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MEMOIRS 

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 

INDIA. 



MEMOIRS 

OF THE 

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 

"OF 

INDIA. 

VOL. III. 

PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR GENERAL OF INDIA 
IN COUNCIL, 

UNDER THE DIRECTION OF 

THOMAS OLDHAM, LL. D.,. 

Fellow of the Royal and Geological Societies of London ; Member of the Royal Irish Academy » 
Hon. Mem, of the Leop-Carol. Academy of Sciences; of the Isis, Dresden, dc., dc. 

SUPERINTENDENT OF THE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA. 

SaaS 
Col ON 
< MAR I 1882 5 
TS A a 
s AM TUN dd 
‘CALCUTTA: | AM. 
PRINTED FOR THE GOYERNMENT OF INDIA. 

SOLD BY 
THACKER, SPINK & CO, R. C. LEPAGE & CO., G. C. HAY & CO, 
THACKER & CO, BOMBAY,—PHARAOH & CO., MADRAS, 
WILLIAMS AND NORGATE, LONDON, 

MDOCOCLXY, 



CONTENTS. 

Page. 
Art. 1.— On the Geological Structure and Relations of the RANIGANI 
Coar Fern, Bencar. By WirniaM T. BLANFORD, F. G. S 

Geological Survey of India fae QT eo 
Preliminary Notice — ... 00 e V. 
Parr I. Goology of Raniganj Field. 
Chap. History of the Geology 200 300 se onc i 
i General Topography and Geology Son 500 e 24 
III. The Talchir Group ... o6 000 oco G6. BP 
IV. $& 1 ‘The Damúda Series ... ves G00 r9, 
»  §. 2. Lower Damáda Group ose dco « 46 
» 8$ 3. Ironstone Shales 900 000 ove p60» ra 
» §. 4 Réaniganj Group ne 900 aco oco ^ V 
V. Panchét Group $e. obo . 126 
VI. Relations of the Panchét Group obc oco .. 132 
VII. Beds above the Panchét Group 000 eee .. 138 
VIII. ‘Trap dykes and intrusions PA occ i oo dll 
IX, Faults ase dm DOO O60 ave 12149 
Part II. Coal Mines, 
Chap. I. History of Collieries one 60 oco e, 154 
» 1l. Mode of working, &c. cn 500 doc oo | T 
Parr III, Economic Geology. Summary Ws 500 .. 186 

Art. I1.—Additional Remarks on the Geological Relations and Au 
Geological Age of the several systems of Rocks in Central 
India and Bengal, by THomas OLDHAM, L.L. D., F. R. S., 
Superintendent of Geological Survey of India vee LOVE 

ArT. III.—Inpian MINERAL Statistics. I. Coar goo 215 
(Issued, September, 1861.) 
ArT. 1V.—On the Geological Structure and Relations of the Southern 
portions of the HIMALAYAN ranges, between the Rivers 
Gaxazs and Raves, by H. B. MEDLICOTT, A. B., F. G. S., 

Geological Survey of India i) occ Sn. B 
Page. 
CHAP. I. General description of Area and Rocks .. ano 000 53 1 
» II. The Himalayan Series oco oco TO 
55 III. The Sub-Himalayan Series—Subathu Groups 000 wa 94 
" IV. Nahun and ae Groups «. c - eo OT 
» V. Post-Sivalik deposits 000 bug 500 .. 152 
» VI. Generalstructure of Hills ove see occ ono .. 160 
» VII. Economic Geology  ... o bc Sec dU) 
Appendix.—On Theories of mountain formation. coo doo ds 

: (Issued, May, 1864.) 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS, &c. 

Mars. 
Geological Map of the Rániganj Coal Field. Scale one inch = 
one mile eee T -. to face p. 196 
Geological Map of the Sub- Hisilayon Country etaten the Gates 
and the Ravee. Scale one inch = eight miles 6co .. Part II. 206 
PLATES. 
Comparative Sections of Coal seams near Rániganj. Scale one inch — 
6 feet Ja M ». o 

Part 1I, Plate I. Junction of iie Sivalik "did N uis Groups in Page I 
the Markunda "A of Part II, 

» U. View, looking south-west from E of the 

Jumna, the Dehra, and Kiarda duns, and the 

Sivalik Hills vate o6 ono 112 
» III. George of the Tons, near Bastil  ... Es 158 
Diagrams, &c. 

