PREVIOUS OBSERVERS AND HISTORY OF THE FIELD. 5 



In the same volume of the Journal of the Asiatic Society is a 



paper by Mr. J, G. Spilsbury on a geological 

 Mr. J. G. Spilsbury. t~*^ j j f J s 5 



section across the valley from Tendukheri to 



Bittoul, 1 in a note to which a reference is made to the same coal and 



the discovery attributed to Captain Ousely, who sent specimens in 



March 1827 to Mr. Maddock, Captain Coulthard, &c. 



On January 5th 1835 2 Captain Ousely discovered the coal now 



worked by the Nerbudda Coal and Iron Com- 

 1835. J 



Captain Ousely dis- pany, at Mohpani, in the bed of the Sitarewa 

 covers Mohpani coal. . «.!.•*• c ^ 



river and also a bed at the junction 01 the 



Hard and Sakar rivers now known to be of Jabalpur age. 



In 1838, the Sonada and Mohpani coals are mentioned in the first 



l83 g report of the Coal Committee 3 under the heads 



Coal Committee. of T owan r i ver and Sakar river coals. 



jg 3 g. In 1838, Major Ousely sent 206 bullock loads 



Coal sent to Bombay. of coal to Bombay for trial, apparently from the 

 Mohpani seam. The coal was tried in the engines of the Indus (a small 

 Government steamer), and the results compared with those of Glasgow 

 coal ; the report by Captain H. B. Turner was very favourable, though 

 the coal was said to be objectionable on account of the large amount 

 of clinker. 



In the second and third reports of the Coal Committee no further 



information is given, but in the final report in 

 1845. . . . 



Final report of the 1 845,* the Mohpani coal is again referred to, and 



Coal Committee. . . 



also the seam at the junction of the Hard and 

 Sakar rivers, and seams at Mardanpore, Boragurh, and SonadetfT 



In 1847, Professor Giraud 5 analysed some of the " Nerbudda coal " 



and reported unfavourably upon it on account 



Coal analysed by Pro- of the small proportion of fixed carbon and the 



large proportion of ash. Trials of the same coal 



1 Jour. As. Soc. Bengal, III, 388. 



2 Jour. As. Soc. Bengal, IV, 648. 



8 Reports of a Committee for investigating the Coal and Mineral Resources of India. 

 4 Sel. Rec, Bomb. Govt., XIV. 5 Final Report of the Coal Committee, 1845. 



( 5 ) 



