The bituminous coals have the usual cubical fracture. The Wilkeson readily breaks down into small cubes. The lignites are black and lustrous. They come out as lumpy as ordinary coal, and, when exposed to weather, do not break up into powder and grits like ordinary lignite. This is true, at least, of the Newcastle coal. [Sidenote: The coking quality not general in these coals, but found in some.] The coking quality of these coals cannot be determined by calculating the proportion between the fixed carbon and the volatile, combustible matter. I am not sure that Professor Fraser's fuel ratio tables are a safe guide in any case. So far as now known, only a few of the Washington Territory coals can be made into good coke. On this point, however, we have only laboratory and rough field tests, excepting at the Wilkeson mines, where twenty-five ovens were turning out a superior quality of coke, as proved by every test save the use of it in high furnace stacks, in which there had been no opportunity for trial. It is claimed by many persons that seams on Green River, Skagit, Yakima, and Snoqualmie will furnish good coking coal. The coal on Snoqualmie Mountain, near Hop Ranch, has not been studied, but it certainly has the external characteristics of good coking coal, and Mr. Peter Kirke made a rough trial of it in an earth-pit with decidedly encouraging results. Somewhat similar coal is found on Raging River, but where opened, so much slate was interleaved with the coal that washing would be necessary before use. More will be said hereafter with regard to these coals; but the remark may be repeated here in respect to the entire Puget Sound basin, that much additional examination is necessary before its coals will be fully understood. The variations in character of these are not owing entirely, or even chiefly, to their relative ages, but also to the conditions to which they have been subjected, especially in respect to heat. This metamorphic agency has acted not only in the body of the Cascade Mountains, but all through the coal-fields, where faults, flexures, and intrusive rocks have occasioned changes in the original condition of the coal-beds, giving results along the whole scale of metamorphism from lignite to anthracite. [Sidenote: Analyses of Washington Territory coals.] I here introduce (on the opposite page) a table of analyses made in Washington City from representative samples of Washington Territory coals and lignites selected by Mr. Bailey Willis during the examination which he made of this field for the Census Bureau, and found in Vol. XV. of the Census Reports. THE COLLIERIES. I will now give some account of the principal coal seams which have been worked in Washington Territory, namely, those in the field lying east and southeast of Puget Sound; and in so doing I shall add to my own knowledge all information from any reliable sources. Unfortunately, the sources of information are few.