OF BURDWAN. 



165 



considerably inland. There being little chance of finding coal long on the 

 line of dip within reach, (and it soon bassets or crops out on the line of 

 rise), I thought it proper to begin at this place, as I never saw the coal 

 dip any other way, but with the regular strata that cover it. The Raj- 

 mahal hills are composed of mountain whin or basalt of an amazing thick- 

 ness ; at one place at Molt Jharna, a section or slip may be seen of 

 sixty or seventy feet in height, and quite perpendicular : these hills rest 

 on red-streaked ferruginous sandstone, of a very hard nature, such as is 

 often the floor of coal, but I believe very seldom the roof — this circum- 

 stance favored my opinion, that the line of bearing crossed JBuhhum in 

 that direction, and on the 1st December 1815, 1 began the first shaft. 

 Having made my arrangements with the workmen, the sinking went 

 on regularly, but I was much astonished to find as I went down, that 

 the strata gradually wheeled from E. by S. towards the N. W. and 

 when the coal was found in shaft No. 1, it dipped N. W. which con- 

 tinued regular in every season and bed downwards, the dip of the 

 upper strata forming a spinal line on the side of the shaft. The 

 rainy monsoon having now commenced, and the workmen not attending 

 regularly, I began sinking the shaft No. 3, and cutting platforms round 

 both shafts to the level of high water in the river, with open adits to 

 make the approach easy. When the coal was found in No. 3, it was 

 within two inches of the same level as No. 1, and dipping due south, I 

 thought this might be caused by a sudden wave or ridge in the strata, or 

 I might be working on the edge of a very small basin — this created 

 much perplexity. I again tried the country round with the former result, 

 and was then in hopes, that I had got on the pivot or point where the 

 strata wheeled, which would throw the line of bearing towards Kativa. To 

 get more information, I opened the shaft No. 2, and although this was 

 four hundred and eighty feet from No. 3, on the line of dip, coal w^as 

 found in the same level, dipping N. N. W., which gives, in the three 



T '2 



shafts 



