DISTRIBUTION OF MINERALS IN SARAWAK 27 



local subterranean exhalations containing quicksilver, the forma- 

 tions of both pyrites and cinnabar may be readily explainod. 



Coal is found in many localities on the N. W. Coast of 

 Borneo and crops up in the Sarawak Territory at Simunjan, at 

 Lingga and other spots in the Batang Lupar district, in the 

 Rejang, and in the Mukah and Bintulu rivers. It was formerly 

 worked at Sadong, and the mine has recently been re-opened by 

 the Government, and now supplies regularly a small quantity 

 of fair steam coal. For the past two years an exploration of the 

 Lingga seams has been in progress, and it is hoped that this 

 field will be shortly worked on a large scale. The other outcrops 

 of coal of importance are those of Mukah and Rejang : both in 

 such inaccessible situations as to be for the present quite useless, 

 although, so far as is known, of good quality and considerable 

 extent. The varieties of the mineral found are anthracite and 

 cannel coal, both of which appear to be remarkably free from 

 pyrites and sulphur. The Cannel coal has been found to give a 

 very small percentage of ash (1.20 according to an analysis by 

 Dr. Stenhouse) but this advantage is counterbalanced by the 

 presence in it of considerably more Nitrogen than is generally 

 exhibited by such coals. The ordinary Lingga coal is very 

 nearly identical in composition, as regards the proportion of 

 carbon and hydrogen, with the Hartley-Newcastle coals, as Dr. 

 Stenhouse has lately shown by the following analyses conducted 

 in duplicate. 



Carbon Hydrogen Sulphur Oxygen & Nitrogen Ash 

 Sarawak Coal 81.41 5.40 0.68 4 47 8.0-1 



S'wak Cannel Coal 72.21 5.43 0.85 20.31 1.20 



W. Hartley Main 81.85 5.29 



Newcastle Hartley 81.81 5.50 



It would be premature to take these analyses of small samples, 

 however exact, as affording- reliable data on which to base an 

 opinion as to the value of the bulk of the Sarawak Coal. 

 Nevertheless the trial of the Lingga coal lately conducted on 

 board S. S. "Delhi" and Baroda" (Peninsula and Oriental 

 Company), go rather to confirm, than to throw discredit on the 

 laboratory analyses. Two 40-ton samples were burned under 

 ordinary conditions of wind and speed, on board these vessels, 

 and the coal was found with no more than the usual care from 

 the stokers, to burn clearly with little smoke, and leave a 

 residuum of only some 16 per cent in the furnaces, consisting 

 of light and easily broken clinker. It would seem, however, 

 that under severer test-conditions the coal would be found to 

 burn a good deal faster than the best North Country Coals, 

 unless mixed with good ordinary steam-coal. I should add that 



