l92 KHASI UlLLS. 



I have given his words in full, because, although I feel .satisfied, 

 from the care which he obviously devoted to the investigation of the 

 questions referred to him, that he was justified in adopting such a con- 

 clusion from the facts that came before him, I have been myself com- 

 pelled to form a very different estimate. By a reference to his map, 

 the three points referred to by Lieutenant Yule are seen ; but after a 

 careful examination of the groimd between, I can say that, so far from 

 there being an uninterrupted bed of coal uniting these points, a very 

 large portion of the district between tliem is altogether without coal. 

 And I believe that an estimate of one-third of a square mile of coal, 

 with an average thickness of from 3 feet 6 inches to 4 feet, will be 

 rather over than under the truth. This would give in round numbers 

 from 10,850,000 to 12,400,000 cubic feet, or as many maunds (a), or 

 from 387,000 to 447,000 tons. 



Iq connexion with this jDoint, and as a curious instance of the diffi- 

 culty of arriving at accurate results in such matters, I may briefly state 

 the various estimates of thickness which have been assigned to this 

 Cherra coal. By Mr. Cracroft in 1832 (6), it was stated to be six feet 

 six inches, divided into 3 layers : by Colonel AVatson (c) in January 

 1834 to be from 10 to 16 feet: by the same gentleman in the same 

 year, but a few months later, as from 16 to 20 feet {d). In 1S37, in 

 the first Report of the Coal and Mineral Cominittee(e) it is given as 

 "15 feet in places," and in their last Report published in 1846 it is 

 stated to be 28 feet (/). And in a short paper commuuicated to the 

 Geological Society of London, througla Mr. Lyell, Dr. McClelland gives 



(a) This amount would not supply the present demand in Calcutta, for Burdwan 

 coal alone, for more than four to five years, without taking into account at all the pros- 

 pective increase of this demand ; or the large quantity of imported coal used. Or, taking 

 Lieutenant Yule's estimate of the amount capable of being sent down, rk., 51,000 numnda 

 a month, the whole would be exhausted in 1 6 to 1 8 years. 



(4j Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Vol. I., p. 252. 



(c) Ibid, Vol. II, p. 25. I (e) Ibid, \o\. 111. p. 31. 



(d) Ibid, Vol. III. p. 142. I (f) Ibid, p, 127. 



