1851.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 365 



nature of his public duties being unwilling to meddle with the mine. I 

 learn, however, that Mr. G. Barnes has obtained a pottah of the mine, and 

 his brother, Mr. Charles Barnes, called at the Museum for information and 

 advice, which I of course have given to the best of my ability ; and I trust 

 that before the rains some samples of the ores will be sent to England to 

 ascertain their fair commercial value. 



Captain Sherwill has also sent us from the bed of the Adji River not far 

 from Deoghur, some new samples of copper ore, which are the common 

 sulphuret of copper. He states these were found in the bed of a dry nullah 

 by a gentleman of the survey service. At present we have no farther 

 information of this locality, and this ore is the poorest kind of copper ore, 

 but it is of importance that we should know as many of the localities in 

 which copper exists as possible. 



Captain Sherwill has also sent us from Afzulpoor a specimen of coal of 

 which he says, — 



" I send you a box of the coal and Pyrites from near Afzulpoor on the 

 banks of the Adji Nullah, 16 miles north of the Ranigunge collieries; it is 

 no new discovery but the specimens may be of interest to the Museum." 



Specimen No. 1. Red sandy soil, 3 feet. 



„ No. 2. Grey clay with minute veins of carbonate of lime, 2. 1. 

 „ No. 3. A loose, incoherent carbonaceous stratum, ...... 1. 1. 



„ No. 4. Bituminous shale, 6. 0. 



„ No. 5. Bituminous coal with Pyrites ; the depth of the 



coal unknown, 13. 6. 



(Signed) W. S. Sherwill. 

 27 th June, 1850, Berhampore. 



As this coal was of a brighter appearance than any Burdwan coal which I 

 have seen, I have analysed it and the result is that it contains in 100 parts — 



Gaseous matter, 32, 25. 



Carbon, 60. 15. 



Grey ash, 7. 15. 



Loss (Water ?) 45. 



100. 00. 

 The pulverised coal cakes into a single puffy mass of fine coke, very po- 

 rous and metallic in the fracture, and burning very slowly while reducing it 

 to ash. The ash is of a whitish grey colour and contains minute granules 

 of a white colour. It does not effervesce with Muriatic Acid and thus con- 

 tains no Carbonate of lime. A lump of this coal burnt in a close crucible 

 gave 71 per cent, of coke, and as this coke would contain the 7.15 of ash, 

 100 parts of the coke would thus contain 10.07 of ash — in round numbers 11 



3 b 2 



