12 
i3ALL AND SIMPSON : COALFliELDS OF INDIA. 
and used on the Irrawadi steamers. The distance from the Irrawadi 
is only 7 or 8 miles. 
The mines near Kabwet were visited by Dr. Anderson^ about 
the year 1870. He mentions workings at Lek-op-bin and Ket-zu- 
bin, the seam being 6 feet thick and dipping at 35°. The Kabwet 
coalfield lies between the Kabwet bend of the Irrawadi and the 
Manchoung, a tributary of that river. There are only one or per- 
haps two seams, the outcrops of which are found over a consider- 
able area. Most of the coal, however, is of poor quality, and it 
is only in the locaUty mentioned above, the Letkobin-Ketzubin 
area, that a workable seam occurs. The thickness of the coal is 
about 6 feet and the dip 39°. The following are representative of 
a large number of analyses of Kabwet coal made in the laboratory 
of the Geological Survey of India : — 
Letkoblu. Ketzubin. 
Moisture 11-94 12-60 
Volatile matter .... 37-68 37-22 
Fixed carbon 36-22 41-72 
Ash 14-16 8-46 
The writer of the first report on an examination of the coalfield 
is said to have estimated that one and a half million tons of coal 
were available, but Dr. King,^ who examined the area in 1894, 
considered that only from 120,000 to 150,000 tons could be counted 
upon and strongly advised boring exploration on the east of the 
Letkobin area. Some three years prior to Dr. King's visit a com- 
pany opened up extensive mines at Letkobin, and their operations 
were continued with varying success until 1904 when the workable 
coal became exhausted. The annual output during the years of 
the company's operations was from 10,000 to 15,000 tons, the 
maximum being in 1896 when nearly 23,000 tons were raised. 
Upper Chindwin river. — Coal in this neighbourhood was in 1886 
reported by Captain Stevens to occur in the Kubo valley, Mani- 
pur. A year later an examination of a small portion of the Upper 
Chindwin coalfields was made by B. J. Jones.* This portion 
he has called the Kale coalfield. It is situated on the Myit-tha 
(or Kale Creek) a few miles above the junction of that river 
* Report on the Expedition to We.dcrn Yunnan, via Bhnnw (1871). 
2 Rec, G. 8. /., XXVri, 3.3 .34 HSW). 
' Geol. Surv. Ind. files nS86). 
• Rec, G. a. I., XX, 171 (1887). 
