1869.] Mining. 559 



The discovery of a new coal-field in India has been exciting 

 considerable attention. The following remarks from one of the 

 Calcutta journals will be read with interest : — 



" There has been a great ' find ' of coal in the Central Provinces, 

 and I beg the attention of the Great Indian Peninsula Kailway to 

 the fact. The district of Chanda lies due south of Nagpore, 

 between that and the river Wurdah, which forms the northern 

 boundary of Hyderabad. For some years Captain Lucie Smith, 

 the Deputy-Commissioner, has been boring for coal ; and Mr. Mark 

 Fryar, the practical geologist sent out lately to report on our coal 

 resources, has more than confirmed his estimate of the value of his 

 discoveries. Mr. Morris, the ofiiciating Chief Commissioner, has 

 written with great caution on the subject, until Messrs. Mather and 

 Piatt's steam-borer, which has been sent for, arrives. But ordinary 

 borings and the opinions of Mr. Medlicott — Geological Surveyor 

 under Dr. Oldham, who is Du'ector-General of the Indian Geological 

 Survey — Mr. Bonner,C.E., and Mr. Fryar, reveal a vast and thick and 

 uniform deposit of coal, which has led the last to urge Government 

 to begin mining operations at once, and to make a branch railway 

 to the main Great Indian Peninsula line. The sandstones of the 

 Chanda basin are the same as the well-known coal-bearing sand- 

 stones of Eaneegunge, to which, indeed, Mr. Fryar compares the 

 deposits in value and extent. He is confident that there are at 

 least two sq^uare miles of coal 14 feet thick at a depth of 300 feet, 

 and in easy working position, on the Chanda side of the Wm-dah, 

 while there is a certainty of more than the same area on the other 

 side. This practical Government geologist declares that the coal 

 can be laid down, by branch railway, at Nagpore at 1/. per ton, 

 giving a profit of 10s., while a ton of English coal costs 11. 16s. at 

 Bombay, and double that at Nagpore. If we so far discredit the 

 Chanda coal as to say a ton of it is equal to only half a ton of 

 Eughsh coal, it will still have 16s. in its favour at Nagpore. All 

 India at present turns out 600,000 tons of coal a-year — not more 

 than the produce of one good colliery in England ; and the two 

 square miles of Chanda coal would give the same sujDj^ly for thu'ty 

 years. Labour is abundant ; the mines would prove a boon to a 

 poor population. This is not all. The finest, if not the largest, 

 cotton mart in India lies between Chanda and the main line of 

 railway. That is Hingimghat, the cotton of which is so good that 

 its seed is being introduced wherever the Sea Island and Egyptian 

 varieties do not suit the inland climate. The Chanda coal-field is 

 to the south of Hinguughat, and to the north of the finest cotton 

 districts of Hyderabad. Cross the Wurdah to the south and you 

 come to Edulahad, the cotton of which is so good that an English 

 merchant has just laid out 10,000/. there, intending to send the 

 produce down the river Godavery, of which the Wurdah is the main 



