APPENDIX. 



THE TATAPANI COAL-FIELD. 



Althougli but little is known regarding the field upon whieL. the 

 above name has been conferred, there is no doubt that it covers a wide 

 extent of country, and is not improbably in direct connection with the 

 tracts of coal-measure and younger formations which are known to 

 exist on the borders of Mirzapore and Rewah, and in Chung-Bookhar, 

 Koria and other parts of Sirguja. Should this surmise prove to be 

 correct, there would be an area within the limits of the northern districts 

 of Sirguja alone of, probably, 2,000 square miles of Gondwana rocks. 



The first and only published allusion to this field that I know of 

 is to be found in the account of Captain Franklin^s remarks on the 

 Palamow coal-field.'' "On the 5th of May," (1830) we are told, 

 '^Captain Franklin reported his discovery of coal at a place called 

 Chergurh in the district of Sirguja.''^ 



" This coal was of superior quality, being much more bituminous than 

 the Singrah coal, but being situated in a mountainous and jungly 

 country, and the navigability of the Kunhur river being doubtful, the 

 prospect of the discovery proving useful was slender." This discovery 

 was alluded to by Dr. McClelland in the Coal Committee's report.'' 



From the mention of the Kunhur as afibrding a possible means of 

 transport for this coal, I am inclined to believe that Captain Franklin's 

 Manpur should be identified with a place of that name which is marked 

 on the Atlas sheet, 14 miles west of Tatapani ; but it may perhaps be 

 a wholly different locality, since it is spoken of in the Coal Committee's 

 report as being 8 or 10 miles west of the Ramgurh hill in Lukanpur 

 which is about the position of the Gej river, a tributary of the Husdoo 

 where there is reason to believe coal-measures do occur. 



» Gleanings in Science, vol. ii, p. 218. *> Calcutta, 1838, p. 69. 



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