184 Scientific Intelligence — Geology and Miner alogij. 



an officer has been specially deputed to examine the tract. Frora 

 what we have heard, and our authority is one we can rely upon, the 

 coal occasionally met with is nothing but lignite, and there is little 

 probability of true bituminous coal being found in quantity in that part 

 of the country, as the formation in which it invariably occurs is en- 

 tirely wanting, and — to use technical terms — the saliferous rocks 

 which fornj the Kangra valley in general rest on the Silurian system. 

 In this system, the only coal met with is glance-coal or anthracite, 

 which is not bituminous. The same saliferous formations extend to 

 Kalabagh, on the western bank of the Indus ; and there also lignite 

 has been found associated with rock-salt, gypsum, &c. This is not 

 a new discovery, though a mistaken view of its importance has lately 

 led to undue agitation on its behalf, in the hope that the Indus 

 steamers would derive benefit from the working of mines in this 

 direction. So far back as 1840, if we mistake not, Dr Jameson him- 

 self reported that no coal worth working would be found at Kala- 

 bagh, and that the formations there prevalent extended along the foot 

 of the Himalayas, and in Jelalpore, Bimber, Chumba, Kangra, Mundi, 

 Belaspore, up to Kumaon, and probably still farther to the eastward. 

 In the Journals of the Asiatic Suciety for 1842 and 1843 are re- 

 corded Dr Jameson's notices upon this subject; his detailed i-eport 

 on the geology of AfFghanistan and the Punjaub remains, we believe, 

 in manuscript in Leadenhall Street. Mr Thornton, or his scien- 

 tific coadjutor, in that gentleman's Gazetteer of the countries ad- 

 jacent to India, has made an attack on Dr Jameson, with reference 

 to these very opinions on coal, as likely to be found in the North 

 Punjaub. In the article Punjab, after stating, on the authority of 

 Burnes and Wood, that " coal exists about the Salt range at Muk- 

 kud, on the left bank of the Indus, and in the localities of Joa, 

 Meealee, and Nummul," the Gazetteer goes on in a foot-note, — 

 " Dr Jameson, an agent of the Anglo-Indian government, despatched 

 to obtain information respecting the coal-measures which Wood and 

 Burnes reported they had examined in the Salt range, stated his opi- 

 nion as follows : — ' To the question. Is any good coal to be found in 

 quantity in this district '? we would at once answer, decidedly not.' 

 This dictum will probably seem precipitate and rash to those who 

 know that the important coal-fields of Flintshire, Denbighshire, and 

 Gloucestershire, are connected with the saliferous deposits of Che- 

 shii'e and Worcestershire. It would be at once idle and illiberal to 

 detract from the merits of the valuable information which Dr Jame- 

 son has given respecting the Punjab, but in such inquiries it is al- 

 ways well to remember Bacon's maxim, Prudens interrogatio dimi- 

 dium scientice^ This remark, as far as it is intended for a rebuke 

 to the party at whom it was aimed, falls innocuous, inasmuch as his 

 views, taken together, are perfectly correct in themselves, and we un- 

 derstand have been confirmed by subsequent investigations. That 

 the coal-formation may be found to the north and north-west of 



