Jan. 1848. COAL-FIELDS OF BUKD WAN. 7 



and foggy atmosphere I had left at Calcutta. On the follow- 

 ing morning I was travelling over a flat and apparently rising 

 country, along an excellent road, with groves of bamboos 

 and stunted trees on either hand, few villages or palms, a 

 sterile soil, with stunted grass and but little cultivation ; 

 altogether a country as unlike what I had expected to find 

 in India as well might be. All around was a dead flat or 

 table-land, out of which a few conical hills rose in the 

 west, about 1000 feet high, covered with a low forest of 

 dusky green or yellow, from the prevalence of bamboo. 

 The lark was singing merrily at sunrise, and the accessories 

 of a fresh air and dewy grass more reminded me of some 

 moorland in the north of England than of the torrid regions 

 of the east. 



At 10 p.m. I arrived at Mr. Williams' camp, at 

 Taldangah, a dawk station near the western limit of the 

 coal basin of the Damooda valley. His operations being 

 finished, he was prepared to start, having kindly waited 

 a couple of days for my arrival. 



Early on the morning of the last day of January, a 

 motley group of natives were busy striking the tents, and 

 loading the bullocks, bullock-carts and elephants : these 

 proceeded on the march, occupying in straggling groups 

 nearly three miles of road, whilst we remained to break- 

 fast with Mr. E. Watkins, Superintendent of the East 

 India Coal and Coke Company, who were working the 

 seams. 



The coal crops out at the surface ; but the shafts worked 

 are sunk through thick beds of alluvium. The age of 

 these coal-fields is quite unknown, and I regret to say that 

 my examination of their fossil plants throws no material 

 light on the subject. Upwards of thirty species of fossil 

 plants have been procured from them, and of these the 



