expected in
future from the large coal-field of the Wardha and Chanda districts, in
the Central Provinces, the coal of which may eventually prove to be of
Permian age.

The coal-deposits of China are undoubtedly of tremendous extent, although
from want of exploration it is difficult to form any satisfactory
estimate of them. Near Pekin there are beds of coal 95 feet thick, which
afford ample provision for the needs of the city. In the mountainous
districts of western China the area over which carboniferous strata are
exposed has been estimated at 100,000 square miles. The coal-measures
extend westward to the Mongolian frontier, where coal-seams 30 feet thick
are known to lie in horizontal plane for 200 miles. Most of the Chinese
coal-deposits are rendered of small value, either owing to the
mountainous nature of the valleys in which they outcrop, or to their
inaccessibility from the sea. Japan is not lacking in good supplies of
coal. A colliery is worked by the government on the island of Takasima,
near Nagasaki, for the supply of coals for the use of the navy.

The British possession of Labuan, off the island of Borneo, is rich in a
coal of tertiary age, remarkable for the quantity of fossil resin which,
it contains. Coal is also found in Sumatra, and in the Malayan
Archipelago.

In Cape Colony and Natal the coal-bearing Karoo beds are probably of New
Red age. The coal is reported to be excellent in quantity.

In Abyssinia lignites are frequently met with in the high lands of the
interior.

Coal is very extensively developed throughout Australasia. In New South
Wales, coal-measures occur in large detached portions between 29 deg. and 35 deg.
S. latitude. The Newcastle district, at the mouth of the Hunter river, is
the chief seat of the coal trade, and the seams are here found up to 30
feet thick. Coal-bearing strata are found at Bowen River, in Queensland,
covering an area of 24,000 square miles, whilst important mines of
Cretaceous age are worked at Ipswich, near Brisbane. In New Zealand
quantities of lignite, described as a hydrous coal, are found and
utilised; also an anhydrous coal which may prove to be either of
Cretaceous or Jurassic age.

We have thus briefly sketched the supplies of coal, so far as they are
known, which are to be found in various countries. But England has of
late years been concerned as to the possible failure of her home supplies
in the not very distant future, and the effects which su