162 RAJTCGANJ COAL FIELD. [Ft. II. ChAP. II. 



of two vertical poles, and having a bucket, or an earthen pot, attached 

 to its longer end by a vertical bamboo, while its shorter end, bearing 

 a stone or a mass of mud as a counterpoise, is hauled down by ropes. 

 Another plan, less used, is to haul up a skin bucket over a pulley. Mat 

 scoops, worked by two men, are occasionally used, especially in steep 

 under-ground galleries, if the lift does not exceed 2 or 3 feet, such small 

 lifts being repeated at frequent intervals, and the water being, in most 

 cases, ultimately raised to the surface by the " terah." 



Pits from the comparatively small depth and from the low cost of 

 labor, are very inexpensive, and, consequently, 



Pits. 



many more are sunk than is the case in England. 

 They are almost invariably circular, and are usually sunk in pairs, in 

 which case they are 8 to 10 feet in diameter. " Double pits," in 

 which two buckets are used, are 12 feet across. The rocks overlying 

 the coal, throughout the Raniganj series, are mostly sandstones of 

 various kinds, sufficiently firm to support the shaft, so that bricking is 

 only necessary close to the surface. The majority of the pits now 

 being worked do not exceed 100 feet in depth, and no pit has yet been 

 sunk exceeding 230 ; the new engine shaft at Chinaktiri, which is of 

 that depth, being the only pit at work above 200, although one or 

 two are now being sunk. These are extremely shallow when com- 

 pared with any English collieries, and insignificant by the side of the 

 deep pits, some exceeding 2,000 feet, in the North of England. 

 The coal seams mined vary much in thickness ; that of each will be 

 T] . , f , seen by reference to the table at the conclusion 



seams - of this Chapter. The thickest seam worked is 



at Kasta, North of the Adjai River, where the bed, with its part- 

 ings, is, in one quarry, 35 feet from top to bottom. The whole 

 of this is removed in the quarry. No very thick seam can be 

 worked out by the system at present employed for under-ground work- 

 ing, the sole plan used throughout the field, irrespectively of the 



