1840.] 



Report of the Coal Committee, 



363 



This boat should carry 800 maunds, which just gives 2 annas 6<^ 

 pice per maund, so that at this rate Cherra coal ought to be delivered 

 in Calcutta at 7 annas per maund; Major Carter therefore expresses 

 his surprise that an offer recently made by the Marine Board, of 9 annas 

 for Cherra coal, had not been taken up, and suggests that if boats of 2 or 

 3000 maunds, such as are used for bringing wood from the Sunderbunds, 

 were employed as far as the rivers would admit, the carriage would be 

 still lower. 



The readiness with which boats may be had for any regular trade, 

 maybe imagined by the following observation of Major Carter: — 

 ** Hundreds of large boats frequent the Sunderbunds, nearly as far as 

 Dacca, in search of cargoes of rice and dhan, the worth very little more 

 in ordinary years than coal, and the latter scarcely one half as valuable ; 

 they do not find their cargoes at one place, or belonging to one person, 

 but attend the banks, and purchase in whatever quantities the people 

 bring to the market, often only a few seers, and seldom exceeding a 

 few maunds." 



The Commissariat regulations, and general custom of paying boat-hire 

 on a computed distance instead of the time actually employed, might 

 in the first instance militate against the economy of any arrangement 

 for hiring boats, says Major Carter ; but if a few boats were purchased 

 or built at Dacca or in the Sunderbunds, and manned by a private in- 

 dividual, the result would prove the correctness of these calculations. 

 A good boat could be built for 500 rupees, and in six trips, at the above 

 rate, would yield 300 rupees, leaving 60 for casual repairs, this would 

 repay itself in less than two years; but a boat is expected to last seven 

 or eight. 



Cultuclc. 



About ten years ago a specimen of coal found in the Cuttack dis- 

 trict was sent to the Asiatic Society, probably with some particulars 

 which do not appear to have been noted in the proceedings ; the 

 circumstance was however suggested to the Committee by Captain 

 Jenkins, in 1837, and soon after Lieut. Kittoe, then with his regi- 

 ment at Cuttack, obtained a specimen, together with some particulars 

 which he communicated to the Committee ; on which he was requested 

 to visit the spot, when he collected the following particulars. Haifa 

 mile from the Fort of Talclieer* coal seams are exposed along the banks 

 of a small Nulla called Belajooree (at a spot where workmen employed 



• TalcTicer is a town on the Bramcnee river, 140 miles from the coast. 



