64 REPORT—1846. 
deal worked. The workable beds of coal are nine and seven feet thick respectively. 
They are associated with sandstone, shale, and a little clay-ironstone, and about’six 
other thinner seams of coal, while other thick beds are mentioned, but their real ex- 
istence as separate beds is doubtful. There are now thirteen spots at which this 
coal is worked, but most of them are surface workings. The deepest sinking is 190 
feet. The distance to Calcutta is about ninety miles, but the actual transit of coal 
is nearly 200 miles. There would seem to be a continuous outcrop of the same kind 
of rocks from Burdwan up the Adji river, and northwards to Rajmahal. On the Adji 
river the coal has been worked in more than one spot, and is found to be of about 
the same quality as that of Burdwan; but neither of them is considered of nearly so 
good quality as the English coal. Further on, at Rajmahal, coal is known to exist, 
but has not yet been much worked. The quality of that which has been obtained 
does not appear good. 
II. The Burdwan coal-field appears to be directly connected with a district at 
Palamow, in which coal has been worked in no fewer than four places. The coal 
here apparently reposes in a valley inclosed by hills of granite, and is associated 
with a good deal of iron. There are several beds that are of workable size, but a 
good deal of the coal is heavy and of inferior quality, and some of it appears to be 
anthracitic. These coal-beds are not far from the Soane river, and about 100 miles 
from its confluence with the Ganges, a little above Dinapoor and Patna; but the 
Soane is not at present navigable. Tu the west of Palamow the carboniferous beds 
are described as appearing along two irregular lines, the one towards the south-west 
for 150 miles, reaching beyond Koorbah, and the other more westward, by Sohage- 
poor, to the Nerbudda. These beds appear to connect themselves with the Burdwan 
coal-field ; and near Ramgurh coal has been obtained in two or three places. This 
coal is said to be of very good quality and of considerable thickness; but there can 
be little doubt that a statement made in the report, of the bed of coal being 200 
yards in thickness, must be owing to some misunderstanding of the account and 
sketch originally communicated. It seems certain, however, from the extent of the 
outcrop, that the seam must be one of considerable magnitude. Westwards, again, 
from Palamow, and at a distance of about fifty miles, coal has been found in seve- 
ral places in Singrowli, but the beds at present known are thin; and again, to the 
south-west, the same mineral occurs at Sirgoojah, where fine coal has been seen, 
but is not used at present. Between the Singrowli coal and Jubbulpore excellent 
coal has been found in several places, indicating an-extensive coal-field; but the 
nature and thickness of the beds are not stated. 
The Nerbudda district, although from the drainage of the country it belongs to 
the Bombay side of India, is manifestly more related, so far as the old rocks are 
concerned, with the Bengal territory. The coal is about 350 miles from Bombay, 
and the Nerbudda river is at present not navigable. There seem to be three districts 
in the Nerbudda valley in which coal is found, but the most important of them is 
that near Gurrawarra, about midway between Hoosungabad and Jubbulpore. The 
coal here, indeed, appears to be perhaps the best hitherto found in India, and exists 
in beds three in number, whose thickness respectively is said to be 20 feet, 40 feet, 
and 253 feet. There are also other beds, one of which is four feet. 
The discovery of this, the Benar coal-field, promises to be of great importance. 
It is also very near another basin, where there are beds also of excellent quality, one 
of them six feet in thickness. At Jubbulpore itself coal has been found at a depth 
of seventy feet, one bed being nearly twelve feet thick. 
III. Let us consider now the district east of Calcutta. We there find true car- 
honiferous rocks on both flanks of the Garrow mountains, commencing near Jumal- 
pore, and thence continuing north-eastwards, for a distance amounting on the whole . 
to nearly 400 miles, through Lower and Upper Assam. The district nearest Cal- 
cutta is Silhet, on the south flanks of the Garrow, where eleven beds of coal have 
been determined, whose total thickness as already ascertained amounts to eighty-five 
feet. This coal is of excellent quality, and can as readily be conveyed to the Upper 
Ganges as the Burdwan coal. The most remarkable beds occur at Cherra Ponji; 
but these appear irregular, although they are undoubtedly of great thickness in seve- 
ral spots, amounting sometimes to nearly thirty feet. There are also other import- 
ant beds. They have been known for more than ten years, but have not been 
