caulking and paying them over, so as to make the whole fabric not only stronger, but more secure against leakage, as is now done in the national ship-yards. As a further security, in vessels of great length, why could not a trussframe be introduced, from the stem to the stern-post, in all kinds of vessels, and at least as high as the beams of the lower gun-deck, in ships of war, on the plan of either Town's, Hassard's, or How's bridges? Such a structure would prevent hogging and settling amidships, besides giving vastly greater strength to the whole hull. NEARCHUS. NOTE. The end of this series of Letters, but the subject may be here. after resumed, and continued to the period in which we live. Art. II. THE COAL MINES AND COAL TRADE OF BELGIUM: HISTORICAL, STATISTICAL, AND COMMERCIAL. DISCOVERY OF COAL AND PROGRESS OF MINING.-AREA OF COAL FIELDS IN BELGIUM.-WES- STEAM-ENGINES. THE discovery of bituminous coal in Belgium,* as is stated by the local historians, was first made, in the country of Liege, by a blacksmith, named Hullos de Plennevaux. This occurred, A. D. 1198 or 1200, and hence is said to have originated the now common name of the mineral carbon, Houille. It is only a few years ago, that, opposite to the entrance of the collegiate church of St. Martin, they yet showed the place where the first opening on the coal was made. The coal mines of Belgium, like those of France, have, from a very early period, been subjected to the inspection of government officers. This system, notwithstanding its seeming interference with the exercise of private rights, and with the management of individual property, has much to recommend it; and in fact, has been strongly urged to be put in practice in Great Britain, whose coal mines, so vital to her strength and prosperity, it seems surprising, should so long have been left entirely to the unassisted efforts of individuals, without organization or even the supervision of the State. So early as the fifteenth century-A. D. 1487-the prince bishop of Liege issued a commission on mines; which commission found that there 2,942,574 hectares 7,271,100 Eng.acres. 2,220,000 5,485,620 * KINGDOM OF BELGIUM.--Entire area of land, Area under cultivation.... Ascertained area of coal land in 1838, az of 66 Population, about two persons to each hectare, 4,242,000. had been established, from the most remote times, a court or jury of four persons, afterwards increased to seven, called "La Cour des voir Jurés du Charbonnage," for the investigation and direction of the affairs of mines; and that two of its members were obliged to descend, periodically, (every fifteen days,) to examine them. King Philip, in 1635, passed an ordinance touching the coal mines of Namur, and Charles of Spain, as duke of Limbourg, in 1694, issued an edict of fifty-six articles on the coal mines of that duchy. During our own times, France, the Netherlands, and Belgium, have distinguished themselves by issuing laws for the regulation of the working of their respective mines; leaving England the very last in the field to establish a system of such important, humane, and necessary judicial interference.* In Spain, where the business of coal mining is as yet in its infancy, the importance of carrying on the colliery workings agreeably to the mining laws that are already in force as regards other minerals, has recently become the subject of application to the government, from the coal proprietors of Asturias. They complain that, "at present, the peasants, without any subjection to the rules of arts, or to the payment of dues, raise up the coals by means of pits, sixty or more Spanish yards deep; and, as they have nothing to disburse for scientific direction, and incur none of the other expenses which fall upon the regular companies, they prevent the proper development of this new source of industry. All we want, therefore, is the strict observance of the laws, and special protection from the government."+ We AREA OF COAL FIELDS IN BELGIUM.-This country is traversed in a direction from nearly W. S. W. to E. N. E., by a large zone of bituminous coal formation. The statistical divisions of this band have not been uniformly adopted or described by local topographers, and some confusion has occasionally taken place among authors from this circumstance. shall, therefore, as far as practicable, adhere, in the following notes, to the arrangement ordinarily observed in the official reports made to the Belgian government; at the same time, we shall avail ourselves, whereever it may be desirable, of the statistical details which have occasionally been furnished by cotemporary authorities. The entire region has been customarily described under two principal divisions, as follows: THE WESTERN OR HAINAULT DIVISION Comprises-I. A. The two basins known as the Levant and the Couchant of Mons. B. That of Charleroi. II. That of Namur. The latter lies within the province of Namur; while the two former are within the province of Hainault, stretching into the Department du Nord in France, where its traces are lost, a little below Douay. THE EASTERN OR LIEGE DIVISION, commencing in the province of Namur, and embracing a small portion thereof, traverses the province of Liege, directing itself towards Rhenish Prussia, where it communicates with the coal basins of Eschweiler and Rolduc, and with the duchy of Limbourg, in the low countries. The point of division between this and the preceding, is said to be the deep and narrow gorge, through which the *Articles on the causes and means of prevention of accidents in coal mines, in the Mining Journal of London, March 4th and August 5th, 1843. † Address of the Espada Colliery Company of Oviedo, to the Central Mining Junta of Carthagena. Bulletin de la Commission Centrale de Statistique de Belgique, 1844. Sampson River flows, in the province of Namur. The whole belt is about a hundred miles in length; or, including its prolongation into France, one hundred and fifty miles. The subdivision of this great Belgian coal zone is as follows: As the government returns are made, not according to any supposed geological divisions, but with reference to the provincial areas, the latter will be represented as below: There appears to be a discrepancy between these estimated areas, and the official aggregate of "concessions," or grants to work the coal beds within the Belgian region. The difference is explainable, on the one hand, on the probable ground that the concessions frequently occupy more area than strictly belongs to the coal formation; and on the other that the entire mineral areas are