These are comparatively small quantities, but the increase (50 per cent) in one year, is quite remarkable, and proves what we have said, that as wood rises in price, the consumption of coal rapidly increases. Within a few years past coal has been extensively substituted for wood in steamboats. This has largely increased the consumption on the rivers. We have seen a steamboat on the Mississippi take poor coal on board at 30 cents per bushel. It is obvious that coal will be entirely used in steamboats, and it is equally obvious that coal must be almost the only motive power of machinery. The numerous railroads will soon facilitate the introduction of coal into numerous towns now inaccessible to the coal trade. All these things will soon afford an active demand for our coal-mineral lands will be in demand-and capital will develop the wealth now lying dormant in the earth. The coal of Pennsylvania carried to market last year came to twenty millions of dollars. An income like this, dug out of the earth, in a single article, is alone enough to make a State prosperous and independent. CANNEL COAL OF THE KENAWHA VALLEY. There are on the Kenawha and its tributaries five veins of common bituminous coal and two of Cannel coal, all capable of being worked, and all above the level of the river. The largest and best is said, in a letter from Edward Kenna, published in the Richmond Examiner, to be on the Coal River, where its aggregate thickness is twenty-four feet. The floor of the coal measures in this region is of fire clay or rock, and the roof of solid sand-stone. The dip inclines to the northwest at a very low angle. Professor Rogers gives the bituminous coal a rank quite equal to the best Pittsburg coal. The Cannel coal is said to be equal to any of this kind of coal in the world; like all coal of this description it is free from any intermixture of sulphur. Mr. Kenna says: "I may add, that from the close grain and compact character of this coal, it bears transportation and exposure to the weather better than any other coal. It contains from three to four thousand cubic feet per ton more gas than the best English or American bituminous coals; (vide Parnell's Applied Chemistry, Appleton's edition.) It raises steam to the desired point in thirty minutes-the best bitumen coals taking over two hours, (vide Prof. W. R. Johnson's report to Congress on American coals.) In short, its superiority for many practical purposes is so manifest, that there can be no doubt but that as soon as a sufficient quantity of the coal can be sent to market, it will supersede all other kinds of fuel.” The thickest vein of Cannel coal in England or Scotland is said not to measure more than twenty-two inches; the Kenawha Cannel coal has an average thickness of six feet. Mr. Kenna says, that when the Central Railway is completed, it may be sent to Richmond at a cost not exceeding four dollars a ton. GOLD MINES IN VIRGINIA. Within the past three years several rich mines have been opened and worked successfully in different parts of the State. Machinery has been introduced for the purpose of crushing the quartz rock, and it has been demonstrated that a profitable business could be done in that branch of mining. The Richmond Whig thinks, that as the country becomes settled and improved machinery is introduced, an amount of the precious metal will be produced that will go far towards furnishing the State with a solid basis for her currency. A returned Californian, who was induced to visit the Virginia mines, says of one of them: "I was prepared to examine a strong vein of quartz, but did not, however, expect to see a mammoth vein, rivaling in extent any of the celebrated beds of California. Several shafts have been sunk within half a mile on various parts of the vein, of different depths, which exhibits the same uniform character, and widens as it goes downwards-and at a depth of twenty yards is sixteen feet in thickness, throughout the whole length of the bed, yet the same uniformity, volume, and thickness is found to continue. If fifty tons were taken out per day for crushing, this vein could not be exhausted in a century. I was induced to make experiments to test the value and evenness of yield in the rock, and found gold in all parts, and the fact determined that gold penetrates the whole mass. There are very rich threads leading through the whole length of vein in the galleries opened. Specimens were blasted out while I was in the vein, which for richness is not excelled by the best quartz rock in California." STATISTICS OF THE GREAT EXHIBITION. The London Observer publishes a return of the number of visitors during the time the exhibition remained open to the public. From this we learn that, in the month of May, the number of visitors was 734,782; in June, 1,133,116; in July, 1,314,176; in August, 1,023,435; in September, 1,155,240; in October up to the 11th instant, $41,107; grand total, 6,201,856. The liabilities incurred, so far as they have at present been ascertained, are as follows:-To Messrs. Fox and Henderson for the building, £79,800; to Messrs. Munday for rescinding of contract, £5,000; extra galleries, counters, and fittings, £35,000; management including printing, &c., up to the 1st May, £20,943; police force, £10,000; prize fund, £20,000; management during the exhibition,; total, £170,743. The income of the establishment is as follows, up to the close of the exhibition:-Public subscriptions, £64,344; privilege of printing £3,200; privilege of supplying refreshments £5,500; amount received for season tickets up to 1st May, £40,000; royalty of 2d. per copy on catalogues,; total funds in hand on the 1st May, £113,044. Amount received at the doors up to August 30th, £252,141 9s. 6d; amount received up to the end of September, £62,007 12s.; amount received up to Saturday, the 11th of October, £41,922 11s. 6d.; grand total £469,115 13s. While the exhibition remained open to the public the children of no fewer than 510 schools, amounting