This formation is composed of a succession of beds, of various thicknesses, consisting of sandstones or gritstones, of clays and shales, sometimes so bituminous as to be inflammable—and passing, in short, into an imperfect kind of coal. These rocks are interstratified with each other in such a manner that they may consist of many alterations. Carbonate of protoxide of iron (clay-ironstone) may also be considered a constituent of this formation; its extensive dissemination in connection with coal in some parts of Great Britain has been of immense advantage to the ironworks of this country, in many parts of which blast-furnaces for the manufacture of iron rise by hundreds alongside of the coal-pits from which they are fed. In France, as is frequently the case in England, this argillaceous iron-ore only occurs in nodules or lenticular masses, much interrupted; so that it becomes necessary in that country, as in this, to find other ores of iron to supply the wants of the foundries. [Fig. 70] gives an idea of the ordinary arrangement of the coal-beds, one of which is seen interstratified between two parallel and nearly horizontal beds of argillaceous shale, containing nodules of clay iron-ore—a disposition very common in English collieries. The coal-basin of Aveyron, in France, presents an analogous mode of occurrence.
Fig. 70.—Stratification of coal-beds.
The frequent presence of carbonate of iron in the coal-measures is a most fortunate circumstance for mining industry. When the miner finds, in the same spot, the ore of iron and the fuel required for smelting it, arrangements for working them can be established under the most favourable conditions. Such is the case in the coal-fields of Great Britain, and also in France to a less extent—that is to say, only at Saint-Etienne and Alais.
The extent of the Coal-measures, in various parts of the world, may be briefly and approximately stated as follows:—
| ESTIMATED AREA OF THE COAL-MEASURES OF THE WORLD. | |||||
| Square Miles. | |||||
| United States | 220,166 | – | 420,166 | ||
| „ | Lignites and inferior Coals | 200,000 | |||
| British Possessions in North America | 2,200 | ||||
| Great Britain | 3,000 | ||||
| France | 2,000 | ||||
| Belgium | 468 | ||||
| Rhenish Prussia and Saarbrück | 1,550 | ||||
| Westphalia | 400 | ||||
| Bohemia | 620 | ||||
| Saxony | 66 | ||||
| The Asturias, in Spain | 310 | ||||
| Russia | 11,000 | ||||
| Islands of the Pacific and Indian Ocean | Unknown. | ||||
The American continent, then, contains much more extensive coal-fields than Europe; it possesses very nearly two square miles of coal-fields for every five miles of its surface; but it must be added that these immense fields of coal have not, hitherto, been productive in proportion to their extent. The following Table represents the annual produce of the collieries of America and Europe:—
| Tons. | ||
| British Islands | (in 1870) | 110,431,192 |
| United States | 14,593,659 | |
| Belgium | (in 1870) | 13,697,118 |
| France | (in 1864) | 10,000,000 |
| „ | (in 1866) | 11,807,142 |
| Prussia | (in 1864) | 21,197,266 |
| Nassau | (in 1864) | 2,345,459 |
| Netherlands | (in 1864) | 24,815 |
| Austria | (in 1864) | 4,589,014 |
| Spain | 500,000 | |
We thus see that the United States holds a secondary place as a coal-producing country; raising one-eleventh part of the out-put of the whole of Europe, and about one-eighth part of the quantity produced by Great Britain.