398 OCCURRENCE OF COAL, 



considerable thickness, and but little removed from the surface. Of his suc- 

 cessor's proceedings, I can give no account ; but at the time I visited the 

 mines (the beginning of 1823,) the works had attained a considerable degree 

 of forwardness, upwards of ninety-three thousand maunds of Coal having been 

 raised to the surface. 



These mines are situated in the undulating low country, which lies 

 at the foot of that mountain range, along which part of the new road from 

 Calcutta to Benares runs. The road begins to ascend it at Banlcora, where 

 an earthy decomposing Granite may be seen at the surface, intermixed with 

 Gneiss, which appears to be the prevailing rock on the line thence to Katkam 

 Sandi, a little beyond which the descent is made to the plain country, by 

 tlie JDa?igal Pass. Mica slate is also found in many places. The Gneiss 

 often contains Granite vein?, (KatJiam Sandi,) the Felspar of which is of a 

 reddish hue. In the Mica slate, (and Gneiss also, probably) is found dis- 

 seminated abundance of octahedral iron ore, in grains, and the sand of 

 some of the nullahs is highly charged with it. 



These mountains then belong, beyond doubt, to the Primary class 

 of formations — whether bounded along their whole extent by secondary 

 rocks, I cannot say ; but on the banks of the Damuda, we have at the 

 mine, and but a few feet below the surface, a micaceous sand-stone frequent- 

 ly of a reddish hue, very tender and friable, and under it, the regular bitu- 

 minous shale of the coal strata. 



The next notice of coal, as far as I am aware, is that found by 

 Mr. D. Scott, on the Sylhet frontier, which appears in the Geological Trans- 

 actions, (New Series, vol. 1.) The specimens were all derived from very 

 small masses, having, in some instances, all the appearance of an imbedded 

 tree of plant, frequently in very thin seams. It is described as occurring in 



