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tons. An addition of fifty per cent. to this enormous aggregate is worthy the attention and efforts of scientific and business men. Our present production is about 10,000,000 tons per annum. In all probability it will be 15,000,000 tons in 1870. The present generation will probably see this aggregate doubled and even quadrupled. Of our aggregate coal product of 22,000,000 tons in 1864, near 10,000,000 tons were mined in the anthracite region of Pennsylvania. They represent a commercial value of $60,000,000 Passing westward, several outlying patches, separated from the main body by denudation, form a sort of connecting link between the anthracite regions of the northeast and the massive bituminous deposits of the great Appalachian coal basin. Of these, the Broad Top coal-field, occupying an area of from forty to eighty square miles in Huntington, Bedford, and Fulton counties, Pennsylvania, south of the Juniata river, is the most prominent. The coal of this region is called semi-anthracite, from its partaking the qualities of anthracite and bituminous. The mines of this region in 1864 produced 386,645 tons, valued at $544,000. North Mountain, Barclay or Towanda, Ralston, and Blossburg basins also mark the transition from the anthracite to the bituminous regions lying upon the northeastern edge of the latter.

The great Alleghany or Appalachian coal basin extends along the Alleghany range from Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, southwest into Alabama. Its areas in the different States are as follows:

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Its length is 875 miles, and its breadth varies from 30 to 180 miles. It undulates westward, forming six principal basins and five prominent anticlinals, independent of the Maryland basin. The deposits are naturally divided by Mahoning sandstone into two groups, of which the lower, corresponding to the white ash anthracite formation, occupies the much larger area-perhaps threefourths of the entire field

It is traversed by several water-courses which have cut channels entirely through the coal measures. These coal-fields are all basin-shaped, and the depth of the basin increases going eastward. The thickness of the seams ranges from fifty to seventy-five feet, with an average of about one-half this aggregate throughout the entire coal field.

The Pennsylvania section of this coal field, embracing nearly 13,000 square miles, extends through twenty-four counties. In 1864 the coal mined amounted to 5,839,000 tons of 2,000 pounds. The Cumberland coal region in Maryland, separated from the Alleghany coal-field by the high axis of Negro mountain, is sometimes called the Frostburg basin. It covers an area of from 150 to 180 square miles. The other Maryland basins enlarge this area to 550 square miles. The coal shipped from Cumberland in 1864 amounted to 657,996 tons, a net decrease of 90,349 tons as compared with 1863, a decline fully accounted for by important military operations interrupting the working of the mines.

That portion of the Alleghany coal-field lying in West Virginia is the best and most available of the whole, being mostly accessible through numerous navigable streams. Recent improved relations of the industrial forces and the

new arrangements of lines of travel and transportation will develop the magnificent mineral deposits of this region and present special attractions for mining enterprise. The coals of this region are purer and more available for all kinds of manufacture than in any other part of the Alleghany coal-field. The seams of coal are also thicker and more numerous and can be more cheaply mined. Charleston is 200 miles nearer Cincinnati and the western ports than Pittsburg. With energetic exertion it may yet become the metropolis of this mining region. The productive coal fields of Ohio embrace about 12,000 square miles. The coal measures, however, including the carboniferous limestone, cover fully onethird of the State. The strata generally dip towards the Ohio river, and the smaller streams follow their inclinations with considerable exactness. The coal seams here are identified with those lying opposite in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Kentucky. The coal area of the latter State appears to be but little understood. It runs through some twenty of the eastern counties. The deposits, in position and character, are clearly assimilated to those of West Virginia and Pennsylvania. The coal measures in Tennessee are limited in area, occupying the high mountain plateaus which terminate abruptly on the east, above the escarpments of the Cumberland mountains. Being thus inaccessible, these deposits must, for purposes of fuel, remain for some time undeveloped. Chattanooga, and a few points in Georgia, are favored with copious and accessible supplies of coal in close association with iron. In Alabama the Alleghany coal field widens out into a basin covering 4,300 square miles, with an unmistakable depression of the entire geologic series southeast from Lookout and Sand mountains. The thinning out of the paleozoic strata westward is very observable. Large deposits of iron surround this coal-field, mostly hematites, especially rich to the eastward. The production of the Alleghany coal-field in 1864 is represented in the following table:

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The northern coal-field, embracing about 13,000 square miles, lies wholly within the lower peninsula of Michigan. Its coal seams are fewer and thinner than in the Ohio coal measures. But little has been done for its development, its annual product not much exceeding 100,000 tons.

