Pt. II. Chap. II.] collieries — mode of working. 167 



be obtained, for, with crowbars, far more coal is broken and crushed 

 than with the pick. It appears surprising that English workmen have 

 never been introduced for the purpose of teaching the native miners 

 in the same manner as has been adopted at iron furnaces in India. 

 The " long wall" system of working, (by which the whole breadth 

 x ,, , „ of the coal is removed in one face, all being 



Long wail mode or ° 



working. extracted, no pillars left, and the roof being 



supported behind the workmen by wooden props, which are removed, 

 and the mine allowed to fall in, as the workings proceed,) has not been 

 introduced into India. It unquestionably is by far the best and most 

 economical method, especially with seams of small thickness. In 

 thick seams, a modification of it, which has been employed in Central 

 France, appears well adapted to overcome most of the difficulties pre- 

 sented. This method consists in removing the upper half of the bed 

 first by the long wall system, and then, when the lapse of a few years 

 has reconsolidated the ground, the lower half is removed by the same 

 plan. But, for anything of this kind, greater skill and greater care is 

 necessary in the laborers employed, and, unless the stupidity of the 

 native workmen, and their abhorrence of change can be overcome, 

 which is most improbable, or unless machinery can be introduced for 

 the purpose of cutting coal, there is little chance of any alteration. 

 In seams of coal not exceeding 7 or 8 feet in thickness, there does not 

 appear any good reason, with the great facilities afforded by the shal- 

 lowness of the mines, and the firmness of the rocks, why the long 

 wall system should not be employed. 



The coal, when cut, is carried to the buckets at the bottom of the 

 pits by boys. Trucks are used under-ground in Raniganj colliery 

 alone, and these are pushed by the boys who formerly carried the coal. 



The raising is invariably effected in iron buckets or " kibbles," 

 which contain in different collieries from 5 to 7 maunds of coal (410 

 to 572 lbs.), the most common size being 6 maunds. These are used 



