One of the most useful of minerals is coal. Did you ever stop to think how much hard work coal does for us? It grinds our wheat, it weaves our cloth, it carries us by sea and by land over the earth. Hardly any labor can be done without coal.
You have noticed that some coal burns with a great deal of flame and smoke. That is called soft or bituminous coal. That hard, clean-looking coal, which burns with little blaze, yet gives out such great heat, is anthracite coal.
Coal has many uses. Mention all you can think of. From which kind is gas obtained, hard or soft coal?
What is coal? Some day you will be able to understand how coal was made, and how it got deep down in the earth.
What article used with food is found in mines? Does all salt come out of the mines? How is the salt made that is not found in mines?
There are salt mines where men, women, and children live all their lives, and never see sun or sky. Many great rooms and galleries, with tall pillars to hold up the roof, are cut out of the salt. When lighted up with torches, they glitter as if studded with precious stones. It is like a fairy palace.
Some minerals are called metals. Iron, gold, silver, copper, tin, and mercury are metals.
| IRON MINE. |
Iron is the most useful of all metals. Did you ever think what we should do without this hard, strong metal? The following lines tell some of the uses of iron:
Iron vessels cross the ocean.
Iron engines give them motion;
Iron pipe our gas delivers,
Iron bridges span our rivers,
Iron horses draw our loads,
Iron rails compose our roads;
Iron houses, iron walls,
Iron cannon, iron balls,
Iron lightning rods on spires,
Iron telegraphic wires,
Iron hammers, nails, and screws,
Iron everything we use.