DETAJlilOl) DESCllll'TlONS OF TIIK llEMl'ECTiVK COALKJEl.DS. 4^ 
tained in the Karharbari Lower Seam, which has an average thickness 
of 15 feet 4 inches and the followiujf conipoHitioii : — 
Volatile matter 24-42 
Fixed carbon CG-84 
Mh 9-16 
Of recent years this is the only seam which is being mined to any 
extent. 
The Upper Karharbari seam has an average tliickness where 
workable of 6 feet and is of good quality. The workable area, 
however, was only some 150 acres, and the seam is now almost 
exhausted. Of the Upper or Hill seams the principal is the 
Bhaddoah Seam, which is found over an area of 913 acres. About 
400 acres are of sufficiently good quality to be worked. The 
average thickness is 6 feet and where it was largely worked the 
composition is : — 
Volatile matter . . . ,. . . 22-51 
Fixed carbon GO-85 
Ash . . 15-84 
Sulphur 0-80 
Of the rest of the Hill seams the average aggregate thickness 
is 66 feet and they extend over an area of some 200 acres. The 
ash in these seams, however, varies from 13 to 55 per cent., 
and probably only about one quarter of the total amount of coal 
is of sufficiently good quality to be workable. 
From time to time various estimates of the quantity of work- 
able coal contained within the field, have been made, the latest 
and probably most reliable, being by Dr. Saise, who calculated 
that in 1894 there were 82| million tons of coal which might be 
profitably extracted. Since that time 12 million tons have been 
mined, the output for 1910 being 679,304 tons, or about 12 per cent, 
less than the average for the preceding five years. 
The seams are very favourably situated for working owing 
to their usual low angle of dip, their accessibility — the deepest coal 
lying within 900 feet of the surface, — and the comparatively small 
amount of water contained in the rocks. 
Coal has been mined at Giridih since 1857, but railway con- 
nection was not estabHshed until 1871, since which date vigorous 
