ght be appreciably lessened, but as it would involve the
reconstruction of some millions of fire-places, and an increase in price
in consequence of the general demand for it, it is not likely that a
government would be so rash as to attempt to pass such a measure; even if
passed, it would probably soon become as dead and obsolete and impotent
as those many laws with which our ancestors attempted, first to arrest,
and then to curb the growth in the use of coal of any sort. Anthracite is
not a "homely" coal. If we use it alone it will not give us that bright
and cheerful blaze which English-speaking people like to obtain from
their fires.

It is a significant fact, and one which proves that the various kinds of
coal which are found are nothing but stages begotten by different degrees
of disentanglement of the contained gases, that where, as in some parts,
a mass of basalt has come into contact with ordinary bituminous coal, the
coal has assumed the character of anthracite, whilst the change has in
some instances gone so far as to convert the anthracite into graphite.
The basalt, which is one of the igneous rocks, has been erupted into the
coal-seam in a state of fusion, and the heat contained in it has been
sufficient to cause the disentanglement of the gases, the extraction of
which from the coal brings about the condition of anthracite and
graphite.

The mention of graphite brings us to the next stage. Graphite, plumbago,
or, as it is more commonly called, black-lead, which, we may say in
passing, has nothing of lead about it at all, is best known in the shape
of that very useful and cosmopolitan article, the black-lead pencil. This
is even purer carbon than anthracite, not more than 5 per cent. of ash
and other impurities being present. It is well-known by its grey metallic
lustre; the chemist uses it mixed with fire-clay to make his crucibles;
the engineer uses it, finely powdered, to lubricate his machinery; the
house-keeper uses it to "black-lead" her stoves to prevent them from
rusting. An imperfect graphite is found inside some of the hottest
retorts from which gas is distilled, and this is used as the negative
element in zinc and carbon electricity-making cells, whilst its use as
the electrodes or carbons of the arc-lamp is becoming more and more
widely adopted, as installations of electric light become more general.

One great source of true graphite for many years was the famous mine at
Borrowdale, in Cumberl