part £.] 
Annual Report, 186S. 
21* 
up any enquiry in a new and undeveloped district. Mi'. Fryar also, later in the season, visited 
the Ivuvhm'baree coal-field, when Mr. Theo. Hughes pointed out to him the several groups and 
their characteristic lithological characters. Towards the close of the year Mr. Fryar was 
deputed to the Nerbudda valley, and to pass thence southward by C hind wan-a to Nagp ore 
and Chanda, where Government had sanctioned the full and detailed examination by actual 
sinkings and borings of the extent and character of the coal known to exist there. For this 
purpose boring rods of best construction and borers have been despatched from England, 
and the work will be taken in hands at as early a date as possible. Mr. Fryar has submitted 
brief reports on the coal found at Lameta Ghat, Jubbulpore, and on the workings at the 
Nerbudda Coal and Iron Co.’s colliery at Mo pan i. The localities must again be visited by 
some one knowing the Indian rocks. 
I hope that the necessary appliances for boring, &c., which have been sent for, will reach 
this country before it be too late to do any thing this working season. Once commenced, 
the investigations will be carried on systematically, so as to ascertain exactly the full extent 
of area over which the coal beds extend and the thickness and nature of the coal itself. 
The country is much covered with alluvial deposits, and excepting by actual trials it will be 
impossible to say what the extent of the coal-fields may be, while the importance of the 
locality taken in connection with the supply of fuel on the Nagpore branch of the Great 
Indian Peninsula Railway and for other purposes, cannot be over-estimated. 
It has not been found possible, with the reduced number of our staff, dining the present 
season to place any one of the officers of the survey in this part of the country, with a view 
to trace out the extension of the coal-bearing rocks to the south from Chanda, if they do 
so extend. It is probable that the further extension will be traced, although the evidence 
seems tolerably conclusive that there is a continuous diminution in thickness of these rocks as 
they pass to the south; and it is highly probable that they will be found not to extend much 
further than they have been already traced. We know that they have entirely disappeared, 
at about seventy miles in that direction, and steps will be taken at the earliest possible date 
to have the intermediate country examined. Reports of the occurrence of coal have frequently 
been circulated, and recently it is stated to be in some quantity near Domagoodium: 
but these reports have not as yet been confirmed. 
When proceeding to the Ranigunj field, I specially directed Mr. Fryar’s attention to the 
very high importance of inducing, if possible, the colliery proprietors to economize the 
large amount of waste and dust coal which at present is allowed to take fire and bum 
away to no useful purpose at the pits. The peculiar structure of Indian coal renders the 
proportion of this waste, produced in hewing, larger than in coal of a more homogeneous and 
richer character, while the very much greater brittleness of the strings of rich jetty coal 
as compared with that of the tougher laminaj of earthy matter also adds to the proportion 
of the better fuel, which is lost in the waste. I urged on Mr. Fryar to induce some of the 
proprietors to make trial of washing and compressing this waste and dust so as to form bricks 
or cakes of fuel, and mentioned to him the success which had attended some experiments made 
by myself, on the use of common rice water as a medium for agglutinating the mass. Several 
trials were made and many bricks produced from washed waste, and, as I believe, good promise 
of success was established. The system has not, however, as yet recommended itself to the 
proprietors ; they believe that the expense and cost would not be repaid by the result, and 
they have therefore not taken any steps to carry the trials further. 
In the experiments I had myself made years since, and in those which were made by 
Mr. Fr yar during the past year, no sufficient pressure was available. And in consequence, 
although the rice-water appeared to act very successfully, there was much too large a quantity 
of it taken up. The result of this was the comparatively open and uncompressed texture 
of the bricks, and when put on the fire they smouldered away rather than burnt. The 
only pressure used was that of a very inferior brick machine, nor was anything like proper 
attention paid to washing the dust before moulding. 
I am quite confident that a very large amount of most valuable fuel could be with 
profit economized in this field, all, or almost all, of which is at present allowed entirely to go 
to waste. I do not anticipate that it will ever be profitable, under the peculiar circumstances 
of Indian fields, to adopt the suggestions thrown out by some who have never seen these fields, 
of reducing all the coal extracted to fine powder by crushing, then washing, moulding 
