MINING. The mining industry of the mon archy dates centuries back, and some of the mines are believed to have been worked by the Celts and the Romans. The mineral deposits are remarkably rich and varied, including almost every known mineral, besides many kinds of pre cious stones, mineral oil, and useful earths. Gold is found mainly in Hungary proper and Tran sylvania, while silver occurs in Hungary, Tran syl•ania, Bohemia, and Tyrol. and quicksilver in Carniola (Idria). Iron is the most important metallic product of the monarchy, and is worked mainly in Bohemia, Moravia, Styria, and in many parts of Hungary. Copper is found in Tyrol, Salzburg, Transylvania, and Hungary Proper; lead occurs mainly in Bohemia, Carin thia, Galicia, and Hungary. The most important and the most common mineral of Austria-Hun gary is coal, which constitutes over 80 per cent. in value of the total mineral production of Aus tria and over 40 per cent. of that of Hungary. While coal is found in almost every province of the Empire, the greater part of the output comes from Bohemia, which produces more than one half of the mineral products of Austria and nearly one-third of its metal products. Rock salt exists in immense beds on both sides of the Car pathians, in the county of Mfirma•os in Hungary, in Transylvania, and in Galicia. The salt mines of Wieliczka in Galicia are the most famous in the world. Salt is also made by State salt-works by evaporating the water of salt-springs, and from the sea-water on the coasts of the Adriatic. The sale of salt in Austria is a Government monopoly. Of other salts, alum, sulphate of iron, and sulphate of copper are the most important. The useful earths include all sorts of clay up to the finest porcelain earth (in Moravia, Bo hemia, and Hungary). Of precious and semi-pre
cious stones the most abundant are the Hungari an opal (which passes in commerce as Oriental), Bohemian garnet (the finest. in Europe), car nelian, agate, beryl, amethyst, jasper, ruby, sapphire, topaz, etc. In 1885 oil-wells of great productiveness were opened at Kolomea, in Ga licia, and heavy import duties were soon laid on petroleum for the benefit of these wells and in order to encourage refining. Considerable de posits of zinc, tin, manganese, bismuth, sulphur, arsenic, uranium, nickel, and graphite are also found in the various parts of the monarchy.
The following table, compiled from official re ports, shows the progress of mining in Austria and Hungary during the last decade of the cen tury: The annual value of the products of the mines of Austria increased from about $55,000,000 at the beginning of the decade to nearly $75,000.000 at its close. The annual value of the metallurgi cal products amounts to about $20,000.000. The total annual value of the mineral output of Hun gary for the same period advanced from about $.2o,onomoo to nearly $25,000,000. The number of persons employed in both the mines and the furnaces in Austria is nearly 150,000, about 5 per cent. of this number being women and less than that boys. In Hungary about 55,000 persons are employed in the same industries, with a similar proportion of women and boys. About 36 per cent. of the men are employed in the metal mines, 39 per cent. in the coal mines, and 25 per cent. in the iron and steel works.