1840.] Report of the Coal Committee. 207 



ment at Cuttack, obtained a specimen, together with some particulars 

 which he communicated to the Committee ; on which he was requested 

 to visit the spot, when he collected the following particulars. Half a 

 mile from the Fort of Talcheer* coal seams are exposed along the banks 

 of a small Nulla called Belajooree (at a spot where workmen employed 

 by Mr. G. Becher, had a few years before extracted some specimens 

 of coal). Mr. Kittoe formed an excavation to the depth of 15 feet, in 

 which he found at a depth of 13 feet a bed of " good glistening coal," 

 1 foot to 1^ foot thick, reposing beneath ten feet of "shingle" and two 

 beds of shale and blue clay, each 1^ foot thick. The latter, as well 

 as a grey rock beneath the coal, both containing fossil plants. 



Mr. Kittoe states, that a native contractor offered, in the event of 

 coal being raised at Talcheer, to convey it down the Bramenee river 

 to Himsuagola, on the coast, where large sloops may anchor, at four 

 annas per maund ; but Mr. Beetson, the contractor for the transport 

 of salt from thence to Calcutta, was of opinion, that two annas per 

 maund at the utmost would be sufficient. From the coast to Calcutta 

 the transport of coal would be the same as that of salt.t 



The next coal to which Mr. Kittoe by his guide was conducted, 

 is a few miles higher up the Bramenee, and at a distance of sixteen 

 or eighteen miles from that stream, so that its conveyance would be 

 considerably more expensive. The coal is here exposed for a mile on 

 either side of a nulla called Sungurra, a tributary of the Bramenee, 

 averaging in height from five to fifteen feet above the sand. The coun- 

 try is said to be level from the coal to the bank of the Bramenee, so 

 as to afford every facility for the construction of either a road or a 

 canal. Iron ore is found in great abundance throughout both these 

 coal districts, and the ore is smelted to some extent, and by the same 

 process as that which prevails in other parts of India. 



Such is the substance of Mr. Kittoe's Report. J The specimens of 

 coal furnished were not of good quality. Three specimens of Talcheer 

 coal examined at the Mint, afforded the following average results : — 



Specific gravity, 1.3610 



Volatile matter, 39 



Carbon, 44 1 



Earthy matter, 15 10 



100 



* Talcheer is a town on the Bramenee river, 140 miles from the coast, 

 f At present there are three contracts for the conveyance of salt from Hunsew to 

 Calcutta; the rates are 18 Rs., 17 Rs. 8 annas, and 17 Rs. per 100 maunds. 

 % Vide Asiatic Journal of 1839, pp. 137—144. 