The great central coal-field occupies an area of 50,000 square miles in Indiana, Illinois, and Kentucky. Its extreme length is 350 miles, with a breadth varying from 150 to 200 miles. The palæ zoic column, which in Pennsylvania exceeds a height of five miles, in Illinois is but 3,300 feet high, the coal measures being about 900 feet thick. The maximum depth of the coal measures increases in Indiana, and especially in Kentucky, where the basins are the deepest. The produce of the central coal-field in 1864 was as follows:

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* The commissioner of statistics of the State of Ohio estimates the quantity at double this

amount.

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The western coal-field in Missouri and Iowa is, properly, a continuation of the great central. It occupies an area of 45,000 square miles, of which 21,000 are in Missouri and 24,000 in Iowa. The geology of Missouri resembles that of Illinois, but the coal measures are not so thick by 150 feet, thinning out rapidly towards the northern edge of this coal field in Iowa, where they are but 100 feet thick, with workable beds of only 4 or 5 fe t. Its product in 1864 was about 500,000 tons. The coals of Arkansas and Nebraska are but the thin western edges of the great western coal-field, as yet but partially developed. All of these coal-fields are parts of the Appalachian coal, or Mississippi system, embracing a total area of 190,000 square miles, from which were mined in 1864 a total of 11,428,708 tons. The Mississippi basin, embracing an area of 1,500,000 square miles, is eminently available, in all its wondrous agricultural and mineral resources, to the demands of industry and commerce. Its territorial configuration, with its matchless system of internal navigation, is unrivalled in all the requisites for the seat of a mighty civilization. Its entire area can be as densely populated as England, with greater facilities for the support of animal life.

The New England coals are anthracite in character, but thin and irregular in stratification, continually interrupted by faults, dikes, troubles, &c. This coalfield occupies its true palæological position in our American system, but its accompanying sedimentary strata have been largely metamorphosed by heat into the sub-crystalline. The basins are very irregular, indicating a degree of dislocating volcanic action highly unfavorable to even and uniform stratification during the period of coal deposit. Subsequent lateral contractions, doubling the strata in sharp waves, have also caused the entire coal series to slide above or below their true geological position. The immense thickness of the paleozoic formations in Pennsylvania doubtless protected the wonderful coal deposits of the State from the same destructive movements, and perhaps added materially to their growth by supplying the necessary carbon and bitumen. Mining for coal does not at present offer any inviting prospects to remuneration in New England.

The Arcadian coal-field in British North America embraces a workable area of 2,200 square miles, divided into several basins and sub-basins. The amount of sulphur and iron pyrites in the measures and seams of this coal-field are a serious injury to the coal, which is of a rich and highly bituminous character, indicating remoteness from the great heat which produced the Pennsylvania anthracites. The coal seams are of moderate thickness.

In Eastern Virginia and the Carolinas there are five distinct coal formations. These deposits compared with the great fields of the west are small, but being located in populous districts, have a very considerable local value for fuel and the generation of steam.

The Richmond coal-field, though lying within the granite basins of the primitive formations,, is yet the latest deposit. Much injury has been done in parts of this field by the small pits sunk along the outcroppings, which being filled with water, are dangerous to approach from deeper excavations The Piedmont coal-field, further inland, lies within the gneissic or crystalline sedimentary deposits of the metamorphic era. Its area is small and excessively undulating; its seams range from six to thirty inches. In some localities near the gneiss rock the coal changes to impure anthracite. It is valuable only for domestic purposes. Dan river and Deep river coal-fields are unimportant basins assimilated to the Piedmont. The New river deposit is perhaps the oldest coal in existence, the creation of the proto-carboniferous ages. These coals, however, are only available for domestic use. The surrounding country is rich and promises great commercial and industrial activity.

The coal deposits of the Pacific slope are as yet imperfectly developed. Their

area, so far as ascertained, is about equal to the coal-field of Great Britain, or over 6,000 square miles.

Nearly ten years ago it was estimated by high scientific authority that the coal annually employed in England in propelling machinery generated a productive force equal to the labor of 66,000,000 men, and that if the entire coal pro duct had been so employed, this aggregate would have swelled to 400,000,000. The London Times estimates the mechanical steam power of England at double the muscular force of the entire human race. Reducing this estimate one-half, and applying the same ratio to our resources, what limits shall we assign to American dynamic industrial power, remembering that our coal area is thirtythree times greater than that of England, and of at least equal average value? The problem transcends ordinary speculation. It grows with our advances in economic science and art, and with each day's experience in the working of those resources. Even the agricultural advantages of soil, climate, and territorial configuration do not promise to surpass the majestic results of the mineral industry of the Union when once the hand of intelligent enterprise shall unlock the stores of subterranean wealth. The wonderful production of the precious metals must be enormously enhanced in order to afford adequate expression of the values soon to be produced by the development of the useful minerals of this republic.

Hon. O. H BROWNING,
Secretary of the Interior.

