24 THE COAL OF ASSAM. 



arrangements can be made. The circumstances of the case admit, I think, 

 of a temporary settlement of all difficulties. Owing to the placement 

 of the rocks in Assam, the difficulty of fixing the area can be for the time 

 eliminated. In many coal districts, where the deposits occur more or 

 less approximately parallel with the surface, and the underground works 

 can be connected almost without limit from the surface, the element of 

 superficial area is all important. In every case, I observed in Assam, the 

 measures are so placed, either having a very high imderlie, or situated 

 at the base of a steep and lofty ridge, that all the coal to be extracted 

 from any given length of seam must be got by one pit, at or near the 

 outcrop. Thus it becomes easy to assign limits to what should be 

 considered a mine ; and I would recommend its being done, with a view 

 to discourage the dependance of proprietors upon mere open workings 

 along the outcrop — a thriftless method not unlikely to be adopted if 

 there were vague rights admitted over a large area, or if grants were 

 obtainable indiscriminately on demand by the highest bidder; but a 

 method most mischievous to the future prospects of the coal-field. It 

 is also essential that each grant should include the whole thickness of 

 the measures, all the seams of which could be worked to the best 

 advantage by one mine under one management. We thus have two 

 approximately parallel lines and a fixed point between them upon which 

 to base our provisional definition of a grant. There is a further im- 

 portant natural limit, to which I have already alluded ; such a grant 

 here may be considered an ample concession — it is certain that all the 

 coal seams within the length of a grant in the Makoom coal-field would 

 give full occupation to the most active enterprise that the case at pre- 

 sent admits of. I believe, further, that the whole actual demand for 

 coal in Assam could be most economically supplied from a single con- 

 cern so conducted. If my views are correct, no straightforward, honest, 

 and intelligent adventurer could demand further opportunity for apply- 

 ing his capital. Finally, then, I would suggest as a provisional defini- 

 ( 410 ) 



