KHASI HILLS. 187 



Messrs. Gisborne and Co., and have subsequently been under the 

 management of several different persons. In no year, however, does 

 there appear to have been forwarded from these mines an amount of coal 

 equal to that sent down by the Political Agent at Cherra Poonjee, during 

 the earlier years. 



The great item of expense in the transport of this coal being the diffi- 

 culty of conveying it from the mines at the top of the hills to water- 

 carriage, Lieutenant Yule, of the Bengal Engineers, was ordered to report 

 " on the means of transporting the coal found near Cherra Poonjee 

 to the plains" ; and early in the year 1842, submitted a very elaborate 

 and able report on this question. He suggested two distinct means 

 of accomplishing the object required ; one, the formation of a road 

 for the whole distance from the level of the plains to the mines having 

 such gradients as would be suitable for the use of ordinary carts : the 

 other a mixed plan, in which part of the distance should be traversed 

 by an ordinary road, and part oa self-acting inclined planes, or "railed 

 descents," on which the descent of the loaded trucks should haul up the 

 empty trucks returning ; the speed, &c., being regulated iu the ordinary 

 way. The former plan of a continuous cart-road would involve the 

 making of 16f miles of road, and the crossing of a river more than 200 

 feet wide, to bridge which would cost, by Colonel Garstin's estimate, 

 Rupees 7,000. The total expense of a mixed plan, of railed inclines 

 and road, was estimated by Lieutenant Yule at Rupees 66,584, for the 

 first construction. And this plan he strongly recommends in preference 

 to the other. 



I cannot find that any thing further was done to facilitate the trans- 

 port of the Cherra coal subsequently to the submission of this report. 

 And to the present day, any coal brought down from these mines is 

 carried on coolies' backs, as at the first. 



It will be convenient here to investigate the actual cost of transport of 

 this coal. 



M 