Raniganj Field. Page. 

Figure 1. Diagram Section of the Talchir rocks, north of Taldanga oo DE 

» 2. Sketch Section of Talchir rocks, near Jamiari - oo ga 35 

» 9. Diagram Section of rocks near Paharpur... z e 96 

» 4: Section of rocks near Jain temples of Bagonia m 242 

»» 9% Sketch Section of the Lower Damuda rocks near Samdi ` e. 01 
» 6. Sketch showing the supposed relations of the Rániganj and Sirsól 

Collieries cod see ET occ xo € 

» 7. Sketch Section of the Damulia Coal de dx aco he 

» 8. Section of anticlinal and fault near Marulia oc S20 

» 9. Dykethrown without a fault near Bongha zr oe. 143 

» 10. Diagram showing mode of working at Raniganj Colliery e. 164 

Sub- Himalayan Rocks. 
Figure 1. Skeleton plan showing the position and relations of the main 

ranges of the Himalaya, between long. 75? and 79? 30' a. 9 
^ 9. Diagrammatic Section of Sub-Himalayan zone $ed Rm uar qe 
» 29. Section of the Krol and Boj Mountains ... hrs 44 194 
» 4. Section approximately along Simla watershed eve 02 
» 5. Section showing mode of fracture and contortion of the slates, 

north of Kundah Ghat  ... M Wee Ha ST 
» 6. Conjectural Section of the Chor Mountain Shc 32047 
» 4, Section from Simla northwards across the valley of the Sutlej ... 52 
» 8. Section of the Dhaoladhar, north of Kangra obo ons 68 
» 9. Section through ridge at Sabathu oon occ vw 79 
» 10. Section at Dundelee, Poonch Valley eile a © 90 
» 11. Possible original relation of Nahun and Sivalik E ew 104 

» 12. Section at Nahun .. aoc re T coe 106 


vil 

Figure 13. Section of contact, south of Tib oe d 2 .. 108 
» 14. Original junction of succeeding deposits et oo zoo LOG 
„ 16. Possible effects of compression in producing folded flexure and 

apparent reverse faulting ... res oe ee 410 
„ 16. Section at Simbuwala 508 ate pee Lh 
» 17. Sectionat Una ... ee ore eee ve 140 

Appendix. 

„ 18. Area of special elevation (after Hopkins) eom wea 192 
„ 19. Cross-section of same area at the moment of fracture, (Ditto) ec 193 
a 20. Subsequent condition of same area (Ditto) .. ib. 
„ 21. Cross-section of the Wealden area (Ditto) ... ib. 
, 22. General Section of the Appalachian Mountains, (Rogers) .. 195 
„ 23. Reverse fault along a folded anticlinal flexure, (Ditto) r OS 
„ 24. Generalized Section of the Alps, (Rogers) ve 347090198 
, 25. Generalized Section of the Rocky Mountains, (Hector) 60:201 
» 26. Generalized Section of the Andes (D. Forbes) 2 ^. 202 

I desire to take this public opportunity of correcting an error, into which I regret 

much I was led by a mistaken impression which I received in conversation. 

At page 198, 

I have stated that Mr. Rupert Jones had identified the Mangali crustaceans as Estheria 

minuta. 
quently published. 

ERRATA, 

This was not the fact, as appears more fully in Mr. Jones’ own papers, subse- 

-T, OLDHAM. 

It not unfrequently happens that these Memoirs are unavoidably printed during the 
absence of the writer, or of myself, from Calcutta, when the needful facilities for correcting 
the proofs cannot be secured. The reader is requested to make the following corrections :— 

Page 14, line 15 for 
2 5 a & 25 3 
45, » 29 » 
71, last line l í 
72, first line Je 
75, last line but one 
86, line 9 5 
86, » 18 33 
89, 7 1 23 
92, » 24 Dr 
95, » 9 3» 
102, D 20 » 
106, last line 55 
118, line 3 qm 
119, ,, 20 ie 
0139: 5955 1 T 
137, 1 5 
142, ,, 27, 28, 29 $5 
148, ,, 6 from bottom ,, 
157, » 16 » » 
165, » 8 » » 
172, 33 16 33 » 
isi, 4 

