168 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Pt. II. CAHP. II. 



as a measure of the quantity of coal cut by the miners, who are paid 



,, , , „ ' . according; to the number of buckets. Chains are 



Method of drawing ° 



coal - generally employed for drawing, but wire rope 



has been substituted in a few cases. One shaft at Baniganj has been 



fitted up with guides for raising the coal in the trucks upon which it 



is brought to the shaft under-ground, but the improvement has not yet 



been generally employed, even in that colliery. Access to the mines 



is, in most cases, obtained by an inclined plane cut in the rock. 



In only a few mines are the buckets raised by steam power, although 



every year the number of drawing engines is increased. In the greater 



number of collieries, women are employed to drive a " gin," which 



is merely a modification for hand labor, of the common " horse gin" 



or " horse whim" of British collieries and metallic mines. The rope 



passes round a circular wooden drum of the usual form, to the vertical 



axis of which, at the lower portion, are attached four arms, each of which 



is driven or pulled by from six to nine women and girls, of whom, from 



twenty-six to thirty-six, more frequently the latter number, are 



employed upon one gin. These women are generally the wives and 



daughters of the miners, and they keep up a peculiar chant while at 



work. The gin is placed in a building consisting of four brick pillars 



and a roof, thatched to keep out sun and rain. As usual, two buckets, 



one ascending as the other descends, are worked either in the same or 



in different pits by one gin. 



The other arrangements at the pit-head present no peculiarities. 



A wooden platform, running on wheels upon rails, 

 Pit-head gear. . 



is pushed forward over the mouth or the pit, to 



receive the bucket on its arrival at the surface. The coal is then 



generally loaded by hand into ordinary bullock trucks .for conveyance 



to the railway or ghat. In Raniganj mine, the railway has been 



prolonged to the colliery, and trucks, drawn by horses upon tramways, 



are used above ground. 



