CHAPTER XIII.
The Singareni Collieries.
Coal mining being one of the most important industries in Hyderabad State, I was anxious to visit the Singareni collieries at Yellandu, and journeyed to Dornakal Junction, which has become quite a busy place since the adjacent coalfields brought it into prominence. There was no available train from Dornakal to Yellandu before midnight, and then, after an hour's journey, I reached a dark little station, where I was advised to sleep in the railway carriage until daybreak. The jabber of coolies woke me before the sun was up, and the servant said that these people had been waiting on the platform all night in the hope of carrying my traps to the Rest House, and that I must walk there, because Yellandu possesses no public conveyance of any sort. The distance was not great, and, followed by a crowd of men and women, who fought for my things and seemed to talk a dozen languages, I reached in a few minutes the best Rest House
