1830.] 
On the Coal field of Pdlamti. 
219 
less favorably situated. He offers his services to determine, in the following 
season, either this point or any other connected with their coal-beds that might 
appear to Government desirable — waving any claim to remuneration. These 
enquiries, we need hardly remind our readers, were, and are, full of interest; and 
in the name of science we may be permitted to regret, that the views of Govern- 
ment did not allow of their sanctioning Captain F.’s proposal. As a mere object 
of a liberal and enlightened curiosity, the enquiry was well worthy of being pro- 
secuted. As a question of public utility, the result fully proves the expediency 
of such a course. 
Soon after sending in the above report, Captain Franklin finding his health had 
suffered much, obtained leave to proceed to England. 
The preceding particulars, we think, upon the whole, favorable to the question 
of the discovery of coal of a useful quality, if not the best, somewhere in the 
tract limited and defined by Captain Franklin ; and we doubt not, had Govern- 
ment authorised a proper search to be made, that it would have been successful. 
Subsequent enquiry has thrown some more light on the question, and shown, 
that, upon the whole, Captain Franklin’s opinion was by no means sanguine, 
but rather the contrary. It appears, in fact, that the coal at Singrah, though, as^ 
described by him, non-bituminous, is not utterly worthless. The difficulties of 
the navigation of the Cifl too appear not to be so great as was supposed. On this 
subject it gives us pleasure to be able to contribute the following additional 
particulars, furnished by Captain Sage, Executive Officer at Dinapur. 
Captain Sage, desirous of more fully exploring the resources of the district of 
Palamu, proceeded on the 13th January, 1830, accompanied by a small party, 
consisting of his barrack serjeant, a corporal, and three men of H, M. 13th 
Light Infantry, who had been colliers in England, to Singrah. The surface 
of the country is very undulating, comparable to nothing better than what we 
may imagine would be the appearance of the suddenly frozen billows of a stormy 
sea. It will be recollected by our readers, that Mr. Jones, in liis account of the 
Burdwan coal field, published in our first volume, p. 261, describes the arrange- 
ment of the surface at that place in nearly the same terms. The hillocks, or 
billows, as they may be called, are from forty to sixty feet high, of every extent 
and form. Their bases are marked by coal bassets in every direction. Their 
tops are covered with jungle, though the small interlying vallies are cultivated. 
The Amanit,h river joins the Cifl, about one hundred yards west of Singrah. In 
its course it has cut off a portion of a hillock, 1200 feet long, 100 feet broad, and 
40 feet high. The following are the particulars of a section .* 
No. 1. 
, Section of the Strata at Singrah. 
ft. in. 
11 . 6 Earth, clay, pebbles, &c. 
, 11 Shale. 
3 . 7 Pebbles. 
1 . 6 Coal, No. 2. 
8 . 0 Sandstone conglomerate, increasing in compactness as it de- 
scends. 
4 . 7 Non-bituminous coal No. 3, or Anthracite. 
30 . 1 Total. 
Below the coal is a blue sandstone, readily splitting into tables or large flags. 
The depth has not been ascertained. 
No. 3 was found a good non-bituininous coal, burning without flame, and 
leaving for residue a white ash. It was tried on rather a large scale, both 
in the smitheries of the barrack yard and in brick burning. In both it has 
answered well : in the former superseding the use of charcoal. This bed of 
coal extends up the Amanit,h to the confluence of the Gauging, and it was 
traced up the bed of the latter nearly three miles, to the confluence of two lesser 
streams which join it from opposite sides. 
On the 15th and 16th, Captain Sage proceeded passing through Shihpfir, Chain- 
ptir, Chandis, and Chapiri. About 5 miles beyond the last named place, he 
entered a small valley watered by the G oris an naddi . Here he found coal-beds 
extending more than five miles up the stream. The following are the particulars 
as observed in the bank opposite where his tent was pitched. Ibis coal is entirely 
different from that of Singrah, being in fact very bituminous, and burning with 
a clear bright flame. It makes a most cheerful fire in an open grate. 
