Passing across this older ridge of denuded Silurian and other rocks, we reach the famous Illinois and Indiana coal-field, whose coal-measures lie in a broad trough, bounded on the west by the uprising of the carboniferous limestone of the upper Mississippi.  This limestone formation appears here for the first time, having been absent on the eastern side of the Ohio anticline.  The area of the coal-field is estimated at 51,000 square miles.

In connection with the coal-fields of the United States, it is interesting to notice that a wide area in Texas, estimated at 3000 square miles, produces a large amount of coal annually from strata of the Liassic age.  Another important area of production in eastern Virginia contains coal referable to the Jurassic age, and is similar in fossil contents to the Jurassic of Whitby and Brora.  The main seam in eastern Virginia boasts a thickness of from 30 to 40 feet of good coal.

Very serviceable lignites of Cretaceous age are found on the Pacific slope, to which age those of Vancouver’s Island and Saskatchewan River are referable.

Other coal-fields of less importance are found between Lakes Huron and Erie, where the measures cover an area of 5000 square miles, and also in Rhode Island.

In British North America we find extensive deposits of valuable coal-measures.  Large developments occur in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.  At South Joggins there is a thickness of 14,750 feet of strata, in which are found seventy-six coal-seams of 45 feet in total thickness.  At Picton there are six seams with a total of 80 feet of coal.  In the lower carboniferous group is found the peculiar asphaltic coal of the Albert mine in New Brunswick.  Extensive deposits of lignite are met with both in the Dominion and in the United States, whilst true coal-measures flank both sides of the Rocky Mountains.  Coal-seams are often encountered in the Arctic archipelago.

The principal areas of deposit in South America are in Brazil, Uruguay, and Peru.  The largest is the Candiota coal-field, in Brazil, where sections in the valley of the Candiota River show five good seams with a total of 65 feet of coal.  It is, however, worked but little, the principal workings being at San Jeronimo on the Jacahahay River.

In Peru the true carboniferous coal-seams are found on the higher ground of the Andes, whilst coal of secondary age is found in considerable quantities on the rise towards the mountains.  At Porton, east of Truxillo, the same metamorphism which has changed the ridge of sandstone to a hard quartzite has also changed the ordinary bituminous coal into an anthracite, which is here vertical in position.  The coals of Peru usually rise to more than 10,000 feet above the sea, and they are practically inaccessible.

Cretaceous coals have been found at Lota in Chili, and at Sandy Point, Straits of Magellan.

Turning to Asia, we find that coal has been worked from time to time at Heraclea in Asia Minor.  Lignites are met with at Smyrna and Lebanon.