8 THE COAL OF ASSA.M. 



had been picked up along the base of the hills at a great expenditure of 

 time and labour. I have^ moreover^ a strong suspicion that the deception 

 did not end there ; that the man interested in the fraud substituted real 

 coal for what may have been procured from the Duphla Hills. Had a 

 specimen of this sample been kept, it would be easy to determine this 

 point. I can scarcely believe that twenty maunds of this lignite could be 

 procured, upon which any practical man would pass the opinion above 

 stated : it is rare to get a piece of 3 inches cube of which a considerable 

 portion does not consist of silicious petrifaction. The object of this 

 roguery was to obtain an advance of money to work the supposed mine ; 

 in which, I believe, the man succeeded. Of course I should not have 

 given up the search upon the mere fact of natives contradicting each 

 other or themselves, but the rocks spoke plainly enough ; it was certain 

 that for several miles up those impracticable gorges I should find an 

 ascending section of these Middle Tertiary strata, which aU experience 

 has hitherto shown to be barren of any useful minerarfuel. I cannot 

 speak with any certainty of what may exist far up inside these Sub- 

 Himalayan rocks ; (Damuda) strata may be there, and with plenty of 

 coal j but if so, it is certainly beyond the reach of profitable exploitation. 

 The information from Nowgong is, I fear, of something the same 



kind as that from Tezpoor; it rests upon the 

 NowsfonsT, 



report of one Meekir, given at second hand to the 



Deputy Commissioner, who informed me that this Meekir is weU known 



about the Courts as a man of very doubtful veracity. As well as I can 



judge from the approximate position of his village, there seems even a 



direct probability against the occurrence of any kind of coal there. 



The question as to whether there is coal in the Seebsaugor District 



depends upon the temporarily doubtful point — what 

 Seebsaugor. 



is the boundary of the Naga territory ? or, is there 



such a thing as Naga territory ? Some recent cases of dispute regarding 



grants of tea-land are likely to bring this question to an issue. It seems 



anomalous that in the extreme north-east the Patkai ridge should 



{ 391< ) 



