Medlicott, Garrow Hills. 
11 
but so variable in quality and thickness, that it was doubtful if any could be largely mined, 
The beds were characterized by frequent alternations of shales, flaggy beds and massive sand¬ 
stones. In the higher sub-division of the Ranigunj beds the alternations were less numerous, 
the several beds much thicker, and the coal seams more constant. I am inclined to believe that 
the beds of the Tawa Valley resemble those of the lower or Baraka r series of the Ranigunj 
field in the peculiarities of the coal seams, as they certainly do in their position at the base of 
the coal measures.* 
A very important and interesting question is the probability of the occurrence of coal in 
the more northern portion of the Tawa Valley near Kesla and Bagra; in the first place, 
because coal occurring there might belong to the higher and richer beds; and, secondly, 
because it would be so much nearer to the line of railway. Time did not allow me to examine 
the valley thoroughly, but a cursory inspection of the neighbourhood of Bordha and 
Ee si a induced me to believe that the rocks there occurring are very possibly higher in 
position than the true coal bearing beds of the Damudas, April 4sth, 1866. 
H. B. Medlicott, On the prospects of useful Coal being found in the Gar¬ 
bo w Hills, Bengal.—My report on the coal resources of the Garrow Hills admits of 
being very brief. I have only to indicate the very fallacious nature of the statements, upon 
which expectations have been founded. 
The region to which my remarks will be limited, as bearing upon the question of the 
northern extension of the Eastern Bengal Railway, comprises the bills to the south and east of 
the Bramahpootra, bordering the Myraensing and Goalpara Districts. It forms the recently 
created jurisdiction of the Garrow Hills. It thus excludes the Cossiah Hills and Silhet, of 
which the coal has already been cursorily described, and which would be beyond the range of 
the object, indicated as the special reason for my mission. It will be seen that the spurious 
coal of the Garrow Hifls is geologioafly distinct from most of that already so well-known as 
Silhet, or Cherra coal. 
As it was conjectured, and in the main correctly, that the Garrow Hills were geologically, 
as well as geographically, the continuation of the Cossiah Hills, I formed the plan to begin 
at Ckerrapoonji, and so to work westward from the known to the unknown. Owing to the 
lateness of the season at which the project was taken up, I started from Calcutta before final 
orders were received from the Home Office. But in consequence of the great delay subse¬ 
quently in procuring elephants, the only practicable carriage in these districts, I was unable to 
leave Cherrapoonji until the 22nd of January. I was, therefore, prevented from carrying 
on the connection of the sections so closely or continuously as I had wished. I had to hurry 
on to the ground where the principal object of research lay. However this unavoidable baste 
may have diminished the scientific results of my season’s work, it has not, I consider, aft'ected 
the judgment I have to give on the practical question proposed. The Circumstances of the 
case are so simple as to admit of a very definite opinion. 
I have examined every coal outcrop in the Garrow Hills of which I could obtain any 
information. They are grouped in two localities; one on the Sumesnrri river, north of 
Shushung -Durgapur in Mymensing, the other in the neighbourhood of Harigaon, at 
the west base of the hills near the Bramahpootra. It is the latter that has chiefly 
attracted attention, as being so favorably situated with reference to the great river and to 
Assam. The former position is more than fifty miles from the Bramahpootra, besides being 
separated from the plains by a zone or belt of hills, ten miles wide, and being on an unnavi- 
gable stream. Both localities are marked on the Revenue Survey maps of Mymensing and 
Goalpara as coal-bearing; and, as far as I am aware, the coal was first brought to notice by 
the surveyors. There can be little doubt, that the same coal is more or less continuous 
between these two localities, and that numerous other outcrops could easily be found by any 
one having a slight knowledge of the rocks; hut, apart from a consideration of the absence 
of any prospect of improvement in the character of the coal, the difficulties of position with 
reference to the means of transport, would rapidly amount to prohibition, even in the case of 
a very good coal, in proceeding eastwards from Harigaon. Alter seeing the section on the 
Sumesurri, and finding that I should have little to occupy me in the outermost hills, 
I wished much to he able to proceed up.the Eitai, and so along the band of coal-bearing 
* It is possible that the Mopani beds, which, however, I have not seen, belong to the upper or Ranigunj 
series, as do, I think, some and perhaps all of the Tench beds also. 
