DETAILED DESCRIPTIONS OF TflE RESPECTIVl': COALFIELDS. 1 1 5 
That from Bhamauri occurred in a sraii 4 inches thick ; 
it showed no woody structure, having the appearance of jet, but 
was very brittle. The composition of Ranibagh coal was } — 
Carbon GO-0 
Volatile matter ....... 36'4 
Ash 3-6 
In 1833 ^ Mr. E. J. Ravenshaw forwarded samples of lignite 
and jetty coal from Dhela river in the north of the Moradabad 
district. These occurred only in thin nests and layers and contained 
a good deal of iron pyrites. 
Mr. Medlicott,'' in his review of the whole question of these 
carbonaceous deposits, while anxious not to deter any explorer fi'om 
investigating so important a subject, points out that the result 
of experience is unfavourable to the prospect of coal being found in 
useful quantity. 
At a later date C. S. Middlemiss,* in his description of the 
physical geology of the Sub-Himalaya of Garhwal and Kumaun, 
says : " nests and strings of lignite and coaly material, bright, shin- 
ing and breaking cuboidally, are very common. They are very 
small, though occasionally a somewhat larger tree trunk has been 
fossilized, and given rise to unreasonable expectations of coal. 
Nothing resembling a seam is known. It may be as well to state, 
therefore, at once, that there is not the slightest chance of finding 
workable coal in these hills." 
Undeterred by these informed opinions, E. C. Agabeg ^ in 1901, 
happening across some of these chance exposures, claimed to have 
discovered Damuda rocks in the hills between Rajpur and the 
Jumna. A syndicate was formed and boring operations undertaken. 
They were completely unsuccessful. 
1 Economic Mineralogy of Hill did., by E. '!'. Atkinson, p. 32, (1877). 
2 Jour. As. Soc. Bcng., Vol. U, p. 2G-i, (1833). 
3 3I(7n., G. S. I., Vol. Ill, p. 180, (1804). 
* Mem., G. S. I., Vol. XXIV, 26, (1890). 
^ Memo.on the Dehra-Dun coed prospects, Calcutta, (1905) ; Ind.Engineeriyig, XXXII, 
60, (1902), 
