MEMOIRS 



OP THE 



GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA. 



The Coal of Assam ; results of a brief visit to the Coal-fields of that 

 Province in 1865 ; with Geological notes on Assam and the hills 

 to the south of it, hy H. B. Medlicott, a. b., f. g. s., Bejpidy 

 Superintendent, Geological Survey of India. 



The object of my deputation to Assam — to examine the various 

 coal-fields of the province — has^ I hope, been accomplished as fully as 

 could be expected in one season's work; and considering the unforeseen 

 delays and difficulties which still further curtailed the time. The Steamer 

 Progress in which I had taken my passage was wrecked in the 

 cyclone on her voyage to Kooshtea ; and the departure of other steamers 

 was so delayed by the same cause that I could not leave Calcutta for 

 a full month later than I had intended. The journey to Dibroogurh, 

 moreover, occupied the unusually long peridd of thirty days, so that I did 

 not get to work before the middle of December. The difficulties of the 

 undertaking only then commenced, and they are not so easily accounted 

 for. It is not the familiar obstacles of miry rivers and of jungles that 

 I would mention ; every one knows that these are prevalent in Assam ; 

 but the more than passive obstructiveness of the native population. 

 Every European traveller in India must encounter more or less of in- 

 digenous apathy ; but in no part of India have I found this very natural 

 propensity so prevalent as in Assam, or so little under the control of the 



Mem. Geological Survey, India, Vol. IV., Art. 3, 



( 387 ) 



