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Excerpt from Catalogue of the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs Collection, at the United States International Exhibition, Philadelphia, 1876 Coal, anthracite and bituminous, is found in great quantities all over the North of China. The extent of these coal-fields is estimated at some square miles, but the mining appliances are very defective and the coal hitherto extracted is but surface coal. As soon as the appearance of the strata indicates the presence of coal, or more often when it is seen cropping out of the hill-side, the miners commence tunnelling. They follow up the seam, working generally in a horizontal direction, slightly inclining upwards, to admit of the free egress of water. Hunan coal is largely used by the river steamers running between Hankow and Shanghai, and that mined at the northern end of the Island of Formosa is also utilised to a considerable extent both by foreign steamers and the gunboats built at the Government arsenal at Foochow. During the past year the authorities in Formosa have engaged the services of a foreign engineer and authorised the use, under his supervision, of European mining machinery; and it may be hoped that when they have learnt by practical experience the superiority of machinery over the rude appliances hitherto employed, the Government will sanction its introduction for the development of the enormous mineral resources lying unproductive in the various portions of the empire. In 1874 the consumption by foreign steamboats was -of Hunan coal, tons; Lohping (also Yangtze) coal, tons; of Formosan coal, I tons; or in all some tons: the values of the three kinds are Tls. 5, Tls. 6 and Tls. 3 respectively. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.