33 33 

Beal read 53. 
Railyádi »  Bailyádi. 
this Report » the Report. 
405 » 905 
» Black carbonaceous Shales 
and Ironstones oo. 20 
Lower Damidas. 
0 0 P 0. 0}. 
24 5 » 24 5. 
Diguala »  Dignala. 
260 » 28i 
light » bright, 
East 109—209? West, East 10°—20° North, 
W. N. W. » W.S. W. 
No »  dhe. 
Bara » Bora. 
Rajmahal »  Raniganj. 
unfossiliferous » fossiliferous. 
where East occurs ,, West and vice versa. 
latter » later. 
proprieters » proprietors. 
finer » firmer. 
5 to 6 pie » 5 to 6 pice, 
Gushik »  Gushin. 

On the map, a small isolated portion of *Rániganj' rocks, in the extreme east of the 
map, close to River Adjai, and between the villages of Samla and Bhonri,has been erro- 

neously coloured as Lower Damuda. 


PRELIMINARY NOTICE. 

THE following Report on the Rániganj coal field, by Mr. W. T. 
Blanford, is the result of an examination of that important district, 
made during 1858-60. 

When, in 1856, the duties of the Geological Survey in India were 
systematized and extended, it was determined to confine, so far as 
possible, the attention of the Geologists attached to the survey to 
such portions of the country as had been surveyed and mapped, 
either by the Great Trigonometrical, or by the Revenue, Surveys and 
of which, consequently, maps existed sufficiently detailed and accurate 
for the record of the Geological observations. It was hoped, that in 
this way, the time of those engaged in the Geological examination of 
the country which had been previously devoted to the preparation of 
such maps, would be saved. Acting on this principle, this very 
important and interesting coal field had been passed over, because no 
maps of it had been published by the Surveys in India. It was well 
known to myself and to others of the Geological Survey of India, who 
had, in the progress of their labors, crossed this field, that there were 
many points of great interest, which called for further elucidation, 
and several which demanded important corrections, in the Report and 
Map of Mr. "Williams, who bad geologically examined this field in 
1845-47. But these had all been reserved until the completion of a 
map of the country by the Revenue Survey. Towards the close, 
however, of the year 1858, the great demand for increased Railway 
accommodation from the proprietors of colheries, and the desire to 
open out this valuable mineral district more fully than had already 
been the case, led to an enquiry from the Geological Survey, on the 
part of the Government, for information as to the actual sites of the 

collieries at work on the field, the value of these, and the best direc- 


vi PRELIMINARY NOTICE. 

tion for an extension of the line of Railway adapted to meet the 
increasing demand for coal, and for its conveyance to market. | 

The usual working season of 1858-59 had already considerably 
advanced, when, in compliance with this desire on the part of Govern- 
ment, Messrs. W. Blanford and W. L. Willson, then both engaged in 
Birbhim, were requested to take up the examination of this field. It 
was my object to secure, if practicable, during that season, an examin- 
ation of the whole of the more important part of this field. And this 
was to a very great extent accomplished. Early in 1859, I went 
myself over all the most productive parts of the field, and then reported 
to the Government on the matters referred specially for my consider- 
ation. <A large portion of the district, however, was necessarily left 
unvisited, including all lying south of the River Damüda. The examin- 
ation of this was resumed in the next working season, 1859-60, by 
Mr. W. Blanford alone.* He also re-visited all the other parts of the 
field, and by the close of the working season in May 1860, he had com- 
pleted the field-work of the entire district. During the monsoon of 
that year, this Report and the Map were prepared; and in the early 
part of 1861 the entire field was re-visited by myself, and the Map 
carefully checked. 

This is the first Map which the Geologieal Survey in India has 
issued on the larger scale of 1-inch to the mile, on which scale, 
however, all our field-work, is recorded, wherever the maps exist. It 
would, in this case, have been impossible to have given all the detail 
which Mr. Blanford has carefully entered on his map, on a smaller, 
and the importance of the field would fully justify even a larger, 
scale than this. 

