Very serviceable lignites of Cretaceous age are found on the Pacific slope, to which age those of Vancouver's Island and Saskatchewan River are referable.
Other coal-fields of less importance are found between Lakes Huron and
Erie, where the measures cover an area of 5000 square miles, and also in
Rhode Island.
In British North America we find extensive deposits of valuable coal-measures. Large developments occur in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. At South Joggins there is a thickness of 14,750 feet of strata, in which are found seventy-six coal-seams of 45 feet in total thickness. At Picton there are six seams with a total of 80 feet of coal. In the lower carboniferous group is found the peculiar asphaltic coal of the Albert mine in New Brunswick. Extensive deposits of lignite are met with both in the Dominion and in the United States, whilst true coal-measures flank both sides of the Rocky Mountains. Coal-seams are often encountered in the Arctic archipelago.
The principal areas of deposit in South America are in Brazil, Uruguay, and Peru. The largest is the Candiota coal-field, in Brazil, where sections in the valley of the Candiota River show five good seams with a total of 65 feet of coal. It is, however, worked but little, the principal workings being at San Jeronimo on the Jacahahay River.
In Peru the true carboniferous coal-seams are found on the higher ground of the Andes, whilst coal of secondary age is found in considerable quantities on the rise towards the mountains. At Porton, east of Truxillo, the same metamorphism which has changed the ridge of sandstone to a hard quartzite has also changed the ordinary bituminous coal into an anthracite, which is here vertical in position. The coals of Peru usually rise to more than 10,000 feet above the sea, and they are practically inaccessible.
Cretaceous coals have been found at Lota in Chili, and at Sandy Point,
Straits of Magellan.
Turning to Asia, we find that coal has been worked from time to time at
Heraclea in Asia Minor. Lignites are met with at Smyrna and Lebanon.
The coal-fields of Hindoostan are small but numerous, being found in all parts of the peninsula. There is an important coal-field at Raniganj, near the Hooghly, 140 miles north of Calcutta. It has an area of 500 square miles. In the Raniganj district there are occasional seams 20 feet to 80 feet in thickness, but the coals are of somewhat inferior quality.
The best quality amongst Indian coals has come from a small coal-field of about 11 square miles in extent, situated at Kurhurbali on the East Indian Railway. Other coal-fields are found at Jherria and on the Sone River, in Bengal, and at Mopani on the Nerbudda. Much is expected in future from the large coal-field of the Wardha and Chanda districts, in the Central Provinces, the coal of which may eventually prove to be of Permian age.
The coal-deposits of China are undoubtedly of tremendous extent, although from want of exploration it is difficult to form any satisfactory estimate of them. Near Pekin there are beds of coal 95 feet thick, which afford ample provision for the needs of the city. In the mountainous districts of western China the area over which carboniferous strata are exposed has been estimated at 100,000 square miles. The coal-measures extend westward to the Mongolian frontier, where coal-seams 30 feet thick are known to lie in horizontal plane for 200 miles. Most of the Chinese coal-deposits are rendered of small value, either owing to the mountainous nature of the valleys in which they outcrop, or to their inaccessibility from the sea. Japan is not lacking in good supplies of coal. A colliery is worked by the government on the island of Takasima, near Nagasaki, for the supply of coals for the use of the navy.