1841.] for the JSottk- Western Provinces. 785 



would be necessary to the illustration of practical coal mining. In 

 reference to this branch of the subject, it may be remarked, that the 

 strongest evidence of the necessity of taking effective measures to ex- 

 tend an acquaintance with the practical details of coal working, may 

 be found in nearly every page of the valuable and interesting report 

 of the Coal Committee, and from these documents, the most authentic 

 as well as extensive records we possess of Indian mining operations 

 it may be learnt, that to deficiency in this respect, combined with 

 neglect of proper investigation of the fields themselves, the feeble suc- 

 cess of our coal mines is chiefly to be traced. With new fields open- 

 ing to us in the North-Western Provinces, it becomes us to follow 

 another course, and by taking measures to disseminate practical in- 

 formation, and also by careful examinations of the deposits that may 

 be discovered, to guarantee, as far as we can, its legitimate return to 

 invested capital, and to enterprize its merited reward. The survey 

 of a newly discovered coal field being conducted either by the sinking 

 of shafts, or as is in every respect superior, by the employment of the 

 method of boring, it is advisable to represent the tools and working 

 apparatus required for the latter operation in model, as part of the 

 illustrations of the department under notice. There would be the 

 less difficulty in doing this, since the whole series is in this country, 

 and unless recently removed, is, I believe, lodged in the arsenal of Fort 

 William. In a former paragraph, the propriety of having a complete 

 suite of characteristic specimens of the varieties of coal was alluded to, 

 and these, combined with the series of illustrative models, would afford 

 a most useful study to individuals desirous, either of prosecuting or 

 directing coal-working operations. There are certain subordinate 

 points, as for example, the kinds of furnaces best calculated for the dif- 

 ferent varieties of coal, the uses to which inferior descriptions of the 

 mineral, as those highly impregnated with pyrites, may be put, &c. 

 &c. on which information may be conveyed with advantage. Time 

 must elapse ere the Museum for the North- Western Provinces could be 

 complete in the practical departments now being noticed; but in a few 

 years, provided its objects are energetically pursued, it may be expected 

 to become an institution of the highest utility to this part of the country, 

 and will I have no doubt, realise the expectations that have been 

 formed of it, both in regard to its economic and scientific importance. 



