1840.] Report of the Coal Committee. 209 



towards the Adji river. Mr. Erskine in reply to a circular from the 

 the Committee, dated October, 1838, recapitulates the different places at 

 which coal has been found. Mammudpore is the most eastern situation. 

 The pits are here four or five miles from Seedporeghat. The mineral 

 is better to the westward at Parihorpore, about ten or twelve miles 

 above Seedpore. Seedpore is eighteen miles from Cutwa or Culna on 

 the Hooghly, and the river is pretty open during the rains for boats 

 of 400 maunds burden from Maulyghat to Cutwa, a distance of 

 forty miles. The upper portion of the river rises and falls suddenly, 

 so as to render it difficult to manage a larger boat than 200 maunds. 

 Mr. Erskine observes, that considering the difficulty of the Adji na- 

 vigation, and the scarcity of boats at present, and also the high price 

 that it would be necessary to offer to boatmen to induce them at first 

 to undertake the carriage of coals ; he does not think the coal could 

 be delivered at Cutwa under four annas per maund. Should the 

 regularity of the employment induce people to build more boats (as 

 has been the case on the Damooda,) prices might fall to about 3 annas 

 per maund. Adji coals are now used for the Dhoba Sugar Works to 

 the extent of 10 or 15,000 maunds per annum. 



Rajmahal. 

 When our last report were written, coal was known to exist 

 in two situations only in the Rajmahal hills; namely, Sicrigully and 

 Hurrah. In April 1838, Major Forbes was informed by Mr. James 

 Pontet that he had found a bed of coal in the Rajmahal hills, on the 

 banks of a nulla called the Bramenee, sixteen miles distant from the 

 water carriage during the rains, about thirty miles west of Moor- 

 shedabad, and nearly in the line of the canal proposed by Major 

 Forbes. A specimen of this coal afforded the following on analysis: — 

 Specific gravity, . . . . . . . . 1.370 



Volatile matter, 42 



Carbon, 44 8 



Earthy matter, 13 2 



100 

 A sample consisting of a few maunds furnished by Mr. Pontet 

 sometime before to Mr. Scott, the commander of the Jumna steam 

 vessel, also proved of favourable quality. Mr. Pontet having been 

 desirous of procuring the means of extending his observation, these 

 were provided, and on the 20th June he dispatched ten bags of coal 

 to Calcutta, this also proved favorable ; but a subsequent dispatch of 

 400 maunds consisted of shale and inferior coal. In explanation 



2 E 



