We now come to the second group of mineral resources,—the mineral fuels. In this respect, too, the Ukraine is richly supplied. The Ukraine possesses but one coal-field in the Donetz Plateau, but this coal-field is one of the largest and richest in Europe. Its surface area is 23,000 square kilometers, the annual production (1911) 203 million metric hundredweights, that is, 70% of the total production of coal of the entire Russian Empire. Then, the coal-district on the Donetz is very rich in anthracite. In 1911, approximately 31 million metric hundredweights of anthracite were gained here (98.5% of the total Russian production). For coke-making, practically the only coal that can be used in Russia is the Donetz coal. In 1911, 33.7 million metric hundredweights of coke was gained in the Donetz region; in all the remaining coal districts of the Russian Empire, barely 13,600 q. From these figures we see clearly that the Ukraine, despite its general agrarian character, possesses great supplies of coal, that indispensable aid in modern industry. To be sure, the Ukraine takes only seventh rank in the world’s coal production (being preceded by the United States, Great Britain, Germany, Austria-Hungary, France and Belgium) yet it is, nevertheless, not to be despised as a producing district. When we consider the backward state of material culture in Russia as a whole, the youth of the Ukrainian coal-mining industry, and the centripetal railway tariff policy of the Russian Government, we must come to realize that, with better conditions, a brilliant future awaits the Ukrainian coal industry. The brown-coal deposits of the Ukraine are as yet but slightly explored, and, in themselves, much less important than the pit-coal deposits. A brown-coal field of 5000 square kilometers is part of the tertiary strata of the Dnieper Plateau (Kiev-Yelisavet coal region). Toward the end of the past century an annual average of 82,000 q. [279]of brown-coal was mined here (Katerinopol, Zuraska). Just as unimportant is the brown-coal production in the Caucasian foothills (Batalpashinsk). In the Carpathian foothill country and in the Rostoch, in 1901, over 1 million metric hundredweights of brown-coal was mined; in 1905 barely one-half that amount. Notwithstanding, some importance must be attached to the brown-coal industry in the Ukraine for the future. Large peat deposits are widely distributed in the Polissye, in Volhynia, Podlakhia, Galicia, Kiev, Podolia, etc., but extremely little is done in the way of rational exploitation. Only in the Polissye and in Galicia (40 places in 1905) is peat cut on a large scale, altho its importance, especially for the districts of the Ukraine, which have few forests, should not be underestimated.