18-10.] 



Report of the Coal Committee. 



865 



probably be found to be some distance from tlie surface at the spots 

 visited by Mr. Kittoe, but the district appears to have been subject to 

 so much local disturbance, that raore favourable positions for coal mines 

 may be expected, when the country ha«< been properly examined. 



Since the above remarks were written, the Committee have received 

 a communication from Mr. Mills, the Commissioner of C attack, enclo- 

 sing a report from Mr. Beetson, whom he deputed on 22d February last, 

 at the instigation of Mr. Smith, the President of the Coal Committee, 

 in order to procure further information on the subject. Mr. Beetson 

 reports, that ** the samples laid before the Committee by Lieut. Kit- 

 toe, were far inferior to those I have now brought with me. The latter 

 are equal to the best Burdwan ; but to satisfy the Committee as to its 

 description and quality, if Government will pay the expenses, which 

 will amount to a mere trifle, I shall be happy to undertake the delivery 

 of one or two hundred niaunds in Calcutta by next December." Mr. 

 Mills observes that the specimens, as far as he and other gentlemen 

 at the station are able to judge, are so very good, that he authorized 

 Mr. Beetson to procure 100 maunds for trial in Calcutta. This coal is 

 derived from the second, or raore distant coal field visited by Mr. Kit- 

 toe. Tlie locality in which the coal occurs is, according to Mr. Beetson, 

 called Gopal Pushad, and the nulla by which it is laid bare, Sangraf 

 which corresponds with Mr. Kittoe's name Sungurra. Mr. Beetson 

 states, that the distance from Gopal Pushad to Talcheergur is from 

 fourteen to sixteen miles, and recommends that the coal be carted by 

 buffaloes (the common draught cattle of the country) to Talcheergur, 

 From Talcheer the coal could then be conveyed in ten or twelve maund 

 boats to Kumalung, six miles below Talcheergur, where it should re- 

 main till the setting in of the rains, and from thence it may be convey-r 

 ed for six months of the year in from 100 to 300 maund boats to Hun- 

 suah on the coast, where it would be available for sea-going steamers 

 at from three to four annas per maund. From Hunsuah, Mr. Beetson 

 would undertake to convey the coal to Calcutta at 18 Rupees per 100 

 maunds, and indeed he thinks he could supply it to the Calcutta market 

 at six annas per maund, including every expense. 



Adjl, 



Since our last report, little has been elicited regarding the nor- 

 thern boundary of the Burdwan coal field, where the beds advance 

 towards the Adji river. Mr. Erskine in reply to a circular from the 

 Committee, dated October, 1838, recapitulates the different places at 

 which coal has been found. Mammudpore is the most eastern situa- 



