248 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society . [No. 3. 



the smelting of the iron ores of that district, as shewn by Mr. Taylor of 

 Toposi Collery in his specimen of iron smeltings. 



Mr. Pontet has sent me a specimen of a supposed copper ore from the 

 Railroad cuttings in the Damun-i-koh, but it is nothing more than a red 

 and green Jasper with specks of arsenical pyrites (mispickel) which give 

 in some places a bright metallic streak resembling silver. 



Dr. Campbell has forwarded specimens from the further working of the 

 Pushak copper ores already alluded to in my Eeports and in the paper on 

 them vol. xxiii. p. 477 of the Society's Journal requesting an opinion as 

 to whether there was any improvement. The only one, which appears 

 evident is that the matrix is somewhat softer. 



From E. A. Samuells, Esq. C. S. Commissioner of Cuttack, I have 

 received a letter which gives the following account of his visit to the Coal 

 fields of Talcheer on the Brahminee river. 



"I returned from the jungles yesterday and hope by to-day's dak - 

 banghy to send you my first specimens of Coal, iron, iron-stone, &c. The 

 number of the Journal containing Kittoe's researches has never reached 

 me, and I do not know therefore whether I can communicate any thing 

 to the Society with regard to the Talcheer and Ungool coal beds with 

 which they are not already familiar ; I may mention shortly to you the 

 route which I took and which will enable you to judge. From Cuttack I 

 proceeded through Dhemkond to Balpore on the Brahminee ; there I was 

 told that coal existed in the neighbourhood and sending off a party of 

 workmen in advance, I started after breakfast for the locality, a village 

 called Kangriapara about three miles from Balpore, but when we got near 

 the place we were met by the ominous announcement that the coal was so 

 hard it had turned the points of all the crowbars, and that no one could 

 make any impression on it. On ariving at the spot, the mystery was 

 explained. The supposed coal was a large mass of quartzose rock (No. 7 

 of the specimens) which thrust its surface blackened by the forest fires 

 which annually swept over it to a height of 20 or 30 feet above the sur- 

 rounding soil. It was so hard, that I broke my hammer in securing a 

 specimen. At Kumlong about 25 miles further up the Brahminee, I 

 found drift coal in the river opposite the mouth of a nullah called the 

 Nunderajore and immediately below a singular barrier of rock called 

 Jetea Ghatee which is here thrown across the bed of the river. There 

 was no coal in the environs of this barrier or above it, so that I concluded 

 the coal must have been brought down the Nundera, but I could not hear 

 of any coal in that direction ; cliffs of a clayey slate are common along the 

 upper part of the stream which I afterwards crossed, but every one assur- 



