1833.] Miscellaneous. 267 
Specimen of the Indus Coal—by the same, from Kohat near Peshdwar. 
The following note on the subject by Lieut Burnes was read: 
Peshawar Coal. 
On my arrival in the plains of Peshdwar in March 1832, I made various inqui- 
ries from the Doorané chiefs of the country regarding coal and other minerals. 
_ They did not comprehend the meaning of coal, but Peer Muhamud Khan, the 
chief, who holds Cohut on the southern boundary of the plain, informed me that 
there were wells in the petroleum or naphtha in Cohut, and that the people 
used the substance in lamps instead of oil. He also told me that within these 
few months, the villagers had found that the stones near these pits were 
available as fuel. At my request he despatched a messenger, and brought the spe- 
cimen of coal which I now present to the Society. It has been taken from the 
surface, and can give therefore no correct idea of the substrata further than proving 
that coal exists in the neighbourhood. The coal is slaty and of a greyish-brown 
colour, it readily ignites at the candle and emits a sulphnreous smell. 
The discovery of a coal-mine at the head of the Indus may prove of the utmost 
importance in these times, since the navigation of that river is open from the sea to 
the town of Aftok, which is only forty miles distant from the deposit. An excellent 
road intervenes, and Peshdwar is a large city where labour is cheap. 
It is a singular circumstance, that coal should have been discovered both at the 
mouth and head of the Indus (in Cutch and Cohut) within these few years, and 
since steam has been used in India. It is seldom that discoveries are so well-timed, 
and I trust that they augur favorably for the opening of a new route of commerce 
by the Indus. 
The Indus coal is little better than bituminous shale—slaty and dull in structure 
and appearance: specific gravity 1.670 : burning freely in a candle—not coking, 
and leaving a large quantity of brown earth on incineration. Its composition 
on analysis proved to be, 
Wolatie matters. cy. '<is, 3 sions al Aeneas eciiernctent tad ame 
oF Bs med ate Wi sii H aenlte he a Dales el Aa oh mee 
DEM MMRULCE 2 aic.s's cahae casas et anes os ae ssica DOCS 
100.0 
It is most probable that where this shale is met with, coal of a superior quality 
may also be found. 
X.—Miscellaneous. 
1.—Rustic Bridge. Pl. X, 
The accompanying is froma hasty sketch, taken in the April of 1831. It represents 
one of two bridges similarly constructed, which were thrown across the Jamna, at 
a place where that river is divided into two branches by an island. These bridges 
were for the convenience of communication to some iron-smelting works, situated 
on the right bank of the river, at some distance below the bridge erected by Major 
Young, where the Simla and Massiiri road crosses the Jémna, 
As there is ingenuity displayed in their rough Shakesperian mode of construc- 
tion, I am induced to send you this sketch, which I trust is sufficiently intelligible 
to supersede the neécessity of a description. No rope was employed, the different 
M M 2 