to 43,715 pupils, visited it; and the kind feeling exhibited by the wealthy classes towards the poor may be further inferred from the fact, that nearly 11,000 persons, in addition, were treated to a visit to the exhibition at a cost of £2,735 paid for admission, to say nothing of the much larger sums disbursed for their conveyance to and from the Crystal Palace. PRODUCTION OF CALIFORNIA GOLD. The memorial of the Convention of citizens of California lately held in Washington, presented to Congress, gives an exalted idea of the richness of California in minerals, and particularly in gold, quicksilver, silver, &c. The yield of gold dust will steadily increase, every succeeding year, while the supply of gold from the quartz will be inexhaustible. The annual product of gold from auriferous quartz will be, three years hence, two hundred and twenty-five millions. Examples are given to prove the richness of the gold-bearing quartz. The average results of specimens sent to London, was $500 a ton; the picked specimens were equal to $35,000 a ton. An assay of gold-bearing quartz, at the mint, which weighed 188 ounces in its natural state, produced $1,731 in gold, or $9 20 an ounce. The amount of gold dust during the next three years is estimated at one hundred and fifty millions of dollars. The views of the memorialists in regard to the gold deposits, and the minute and extensive diffusion of the metal in the quartz rock, are very interesting. DISCOVERY OF A SILVER MINE IN NEW MEXICO. The National Intelligencer says that a dispatch has been received from an officer of the army stationed in New Mexico, stating that an extensive and rich silver mine has been discovered on the public lands in the vicinity of Fort Fillmore, in that Territory. The main or chief vein is said to be over five inches in width at the surface, and is exposed from the summit of a mountain fifteen hundred feet high to its base, over a thousand yards in length. The eastern slope only of the mountain has been explored, but there is no doubt that the vein passes entirely through it. An analysis of the ore has been made by a Mexican silver worker, who pronounces it very rich. Fort Fillmore is about 20 miles north of El Paso. NEW PROCESS OF WASHING GOLD IN CALIFORNIA. The Calaveras Chronicle says that a miner, at Volcano Diggings, has hit upon a new plan of separating the gold from the earth, and one that is likely to prove successful and be generally adopted. There is a species of auriferous earth frequently met with that is so extremely stiff and tenacious that the ordinary methods of washing have but little effect upon it. The discoverer of the new process was working in this kind of earth, when the idea occurred to him to boil the dirt. He tried it, and found all difficulty in extracting the gold removed. Parties have already commenced constructing machinery for working by this method on a large scale. VOL. XXVIII.—NO. IV. 33 IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF OXALATE OF POTASH. We notice in a recent number of the London Mechanics' Magazine, that a patent has been issued to Mr. George I. Firman, of Lambeth street, for improvements in the manufacture of oxalate of potash, which consist in employing oxalic acid and water to act on salts of potash, such as the tartrate, sulphate, or muriate of potash. When tartrate of potash is the salt employed, the patentee takes cream of tartar, and neutralizes the excess of acid contained in it by the addition of carbonate of lime; he thus obtains a neutral tartrate in solution to every 100 lbs. to which he adds 60 lbs. of crystalized oxalic acid dissolved in water. This quantity of acid is sufficient to combine with about half of the potash; the remaining half being acted on by the liberated tartaric acid and converted to tartrate of potash, which may serve for a subsequent operation, or may be purified by passing its solution through animal charcoal. The neutral oxalate of potash is subsequently treated by adding a sufficient quantity of oxalic acid to convert it to a superoxalate, which is filtered, evaporated, and crystalized in the ordinary manner. In operating on sulphate of potash, the patentee dissolves it in water, heated about 180 deg. Fahr., and to every 100 lbs. thereof he adds 160 lbs. of crystalized oxalic acid dissolved in water, or a sufficient quantity of oxalic acid to convert the potash of the salt into superoxalate of potash (sulphuric acid being liberated.) He then stirs the mixture well, keeping up the temperature to about 180 deg. Fabr., and allows it to cool, when the superoxalate of potash will be found adhering to the sides and bottom of the vessel. It is subsequently dissolved, filtered, evaporated, and crystalized in the usual manner. When muriate of potash is operated on, the patentee dissolves it in water, heated to about 180 deg. Fahr., and having added to every 100 lbs. thereof 140 lbs. of crystalized oxalic acid dissolved in water, or a sufficient quantity of acid to convert the potash of the salt to a superoxalate, he proceeds as above directed when operating on sulphate of potash. The muriatic acid resulting from this process may be utilized by evaporating the liquor left in the vessels after the crystals of superoxalate of potash have been removed, and the residue of the evaporation may be returned, to be again operated on with fresh quantities of muriate. In order to prevent the escape of muriatic acid, it is recommended to conduct the operation in a closed vessel, (which should be composed of earthenware, although lead vessels may be used when operating on the tartrate and sulphate of potash,) having a pipe leading from it to another vessel containing water, by which the water will be absorbed. ONONDAGA AND TURK'S ISLAND SALT. An interesting experiment, ordered by the Secretary of War, for the purpose of testing the relative merits of Onondaga and Turk's Island salt, has been made here. The occasion of this experiment is, that there has existed a strong prejudice