DETAILED DESCRIPTIONS OF THE RESPECTIVE COALFIELDS. JQQ 
if found in the vicinity of the Indus, having caused attention to be 
directed to every spot where any trace of carbonaceous matter had 
been seen on the surface. 
The earliest writer on the subject appears to have been 
J. Prinsep, ^ who in 1838 reported on specimens of coal coUected 
in the Salt Range and elsewhere by Lieutenant (afterwards 
Sir Alexander) Burnes. Since that date a copious literature has 
accumulated. Reference to the individual papers will be found in 
the appendix. 
The whole of the known deposits of importance are of Tertiary 
(eocene) age, and are found chiefly in the Salt Range, but also 
occur in the hills north of the Rawalpindi plateau. The following 
is a list of the localities visited by Oldham ^ in 1864 : — Bhagan- 
wala, Kheura, Pidh, Dandot, Nila, Kuruli, Nurpur, Sowakhan, 
Dehiwal, Kutta, Chamil, Sunglewan, Amb or Umb, Kalabagh, Kot- 
ki, Chushmea and Mulla Khel. All of these places are situated in 
the Salt Range ; Bhaganwala is the only locality in which Dr. 
Oldham considered that any large amount of coal might be profit- 
ably extracted at that time. 
BJiagamvala. — Near the eastern end of the Punjab Salt Range, 
about 19 miles to the east of Dandot, coal occurs in the plateau 
overlooking the village of Bhaganwala. As a rule the rocks dip 
at very low angles, but dips of as much as 45° are occasionally 
encountered. The seam varies from 0 to 7 feet in thickness and 
the coal is of variable but usually poor quality. It is very pyri- 
tous, and fires induced by the decomposition of that mineral have 
occurred in the underground workings of the mines. 
The area of the plateau beneath which the coal occurs is about 
7 square miles. In 1864 Dr. Oldham considered that about 60,000 
tons of coal were available. In 1893, however, Mr. Luckstedt, 
Executive Engineer, North -Western Railway, estimated that the 
total amount of coal was 20 million tons. In the same year, 
Mr. T. D. LaTouche,^ after a careful examination of the field, 
found that the amount of proved coal was 88,480 tons, and that 
about ^ million tons might be counted upon. 
Between 1877 and 1893, about 2,000 tons were extracted from the coal 
outcrops by native contractors. About 1893 mining was commenced 
1 Jour. An. Soc. Beng., VII, 848, (1838). 
2 Sel. Rec. Govt. Ind., LXIV, 126, (1868). 
3 Bee, G. S. I., Vol. XXVII, 16, (1894), 
