvmsr occupations the manu-
fActure of CUTLERY and lacss. Az the pres
snt day 81. Etisnne since 1866 in regarded
"a the principal city I'm the Department Of
the LOire.
Other portions Of France present the
same picture of industrial activity - the
coal districts u the Loire, the northern
deposits being continuati0nn 0f the Belgian
system. lin the Departments Of the Siene
and the Loire we find Epinmc, Blanxy, and
Le Creuzot, whose coal mines belong to the
most productive in France. Alais, once
famed for nothing except its silk trade and
religious Wars, together with besseges and
P0etea, on account af their coal dapoaits
now rMmk among tho most aonrishing in-
dustriml regiumB Of France.
PAasing over the less extensive coal mines
Of France, such a those Of CAImAuK,
0raissesae, Braasae on the Moaselle, etc,
ID wall suffice here TO state that the annual
product Of the French deposits is IL, OOO,-
900 Of tons, which in the same amount az
the Belgian.
OF the English coal deposits two of the
most important lie near the sea coast The
first of these ID in Wales, which ships coal
from Cardiff 10 every portion Of the earth,
the second In in the northeastern part Of
England, known aa the Newcastle basin.
The product of the Newcastle mines il
"A, ,OOO, 600 tons annually, while those VI
Wales produce 9, GOO, 600 In the cities VI
Newport, Cardiff and Swansea, in Wales,
over 5O, 600 people are engaged, in one way
or another, in the coal trade. Swansea -
at present the center Of Welsh industry
Her ships circumnavigAte Cape Horn u
return freighted with the mineral treasure.
Of Chill. The unhappy blacks Of Cuba
toll to enrich Swansea manufacture and
trades As well an their masters. The free
populations of CoquimbO and La Paz con
tribute TO the wealth Of this Welsh city.
Newcastle, like Swansea, also owes her i'll
dustriAl prominence entirely to coal
The coal deposits in the interior are of
secondary importance. In Scotland coal ls
found all the way from Edinburgh 70 Glas-
gov ireland contributes To the coal prO-
duction u the United Kingdom, which IL
computed at l20, ,OOO, 900 tors per annum,
only l25, 600 tons.
Turning 10 Central Europe, we find very
few countries favored by nature with coal
deposits which can be compared TO those u
France and Belgium, and none 1t AL that
are equal to the English in quality Or 4uan
uty Prussia has mines AZ SaArbuck ia
Mestphalia Silenia, and ON the Ruhr which
yield annually an aggregate Ot from lI,
90. .OOO 70 ~. .OOO, 900 tons.
NEXT to Prussia in productiveness, ranks
Bavaria then comes SaXOny, and Austria.
with her Bohemian mines, which produce
together about 10. WO, 900 tons per year
Russia naturally Possesses deposits com
mensurate 10 its territorial extent, the prin-
cipal Of which are found to lie along the
UrAl range, and all the way from the White
Ss~, the Sea u Azof, but they produrs
nothing worth mention. Neither is the
value Of coal as yet sufficiently appreciated
In Russia, nor Is the production carried On
in . systematic manner.
In Southern Africa coal has been met
with at the Cape Of Good Hope, in Natal
on the Mozambique, and along the Zam-
besi.
The Island Of Madagascar has also de-
pOsits which can be traced over q long dis
tance, but they run into the sea- Being
evidently connected with the deposits of
Eastern Africa, the Madagascar coal In only
q branch Of the submarine basin
In Asia we discover that India Burmah,
Cochin China, Japan, even Central Asia
siberia, Persia, &c, are richly endowed
with fuel, and several important coal zelda
are being worked. This is especially the
case in relation to British India, where the
prOverbiAl enterprise Of the Anglo-S&KOns
finds ample scope to display itself to ad-
vantage.
In South America the coal mines Of
Chill, at Conception, LOta, Valdaviva, and
other points along the sea coast, deserve
special notice, for they are shoots Of am
immense field which extends over Araun-
caniA, the ephemeral kingdom Of the
Frenchman De TOnnens, and reach as far
- Patagonia. Coal Ia likewise found ut
the foot Of the Andes, in several provinces
of Brazil, in Venezuela, Trinity Island,
&c, but its quality Is so inferior that
English coal is preferred
North America completes our circuit
around the globe. The richest Of all con
tinents in coal, its deposits reach far toward
the north pole, via Greenland, Bathns
Bay Archipelago, etc, but as the perpetual
snow covers them in those parts, they are
not available where their warmth is most
needed by man.
Some degrees Of latitude lower lie the
massive deposits Of California and Oregon,
the latter u which remain almost in their
virgin state, while the former have been
extensively worked except in the Bay Of
San Francisco Since the Atlantic and
Pacific have been united by rail, and San
Francisco and New York have become but
intermediate stages on the worlds great
highway from London to Pekin, a great
future awaits the coal industry Of that
region.
After the California mines comes those II
Utah, which the Morlnona of Salt Lake have
scientifically utilized.
The coal fields Of British America. at
Cape Breton, and in the provinces bounded
by the Gulf Of st. Lawrence, are both nu
merous and prolific.
The United States surpasses ali other
countries Ia the extent uf their coal deposits
possessing what, reduced tO solid measure.
would amount to about 200 miles u this
precious mineral Up 70 1865 this IN
mense store had, however, barely been
touched, for the annual production then
was only l7,OOO,OOO tons. Nov our
mines are computed 70 produce As much
a. the mines Of Belgium and France t.
gether.
Coal Is found in nearly every portion u
the United States in greater Or less
quantities. In some States the deposit.
occupy One-fourth, often one-third, Of
their area. The principal fields commence
at the foot Of the Aleghenies, radiating
from both slopes, but preponderatins
largely toward the West, where rhey "a
tend over Missouri and Arkansas. and dis
appear near the Rocky Mountains. Penn
sylvAnia, Virginia, and Tennessee are
mainly indebted for their prosperity t.
their abundance Of coal.
In the first of these Commonwealths Z
hard anthracite il used 10 great adyantag.