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of considerable scantling, but the price increases in proportion to the difficulty of conveyance; beams of twenty-two feet long and nine inches square cost six rupees each; but if the Kasyas were furnished with trucks for its conveyance, large timbers might be brought in, at one-fourth of the Calcutta price. The saw is not yet brought into use for cutting planks: a saw-mill might with advantage form part of such a concern as I should recommend to be established at Chirra. The experiments which have hitherto been made in the pucka or terrace roofs of Messrs SARGENT'S and CRACROFT's houses, lead to an opinion that they will not answer at Chirra. Mr. CRACROFT, I believe, has fully adopted this opinion, and expresses a conviction, that permanent buildings will require to be roofed with copper, lead, or spelter; but I am far from coinciding in this conviction,being satisfied that a fair trial has not yet been given to terrace-roofs: those at present existing, which have failed, were constructed too late in the season, and consequently were not sufficiently beaten down and consolidated before the heavy rains set in. Pucka roofs to be effectual at Chirra should be constructed at a pitch of about fifteen degrees; should cover the walls and project so as to form a sort of false verandah from three to four feet beyond them. The composition should be laid on by the middle of December; and the process of beating down should be slowly and regularly persevered in, till a perfect consolidation is obtained. Such a roof I am convinced will answer; and if so, a most important object will have been accomplished, as all the materials are on the spot; whereas, metal for roofs must be brought from Calcutta at great expence, and experienced workmen must also be brought to lay them on, and kept in employ for their occasional repair.

These valuable materials are supplied in exhaustless abundance from a range of hills which run about three miles north and south across the table land, extending between the Sanatarium on the east, and the village of Nunklow on the west. This range rises abruptly to the height of about four hundred feet: its summit is flat, and it is covered from top to bottom, in contradistinction to the surrounding hills, with timber jungle and luxuriant vegetation; its base may cover an extent of six or seven square miles (but this is mere conjecture). At the foot of this range the lime-stone is produced, and at about one-third the distance up, a seam of coal is exhibited of from ten to sixteen feet thick, in various directions, so as to leave no doubt of its extending almost in an horizontal stratum through every part of the range; this seam has been the more easily traced, as there have been slips from all parts of the range, leaving perpendicular gaps, where the various strata composing the structure of the hill lie exposed to a considerable extent of its elevation.

At the foot of one of these gaps or slips it was that I first discovered,

amidst the wide-spreading confusion, large masses of coal. I took Mr. Cracroft to the spot, and his scientific skill enabled him at once to detect the seam from whence these masses were supplied, and to hazard a confident conjecture that it extended throughout the whole range, and this conjecture has been fully verified by discoveries which have since been made. The specimens which have been sent to Calcutta and proved at the mint, and also by the Secretary of the Physical Class of the Asiatic Society, were taken from the heaps of the material which lay exposed to the air and weather. At the time we thought the specimens excellent, and I believe a favorable report was made of them in Calcutta, but we have since ascertained that they are beyond comparison inferior to the coal which has been detached from the seam. This is now in use at Chirra, and is admitted to be of the very finest quality, being largely impregnated with bituminous matter, easily converted into coke, and leaving scarcely any ashes or earthy residue: a specimen shall be forwarded to the Society by an early opportunity. This supply which may be wrought with the greatest facility, and which is not more than one mile distant from the Sanatarium, might be estimated to meet the demand of ages; but it is ascertained that the material exists in all parts of the hills in profuse abundance.

The manner in which the iron ore is obtained and worked is, I believe, fully described in Mr. CRACROFT's paper before alluded to; it therefore only remains for me to state that it may be brought in to any required extent at twenty-five rupees the hundred maunds; twothirds of this price however may be considered as payment for the conveyance. Any means that can be devised to facilitate this, will proportionally reduce the price. I shall forward to the Society by an early opportunity a few seers of the ore, that its quality may be submitted to experimental proof, and I have reason to believe it will be found of the very finest quality.

Coke for smelting iron may be made on the spot to any extent, and charcoal for making steel is abundant and cheap, and a little arrangement in making it will still farther reduce the price.

The pipe-clay of Chirra has I believe been already noticed by Mr. CRACROFT as a valuable commodity in the manufacture of crucibles, furnaces, and fire-bricks.

In the neighbourhood of Chirra there are numerous streams that supply sufficient water in the driest seasons, to work overshot mill wheels, but the river which bounds the Sanatarium on the west and south is decidedly the best that can be selected, from its vicinity to the coal, lime, and charcoal; also to the bazars, and populous village of Chirra Punji. In the course of this stream, from the village of Chirra to that of Moosmai,

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at the edge of the table land, where it plunges over a perpendicular precipice of two thousand feet, there are numerous spots admirably calculated for the construction of water-mills-spots where there are abrupt falls of from ten to twenty feet, and from whence aqueducts might be made to regulate the supply of water required.

When I commenced this sketch it did not occur to me that I should have been led into so much of what may appear tedious detail. I fear I may have almost exceeded the limits allowed, but I shall now conclude by saying, that should the Secretary of the Physical Class, or any other scientific gentlemen from the presidency, feel inclined to visit Chirra, and form their own judgment on the facts I have endeavoured to detail, he or they, should they proceed by a steam-boat, will find at Chattak six hundred maunds of coal for their return-voyage. This supply has been brought down the hill by Mr. Cracroft and myself, expressly with the view of encouraging visitors from Calcutta, in the expectation that the frequent report of competent and disinterested individuals may at length open the eyes of the Government and of the community, to the many advantages, as a sanatary position, and as a highly valuable acquisition, which belong to the hitherto neglected station of Chirra Punji.

V.-Description of the Mode of Extracting Salt from the damp Sand-beds of the River Jumna, as practiced by the Inhabitants of Bundelkhand. By Lieut. J. S. Burt, Engineers.

The operation is performed by three persons, one of whom is employed in collecting a quantity of damp sand, another in preparing a filtering vessel, and filling it, as well as in emptying a receiving vessel of the saline liquid which has been collected, and the third in superintending the boiling of the liquid until it evaporate, and leave a salt at the bottom of the pitcher. The sand selected for the purpose is that which swells up (phulta), or is raised by the solar heat a little above the general surface of the bed, and is generally found near to the stream, where the moist saline particles are alone affected by the sun; however, a quantity of sand becomes intermixed with the salt as it swells into innumerable little hillocks, which vary in size from an inch to three or four inches, or more, in diameter, according to the quantity of saline matter contained in them.

As soon as the gatherer has collected a common ratan-basketful of sand, he conveys it upon his head, and depositing the contents near to the filtering vessel, returns for a fresh supply; then comes the filler. It is however necessary first to describe the manner in which the filtering vessel is set up. The accompanying plan, elevation, and section

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