File:The Spanish-American republics (1891) (14783236663).jpg

Identifier: gri_spanishameri00chil (find matches)
Title: The Spanish-American republics
Year: 1891 (1890s)
Authors: Child, Theodore, 1846-1892
Subjects:
Publisher: New York, Harper & brothers
Contributing Library: Getty Research Institute
Digitizing Sponsor: Getty Research Institute

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coal. The companyowns a coal-bed, through which the line passes, beginning at kilometre66, and continuing to the end of the line, a distance of 30 kilometres.The journey offers no particular interest, as far as concerns scenery.The land is arid, and produces only scrub and low thorn-trees, goodfor making charcoal; there is no irrigation, and therefore no agricult-ure, until we reach Coronel, on the bay of Arauco, and a little beyondCoronel, Lota, with its verdant woods climbing up the hill-side, andcontrasting strangely with the smoking chimney-stacks and the barrencoast around. The oasis is, however, entirely artificial; it is the parkof Lota surrounding the elegant chateau which Seiiora Cousino isnow building for herself on the bluff that commands a view of thePacific, of the bay, and of the vast establishments owned by theCousino family along the shore. We are here in the heart of the Chilian coal district. Lota is theplace where the first coal was obtained when Don Matias Cousino
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Walt COAL-MINING IN CHILI. 143 established the industry in 1855. At the beginning some difficultywas experienced in introducing the coal into the market, there beinga prejudice against it on account of the quality. Lota coal is 15 to20 per cent, inferior to English steam coal; it is a substance betweenlignite and true coal, and belongs to the lower tertiary formation. Inthe Lota district the coal seams lie principally under the sea, but far-ther south they are found more inland. The limits of this coal-bedare Tome, in Concepcidn Bay, on the north, and Canete on the south,the whole length of the Chilian coal-field being about one hundredmiles. The stratifications all incline towards the west. At Lota thereare three workable seams. The first seam is about one metre thick,then comes a layer of shale and sandstone thirty-five metres thick,with below it the second seam, also about a metre thick, and thenbelow another nine-metre layer of shale and sandstone comes thethird and finest seam, 1

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