PREVIOUS NOTICES. 7 



the ravines all tke way to Pohea Agar (Pootooagur of present map), and at which place 

 there are a number of ii'on melting furnaces upon the native plan. Iron is here sold 

 generally at Es. 2-12 to Es. 3 per maund of 48 sicca-weight seers ; it is in lumps of 

 four to five pounds each, and has undergone the process of hammering and re-melting 

 four times at the time of sale." 



Mr. Homfray concludes with a mention of the " extraordinary fact " 

 that— 



"the gigantic reed whose impressions we constantly discover in the carbonaceous 

 strata is here found growing in luxuriance. I have brought some whose roots were 

 actually extended four feet into the coal bed. This is the only example I know of 

 the living reed being found near to coal." 



In Dr. McClelland's Report we are told that the specimens were 

 exhibited at a scientific soiree at Government House, as belonging to the 

 plant from which coal is derived. Subsequently, they were found to be 

 only a well-known-grass, Saccharum spontaneum, which grows very 

 generally throughout Bengal. Possibly to this expose of his discovery 

 may be attributed some of the bitterness of Mr. Homfray's remarks upon 

 the " literary phantasmagoria " of " snail hunters ■"" and " saxoflorists " 

 which appears in his paper on the coal-field of the Damuda Valley% where 

 he very properly points out the absurdity of the theories which were 

 current as to the former connection of the Damuda and Sylhet coal fields. 



In looking over the past history of discoveries 

 S^tX" Go,™S °f '=°-l i° P"!"-""", I find several allusions to a re- 

 of Bengal, dated 6th puted discovery of coal at a place called " Chupri, 



January 1840°. ^ ' 



two koss south of the Sone river, before its junc- 

 tion with the Koila Nuddee.-'' 



Properly speaking, this locality is quite outside the area under de- 

 scription ; but owing to the fact of its proximity to 



coal aTchuprr'^"^^^^ ° ^^® ^^^^ works of the canal and to the occurrence 

 of quite another place with the same name close 



to the Hutar field, I think it not altogether inopportune to give here 



■ Journal, As. See, Bengal. Vol. XI, p. 724. 



" Eeprinted in Mr. Forbes' Settlement Report of Palamow. — Calcutta, 1872. 



( 7 ) 



