10 MAXLET: COAL-FIELDS OP THE nIgI HILLS. 



the seam as 16 feet thick^ including 10 feet of coal, and appears to have 



traced it for a distance of about 200 yards.* 



In 1848, Mr. Thornton, Sub- Assistant Commissioner, was sent to 



„ , „, the Dikhu valley to report on the practicability 



Mr. J. Thornton, 1848. . 



of supplying coal from thence for the use of the 



Government steamers. He appears to have seen one bed only, which 

 was then being worked by a native contractor, and which he describes 

 as being 10 feet thick, including 3 or 4 feet of coal. From traces, 

 however, left by Mr. Landers, he conjectured that other beds existed at 

 a lower level. That worked by the contractor was situated on the brow 

 of a hill 1,400 feet high and distant 3| miles from the coal dep6t on the 

 river, with a hill 1,800 feet high intervening. Mr. Thornton stated that 

 canoes of 15 or 20 mans can be taken up the rapids to the place then used 

 as a coal depot, in the dry season, and of 100 mans during the rains^ 

 and on the whole he was of opinion that the difficulties of supplying coal 

 from the Namsang hill, although great, were not insurmountable; a 

 native who accompanied him to the quarry was willing to contract for the 

 supply of coal at Gauhati for 8 annas a man.\ As will be seen in the 

 sequel, numerous beds, far more favourably situated than the above- 

 mentioned, have been found since Mr. Thornton^s time. ^ 



Subsequently to 1848 I am not aware that anything of importance 

 Mr H B Medlicotfc ^^^ done (although small quantities of coal were 

 ■'■^^^' raised at times at Jaipur and Makum, as weU as, 



I believe, in the Disang and perhaps other places) until 1865, when 

 Mr. Medlicott was deputed to visit the coal-fields of Assam generally, 

 including those with which the present report is concerned. After ex- 

 amining the Jaipur and Makum fields, he pointed out the advantages of 

 the former with regard to position, in being actually on the river bank, 

 and below the rapids which exist some miles higher up stream, and he also 

 noticed the probabihty of finding other seams below those visible at the 



* Journal, Asiatic Society, Bengal, Vol. XVII, pt. 1, p. 167. 

 + Journal, Asiatic Society, Bengal, Vol. XVII, pt. 1, p. 489. 



( 278 ),. • 



