388 Dr. Heifer's Report on the [May, 



the nearest for the embarkation of the coals impracticable for boats 

 drawing more than seventeen inches ; in this part of the river the 

 coals will therefore probably be transported upon rafts of bamboos. 

 After the confluence of the higher and lesser Tenasserim the river 

 increases considerably in depth. 



Captain R. Lloyd surveying the lower part of the river last year, 

 was of opinion that vessels of 100 tons burthen might go up to Tenas- 

 serim town, but thinks it advisable to employ only vessels of a much 

 smaller size. 



It is very probable, judging from the formations, that the same field 

 ■o ,' - ,. extends some twenty miles lower down the river, 



Prospect of other J 



localities nearer to and that beds may be found still nearer the banks 

 of the river ; but under present circumstances the 

 transport twenty miles more or less by water is scarcely of any con- 

 sequence ; experimental researches therefore would, besides being very 

 expensive, prove precarious. 



The existing formations (as far as they are known) to the west, and 

 those in a parallel line on the sea-coast, preclude the hope of coal being 

 found there. 



Last year, in, March, when I first visited the banks of the Tenas- 



History of serim, I was struck, in coming to its lower part, with the 

 this discovery. su dclen change of the geognostic features of the country. 

 The river instead of running for many miles through a mountainous 

 country, its narrow bed inclosed between piles of granular talcose lime- 

 stone, gray wacke, greenstone, and transition porphyry, burst at once 

 into an open country, the ridges of the above mentioned formations 

 receding on both sides, and I found what I had missed for a long time- 

 secondary formations ; and what I desired the most — formations belong- 

 ing to the great independent coal deposits. Having given up all hope 

 of finding coal in the parts of the Tenasserim provinces hitherto 

 visited, I was at once animated with strong hope of success at the sight 

 of these promising features. 



The consequence proved this time, in a conspicuous manner, the 

 truth and exactness of geognostic principles, and I found successively 

 three localities of coal, mentioned in my last year's report sub : N. A. 

 B. A. C. of which specimens were sent up to Calcutta. However the 

 coal then found was all of indifferent quality, and, besides, not favour- 

 ably situated ; the excellent coal discovered afterwards on the little 

 Tenasserim belongs to quite a different system. 



Convinced however of the existence of coal over a wide extent of 

 that district, in faet expecting that the above mentioned plain through 

 which the Tenasserim runs is a segment of a great coal basin, I 



