PART 1.] Hughes: Sfatislics of coal imporlalions inlo India. 83 
h. Barakars : some plant remains in the Sha^^ur area (^Olossopteris and Nog 
geratliiopsis). 
i. Karharbari beds : in the Mobpani coal-field and in the Sbapur area : Equi- 
setaceous stalks, Oangamopteris, Glossopteris, Noggerathiopsis. 
1c. Talcbir beds : no fossils found in this district. 
Statistics op coal importations into India, by Theo. W. H. Hughes, Geological 
Survey of India. 
In the leisure of my leave on furlough I have attem 2 ited to gather some parti¬ 
culars on the Indian imports of coal and coke, which will, I think, be of interest 
and perhaps of some little value to those readers of our Records who are 
concerned about the mineral statistics of India. I had myself so often exj^eri- 
enced the want of some I'eadily accessible reference, which should contain in a 
connected form information on this subject, that I was emboldened to undertake 
the task of arranging such data as I could bring together, by the knowledge that 
I should be relieving others of that want. For a large portion of the details 
here given, more especially those relating to the earlier years, I am indebted to 
various abstracts and reports ^mblished by the Board of Trade and placed at my 
disposal by Mr. Robert Hunt of the Mining Record Office; for the rest, I have to 
acknowledge my obligation to Mr. Charles Prinseji of the Statistical Department, 
India Office.* 
The annual consumption of fuel for sea-going and river steamers, for rail¬ 
ways, for factories, and for other purjioses has within the last year or two grown 
to something between 900,000 and a million tons, and of this amount it may be 
roughly said that oue-half is foreign coal. However much this circumstance is 
to be regretted by those who are interested in the development of our own fields 
of supply, there appioars to me to be small chance of a diminution in the ordinary 
rate of importation until native coal is lightened to some extent of the heavy 
burden of charges im^iosed by land carriage and by freights, so that it may 
compete on more favorable terms than at present with its rivals at the western 
ports of the Bombay Presidency, and those of Madras and Buimah. Our three 
principal coal mining districts, Raniganj, Karharbari, and the Wardha valley, 
are so situated that the item of railway transport alone—even in the case of the 
two more favourably situated fields, the Raniganj and the Karharbari—trebles 
and quadrujiles the actual costs of the coal by the time it reaches a ]3ort for ship¬ 
ment; and it utterly prohibits the sale of the produce of the Warora colliery 
(Wardha valley) within a distance of 200 miles of Bombay. 
Beginning with the year 1853, the shipments of coal and coke to India were 
43,562 tons. Since then, after the lapse of a quarter of a century, they have risen 
to 609,735 tons. The ratio of increase has not been by any means steady : wars, 
■ Without Mr. Prinsep’s assistance I should have found my undertaking a more tedious .affair 
than I at first imagined it. The labor involved in dealing with figures is very inadequately 
represented by the printed space they occupy. 
