essive. Excellent rice grounds exist in abundance between Beesa
Lacoom and Namroop Puthar, but the cultivation of this, as well as of all
the other necessaries, is limited to the quantity absolutely required.
Scarcities of grain are of frequent, indeed almost of annual, occurrence;
and this is chiefly owing to the pernicious influence of opium or Kanee,
to which all our Singphos are immoderately attached. Of the _Mineral_
_Productions_, coal and petroleum were the only ones we met with.

_The coal occupies_ the greater portion of a precipitous part of the
sandstone composing the left bank of the river Namroop. Three large
veins have been completely exposed by the cutting away of the bank. The
coal is I believe of good quality. The river immediately under the veins
is very deep, and were it not for the rapids which intervene between the
site of the mineral and the Booree Dihing, it would be difficult to
conceive a spot affording similar facilities for the transmission of the
mineral. I must however, observe, that even in the dry season the river
is navigable for small canoes as far as the site alluded to. During the
rains no difficulty whatever would be experienced in the carriage, as
rafts might be made on the spot. No use is made of the coal by the
natives, nor did they seem to be aware of its nature.

Of _the Petroleum_ {117} no use whatever is made, although we have
ample experience from its universal use by the Burmese, that it is a
valuable product both as affording light, and preserving in a very great
degree all wooden structures from rot and insects. The springs occur in
four different places, all close to the Puthar: of these three occur on
the low hill which bounds the Puthar to the southern side, and one on the
Puthar itself, at the foot of the range alluded to. The springs are
either solitary, as in that of the Puthar, or grouped, a number together;
the discharge varies extremely from a thin greenish aqueous fluid to a
bluish grey opaque one, of rather a thick consistence: the quantity
poured out by these latter springs is very considerable. On the surface
of all, but especially on these last, an oleaginous, highly inflammable
fluid collects in the form of a thin film. The jungle surrounding the
springs ceases abruptly, the ground around, and among them, being covered
with stunted grass and a few small herbaceous plants. Elephants and
large deer are frequent visitors to the springs; of the former