the drift is determined by the amount of air which must pass through it for efficient ventilation.

No coolie will do more than one kind of work. One set does timbering alone. Another cuts coal. Another does the carrying in baskets, and pushing the tram-cars in drifts not fitted with electric or cable propulsion. Next come the miners who do the coal and rock cutting, then the coolies who scrape the coal and débris into baskets and carry it out. It is a strange fact that the shovel is unknown in China. Everywhere and for every purpose for which a western laborer would use a shovel the coolie uses an implement half between a mattock and a hoe, with which he scrapes the earth or whatever it may be into shallow baskets. The wage of the mine coolies averages twenty cents Mex., about nine cents gold, per day; the miners about thirty cents, thirteen cents gold; for the twelve-hour shift. The coolies live in company boarding houses where they are a little better under control. The cost per man for board and lodging is about eight cents Mex. per day, to which must be added four and one half cents per day for oil for lights in the mine. The total expense to the company is thus between forty-five and fifty cents Mex. per day for each coolie. Each section in the mine has four overseers, including one apprentice. Every effort is made by the foreign staff to develop native mining engineers and to this end apprentices are employed throughout the works, who later receive both theoretical and practical instruction in mining engineering and foreign languages.

The output of coal per miner is somewhat under one half ton per day in distinction to the European average of one ton per day and more, and this is in spite or perhaps partly because of the long hours and infrequent holidays. Indeed many factors contribute to this result, among which may be mentioned very prominently the presence of hookworm infection in high degree. The mine coolies are much better housed and fed by the company than if left to their own resources, but their physical capacity is quite limited. The methods of drilling and blasting are similar to those in western countries.

The coolie class is intractable, unreliable, and has no outlook either as to their own or their country's future. They reflect in a petty way the same qualities which now and always have been too much in evidence among their countrymen in higher circles. "Face," "squeeze" and dishonesty are the crying vices of the Chinese people, and it is these particular qualities which make foreign development of China most difficult and which make absolutely imperative an actual and effective supervision of foreign loans to China.

Just south of the washing plants and coke-burning kilns of the Ping Hsiang Colliery is an area of perhaps five acres enclosed by a high brick wall and given over to coke production according to native methods. The "beehive," or native ovens, differ radically from the foreign and no machinery is used in filling or emptying them. The human beast of burden does

Hsiang Colliery.

everything by simple force of numbers and persistence. The native kiln is constructed in a unique but effective manner. A long trench is formed about 12 feet wide and from 20 to 50 yards in length, by two brick walls some 30 inches in height. These retaining walls are about the thickness of two brick lengths, and at intervals of perhaps 8 feet are fitted with apertures a foot wide by 18 inches high through which the firing is started.

NATIVE "BEEHIVE COKE OVENS BURNING. Coal-bearing range in background.

These broad and comparatively shallow trenches are provided with a smooth floor of packed clay and are then filled solid with wet coal dust except for a small space left opposite each aperture in the retaining walls. Every bit of the coal is carried by coolies in small baskets balanced on poles across the shoulders. The coal is of first quality, coming from the washing plants of the Ping Hsiang colliery. The trenches are filled to a depth of two and a half feet and then rows of brick are laid on edge over the entire surface, and on these a second layer of brick are laid flat covering the entire space. Along the center of the trench at points midway between the firing apertures in the retaining walls, small flues are made with brick, and then the entire surface is covered with sand. By means of a little lump coal and wood, fires are now started in each of the firing apertures, and soon the entire interior of the trench, forming a single long low kiln, is in process of combustion. A good draught is

quickly established between the firing apertures and the flues, and the gases are quite thoroughly consumed. From the entire area a thin cloud of smoke and vapor rises, but there is remarkably little unoxidized material. The heat evolved is a total waste except for its value for the coolies' cooking.

Even more interesting than the "beehive" coke ovens are the native coal mines, of which there are large numbers in southern Hunan and southwestern Kiangsi. In the coal fields near Ping Hsiang there are numerous native mines on both sides of the range. These native mines are a sore grievance to the Ping Hsiang colliery because of drainage conditions. The native mines are always located where the coal seams pinch out at the surface, and are always comparatively shallow, seldom extending more than a few hundred feet into the mountain. Their slanting shafts quite thoroughly collect most of the surface waters which are held above the clay strata overlying the deeper drifts of the large colliery. The upper levels of the colliery naturally approach nearest the surface at the localities where the coal seams outcrop. The result is that the surface waters collected in large quantity by the native mines are drained off to a great degree by the upper levels and drifts of the colliery and these highest parts of the colliery are consequently the wettest by far. The native mines are frequently however in a state of practical flood. The description here given is based on an extensive investigation covering upwards of 200 native mines, undertaken by Mr. M. Esterer, of the Ping Hsiang Colliery.

In digging shafts and laterals, the native miner avoids rock so far as possible, though he has copied foreign methods of drilling and blasting. The diggings are largely in the seams and consequently have many tortuous and narrow passages. The shaft of the native mine follows the vein from the surface, usually at an inclination of from 20 to 60 degrees. After a varying distance the shaft or drift becomes horizontal and then rises, still following the vein. The result is the formation of an elbow towards which the water flows from both directions. This necessitates constant pumping to keep the passage open, and even then the water stands from one to two feet deep for a variable distance. Through this water every person must walk on entering and leaving the mine. Pumping is effected by manpower, as machinery is never used. A long section of a large bamboo, 6 to 8 inches in diameter, is cleaned out, making a circular smooth pipe. Into one end of this a crude valve is fitted and into the opposite end is introduced a piston with valve. This pump is laid along the slanting floor of the shaft and

operated by a coolie who sits at its upper extremity. The water is caught in a small pool lined with clay from which it is pumped by a second similar apparatus at a higher level. A sufficient number of these relay bamboo pumps are provided to reach the surface.

As the shafts are never vertical and all work is done by manlabor, some special means is necessary for transporting the coal to the surface. Bamboo or plain wooden ladders with the rungs characteristically close together, so that each step is not over 6 to 10 inches, are laid against the sloping floor and secured by pegs or bamboo withes. The upright side pieces of these ladders are very close together, leaving not more than 6 to 8 inches