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Memoir on the Coal found at Kotah, §c. with a Note on the Anthra- 

 cite of Duntimnapilly \ (H. H. the Nizam's Dominions.) — By 

 W. Walker, Esq. 24th April, 1841. 



Note. — In submitting the accompanying Memoir, I have purposely ab- 

 stained from giving any opinion either as to the quality of the Coal, the 

 practicability of mining, or the likelihood of a large supply of the mineral 

 being procurable at Kotah. 



Destitute at this remote place of all means of forming any estimate on a 

 subject on which I must in a certain degree be one-sided and prejudiced, I 

 leave to others the decision of the intrinsic worth of the article, and both 

 the other points. I refer to the practical engineer and miner, who alone, 

 after survey, &c. are capable of forming a correct judgment. 



Yet, I may be permitted to give it as my opinion, that the river merely 

 touches the edge of the Coal basin, and to this I am led by the fact of no 

 carboniferous limestone appearing on the other side, or on any of the 

 shallows to the right : the dip too of the stratum to the N. E. would appear 

 to be favorable to boring on the left bank. The alluvion there, as noticed 

 in the Memoir, is about forty-five feet deep, and is a loose soil containing 

 few pebbles. I may also observe as favorable to mining operations, that 

 the general complaint of the inhabitants along the river is the great 

 i depth they are obliged to go before water is reached ; this is particularly 

 the case in the fort of Seronge, five miles below Kotah. On account of 

 this difficulty of obtaining well water, the inhabitants are compelled to 

 use that of the river, much against their inclination ; as at certain seasons 

 it is deemed by them very unwholesome. 



At Madhapore, there were brought to me some minerals from the 

 bed of the Godavery at that place, which it required little discrimi- 

 nation to decide were of the nature of slate coal. Upon inquiry I 

 found, that after the monsoon at the Dassara festival, persons employ- 

 ed themselves in gathering these minerals to be vended as medicines ; 

 and more particularly as charms to keep off the all-dreaded Evil eye, 

 Ifor which purpose they were burnt, incantations being said over them 

 while inflamed. Their Tellugoo name is assoorpoory, and it is believed 

 by some of the natives, that they were the weapons with which the 



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