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from the mine retains its form and character so completely as to be almost indistinguishable from the ordinary wood of the present time, except that it is somewhat darker in color.

COMMON BROWNCOAL.

This name covers a number of varieties, varying in color from yellow to brownish black, and from those having a specific gravity less than water to those of 1.2 and 1.3. Their common qualities are their large percentage of water and their earthy, friable nature. The two most important of these varieties are "Schweelkohl" and Earthy Browncoal.

SCWEEL COAL.—This variety, in its purest form, resembles a yellow clay much more closely than it does coal. Its composition and character, as revealed by chemical analysis and the microscope, vary somewhat from the other browncoals, and it is the variety which has the least specific gravity. It is the richest in tarry matter, and is therefore especially desirable for the manufacture of paraffine and oils. It occurs most frequently with earthy browncoal and often in alternating layers with that variety.

EARTHY BROWNCOAL.—This variety of browncoal is, as its name indicates, of an earthy character, brown to brownish black in color, in its ordinary condition containing as much as forty-five or even fifty per cent of moisture. While it somewhat resembles our Texas browncoal, especially in the fatty streaks which occur in it, the German is much more friable than ours and also much inferior to it in heating value in the raw state on account of the great percentage of water it contains. This is the character of browncoal that is found most largely developed in the district around Halle, a. S., and in the Rhine provinces. Much of it lies very near the surface, in beds varying from a few inches to sixty feet in thickness, and is most often mixed with Schweel coal to a greater or less extent. From this variety of browncoal is manufactured the "nass-press-stein" and browncoal briquettes without bond.

PECH COAL.

A darker and firmer variety of browncoal, which contains a smaller amount of water, and which often closely resembles pitch both in color and fracture, is called Pech coal. The coal of the Bohemian basins is very largely a mixture of common browncoal (of somewhat drier nature than the German) and Pech coal, together with some lignite, and is the equivalent of the larger part of our Texas deposits.

GLANCE COAL.

This is the finest variety of lignitic or browncoal, in certain instances passing into jet. It occurs principally in Styria with other varieties of browncoal, although smaller quantities occur in many localities.

These varieties are again subdivided into minor divisions, and they pass by insensible gradations one into the other, frequently in one and the same bed.

STATISTICS.

The following statistics, taken from the government reports of the