On a new kind of Coal, being Volcanic Coal. [April, 



It is highly sectile on the outside, being easily cut or pared without 

 breaking, like soft plumbago. Internally it is a little more brittle, but 

 still very sectile. Its smell when cut is very peculiar, being highly 

 sooty, like the smell of a foul chimney in which a fire has not being 

 made for a long time. When breathed upon the smell is very earthy 

 and " bitter." 



The internal structure is in one direction highly foliated, or scaly, and 

 somewhat curved, with a semi-metallic lustre ; at right angles to this 

 it is granular and glimmering ; the fracture partakes of both. In its 

 general appearance it reminds us much of coal altered by dikes cutting 

 through it. The streak is highly metallic, and the mineral very soft. 

 It writes well and of a brown colour. 



Its specific Gravity is 1.28. 



In an impure part of the specimen there are minute white veins, which 

 are Carbonate of Lime. It burns and swells up like Newcastle Coal, 

 but its smell when burning is more that of Cannel Coal. This is doubt- 

 less from the absence of sulphur of which there are no traces. It coaks 

 perfectly ; swelling however to a mass four times the original size, while 

 the best Newcastle only increases to about double its size. 



Its composition is in 100 parts, 



Water, 1.00 



Carbon, 63.60 



Gaseous matter, 18.90 



Earthy residuum Iron and Silex, 16.50 



100.00 

 It gives of Coke per cent, by an independent ex- 

 periment on a solid lump, 7o.7o 



Newcastle Coal from the Percy High main seam 



gives per cent, of Coke, 78.8 



The mean of Cokes from English Coal by Dr. 



Ure (Dicty. Chemistry) is, 65.0 



We have here the fact that there must exist a seam or deposit of very 

 fine Coal not far from the site of the Mud Volcanoes, and though at 

 present all we know of the Arracan Coal is unpromising on account of 

 the thinness of the seams, yet as nothing but surface examinations have 

 yet taken place, and these not by professional miners, we may hope for 



