1840.] Report of the Coal Committee. 213 



Assam. 

 A report having been furnished on the subject of the Assam 

 coal beds since the last general reports of the Committee were writ- 

 ten,* there is little to say on the subject. Lieutenant Brodie, principal 

 assistant to the Commissioner, found coal of good quality about a year 

 ago in a very favourable position on the Disung river, a specimen of 

 which was forwarded to the Committee in July last, and found to 

 afford — 



Specific gravity, . . . . . . . . 1.3 



Inflammable matter, . . . . . . . . 40 



Carbon, . . . . . . . . . . 55 



Earthy matter, . . . . . . . . 5 



100 

 We believe the Assam Tea Company are already about to open a 

 colliery in this situation, with the intention of keeping a depot sup- 

 plied from it at Dikoo Mookh, on the main river. 



Mr. Brodie had before found two and a half feet bed of coal about 

 three and a quarter of a mile above the falls of the Jumna. A boat 

 on average would reach the falls from Gowahattee in twenty days, 

 and return in ten. Some years ago coal was raised by Mr. Bruce, 

 under orders of the late Mr. Scott, from beds near the banks of the 

 Suffry, a tributary of the Disung ; on trial this proved to be the best 

 coal ever found in India, but the situation was inconvenient, the 

 Suffry being unnavigable at all seasons, and a small ridge of hills 

 would render the formation of a hackery road difficult. In February 

 1838, Captain Jenkins found two beds of coal, one of them 100 yards 

 in length, and eight feet in thickness, projecting from the banks of the 

 Disung river about a mile above the village of Boorhath ; the other 

 situated in rising ground, about a quarter of a mile from the first, was 

 exposed for 200 yards in length, and numerous small springs of petro- 

 leum emerged from beneath it. From these Captain Jenkins' servants 

 collected about five seers of petroleum in a few minutes. The Disung 

 is navigable for six months of the year. 



Beds of coal were also observed by Captain Jenkins at Jeypoor, 

 about ten miles east of Boorhath, on the Bora Dihing river, a quantity 

 of which was raised by Captain Hannay and sent to Calcutta, but not 

 approved of. Like all similar experiments on the quality of coal 

 the results proved little, especially as we now understand the Assam 



* Published in Journal As. Soc. 1838, pp. 948, 959. 



