424 On the Tenasserim Coal Field. 



15. The configuration of the ground — an elongated trough or basin 

 between two ranges of hills, — gave me reason to believe, that these 

 were the natural limits of the coal beds which had been exposed to 

 view ; and having on my passage up the river observed shale and sand- 

 stone, with vegetable impressions in the left or east bank, about a 

 mile below the coal wharf at V, I examined at an early period of my 

 visit the rocks on that side. I found here the whole series of coal 

 beds consisting of sandstone shales and coal interstratified and 

 lying with great regularity and low angle of dip between O and C 

 for three-quarters of a mile on the line A B on the plan. They are 

 inclined down the stream, or towards the S. E. on the direction of 

 the bank, and rest upon each other for the space mentioned at 

 an angle of from 9° to 7°. Tracing the beds from point V in the 

 plan, two faults are found at S and O, between which points the 

 strata are thrown down in the same direction, and to the East at an 

 angle of 30°, but in the North side of the fault O, they are undis- 

 turbed, and dip at an angle of 7°. At N a small seam of coal appears, 

 at e the shale is of blue colour, with numerous vegetable impressions 

 and coal, and at e there is a seam of coal cropping out at the level 

 of the river. The intermediate shales are variegated, brown, white, 

 striped blue, and black. > 



16. Section No. 1 represents these beds as they appear at different 

 points above the level of the river along the line of bank A. B. The 

 measurements taken on the line and the uniform angle of dip gives 

 a total thickness of 500 feet. 



17. At the point c there is a change in the rocks, a hardened red 

 clay with rounded fragments of shale passes into the shales, but with- 

 out any alteration on the angle of dip, and at 200 yards up the 

 stream they cease altogether, the bank being then composed entirely 

 of clay. 



18. In proceeding higher up the river, with a view to trace these 

 beds, and ascertain their true angle of dip, and after passing the hill 

 at E, the northern extremity of the lesser range, there is a reach of 

 the river bearing East and West, or nearly at right angles to its 

 general course ; and at the western part of this reach I again found 

 the same series of coal beds, well exposed on the bank, for half a mile 

 along the line C D, as shewn in section No. 2. They have evi- 

 dently been the cause of this short and sudden bend in the river. 

 The rocks first appear in this reach near the point D, where for a 



