66 
BALL AND SIMPSON : COALFIELDS OF INDIA. 
stream, 3 miles south of Tham-bayadeing boundary pillar. It is 
a bed of carbonaceous shale including one foot of hard coal and 
a few stringy seams, amounting in all to 18 inches. The dip is 
70° to east by north. Its situation is more than 30 miles from 
the Irrawadi. 
In 1878 ^ and again in 1885 ^ further prospecting was 
carried on on the deposits near Thayetmyo. Apparently the attempts 
were quite unsuccessful. In the Shu stream above Sabata, traces 
of carbonized trunks or lignite have been met with, and have 
given rise to fallacious hopes of a source of fuel. The rocks in 
these localities are of eocene age. Similar worthless indications of 
coal have been found in many locaUties in Lower Burma, as at 
Dalhousie near the mouth of the Bassein river. 
Arakan Division. — For a period of more than 70 years attention 
has been directed to the carbonaceous deposits of Arakan. They 
admit of being discussed in three groups, the northern including 
the Baronga Islands, the central including Ramri and Cheduba 
and the southern the mainland in the Sandoway district. 
Baronga Islands. — These are three islands situated south of 
Akyab harbour. On the western coast of the eastern island called 
Angara-Khyong, about two or three miles from its southern 
extremity, coal is said to have been found at three localities below 
high- water mark. In one place it was thought that the bed of coal 
was 5 feet thick ; in another 18 inches ; the third being very 
small. On the central island called Peni-Khyong, at the southern 
end, coal in a seam one foot thick was reported to exist.' The 
dips are so high and the probability of the existence of a large 
seam of continuous thickness so slender, that in spite of any 
results from assays no future can be safely predicted for these 
deposits, though it is conceivable that a limited amount of useful 
fuel might be obtained. 
Samples from Baronga were forwarded to the Geological Survey by 
Colonel Sladen, and through the Economic Museum for examination ; 
» Brit. Burma, Admin. Rep., p. 35, 1877-78. 
2 Rec, Q. 8. I., XVIII, 150 (1885). 
' Coal Ccmmittee'' s Final Report, 1840, 
