Show COAL IN THE ARCTIC REGIONS Recent Discoveries in Spitzbergen and Elsewhere To obtain fuel from the Arctic regions seems almost a paradox but our Berlin correspondent Informs us this morning that good seams of coal have been found on the western side of Spitsbergen and are to be worked on the most approved business principles princi-ples That carboniferous rocks existed in the Island has been known for sometime some-time but during the last summer experts ex-perts were dispatched from Norway to ascertain whether the mineral was sue llclenlly abundant and accessible to be worth working Their reports are most I favorable Good furnace coal has been found in Green Harbor on the south side of the entrance to Ice Fjord which pierces so deeply into the western Hank of the principal Island that the latter is almost cut up Into three parts by the meeting of Inlets from opposite coasts At another place In the same fjord three of the scams are from six to nine feet thick and as they arc above sea level must crop out at the surface The larger and eastern part of Spits bergen js more or less a plateau and the strata are horizontal ranging from the period anterior to the carboniferous to that In which our chalk was deposited deposit-ed The western part Is mountainous and consists of older crystalline rocks but uplifted parts of these sedimentary strata here and there rest upon them as Is the case where these scams have been discovered In such circumstances the llelds arc likely to be limited In extent and the seams may be tilted at high angles or broken up by faults Still as the coal can be worked by adits its accessibility and the consequent conse-quent economy in labor will be a compensation com-pensation These discoveries make it highly probable that larger und perhaps per-haps richer fields exist in the eastern part of the island which however will be less easily reached The effect direct or indirect of the Gulf Stream opens the west coast of Spltzbergen in summer but the other Is more difficult of approach It instated in-stated that even in the sheltered Ice Fjord the coal cannot bo shipped directly di-rectly from the land and tho piers must be rcjnoed before winter during parts of which work will have to be suspended suspend-ed But when the coal has been follOwed fol-lOwed for some little distance from the surface there will be nothing to prevent pre-vent the miners from going on even in December The ground no doubt In permanently frozen for a considerable depth but the temperature will rise steadily as the distance from the surface sur-face increases and will be uniform jviiti u num mu liii Lie will UQ more comfortable than any house An it Is the party will winter in the island from the first and the longer they can work the more healthy they will be But Spltzbergen may not be the only Arctic Island in which coal occurs though perhaps It la the most favorable for commercial purposes The fuel may be found In Franz Josef Land beds full ot lossii plants occur near Klra harbor har-bor of later date indeed but in rocks which elsewhcrq occasionally produce coal From Nova iembla Col Feildcn brought back specimens of limestones which experts assigned to an age very near that of our English coal beds and other localities could readily be named But these masses of fossil vegetable matter Indicate curious changes In the climate Nowadays nothing bigger than the stunted Polar willow grows in Spitsbergen Even in the extreme north of Norway the hardy birch is dwarfed Yet these ancient plants for mcrlv almost rivaled forest trees and the change was late In coming A temperate tem-perate climate existed as far north as the 70th parallel and in Greenland beds of brown coal were formed even in iho Tertiary era At that lime the plane the magnolia and the vine flourished In the latitude of Disco bay Ixmdon Standard |