Chap. I.] histoky of geology. 5 



The first Keport of the " Committee for investigating the coal 



/ and mineral resources of India," appeared in 

 Coal Committee, 1838. . 



1838. ' The account of the "Burdwan and Adji 

 field" is little more than a repetition of Mr. Jones's paper, with some 

 information concerning coal in the neighborhood of the Adjai obtained 

 from Mr. Erskine. So little was the value of the field known and 

 appreciated at this time, although Calcutta was even then largely sup- 

 plied from it, that it was considered as second in importance to the 

 Sylhet field. It appears strange that a tract so near Calcutta should 

 have been so little investigated by the Committee, although they were 

 supplied with information on many points by Messrs. Homfray and 

 Erskine. The value of that supplied by the former will be mentioned 

 below, but Mr. Erskine appears to have directed attention to several 

 localities previously unreported. 



This Report of the Committee added nothing to the previously exist- 

 ing knowledge of the Geology of the field, and but little more to the 

 information available as to its resources. Even the letter from Mr. 



Homfrav to the Collector of Burdwan, dated 

 Mr. Homfray, 1841. 



1841, and which is published as a foot-note to 



the Committee's Report of 1845, contains information as to several 

 important localities where coal was worked, or had been worked, 

 (Mangalpur, Damulia, Deziragurh, Narrainptir (or Nudia), Barrakara 

 (Chanch, &c.,) which are completely ignored in the text of the Report. 

 It is singular to find that the Committee, who would seem almost sys- 

 tematically to have exaggerated all accounts of distant coal fields, should 

 have so much neglected the far more valuable deposits in the neighbor- 

 hood of Calcutta ; but this may be partly explained by the circumstance 

 that one cause of their being appointed was the difficulty of carriage by 

 the River Damuda, and the desirability of obtaining coal from some 

 district more easy of access. 

 In 1842, Mr. J. Homfray, already mentioned as the informant of 



