Pt. II Chap. II.] collieries — mode or working. 178 



The small earthen oil lamps, in the shape of a lipped saucer, com- 

 monly used in native houses, are employed to 

 Lights used. 



give light to the miners at their work. When 



more light is required torches are used. Fire-damp is almost unknown, 



and, consequently, no precautions are requisite. Only one instance has 



occurred, in which its existence has been observed, a small blower 



having been cut some years since in Mangalpur colliery. In the 



absence of the manager, two men, through their own carelessness, 



were so severely burnt that they did not survive.* 



In comparing the condition of the coal mines in India with those in 



Europe, several circumstances must be taken 

 Value of labor. 



into consideration, one of which, at least, is not 



peculiar to collieries, viz. the comparatively low value of unskilled 



native labor,f and the high cost of skilled European superintendence. 



The majority of improvements in Europe tend to substitute machinery 



for manual labor. In India, the cost of each article differs in an 



inverse ratio ; manual labor is of comparatively small value ; machinery, 



from the necessity of importation and transport, 

 Cost of machinery. 



considerably more expensive than in England. 



Still, as the demand has considerably outstripped the supply of labor 

 in the Raniganj district, and as the improvement of railway commu- 

 nication must produce largely increased calls upon the coal field, to 

 meet the wants of Northern and Eastern Bengal, and possibly of 

 Behar, unless the supply of labor can be augmented, improved 



* A second instance occurred in the spring of this year (1861) in the East India Coal 

 Company's mine at Parassia, by which two or three men were severely burnt. The 

 connection between the two shafts in this colliery has not been established underground, 

 and, owing to some Native Holidays, there had been no work in progress for a few days, 

 before the explosion took place. There is, however, no reason to anticipate a recurrence 

 of similar accidents, when the ventilation is once established. — T. Oldham. 



f There is not probably in India a more remarkable illustration of the low value of human 

 labor than the employment of women to raise the coal from the pits. Any stranger would 

 suppose that bullocks would be much cheaper, but apparently such is not the case, for so 

 obvious a source of poAver must have been tried. 



