PAKT £.] 
Blanford : Coal at Korda } Bilaspur, 
57 
the coal is firm and massive, and will probably furnish a good roof. The coal appears 
compact, the joints or “ backs” are rather irregular, but still sufficiently marked in general 
to facilitate mining. Some of the very best and brightest coal is as usual rather brittle, 
but the greater portion of' the seam bears carriage well. This bright coal, as I have 
mentioned, makes a very fair coke, and in that state is tar less brittle, besides being much 
lighter and consequently costing less for carriage. The cost of coking in ovens" heated 
by waste coal would he very trifling. 
In consequence of the absence of hands of shale in the overlying sandstone, the 
quantity of water may he rather larger than usual, hut in the small pits dug in the bed 
of the river the coal did not appear in general to be porous. 
In mining a seam of such thickness as this, especially where the proportion of good 
coal is large, if the roof prove as sound as will probably be the case, it will be an important 
economic question whether some more advantageous method of mining cannot be adopted than 
that of removing a small section of the seam, not exceeding twelve feet in height, by “long 
wall” or still worse by “ post and stall,” more especially as it is highly improbable that the 
best hands of coal will be found for any distance on the same horizon, a most serious draw¬ 
back to mining on either of the two English systems mentioned. It would, however, 
be premature to enter into this subject at present, but the methods adopted for extracting 
the thick deposits of lignite or brown coal found in parts of Germany are deserving of 
attention. 
Conclusion .—I have endeavoured to show my reasons for the opinion I have formed as 
to the Korba coal. My conclusions are briefly, that both the quality and mode of occurrence 
are favorable. In thickness, in quality, and in the proportion of good coal to inferior coal 
and shale, the seam surpasses that near Chanda. The question of the extent over which the 
coal extends must be ascertained by boring. 
Camp Kokba, 1 
18 th April 1870. j 
The following table gives the result of assay of the coals referred to in Mr. Stanford's 
report just given :— 
! Carbon. 
Volatile. 
Ash. 
1 Carbon. 
Volatile. 
Ash. 
a 
387 
26'6 
347 
\g 
464 
23’6 
30* 
b 
45'8 
224 
31-8 
h 
575 
252 
173 
c 
423 
252 
325 
h lower 2 ft. * ... 
60’5 
295 
10- 
d 
396 
24-6 
35-8 
i 
i 46-5 
22’2 
31’3 
e 
47-8 
2S'2 
24’ 
j 
53’3 
272 
19’5 
r 
32-8 
214 
45'8 
9 th May 1870. 
DONATIONS TO MUSEUM. 
January 4 th —Specimens of clay, limestone, and hydraulic cement made therefrom.— 
A. Lonsdale, hlsq., Moulmein. 
„ 17 (h. —Copper ore from Tunjee guard near Hevantee. Iron ore and a few minerals 
. from Darjeeling.— Colonel Haltghton. Darjeeling. 
March 23«7.—Copper aud copper ore from Dalinikote.— Colonel Haughton. 
» 30 th. —Specimens of galena from Kulu valley. —J. Calveht, Esq.. it. E. 
,, 30M, —Dilfco ditto from the Phansee Shan Co. J. Andebson, Esq., at. d. 
* Cakes slightly. 
