208 Report of the Coal Committee. [No 98. 



Talcheer and Hingolar may be regarded, we think, without much 

 doubt, as an extensive and valuable coal field. The workable beds 

 will probably be found to be some distance from the surface at the spots 

 visited by Mr. Kittoe, but the district appears to have been subject to 

 so much local disturbance, that more favorable positions for coal mines 

 may be expected, when the country has been properly examined. 



Since the above remarks were written, the Committee have re- 

 ceived a communication from Mr. Mills, the Commissioner of Cuttack, 

 enclosing a report from Mr. Beetson, whom he deputed on 22nd 

 February last, at the instigation of Mr. Smith, the President of the 

 Coal Committee, in order to procure further information on the subject. 

 Mr. Beetson reports, that " the samples laid before the Committee 

 by Lieut. Kittoe, were far inferior to those I have now brought with 

 me. The latter are equal to the best Burdwan; but to satisfy the 

 Committee as to its description and quality, if Government will pay 

 the expenses, which will amouut to a mere trifle, I shall be happy to 

 undertake the delivery of one or two hundred maunds in Calcutta by 

 next December." Mr. Mills observes that the specimens, as far as 

 he and other gentlemen at the station are able to judge, are so very 

 good, that he authorized Mr. Beetson to procure 100 maunds for trial 

 in Calcutta. This coal is derived from the second, or more distant 

 coal field visited by Mr. Kittoe. The locality in which the coal occurs 

 is, according to Mr. Beetson, called Gopal Pushad, and the nulla by 

 which it is laid bare, Sangra, which corresponds with Mr. Kittoe's 

 name Sungurra. Mr. Beetson states, that the distance from Gopal 

 Pushad to Talcheergur is from fourteen to sixteen miles, and recom- 

 mends that the coal be carted by buffaloes (the common draught cat- 

 tle of the country) to Talcheergur. From Talcheer the coal could 

 then be conveyed in ten or twelve maund boats to Kumalung, six 

 miles below Talcheergur, where it should remain till the setting in 

 of the rains, and from thence it may be conveyed for six months 

 of the year in from 100 to 300 maund boats to Hunsuah on the coast, 

 where it would be available for sea-going steamers at from three to four 

 annas per maund. From Hunsuah, Mr. Beetson would undertake to 

 convey the coal to Calcutta at 18 Rupees per 100 maunds, and indeed 

 he thinks he could supply it to the Calcutta market at six annas per 

 maund, including every expense. 



Adji. 

 Since our last report, little has been elicited regarding the nor- 

 thern boundary of the Burdwan coal field, where the beds advance 



