12 • RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [CHAP. I. 



From Mangalptir the description proceeds up the Singaran Valley 

 with details of the various sections seen, and of the coal seams mined at 

 Dhosul and Chokidanga, the only collieries at work in 1845. The 

 assertion of the " Damuda Committee, "* that only one workable seam 

 of coal exists on the Singaran, is shown to be wrong. 



From the description of Chokidanga, Mr. Williams proceeds to that 

 of Sirsol (Searsole), then recently opened. He considers the seam 

 identical with that of Raniganj. Reasons for differing from this 

 opinion will be given hereafter. Some passages in this portion of the 

 Report show that Mr. "Williams was impressed with an idea derived 

 from his experience in England, that disturbance or faulting always 

 accompanied the trap dykes. It is, however, clear from other 

 parts of the same Report, that he observed the facts correctly, and, 

 wherever sections were visible, satisfied himself that in this field the trap 

 dykes, as a rule, are accompanied by no throw whatever. At the 

 same time he had obviously not entirely got rid of his earlier impres- 

 sions, and he therefore speaks with great hesitation as to the chances 

 of success in the Sirsol (Searsole) mine, owing to the immediate proxi- 

 mity of several dykes. And a little further on, he speaks of the bed 

 of coal discovered by Mr. Jackson, close to Bashrah (Bansra), as cut off 

 "on the North from the coals at Mungulpore and Khantagoriah by 

 " several dykes running East and West, and on the South other dykes 

 " occur," &c. This seam has never been worked in the spot men- 

 tioned, South of the Grand Trunk Road. It is, in all probability, the 

 same as that worked to the North of the road at Gopinatkpur and 

 Bhangaband (formerly known as Khantagoriah.) 



The next coal locality described is Rogonathchuk, South of Bansra, 

 the seam at which place is considered, probably with justice, to underlie 



* The Damuda Committee was appointed August 1846, to report " On the inundations 

 and the state "of the embankments of the Damuda, and on the means of communication 

 by land or water between those districts and Calcutta." It consisted of Major Sage, 

 Mr. F. W. Simms, and Dr. McClelland. 