not yet conceded. We annex the returns of those grants of mining lands: :- It will be necessary to bear in mind, with reference to these areas, that one series represents the superficies of the geological basins, while the other is that of the lands conceded, and provisionally granted. The coal field of Belgium is said to be superior to any on the continent of Europe, and is estimated to be more valuable than the silver mines of Peru, or the gold of Brazil. The basin of Mons contains above one hundred and thirty coal seams, disposed one above the other; all workable and all wrought. The four principal collieries of Mons, Marimont, Liege, and Charleroi, yielded, in 1838, 3,260,271 English tons, and 4,500,000 tons in 1844. One of the richest deposits of coal that is known, forms the nearly con Rapport presente au Roi. Statistique de la Belgique, 1842—the latest official return. tinuous series of coal basins, placed along a belt 150 miles long, and from six to ten miles broad, which, passing through Belgium, crosses the north of France, and contains the collieries of Valenciennes, Condé, Mons, &c. At Liege, the measures are said to comprise eighty-three beds, and at Mons there are no less than one hundred and fifty coal seams. These coal basins produce, at the present time, an annual amount of four and a half millions, or more, of tons of coal; worth fifty millions of francs, and employ more than forty thousand colliers. The Belgian coal formation is of the same geological horizon with the great coal fields of England. It is remarkable for the undulating character of the beds of coal. Through a great part of its southeastern boundary, it is inverted, so as apparently to dip under the older formations; but on a portion of its northern margin, the earlier formations emerge in their regular order.* In one respect, the southern coal fields of Belgium differ from those of other countries, especially of Scotland and Wales. This is in the comparative absence of seams of iron ore. A contributor to the London Mining Journal asserts that coals and iron are nowhere to be found together in Belgium. We proceed to notice the principal coal statistics of this country. In Belgium, the coal business has felt the influence of political changes. From 1802 to 1832, instead of increasing, it experienced some small diminution in the annual amount of production. Latterly, this was no doubt owing to the loss of the exclusive supply of Holland, with which this country had been previously united. From 1832, it considerably increased, being now probably about double the production of that year; owing to the vast amount of additional capital brought by new companies into the trade. We will briefly trace the progress of Belgian mining industry. In 1826, there were above 240 mines in work; all very rich, and giv. ing employment to several thousand persons. In 1830, 314 coal pits were in activity. In 1838, there were in full operation, 307 concessions; comprising 652 pits or places of extraction; employing 37,171 miners and 384 steam-engines, of the aggregate power of 15,061 horses. These forces raised 3,260,271 tons of coal, whose value at the pit's mouth, was returned at £1,728,784 sterling, or $8,278,181, United States currency, or 42,818,180 francs. The total number of steam-engines in the region was 1,171, with a force of 32,109 horses.† In 1842, the three principal coal districts, comprising 307 concessions, employed 38,502 workmen, and, including their families, supported 135,000 persons. In 1843, the three coal districts comprised 411,787 acres of coal land, held under concession from the crown, by different companies, and the mining operations were greatly extended; producing, it is stated, nearly 4,000,000 of tons. It was officially announced in this year that the capital embarked by different associations, in coal and iron establishments, was 40,540,000 francs, or £1,637,318 sterling, $7,836,400. In 1844, there were 307 coal concessions in Belgium; 224 of these were the property of companies, and 83 belonged to anonymous associa tions. Their annual production was estimated at about 4,500,000 tons of coal, being more than 500,000 tons greater than that of France, and oneseventh part of that raised in Great Britain. She exported, this year, Sedgewick and Murchison in Geal. Trans., 1840. + Bulletin de la Commission Statistique, 1843. 1,300,000 tons. The value of the coal produced this year, was estimated at 41,000,000 of francs.* The production during the year 1845, has been announced by the engineer of mines, at 4,960,077 tons; exceeding the indigenous production of France, by 1,177,388 tons. This is greater than was ever before known. The increase in the province of Liege was 25 per cent, and in Hainault, 10 per cent over 1844. The result of a geological survey of the mineral resources of the Sambre and the Meuse, by Mr. Sopwith, in 1846, shows that the coal mines in that part of Belgium, are capable of producing a quantity equal to onetenth of all the coal raised in Great Britain. In order to combine in one view, the various statistical details of the Belgium coal trade, of which we have given the foregoing outlines, we ar ranged the whole in the following tabular statement, showing the number of concessions, collieries, and pits in operation; their annual production in English tons, of 10,146 metrical quintals each; the average prices of coal at the pit's mouth, the number of miners employed, and the value of the produce at the mines, rendered in Belgian, French, American, and English currencies, in the provinces of Hainault, Namur, and Liege :—— 5,011,200 1,047.600 1832.. 224 2,249,000 1834 1836.. 1838 307 660 38,502 4,500,000 7.54 16,957,500 307 341 28,606 2,443,568 7.82 19,108,700 307 471 29,144 3,056,464 10.95 30,533,922 307 531 37,171 3,260,271 13.93 42,818,180 4,000,000 23.85 55,400,000 10,692,200 2,209,132 30,990,772 5,991,550 1,229,792 3,278,445 684,659 3,694,276 772,280 5,801,447 1,221,300 8,278,181 1,728,784 1840. 1844. 1845...... In point of rank, as a coal producing country, Belgium stands the second in Europe, and probably in the world; Great Britain being the first.. France and the United States are about equal producers at the present moment, and Prussia is the fifth. The following table shows the periodical prices of Belgian coals at the pit's mouth and the canals, per English ton of 10,146 metrical quintals, in Belgian, American, and English currencies: *The value of the coal production of France, the same year, was 30,000,000 of francs. That of England, at the pit's mouth, about 225,000,000. |