vein, I wish to say that your Graham Island. coal represents the
largest body of mineral wealth as coal, the highest coking grade,
the most accessible and easily mined, of any coal field with which
I am acquainted. You have an absolute monopoly of all the north-
ern markets. Prince Rupert is now a city of 7,500 people. The
large Government grant by the Dominion to the Grand Trunk Pacific
is conditioned upon the road being completed to Prince Rupert: from
Winnipeg, and through trains must be running by October, 1910.
The road will have about 50,000 people to serve between Fort
George, the Buckley Valley and Prince Rupert. There is some lig-
nite coal at Fort George, but the Grand Trunk engines will have to
have bituminous coal without sulphur, for the mountain grade close
to Prince Rupert. There should be a market of about 500 tons
per day. The price of bituminous coal at Prince Rupert at the
present time is $12.00 per ton. At Dutch Harbor, $18.00 per ton.
At Cape Nome, $30.00 per ton; freight, $5.00.

The wholesale rate at San Francisco (1908) was $11.00 per ton;
freight from Nanaimo to San Francisco, $2.10 per ton.

You have one great advantage. Our Nanaimo coal has 100 miles
of pilotage on account of the islands. For several months also our
coal ships have trouble with the fog. For six months in the year
these slow coal boats average three days in getting in and out.
Your island has no fog, and absolutely free ocean, and you have at
least one day’s advantage all the year, and two and three days’
advantage in winter time, for a coal boat to San Francisco you have
the less insurance rate, because you have no islands, and you have
no pilotage expenses. I am absolutely certain your coal can be
mined and loaded on steamer at the harbor for $1.00 per ton; the
freight will not average more than $2.00 to San Francisco. Your
coal should net you $7.00 per ton,

One of the important things will be the coking proposition. Your
coal will show practically no sulphur, and it will give 62 per cent.
of fixed carbon, when we get down from the air and soil. For that
reason your coal can stand 100 years in the air without slacking.”

From the foregoing quotations of reports and analyses made by
competent engineers, and geologists, and from the Government re-
ports on hand, we have an accumulation of evidences proving most
conclusively that the Graham Island coal field is one of the most
important ones known west of the Mississippi River, both on account
of the high grade of the coal, and also on account of the enormous
quantity, excellent shipping facilities by water, and a mild and
balmy climate, and the nearness to the markets. It would be very
hard indeed to find more favorable conditions in any part of the
country for an enterprise of this kind. =

The distance from Prince Rupert to your mine at Massett Inlet
is about 90 miles, and a good sized steamboat can make the trip
forth and back in one day. As a whole, the proposition is one of
immense possibilities, and will be a sure winner if the properties
are developed and equipped to produce coal and coke on a com-
mercial basis.

Respectfully submitted,
S. ANDREW HARTMAN.

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