DETAILED DESCRIPTIONS Ol'' TWK RESPECTIVE COALFIELDS. 29 
The coal varicH from black to brown in colour, has a bright frac- 
ture and includes specks of fossil resin. Some of it has a caking 
quality. 
Um Rilenq. — One of the most recent discoveries of coal in these 
hills is that made by P. N. Bose ^ at the foot of Dinghu hill, 
close to the headwaters of the Um Rileng river and about 7 miles 
north-west of Shillong. The ground is much covered up by dense 
grass jungle, and few exposures are found. Pits and trenches have 
however, proved the existence of a thickness of from 9 to 10 feet 
of coal in two seams, over an area of nearly 100 acres ; and Mr. 
Bose calculates that in this area, allowing for an average thickness 
of 5 feet, there are considerably more than half a million tons of 
coal. 
The average analysis of two samples show the coal to have the 
following composition : — 
Moisture 16-69 
Volatile matter . . . . . . .45*51 
Fixed carbon 31*57 
Ash 6*23 
In appearance the coal is woody and it contains nests and 
strings of fossil resin. There is also some iron pyrites. From the 
large amount of moisture in the fuel it does not appear likely that 
the coal will ever come into use for more than local purposes. 
Wapung and Lenkensmit..- — Occurrences of Cretaceous coal were 
found by P. N. Bose ^ at Wapung (seven miles east of Jowai), and 
at Lenkensmit (Dongchala on map), six miles south of Wapung. 
The seams are very variable and nowhere exceed 5 feet in thick- 
ness. The coal is of excellent caking quality. 
From the exposures observed at both places, there is a pro- 
bability of a workable extent of the coal ; but, under the present 
circumstances, the cost of transport to the plains of Sylhet or 
Cachar is considered to be prohibitive. 
This is probably the same coal as that noticed by LaTouche ^ 
at Jarain, where thicknesses of three to three and a half feet of 
coal were measured. Owing to the pyritic inclusions within the 
coal he considered it to be of little value. 
1 Rec, G.S.I. , Vol. XXXI, p. 35 (1904). 
2 rieixral BejcrU Oeol. Svrv. Ind., 1901-02, p. 18. 
8 Bee, G.S.I., Vol. XVI, p. 199 (1883). 
