952 Report upon the Coal beds of Assam. [Nov 



the Bovee Diking, also an excellent river. Full details regarding each 

 of these discoveries, having been published in the proceedings of the 

 Asiatic Society for February last*, it is unnecessary to enter into them 

 here further than concerns the extent of the beds and the quality of 

 the coal. 



At Boorhath, beds occur in two situations, first close to the channel 

 of the Disung, at the commencement of a rising ground about a mile 

 from the village of Boorhath. This bed is described by Captain 

 Jenkins as visible for about a hundred yards in length, and eight feet 

 in thickness, above the water and gravel of the stream. 



The second bed is about a quarter of a mile distant from the Disung, 

 at an elevation of about 50 or 60 feet, and exposed to the extent of 

 200 yards in length in the bank of a little water-course. It was not 

 visible in continuous masses, being concealed here and there by rubbish 

 fallen from above, but it cropped out, says Captain Jenkins, at inter- 

 vals, and always seemed to bear a thickness of several feet. The coal 

 in both these beds appeared to Captain Jenkins to be of first rate 

 quality, and nothing could well be more favorable than the position for 

 working, nor for the transport of the coal as far as the waters of the 

 Disung admit, but this stream is barely navigable for laden canoes of 

 small size in the dry weather, although in the rains it has a depth 

 sufficient for large boats, and its stream is no where impetuousf. 



The situation of this coal is about 50 miles from the confluence of 

 the Disung with the Bramaputra, so that laden boats might descend 

 during the rains with ease from the coal beds to the great river in 

 three days, and return in six. The point at which the Disung joins 

 the Bramaputra is about 180 miles above Gowahuttee. 



The Jypoor beds are described in a letter from Captain Hannay 

 to the commissioner of Assam, under date 1st February, 1838J : Cap- 



* Journ. 1838, pp. 169 to 368. f Journ. 183S,p. 169. 



J Journ. 1838, p. 363. In a subsequent letter to Major White, dated 15th 

 September last, Captain Hannay gives the following particulars regarding the 

 manner in which the coal occurs, and how he raised it: — "The vein which I 

 excavated is situated one and a half mile in a southeasterly direction from Jypoor. 

 It lies close to the right bauk of a small nulla, which winds its way into the plains 

 and has its rise in the small hills which run along the foot of the Naga mountains. 

 The bank is not steep, and for a distance of from three to four hundred yards it is 

 tolerably straight, rising gradually from 80 to 100 feet in height from the spot 

 where the vein is first visible : for a distance of 30 yards the direction is about 205°, 

 •when it turns to 190°, and is visible further than it has been excavated by me. Pro- 

 ceeding onwards, however, in a direction of about 160°, and at a distance of two 

 furlongs, you pass over a bed of greyish coloured soft shaly sandstone, strongly 

 impregnated with petroleum, and a little further on there are several springs of thii 

 mineral oil issuing out from the description of sandstone abovementioned, and ia 



