The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-05-25
MINES AND MINING
VALUABLE MAP
Of COAL FIELDS
Government Issues One That
Shows All Coal Regions
With Explanatory Data.

The need for conserving the mineral
fuels Of the country for the use Of fu-
ture generations has been emphasized
many times during the last few years.
not only in numerous magazine and news
paper articles. but in a number of re-
ports emanatlng from the government bu-
reau especially charged with the inYesti-
gatlon OF the mineral resources of the ma
tonai domain-the geological survey The
statements that the coal supply of the
country is far from being inexhaustible
that the amount available is susceptible
OF measurement, ana that no very long
look INTO the future is Required to see the
END or the present known deposits are
graphically supported BY a map that has
Just been published by the geological sur
A somewhat similar map was issued by
the survey IN 1906, but the work of the
biologists in the western coal fields in
the last two years has added so much TO
the known extent of those fields that A
new aud revised edition has become nee
esSary.
The map now presented To the public
Is unique in several particulars. It not
only shows the location and extent of the
coal deposits of the United States but
also oy variation in color and depth of
Snadlng, the character Of the Goals in each
or the great fields and the depth at which
they occur beneath the surface. For the
Hrst time an attempt has been made to
represent the coal in the deep basins. or.
Synci1neS, as the biologists term them
OF the Rocky Mountain states, where
there is every reason to suppose that coal
exists, although il is so deeply covered
by later sediments as TO be accessible with
great difficulty if at all Other new fea-
lures of the map are the EXPLANATION
printed on the side margins. describing
the character and geologic age of the
Goals. and the accompanying tables.
which give estimates of the amount of
coal nj in he Ian, h
quantity that has been removed. and the
amount still available, subdivided into de-
posits easily reached and those accessi-
bic with difficulty.
The data upon which the tables are
based are confessedly incomplete. for fu-
ture Investigations of the biologists, espe-
ciaily In the western and southern fields,
may further extend the limits of the
known workable coal deposits, and the es-
Inmates al best but roughly approximate
the true figures. The extent and value
of some of the beds in areas containing
loW-gTade coal or Ignite are still mat
ters or speculation. This is particularly
true of the Ignite fields of the Gulf PROV
ince Except those of Texas. the Ignite
areas of South Dakota, and the Ignite
and subbituminOus Cblack lignite) fields
or the Fort Union region in eastern Mon
tana. Information in regard to the eX-
tent, value and even the existence of the
coal fields of the Pacific Coast province
is also very meager, and the same may
be said of the fields in southern and
Utah, where there are prob
ably many areas of coal-bearing rocks
though the coal may be of little COM
mercial Importance. But these gaps in the
record are believed not to detract greatly
from the value of either map or tables
which representing the latest work of the
biologists of the United States geological
survey, can not fail to arouse the in
terest OF the rapidly increasing number of
people who are vitality concerned In The
OF the great mineral wealth
Of the country.
Like the other maps issued by the sur
vey, the coal map will be sold at cost of
paper and printing, its price being 10
cents.