The History And Description Of Fossil Fuel, The Collieries And Coal Trade Of Great Britain, By The Author Of The 'Treatise On Ma

Synopsis

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1841 Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XXV. FOREIGN COAL DEPOSITS. Importance of Foreign Coal Deposits to Great Britain--General Phenomena of the Carboniferous Strata similar in different Countries--Organic Remains and accompanying Rocks--Independent Coal Formation of Werner--Occurrence of Coal in Spain--Near Dresden--In Silesia--Vast Deposits in France--In Belgium--Fire Damp--Coal Fields of Germany--Fossil Fishes--Coal in Sweden, Norway, and Poland--Immense Depositories of Anthracite and Bituminous Coal in North America--Scarcity of Fuel in some parts of South America--Rhode Island, Canada, and Australia contain Coal--Strata on Fire at Cape Breton--European Localities of Lignite and Fossil Wood. ALTHOUGH the design of the present work, as to its more immediate bearing, might be considered as completed by the foregoing Chapters, a few brief notices of one branch of the subject in reference to other countries may be appropriately introduced in conclusion. The subject of foreign coal deposits is by no means one exclusively interesting to the geologist; it involves important considerations of a IMPORTANCE OF THESE TO BRITAIN. 465 commercial nature in relation to Great Britain. For, not only must the coal trade of this country be in some degree influenced by competition with the supply of so important an article from other and remote sources; but the districts containing coal mines, may be expected, hereafter, to become, in certain cases, the seats of manufactures, perhaps rivalling in importance, or it may be, surpassing those which, owing to the abundance and accessibleness of our fossil fuel, this country has long earned on so advantageously. It has been remarked, that the great coal formation appears to abound most under the polar circle, and in the two temperate zones, but it is rarer t...