1838.] Reports on the Coal and Mineral Resources of India, 183 



veying this coal to the river, yet our knowledge regarding the natural 

 circumsfances under which it occurs is very defective. This is the 

 more to be regretted as the quality of the coal is inferior, and without 

 a more comprehensive knowledge of the district than we are possessed 

 of at present it is impossible to come to any conclusion as to whether or 

 not better beds of coal might be expected, and what measures would 

 be most likely to be adopted with success.* Captain Forbes found by- 

 various experiments conducted at the Calcutta Mint on five hundred 

 maunds of the best Hurrah coal, that nearly double the quantity com- 

 pared with the Burdwan coal, was required to produce the same quan- 

 tity of steam, and that it is generally unfit for smithery purposes 

 affording an inadequate heat for welding, or even for hammering with 

 facility, and on analysis Mr. Prinsep found it yield upwards of a fourth 

 part in ashes. 



" Mr. C. Glas, an old and intelligent resident at Boglepore, says 

 that two and half miles south of Sercunda and fourteen miles from 

 Eajmal, iron ore is found in the greatest abundance scattered over the 

 surface in masses each several yards square, which might be manu- 

 factured to any extent at a trifling expense, but the quality of the 

 iron afforded is inferior to that of English cold short iron, but he 

 says that an ore affording a remarkably superior iron, from which he 

 himself manufactured steel, is to be had plentifully at Misadhe and 

 Joypore, about seventy miles south and south-west of Boglepore. The 

 roads to the part of the district in which this ore occurs are such as to 

 admit of the employment of wheeled carriages for its conveyance to 

 the river side. 



" The late Mr. Jones, in one of his letters observes that, in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Luchmeepore, in the Boglepore zillah, lead is aflforded. 

 In another letter he states that the hills of Curruckpore, distant forty 

 miles from Boglepore, are composed of quartz, and contain a rich vein 

 of galena discovered by Buchanan. Perhaps the same vein is in both 

 cases referred to. * Very probably' he adds ' copper will be found in 

 Dholboom near Ragduha,\ on a nullah called Guru, that empties itself 

 into the Subbon Reeka river.:|:' 



" Near Sahibgunge Mr. Glas states alum is found in such abundance 

 as to supply the local consumption of the neighbourhood, but no trou- 



* *' Mr. Glas states that coal is found throughout a large tract of country in Barcoup,— it 

 is probably the same as that discoveied by Captain Tanner— a portion of this coal is said 

 by Mr. Glas to have been recently on fire." 



T " Origin," % " See Asiat. Res. 18^8, p. 170." 