against salt of home manufacture; and for all orders for beef and pork for the use of the government it has been expressly stipulated that it should be packed in Turk's Island salt. The experiment was the packing of eight hundred barrels of pork in the two varieties of salt, about two or three months since, which was unpacked and examined by competent judges, and the result is, that the meats packed in the two kinds of salt were precisely the same, both being compact and of the same color. There are two kinds of salt made at Syracuse, and the pork was packed in the pure, large crystal kind. BRICK MAKING IN THE SOUTH, We learn from a contemporary, that the brick manufactory of Mr. Kendall, situated on the Bay of Biloxi, is doing a very extensive business. It was constructed in furtherance of a contract made by its enterprising proprietor with the United States Government, to supply brick wherewith to build a custom-house in the city of New Orleans. It commenced July twelve months ago, since which time it has grown in size so rapidly that it now resembles one of those busy, bustling, thriving little manufacturing towns, that always attract the attention, and inspire the admiration of the traveler in certain parts of New England. It is, perhaps, one of the most extensive brick making establishments in the Union. It employs two of Culbertson and Scott's improved dry brick preses; each throws up per day, 25,000 brick of superior quality, making a sum total of 50,000 bricks daily. The establishment is capable of producing yearly 10,000,000 saleable brick. The cost of the site and all things appertaining to it-in which are included a propeller, splendid barges, &c.-has, up to the present time, been between thirty and forty thousand dollars; the machinery is under the direction of a single man, Mr. Thomas Young; one of those men who by their honesty, industry and ingenuity, have added imperishable honor to the name of their mother country, Scotland, and made America ever proud to adopt them. This establishment employs one hundred and twenty hands, all of whom, we believe, are slaves. The work is well performed, and the business cannot but prove profitable to the enterprising proprietor. STATISTICS OF POPULATION, &c. MORTALITY OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS. In another part of the present number of the Merchants' Magazine we have published an elaborate article on the commercial progress of Chicago in 1851, mainly derived from the annual report of the Chicago Tribune. The statement below, of the mortality of that place from 1847 to 1851, inclusive, is derived from the same reliable Source: From our files for the last four years, and from the returns of Mr. Woodson, City Sexton, for 1851, we make up the following table of mortality of Chicago, for five years: January 1885 1847. 1848. 1819. 1850. 1851. 30 29 That our city is improving as rapidly in respect to the health of its citizens, as it is in all other desirable matters, the above table abundantly proves. Nearly one half of the mortality of the city in 1849 and 1850 was from deaths by cholera. Likewise in 1851 it was increased some two or three hundred by the same cause. The population for the years comprehended in our table was as follows: 1847.. 1848... 16,850 1849 19,724 1850. 23,047 | 1851 35,000 From these figures it will be seen that the ratio of mortality has very materially fallen short of the ratio of increase of population. Had our city been spared the visitation of cholera last summer, the mortality of 1851 would hardly have exceeded that of 1847, notwithstanding the population had more than doubled during that period. This gratifying fact is doubtless the result, in part, of the sanatary measures adopted for the last three years to guard against the cholera, and in part from the planking of streets and the construction of sewers, which have materially tended to keep the city in a cleaner condition. As these improvements are extended, the same good consequences may be expected to flow from them; and when, in addition to a complete system of sewerage and planking, the whole city is supplied with an abundance of pure lake water, Chicago will doubtless become the healthiest city on the continent. Date. 1701... 1742. 1763. 1765. 1776. 1784. 1790. 1800. 1810. 1820. 1830... 1840...... 1850.... 737,700 20 8-10 10 In all the counties but Suffolk, Franklin, Nantucket, and Duke's, there is an increase on the United States Census over the State Census. PROGRESS OF POPULATION IN CHICAGO. The Board of Water Commissioners of Chicago (Illinois) in their report give the following as their estimates of the future population of that city, estimating it in 1851, 36,000 souls: "This is," the Argus thinks, " rather inside the true figures, and was designed so to be; what a prospect then does futurity furnish to our citizens. Twenty-four years hence and our population will exceed 162,000. There are in our midst some young persons, who came to Chicago when they were children, and who, should they live to a good old age, can only look back upon the growth they have witnessed of our city as the realization of some strange dream." POPULATION OF BARBADOES. An abstract from the census returns taken in this island on the 25th of June, 1851, has been completed by Mr. Bayley, jr., and forwarded to his excellency the Governor. The general return gives the number of 185,939 souls as the total population—some, probably, 4,000 or 5,000 less than the truth. Of these, 62,272 are males; 73,667 females. The number of public officers and professional men is given as.. Abstracts of the census of the population of British Guiana, taken on the 31st of March, 1851, have been published. By these returns we learn that the total population of the colony amounted, at the end of March, to 127,695 persons; 97,554 of whom constituted the rural population, and the remaining 30,141, the urban. Of those 97,554, 50,259 were inhabitants of Demarara; 22,925, of Essequebo; and 22,870, |