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and thus pronounced them, without taking the trouble to test them in a practical manner; hence, it is difficult to convince many people of their real value as fuels, and hence the tests which were made a few years ago with the Brazos coal of Robertson county by as Austin company, who, finding it a good coal, invested in coal lands there; since which, some members of the same company have also bought coal lands in Bastrop county.

Let the people of the State be assured that many of the coals of Central and Eastern Texas are of equal value to many coals of the carboniferous period, and even superior to some of them, excelling in this respect as fuel for public and private buildings and other purposes, to which they will- ere long be applied.

I will add another item which I had almost forgotten. A few years ago, Willard Richardson, of the Galveston News, received a letter from the secretary of a northern coal company, requesting information about the coal and iron of Texas. This letter was referred to me, and a long correspondence ensued. I sent him specimens of the coal anti iron of Robertson and Milam counties, both of which were reported by him to be better than lie had expected to see from Texas. This company would have started the manufacture of iron in Robertson county, had not radical rule and radical reports of disorder in Texas prevented. Since I began to write this report, I have received a letter from the secretary of another northern company, inquiring about the coal and iron of the tertiary period, of the State. To this letter I have not yet had time to reply.

Our State has been in such an unsettled and unfortunate condition, politically, as to prevent many capitalists from investing here, but under the present government confidence is again restored, and we have the dawn of a good tune coming, when our coal will be used, acid our iron ores manufactured.

COAL OF THE CARBONIFEROUS PERIOD

The carboniferous extends over a much larger area in the State than we supposed possible last spring, at the commencement of our labors in the field, and if the survey had accomplished nothing more than has been done in this portion of the field, it would have done a good work. Tile carboniferous formation has been traced from. the western Part of Montague county westward through Clay and Jack, into Archer and Young counties; thence westward through