Pt. II. Chap. L] collieries — history. 155 



which they applied for and obtained permission to- mine, were the Adjai 

 and Damuda Rivers, on the North and South, a semi-circular line drawn 

 from the village of Aitfira, with a radius of 10 miles to the West, 

 (this carried their boundaries for some distance beyond the Barakar,) 

 and the border of Burdwan on the East.* They agreed to pay one- 

 fifth of the produce to Government, and to supply for five years 10,000 

 maunds per annum, at a price of 2 Rupees 12 annnas per maund, pro- 

 bably the value of English Coal at the time.f 



In 1775 Messrs. Sumner and Co. announced to Government the 

 arrival of 2,500 maunds of " Pachete coal," and requested that it 

 might be received. Such does not, however, appear to have been done 



until 1777, when fresh application having been 

 1777. X1 ° 



made, the Government directed the Commissary of 



Stores to report upon the coal. From experiments he concluded that it 



was only half as good as English coal, and it was consequently returned to 



the firm, with an intimation from Government, that they would still give 



every assistance to the miners in endeavoring to procure coal of better 



quality, for which they recommended further search and deeper 



excavation. 



The mines first worked by Messrs. Sumner, Heatly, and Redferne, 



and, subsequently, by Mr. Heatly alone, are said 

 Position of first mines. 



to have been six in number, three of which were at 



Aitura (Aytooreah), Chinakuri, and Damulia. It is difficult to ascer- 

 tain which were the others ; some were probably in the neighborhood 

 of the Barakar, the portion of the field East and West of Raniganj, 

 not being, probably, then known to contain coal. The mine (quarry) 

 at Damulia was, doubtless, close to that now worked, and that at China- 

 kuri was probably near the village of that name, upon a lower seam 



* This must have been at that time further East than it is now. One of their mines, 

 Damulia, is in Burdwan. 



f The present price of Kaniganj coal is, and has been for many years, from 6£ to 7£ annas 

 in Calcutta. 



