422 On the Tenasserim Coal Field. 



100 grains of this coal gives, of volatile matter, grains 95.80 



„ „ „ soluble matter, „ .98 



,, ,, „ insoluble ditto, „ 1.56 



„ „ „ earthy residue, „ 1.66 



100.00 

 In an open fire it refuses to inflame without the action of the bel- 

 lows, and will not do so without a strong draught. When burnt in the 

 fire, its appearance very much resembles that of common charcoal, the 

 thin plates before mentioned assuming that divergent shape observ- 

 able in charred wood. The conclusion to which, from the foregoing 

 considerations I have arrived is, that it belongs to that description 

 of coal termed wood coal, or lignite.* 



12. Its serviceable qualities are not best determined in the labora- 

 tory. It burns well in the fires of the marine engine at the mine, and 

 no difficulty is found there in keeping up the steam. The fire bars 

 were placed at small intervals to suit the coal, which is liable to break 

 up into small pieces. No rate of expenditure has been determined, 

 as the engine was worked much under its full power ; 20 tons were 

 shipped at Madras in the India Steamer, and the report by the com- 

 mander, Captain Henderson, and of the chief engineer on board, 

 which was published, is satisfactory. It is stated to require " great 

 care and labour to manage the fires well, but not more than is requir- 

 ed with the Burdwan coal ; that it has a strong heat, and could keep 

 good steam with careful firing." Its consumption, when compared to 



* We should rather be inclined to regard this coal, in the absence of any evidence to the 

 contrary, to be equivalent to, and identical with the coal formations in other parts ; particular- 

 ly as true coal strata are stated by Capt. Tremenheere to occur abundantly in the same 

 vicinity (vide paragraphs 15 and 18.) As to the mineral characters of coal, scarcely two beds 

 jn the same mine are any where found to agree. One may be slate coal, another splint, a third 

 cannel, and so on. The bed which has been worked in the present case seems to have consisted 

 of layers of different kinds of coal and shale, indiscriminately taken for a single bed of coal. 

 Consequently hardly any two reports as to its quality will be found to agree. In small selected 

 specimens it will be a free-burning pure coal, in larger samples intermixed with slate it will be 

 better or worse according to the proportion of the latter ; and in still larger quantities in which 

 from the uncertainty of its characters the chances are increasedof pyritous coal being 

 mixed up with it, the whole will be condemned as subject to spontaneous combustion, as 

 was the case with the Tenasserim coal sent at a great expense to Singapore. This bed of 

 coal should never have been worked, at least without discrimination, confining the workings 

 to that portion of the bed only which consisted of pure coal. From the report of Capt. Tremen- 

 heere it is quite clear that other workable beds occur in the vicinity, belonging probably to 

 a lower position in the series, but essentially the same formation. — Ed. 



