Page:Burke, W.S. - Cycling in Bengal (1898).djvu/36

 Railway. It is now one of the principal seats of the district trade. The chief industries are, besides coal mining, Messrs. Burn & Co.'s potteries and the Bengal Paper Mills. The former adjoin the hotel, the latter are a little way out over a road which, as the Irishman said of his coat, is "jist a lot av holes shtrung togither."

We are not going to loiter here longer than it takes to have breakfast and a smoke, as it happens, so regaining the main road we make for Assansol, fifteen miles ahead. The road on this section cannot be called good. The ground is still undulating, but the necessity to pick our way deprives us of much of the fun of the down grades. Scenery there is none; but coal pits, chimneys, smoke, carts, and semi-nude Kols abound, and there is a thick coating of soot on most things, especially on the aborigines of these parts. To select an average specimen, and try the effect of a Turkish bath on him, would open up fields for experiment we cannot now stop to consider. We don't stop to consider anything just here except the milestones, and when we shall reach Assansol. We get there at last and find it a big place with well kept roads, fine brick buildings, model compounds, three or four churches, a big bazaar and any amount of life and bustle round and about the Railway Station where we alight.

Originally a small and unknown village, Assansol is now, owing to its situation in the Raneegunge coal fields, a very important centre. It possesses a Roman Catholic school and convent. It has also one of the largest locomotive engine sheds in the world, and is the junction of the East Indian and Bengal-Nagpur