MISCELLANEOUS NOTICES &C. 
155 
amined in England have yielded results shewing a range of variable¬ 
ness in the quantity of volatile matter of at least 10 per cent. Che- 
mical analyses have also shewn considerable variety. 
Some time ago we received from the honorable Mr. Church a 
specimen of coal from Rettie on the South East Coast of Suma¬ 
tra which had been presented to him by the Sultan of Einga. 
This coal bears a close resemblance externally to that from Junk¬ 
ceylon, and differs from all our other specimens. It is foliated, 
and its fracture in the direction of the folks is minutely rough 
approaching to earthy, being coarser than that of the Junkceylon spe¬ 
cimen. Its fracture is large conchoidal, smooth, and glistening, but 
duller than the other. It burns with a large flame, and with slight 
decrepitation and jets, which are not so brilliant as those of the 
Junkceylon coal. It possesses slight intumescence. It appears to 
he a good open burning coal. 
Volatile matter, 51. 43. 
Charcoal, .... 48. 57. 
Ash,.„... not determined. 
Sp. gr. 1. 23. 
Extract of a letter from the Editor to Professor Ansted, 
dated 6 th, March , 1847* 
But my purpose in now addressing you is to announce a disco¬ 
very as important in its geological as in its economical bearings. 
In July 1S45 our zealous Governor, the Hon’ble Colonel Butter- 
worth, dispatched one of the government steamers to examine a place 
called Gurbie on the west coast of the Peninsula near Junkceylon 
where he had been informed some traces of coal existed. Captain 
Congalton, the Commander of the Steamer, proceeded up the ri¬ 
ver Gurbie without finding any coal, and then proceeded to Temah 
which lies on the coast about three miles to the westward of the 
mouth of the Gurbie. Here he found a low clill which consisted 
1st. of a horizontal layer, visible only at low water, of a black rock 
having some resemblance to coal and varying in thickness from 9 to 
2 inches; 2d of a series of calcareous layers overlying the car¬ 
bonaceous one, each a few inches, and the whole 7 or 8 feet in tnick- 
ness; and 3rd. an upper bed of earth about 11 feet in depth. The 