This being also the first instance in which the maps of the Geolo- 
gical Survey refer to districts of which no authorized map has yet 

butasthese gentlemen were new and untrained assistants, their aid was not of much 

importance, 


PRELIMINARY NOTICE. vil 

been published by the Government Surveys, I have felt myself at 
liberty, without interfering with such maps, to adopt that system for 
the transliteration of native names for localities, which is in use by the 
great Trigonometrical Survey. This is fundamentally the system of 
Sir William Jones. It is not assumed that the names on this map 
will in all cases be found correctly spelled, even on that system. There 
are great, and indeed almost insurmountable difficulties where, as in the 
case of the Geological Survey, the only knowledge of the names of 
places can be acquired from the illiterate natives, no two of whom 
will probably pronounce the name even of their own village in exactly 
the same way. But still it is hoped that the present will be found an 
improvement on all former maps of this district, as regards the ortho- 
graphy of the names. 

That there is really no great difficulty in arriving at the correct 
spelling of the names of all places in any part of the country, I have 
been satisfied long since, and I may give an instance here which will 
elucidate this. The name, Panchét, which will be found to recur so 
frequently in the following pages, was found spelled indifferently 
on previous maps, as follows; Pachate, Pachet, Panchete, Panchooit, 
Pachite, Pachit. Even the same word is on one map spelled Pachet 
when applied to the hill, and Panchooit when applied to the village 
close by. Mr. Blanford corrected the spelling into Panchit, giving the 
true sound of the first syllable. But feeling satisfied that for a name 
so well known there must be some acknowledged and admitted deriva- 
tion, and therefore some established and correct mode of spelling, 
I applied for information to Baboo Rajendralalá Mittra, whose pro- 
found knowledge of Bengali and Sanscrit is well known, and he at 
once stated that the name was supposed, by most persons, and among 
others by the Rajah of the place, to be derived from Pancha kota, or 
five forts—but that in an old Sanserit book he found it stated to be 
taken from Pancha kuta or five peaks, from the hills adjoining. Zn 


vill PRELIMINARY NOTICH. 

either case the correct spelling of the word would undoubtedly be 
Panchét, the n being nasal and only slightly sounded. This spelling 
has, of course, been adopted. Numerous other cases might be cited, 
showing how easy it would be to arrive at, and fix, once for all, the 
true spelling of the ordinary names of places, and how easy it would 
then be to transliterate these names according to any fixed system. 
An attempt has been made in the accompanying map to do this uni- 
formly on the system adopted by the Trigonometrical Survey of India, 
and thus to avoid the confusion of names which arises from the use 
of two totally different, and in many respects opposing systems, by the 
two authorized Survey establishments of the country. In the present 
case, this does not interfere with any official maps, as none such exist, 
excepting for a small portion of the eastern end of the field. 

A few remarks have been added to Mr. Blanford's report, supple- 
mentary to the paper already published in the second volume of these 

Memoirs, on the Geological age of these Indian rocks. 

I gladly take this opportunity of offering publicly the best thanks of 
the Geologieal Survey to the Proprietors of the several colheries, their 
Agents in the field, and Secretaries, for the kindly aid which they 
afforded during the progress of the examination of this field. For a 
considerable portion of the valuable information detailed herein, the 
Geological Survey is indebted to them. 

T. OLDHAM. 

Calcutta, June 1861. 


MEMOIRS 

OF THE 

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA, 

On the Geological Structure and Relations of the RANIGANI COAL 

FrELD, BENGAL. By WiLLIAM T. BLANFORD, F. G. S. Geological 
Survey of India. 

PART I. 

GEOLOGY OF THE RANIGANJ FIELD. 

CHAPTER I.—Shetch of previous knowledge of the Geology of the Field. 

Lone after the Geology of other portions of India had attracted the 
attention of Voysey, Newbold, Franklin, and other observers, and even 
after considerable progress had been made in classifying the rocks 
of the central and Southern portions of the Peninsula, the formations 
of Bengal remained almost completely unnoticed. This appears 
especially surprising in the case of the district of coal-bearing 
rocks, known as the Panchét (Pachete) , or Burdwan, or Beerbhoom, or 
Damáda, and now more generally as the Raniganj, field, since coal was 
known to occur there so long ago as 1774, and was actually worked in 
1777, while in 1830, when only a single most imperfect account of 
its Geology existed, several collieries of considerable extent were 
flourishing. Until 1845, whena regular Geological Survey was under- 
taken, no general account of the formations existed, which had the least 

Memoirs of Geological Survey of India, Vol. IIL, Art I. 


