614 



Indian Coal. 



We called the attention of Mr. Lyell, the distinguished 

 Geologist, to this subject about two years ago in a letter, 

 an extract from which we now beg to submit to our readers. 



Extract of a letter from the Editor of the Calcutta Journal of Natural His- 

 tory to Charles Lyell, Esq. F.R.S., dated 10th February, 1841. 



" You are aware from the reports of the Coal Committee, that the 

 attention of the Indian Government has been directed to the best way 

 of bringing the Indian Coal beds into use. 



" In order to give such operations in India good effect, and to direct 

 the attention of future Governments more especially to the subject, 

 lest it be abandoned on the departure of the Earl of Auckland, the 

 influential opinions of men of science in England would be highly useful. 



" For my own part, I consider any thing short of a thorough investiga- 

 tion of the Indian coal formations, by persons of the very highest qua- 

 lification for such enquiries, as time and money thrown away. 



" There is a feeling here, as almost every where, that it is miners 

 alone that are necessary for the practical development of coal districts. 



" If this has proved to be an erroneous opinion in England, where coal 

 mines have constituted one of the principal internal resources of the 

 country for a period of at least 300 years, how much more so must it 

 be here, where the country, and even the use of coal, is so little known ? 



" The places in which coal occurs in India are usually remote and un- 

 frequented, and are scarcely even to be found on our best maps. The 

 consequence is, that a person incapable of availing himself of the light 

 which the study of organic characters of rocks has cast upon all such 

 investigations, finds himself lost, literally, in a wilderness from which 

 he is only anxious to withdraw as soon as possible. Perhaps he 

 possesses himself of a few specimens of coal without attempting to 

 make himself acquainted with the topography of the place ; and with- 

 out the power of communicating to others any distinct idea of the 

 characters of the rocks, or the extent of the beds, he is satisfied to re- 

 turn, and quit the field just at a time when the researches of a qualified 

 person should commence.* 



* Or as it sometimes happens, recommends practical operations to commence 

 on wrong data, as in the instance of Tenasserim coal, where 50,000 Rs. at least were 

 thrown away in working a wrong bed.— Ed. 



