395 
GEOLOGY AND GEOGRAPHY 
followed up with care, would result in revealing deposits of 
coal hitherto unknown. 
Approaching the head waters of the Attaran river when 
the strata are considrably elevated, with the dip at an angle of 
38°, two separate lines of lignite occur in a coarse sandstone 
conglomerate with shale and a semi-indurated blue clay con¬ 
taining limestone pebbles. This lignite is highly pyritous, its 
decomposition affording a copious deposit ot sulphate of iron 
which covers the exposed surface with a dirty-colored efflo¬ 
rescence. Some of the pieces taken from the deposit retain 
their original characteristics, do not fracture, and may be sawn 
through in sections across the grain, the same as wood imper¬ 
fectly carbonized. Other deposits of wood less changed than 
the foregoing are found in the banks of the rivers Dagvue and 
Gyrie some 20 to 30 miles to the northeast of Maulmain, cov¬ 
ered with the same blue clay as that already noticed, but none 
possess any useful quanlity as a combustible material. 
Further to the southward and cut through the centre by 
the course of the Tenasserim river, the carboniferous strata 
are more prominently developed, and upon its numerous tri¬ 
butaries, as also upon those o( the little Tenasserim, out-crops 
of coal are found. This portion of the Provinces, commen¬ 
cing from the head waters of the Tenasserim river to the 
eastward of Tavoy, and extending to the boundary river 
Pak-chan comprising nearly 129 miles of latitude, may be 
said to form an entire carboniferous system, or succession of 
coal basins, enclosed on its east side by the boundary range 
of primitive mountains, and on the west to the latitude of 
Mergui by the ranges of secondary hills, which terminate at 
that point on the sea coast; throughout this space a regular 
alternation of limes, shales and sandstone occur ; the latter in 
Some instances having the impression of leaves, but no fossils 
either in the limestones or the accompanying deposited strata 
have as yet been discovered. 
Specimens of the rocks from the banks of the small rivers 
which discharge themselves into the sea below Mergui, shew 
that the same system of coal measures exists uninterruptedly 
to the sea; and as the Islands of the Archipelago are sepa¬ 
rated from the main only by shallow mud channels, it may 
reasonably be expected that within the numerous groups, 
forming the Archipelago, several beds of coal lie exposed at 
the surface, which require but careful investigation to bring 
to useful application; but until the attention of Government 
be directed to the important subject, and this be done with a 
spirit of scientific research commensurate with its value, the 
