156 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Pt. II. ChAP. I. 



than that now mined. The position of the Aitura mine is more doubt- 

 ful, as no coal is known in the neighborhood of the village ;* it was 

 probably on the seam now worked by Messrs. Apcar and Co., at Sita- 

 rampur, along the out-crop of which, on both sides of the Nunia, old 

 workings of considerable extent exist. 



It is stated that Mr. Heatly procured English miners, and made 

 preparations for working the coal upon a large scale. Fever, however, 

 carried off the men. Mr. Heatly himself was removed to a different 

 part of the country, and it is doubtful if any of the coal mined was 

 brought into the market. 



Nothing further was done for thirty years. In 1808, the Government 

 of India, in consequence of the difficulty they 



1808. . . 



experienced in procuring coal m sufficient quan- 

 tities from England, made some enquiries concerning the coal on the 

 Damuda, but apparently without any practical result for the time. In 



1814, however, just forty years after Mr. Heatly's 

 1814— Mr. Jones. . 



quarries were commenced, a Mr. Jones was sent 



by the Government to examine the district in which they had been 



situated, and the result of his mission was the re-discovery of Mr. 



Heatly's workings. Mr. Jones also found the 



Raniganj opened J ° 



1815 — 1817. seam at Raniganj, and began to work it upon 



his own account, about 1815 ;f a sum of 40,000 Rupees being ad- 

 vanced to him from the public treasury, at a low rate of interest, to 

 enable him to do so. He mined and sold coal, and that from pits, not 

 quarries, and probably was the first who ever brought Indian coal 

 into the general market ; but either he did not succeed in extracting 

 it profitably, or, as is more probable, he failed in other speculations, 

 for he was unable to repay the Government loan; and an Agency 



* I made enquiries on the spot, but could learn nothing as to the position of Mr. Heatly's 

 mines. 



■j- Or perhaps a year or two later. 



