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the tertiary coals of Texas and the great West were little known, so little, that they were not alluded to by him. But, with perhaps slight modifications, it will include these tertiary coals, which may be placed in the second and third classes.

In Texas, no anthracites of any commercial value are known; but among the tertiary coals of the State are the semi-bituminous and the hydrogenous, or gas coals. Most of them belong to the semi-bituminous, that is, they abound in the ingredients which make bitumen, as shown by chemical analysis, and by the scent which they give when burned.

That they are valuable as fuels, and for most all the purposes to which coal is applied, has already been proved by experiments made on a large scale. The coal of Bastrop has been satisfactorily used for more than six months to run an engine in a cotton manufactory at Bastrop. That of Robertson county has been tested on an engine to run a steamer, also, tested in New York and at Pittsburg and pronounced to be a good and valuable coal for the ordinary purposes of fuel, and also, for the manufacture of iron; the person having charge of the experiment at Pittsburg, wrote to a leading citizen of Austin, Judge Terrill, that this coal. would run puddle iron without coking.

In Washington Territory, coals of the middle tertiary (miocene) are used to run engines on steamboats and elsewhere. Let it be remembered that our Texas coals under consideration, are of the eocene, or older tertiary, and that too, at the very dawn of this period.

According to Prof. Rogers, the semi-bituminous coals also soften and swell into compact coke, but do not agglutinate at all, or only slightly; they are, therefore, equally eligible with the non-coking.. bituminous varieties for certain purposes of combustion, while they are preferable to them in heating power, in proportion to the greater weight of solid matter they contain.

I have been told that some of our tertiary coals, when tested on the engines of railroads, burn too fast, and are not easily regulated, as the grates of the engines are now made. It is probable that, with differently made rates, where the draft can be accurately regulated, this difficulty would be removed.

Our former State Geologists, Drs. Moore and Shumard, regarded the tertiary coals of the State as of little value,