JAIPUR riELD. 57 



Most of the Jaipur coal that I have seen is of the kind that is soft 



and crumbly at the surface,* and in some of the 

 Quality of the coal. ■, ■ n ^ 



known outcrops (which seem to be chiefly those 

 near the top of the measures) the value of the coal is depreciated by 

 interbanding with shale. Mr. Medlicott^s experience was the same, when 

 coal was being quarried by a native contractor on the bank of the 

 Dihing. He remarks that " all the coal brought to the Brahmaputra 

 for steam purposes is from the Tirap ; the Jaipur coal is used almost 

 exclusively for such purposes as brick and lime-burning.^'t Other 

 beds, however, are quite free from partings, and some at least, like the 

 6'-B" bed in the Disang, are of the first quality as to surface hardness. 

 Captain Hannay also appears to have obtained some hard coal as well 

 as soft in the neighbourhood of Jaipur. " As might have been expected " 

 (he writes), "I did not find the coal of equally good quality throughout^ 

 at least with regard to hardness and compactness of texture, that which 

 was uppermost being much impregnated with ochrey earth, whilst under 

 this lay the hardest and /rae*^ specimens, the blocks breaking ofi" large, 

 and the fracture exhibiting that beautiful iridescence said to be common 

 in Newcastle slaty coal. Below the last-mentioned description, and as 

 far as I dug down into the vein, wMch might have teen about 6 feet, the 

 coal was of a softer nature, intermixed, however, with many lines of 

 hard/^J If there were any thich seams of hard coal above the level of 

 the alluvium, the outcrop would most probably be not altogether con- 

 cealed, and it is unlikely that the beds would have remained undiscovered 

 during the last forty years, considering the amount of search that has 

 been made in that neighbourhood for coal. 



But it must be remembered that it is only the upper part of the 



Ouantit of il bl measures that appears above the alluvium level, 



^^^' especially in the northern portion of the field. 



There is, therefore, every reason to believe that other seams would be 



* p. 79. 



t Vol. IV, p. 397. 



X Jour. As. Soc, Bengal, Vol. VII, p. 953. The italics are in the original. 



H ( 325 ) 