JOS. S. WILSON,
Commissioner of the General Land Office.

List of papers accompanying Commissioner's annual report.

No. 1. Tabular statement showing the number of acres of public lands surveyed in the land States and Territories up to June 30, 1866, during the last fiscal year, and the total of the public lands surveyed up to June 30, 1867; also the total area of the public domain remaining unsurveyed within the same. No. 2. Statement of public lands sold; of cash and bounty land scrip received therefor; number of acres entered under the homestead law of May 20, 1862; of commissions received under the sixth section of said act; also land located with scrip under the agricultural college and mechanic act of July 2, 1862, and commissions received by registers and receivers on the value thereof; and statement of incidental expenses thereon in the first half of the fiscal year commencing July 1, 1866, and ending June 30, 1867.

No. 3. Statement showing like particulars for the second half of the fiscal year ending June 30, 1867.

No. 4. Summary for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1867, showing the number of acres disposed of for cash, with bounty land scrip, by entry under the homestead laws of May 20, 1862, and March 21, 1864, with aggregate of $10 homestead payments, homestead commissions; also locations with agricultural college and mechanic scrip, under act of July 2, 1862.

No. 5. Statement showing the quantity of swamp lands selected for the several States under the acts of Congress approved March 2, 1849, and September 28, 1850, and March 12, 1860, up to and ending September 30, 1865.

No. 6 Statement exhibiting the quantity of swamp land approved to the several States under the acts of Congress approved March 2, 1849. September 28 1850, and March 12, 1860, up to and ending September 30, 1867.

No. 7. Statement exhibiting the quantity of swamp land patented to the several States under the acts of Congress approved September 28, 1850, and

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March 12, 1860; and also the quantity certified to the State of Louisiana under the act approved March 2, 1849.

No. 8. Exhibit of bounty land business under acts of 1847, 1850, 1852, and 1855, showing the issue and locations from the commencement of the operations under said acts to June 30, 1867.

No. 9. Statement showing the State selections under the "internal improvement" grant of 4th of September, 1841, on the 30th of June, 1867.

No. 10. Statement respecting the accounts of receivers of public moneys, disbursing agents, and adjustment of the five per cent. fund.

No. 11. Statement showing the selections made by. certain States of lands within their own limits under agricultural and mechanic act of July 2, 1862, and its supplemental acts of April 14, 1864, and June 21, 1866; also the locations made with scrip under said acts.

No. 12. Statement exhibiting land concessions by acts of Congress to States and corporations for railroad and military wagon road purposes from the year 1850 to June 30, 1867.

No. 13. Statement exhibiting land concessions by acts of Congress to States for canal purposes from the year 1827 to June 30, 1867.

No. 14. Statement showing the homestead fees and commissions required to be paid under the several homestead acts.

No. 15. Estimate of appropriations required for the office of the Commissioner of the General Land Office for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1869.

No. 16. Estimates of appropriations for the surveying department for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1869.

No. 17. Estimates of appropriations required for surveying the public lands for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1869.

No. 18. Reports of surveyors general, A to L inclusive.

No. 19. Statement of confirmed Indian pueblo grants and private land claims in New Mexico.

No. 20. General tabular statement exhibiting the following: No. 1, States and Territories containing public land; No. 2, square miles and areas of States and Territories containing public land; No. 3, quantity sold; No. 4, entered under the homestead law; No. 5, granted for military services; No. 6, granted for agricultural colleges; No. 7, approved under grants in aid of railroads; No. 8, approved swamp selections; No. 9, quantity granted for internal improvements; No. 10, donations and grants for schools and universities; No. 11, locations with Indian scrip; No. 12, located with float scrip; No. 13, estimated quantity granted for wagon roads; No. 14, quantity granted for ship canals; No. 15, salines; No. 16, seats of government and public buildings; No. 17, granted to individuals and companies; No. 18, granted for deaf and dumb asylums; No. 19, reserved for benefit of Indians; No. 20, reserved for companies, individuals, and corporations; No. 21, confirmed private land claims; No. 22, quantity remaining unsold and unappropriated June 30, 1867.

No. 21. Historical and statistical table of the United States of North America. No. 22. Statement showing the area and population of the British possessions north of the United States boundary.

No. 23. Statement showing the area and population of the West Indies, Mexican states, Central America, and New Granada.

No. 24. Set of twenty-eight maps of all the public land States and Territories, to wit: Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Dakota, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Nebraska, Kansas, Indian Territory, Colorado, New Mexico, Montana, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, California, Oregon, Washington Territory, and Russian America. Each map shows the extent of the public surveys where such have been extended; also the names of countries and resources, so far as furnished by the data on hand.

No. 25. Connected map of the United States from ocean to ocean, exhibiting

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