1851.] Notes upon a tour through the Rdjmahal Hills. 573 



sleep during the rainy and hot seasons ; the hammock was twelve feet 

 in length, six feet in width when opened, and was netted ; each mesh 

 being a foot in length. I examined the fabric and found it to consist 

 of the fibre of the Bauhinea scandeus — a small fishing net and creel 

 hung in another corner, for the hill-men descend the hills and fish in 

 the small torrents but they never capture any thing larger than a 

 moderate-sized minnow. 



One old woman I observed was afflicted with an enormous goitre. 



23rd January, 1851. — Direction north-east eight miles to Dhuma- 

 turi where there is a bungalow. 



Upon leaving Sundari, entered a thick jungle of asan, and cross- 

 ed the Giimani or Jamuni by a difficult and steep ghaut ; the 

 elephants were obliged to break their way through the jungle there 

 being no road ; skirted some low gneiss hills through a small village 

 named Manikbaithan to the banks of the Giimani, which nallah we 

 had to cross again ; but finding no possibility of getting out of the 

 bed of the nallah after having with great difficulty got down into it, I 

 travelled down the stream for a short distance, and on the left bank 

 discovered a bed of slaty coal with its associated shales and sand 

 stones ; one mile further north of this spot and under the Chuper- 

 bhita hill, I found three more beds of coal, both on the right and left 

 banks of the nallah — one bed is a few hundred yards from a spirit 

 shop on Mr. Pontet's new road leading into the hills through the 

 Dhumaturi or Chuperbhita pass, and where the Domra nallah falls 

 into the Giimani. The best burning coal was that first found ; that 

 found immediately to the west of a small Sonthal village named Mor- 

 jor is also good. 



The existence of this coal has hitherto been unknown, and as the 

 beds are situated in the Chuperbhita pass, and under the hill of the 

 same name, I propose to call them the Chuperbhita coal fields. There 

 is little doubt that this coal is but a continuation of the Burgo, Du- 

 brajpur and Harrah coal beds which produce a slaty inferior 

 mineral. 



A heap of the coal and shale, the latter highly bituminous, weigh- 

 ing about thirty pounds burnt with a cheerful flame for three hours 

 in the open air ; the coal resolved itself into a fine white ash, the 

 shale of course remained unchanged in shape. 



