8 BANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [CHAP. I. 



20 feet thick in reality — that at Raniganj is 13 feet, not 9. No. 4, 



although no name is here given, is evidently intended for Salma (see 



page 149), where a bed of 7 feet was stated to occur ; but Mr. Homfray 



failed to reach it, although he sank to a depth of more than 200 feet. It 



is doubtful if any such seam occur in the locality. The bed at Churalya, 



No. 6, has not hitherto been worked to any extent, but was opened 



out last year — that at Moheednuggur is probably the coal now known 



at the Kasta quarries ; but the seam there is above 30 feet thick. No. 8, 



Mammudpore, is Mahamudptir, near Chokidanga. 



In 1845 and 1846 the Raniganj coal field was first carefully exa- 



h wir mined, mapped, and reported upon. Mr. D. H. 



1847 - Williams, who had been attached to the Geological 



Survey of Great Britain, and had, in connection with it, been engaged 



in the examination of the South Wales coal fields, was appointed 



Geological Surveyor to the Honorable East India Company, and was 



dispatched to Bengal, where he arrived in 1845. His Report,* dated 7th 



December 1847, was not published till 1850, after his death, and it was 



printed in England. It is full of type errors, especially as regards 



names of places. It is, moreover, by no means clearly written, and 



so deficient in arrangement as to be almost 

 HisKeport. m , 



unintelligible to any one unacquainted with the 



district. But, considering the circumstances under which the Report 



was printed and published, these defects are scarcely chargeable to 



Mr. Williams. On the other hand, the statements are, for the most 



part, accurate; the various rocks are well and clearly described, 



and, in general, the relations of the different beds to each other are 



correctly made out. It will, however, be necessary to point out in 



some detail what errors existed in Mr. Williams's Report. 



* A Geological Report on the Damoodah Valley, by D. H. Williams, Esq., London. 

 Printed by order of the Court of Directors. This Report was subsequently reprinted in 

 Calcutta, 1853. 



