494 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 



In all these places it is near tlie surface, being 

 only covered v^ith a few feet of red clay. That 

 at Ayar Sumpur appears decidedly better than that 

 found near Siboga.* From this place to where the 

 coal could be taken down the Bencoolen River is a 

 distance of only four Java paals. From there it 

 could be transported to Bencoolen on bamboo rafts, 

 the distance by the river being twenty-six and a half 

 paals. The enormous quantity found here is esti- 

 mated at over 200,000,000 cubic yards. The quan- 

 tity and the quality of this deposit vnll make it of 

 value, in case the government owning this part of the 

 island should have its supply from Europe cut oif by 

 a war, but the disadvantage of not having a good 

 roadstead at Bencoolen, where this coal could be 

 taken on board vessels, renders it doubtful whether 

 it would be found profitable to work this mine, ex- 

 cept in case of great emergency, and then it might be 

 found preferable to bring it from Borneo. Coal is also 

 found at Dusun Baru, in the district of Palajou, on 

 the banks of the Ketaun River, in the district of 

 Mokomoko, and again in the district of Indrapm*a. 

 At all these places it agrees in its mineral charac- 

 teristics and outcro2:)s very regularly at a distance of 

 about ten miles from the sea-coast. About five miles 

 farther inland, at Bukit Sunnur and at Suban, another 

 and superior kind of coal appears, which may be some- 

 what older than the former. This latter coal ao;rees 

 in its mineral characteristics with that found a few 



* This accords with Van Dijk's statement, that while the purity of 

 English coals is represented by 81.08, that of the Orange-Xassau mines 

 in Borneo would be represented by 98.46, and this by 69.47. 



