Wilmington daily gazette., 1874-07-18
OUR GREAT COAL FIELDS
(From the Baltimore Sun

From the Baltimore SUM
The anticipated loss of Engands ccal supply,
and her consequent industrial Decline have been
the theme of some dolefuI yaticnatinns nv some
correspondents OF the English press. When our
neighbors OF friends are unfortunate it ia some
consolation to know that We do not share their
troubles, and while we pity them to the extent
oil our sympathies, we congratulate ourselves on
our exemption from their troubles. In the last
number Of the International Review Professor
Andrews undertakes to show that in this country
we need not fear any decline for lack of coal ior
a great many thousand years at least. America
has the coal fields of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia
and New brunswick We are assured. on the
authority Of DR.. Dawson and Sir William Logan,
that the carbonferous formation OF Nova Scotia
Is the thickest in the world Massachusetts offers
Us the first coal fields met with on entering the
United states, but the character OF the coal IL
none OF the best. Pennsylvania abounds in an
thracite, bHumlnous and semi-bitumnous Its
anthracite fields are the best of the kind known.
There are CT such anthracite fields or basins in
all, 42i square miles. The total number Of tons
shipped from the anthracite districts of Pennsyl-
vania alone for the year ending November 90
1875, was ~, O,O250l9. From the Allegheny noun
tains, including Maryland, westward to the mid
die OF Ohio, distance of from $50 to 300 miles I:
northward, distance of 100 miles and south.
ward, through West Virginia, Kentucky and
tennessee, to Tuscaloosa, in Alabama, extend
the largest and most interesting coal fields in the
world-felds measured mot by acres or square
miles, but by great States" The Cumberland
coal OF Maryland has obtained great celebrity
and is brought by railroad and canal to Bali.
more and the cities oil the District and thence
distributed to the ends of the earth.
Another great coal field lies partly ia Indiana.
and stretches westward over the whole prairie
land Of Illinois. Illinois is one great coal field
Another large store ot coal is found in Iowa, Ne
braska, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, and Utah
and in Northwestern Texas on the Brazos river
la fald 0t mil i,,A AT,nl, A,
is small coal field near the centre OF the lower
peninsula. The quantity of coal i'll all these
fields 1t is Impossible TO estimate. One writer
calculates the area OF productive coal measures
for the United States at o25 600 square miles
but this is an over-estimate. OF fields not be-
longing TO the true coal measures we have one
near Richmond, Va, thought to be Of the triassic
formation. In North Carolina are two small coal
fields of lignitlc coal, one of which is estimated
at 4OO miles in length by l50 miles i'll breadth.
other fields are found III tab and Wyoming.
In CalIfornia there Is another hgnitic coal bed,
There coal mines at Seattle, in Washington
Territory. on Nancouyer's Island, anu even In
Alaska. 1t IS computed that We have in the
nited States probably more than six times as
much coal as there is III the whole of Europe,
aud thirty.slx times as much As in Great Britain.
Professor Stanley Jervis calculates that the Eng
lish coal supply will not last more than one huu-
dred and ten years. This is long enough, consid.
ering the length Of Tins that England has been
dominating the world, and tue influence she has
exerted through her mineral resources and man
ufacturing skill. Nations cannot expect, an7
more than men, TO last forever. II England pre-
serves her present rank in the scale OF nations
even century hence she may be considered .or-
tunate. In the meantime it Is quite possible that
by new inventions and discoveries she NAV not
only make her own coal supply more accessible
but may utilize American coal as she has Ameri-
can cotton, and may absolutely make it OF more
advantage to herself than to us.