Geological researches in China, Mongolia, and Japan, during the years 1862-1865.

20 GEOLOGICAL RESEARCHES IN
The workings extend to a horizontal distance of about 6,000 feet, the drainage
being effected by a fault, and the ventilation by an opening through old workings
to day-light.
The mine is entered by an inclined gallery, descending in the seam, at an angle
of about 30~, till near the water level. From the foot of this a horizontal or slightly
rising level is driven in the coal to the extreme limit of the intended mine, in this
instance over 6,000 feet.
In extracting the coal only those portions of the seam are worked which are
sufficiently thick to admit the miner without cutting into the walls.
The "winning" is conducted on the following general plan: where the coal
is sufficiently thick, rising galleries are driven at an angle of about 30~, from the
tops of which a level extends in both directions as far as the seam retains the proper thickness. From this level other rising galleries and a second level are driven,
and so on till the whole enlarged part of the seam is opened, forming pillars twentyfive or thirty feet high, with a length that seems to be very variable. The timbering
is now removed from the upper gallery, and the coal broken down from the roof,
the miner working from a scaffolding. In this manner working from the farthest
and uppermost pillars toward the main level the coal is all taken out, unless the
extent of the enlarged part of the seam is too great, in which case pillars are left
standing. The coal is all carried on basket-sleds to the main level, and through
this to the surface. A great deal of timbering is used, chiefly the wood of fruit
trees, etc., and costing at the mine twenty-nine cents per 100 lbs.
One miner produces on the average about 700 lbs. daily, his wages being thirtynine cents. About four-fifths of the coal is a mixture of small pieces and powder.
The owner of the mine considered himself able to produce between thirty and
forty tons, of coarse and fine, daily. The price at the mine is $3.60 per ton (2000
lbs.) for the lump coal, and $2.00 for the fine, which is bought to make cakes similar to our patent fuel. The better varieties of the Fangshan c9als are taken to a
depot at the head of boat navigation on the Liuli Ho,1 about twelve miles from
Fangshan, where the selling price is about $5.50 per ton.
The better varieties of the Chaitang and Muntakau districts are carried on mules
and camels to Peking, where the selling price of the former is about two and a half
times the price at the mines.
So far as I could ascertain, all the coal worked in the district of Fangshan and
in the eastern portion of the Wangping field is anthracite. The only instance of
an intrusive rock that I observed in the Fangshan district, was west of the city,
a. Granite. b. Fine-grained micaceous rock. c. Sandstone altered to quartzite. d. Limestone. e. Black clayshale with four seamsf of anthracite. g. Quartzose conglomerate. h. Creek alluvion.
1 A tributary of the Peiho.