183^.] Reports on the Coal and Mineral Resources of India. 177 



hills and descending deep beneath the surface of the valleys. Below 

 these beds good coals are found. Though wheeling in a slight degree, 

 the beds of coal carry their line of bearing to an amazing extent (says 

 Mr. Jones) with little variation : their breadth in a south-west direc- 

 tion may be supposed to extend eleven or twelve miles towards Ban- 

 cora, where hornblende, sienite, and quartz, begin to appear. In a 

 north-west direction the attendants on coal are traced for seven miles 

 from the present works along the right bank of the Baracan river to a 

 phice called Rajkol, and in this course the coal measures are intersect- 

 ed by a large whin dyke running in the direction of Bishenpur.* 



" The first bed of coai is reached in the Ranygunj colliery at a 

 depth of 45 feet 3 inches, and is 1 foot 3 inches in thickness, and of 

 inferior quality succeeded by alternate layers of coal and shale for a 

 further depth of 3 feet 9 inches, including two thin layers of coal. Two 

 important beds then occur the first 8 feet and the other 9, separated 

 from each other by a thin stratum of shale. The lowest of these which 

 is very good coal, is separated by a thin layer of sandstone containing 

 vegetable impressions, from the sixth bed which is only 9 inches ; a simi- 

 lar alternation introduces the seventh and lowest bed of good coal, only 

 3 feet below which, thirteen beds of sandstone and shale occur, con» 

 staining vegetable impressions and including a thin bed of inferior coal. 

 At the depth of 88 feet 2 inches the excavation was terminated in a bed 

 of grey coloured hard sandstonef. This description refers to the mines 

 in 1815, scarcely more than a year after diey were first opened, since 

 which time nothing has been communicated on the subject, but it is 

 probable the v/orkings have been since carried on in the 9 feet bed, 57 

 feet from the surface, and that no greater depth than 88 feet has been 

 attained. 



" The whole district affords rich and valuable iron ores of various 

 kinds, and Mr. Jones after erecting temporary furnaces and forges at 

 Sheargu!", found by many experiments that immense quantities of iron 

 can be made at little expense, but he recommends works of this kind 

 to be conducted on a large scale by means of mills. Mr. Piddington 

 has analysed several specimens of these ores and found them to afford 

 an average of above 50 per cent, of iron, with a mean specific gravity 

 of 3.265. He considers them to belong both to the red scaly and red 

 ochre species..]: 



* " Asiat. Res. 1839, pi 161" 



t " See Asiatic E.s. 1829, p. 167." 



* " Asiatic Res. 1829, p. 171." 