2 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Cuap. I. 

claim to accuracy ; and the only notices which had appeared were the 
following :— 

The earliest mention of the field appears to be in a paper by 

Decl by ME Mr. Jones, who first opened mines in 1815, at 
dones, TSE Rániganj itself, though other collieries had previ- 
ously existed in various places more to the West ; one, at Damália, being 
not more than a mile distant. This paper appears in the XVIIIth 
- volume of the Asiatic Researches, page 163, and was published in 1829, 
but was written several years before, about 1817. It is entitled **.Des- 
cription of the North-West Coal District, stretching along the River 
Damisda, from the neighborhood of Jeria or Juriagerh, to below Kanam- 
pár* ; in the Pergunnah of Sheargerh, forming a line of about 65 miles." 
The accompanying map, however, does not include Juriagerh in the 
coal formation, which is represented as only extending about two-thirds 
of that distance. The principal portion of the paper is devoted to an 
account of the Raniganj seam, and of the various circumstances 
noted in sinking shafts for the mine. Some peculiar anomalies in the 
dips, which appear to have considerably puzzled Mr. Jones, were 
doubtless due, in the first place, to the sandstone being false-bedded ; 
and, secondly, to the shafts being sunk in the immediate neighborhood 
of two or three faults. Mr. Jones concluded that the general dip of 
the beds, which was South-east in the neighborhood of Réaniganj, 
wheeled to the North-east at the shafts, and he speculated upon the 
probabilities of coal being found at Kutwa on the Húgli, and of its 
underlying the alluvium of Bengal, which he supposes to be of no great 
thickness. It is evident that Mr. Jones's explorations were confined 
to the immediate neighborhood of Rániganj, since otherwise he could 
scarcely have failed to observe that the dip of the strata at Rániganj 

* This is probably Serampür, a village on the Damüda, South of Andál, close to which 
sandstones are seen. 


Cuar. I.] HISTORY OF GEOLOGY. 3 

is quite exceptional, a Southerly dip being the prevalent one elsewhere ; 
and it is probable that, in a great measure, he depended upon native 
information for the accounts of the extension of the field. Atany thing 
like a description of the coal formation there is no attempt in the paper. 
In May 1831 appeared a short notice of Geological Observations 
made on a Journey from Calcutta to Ghazipúr, 
Rey. R. Everest, 1831. 

by the Réverend R. Everest.* He went across 

from Banctreh (Bancoorah) to Rániganj, and briefly notices the 
coal pits. He alludes distinctly to the remarkable facts connected 
with the burnt out-crop of the Rániganj seam, and describes it as an 
outburst or eruption, somewhat like a volcanic eruption—“ There has 
** been a small eruption on the side of the hill, probably occasioned by the 
* spontaneous combustion of the coal strata beneath. Blocks of a porous 
“lava, with pieces of hard slate imbedded in them, of semi-vitrified slate 
“sticking together, of burnt shale, red and white, and scoriæ, are 
* mingled in a mass not less than 130 yards across, and in some places 
* from 12 to 14 feet thick.” The whole, or nearly so, appears to have 
burst forth in a line of rents under the crest of the hill, &c. &c., and he 
adds:—** Some time ago, in the main bed of coal, 75 feet below the surface, 
* the workmen had reached to within 30 yards of the Western end of 
* what I have described as a line of rents, when a quantity of what they 
'** called cinders burst in upon them, and nearly filled the gallery in which 
* they were,and whichhas been abandoned in consequence. Cinders they 
* are not, but merely burnt shale, such as would be produced by heating 
e shale in the open air.” He describes the bed of coal then worked as 
8 or 10 feet thick, and thinks it probable that it was * the main bed 
in the formation,”—notices the peculiar structure of the coal with “ an 
appearance of woody fibre” on the laminsz,—refers to the vegetable 
remains, thinking they may be ranked under the same genera as those 

from the English coal measures, and specially notices the impressions of 

* Gleanings in Science, Vol. III., page 129. 


4 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Onar. I. 

the Vertebraria, which, he thinks, was a reed, and which he says is charac- 
teristic of the formation. He notices the occurrence of calcareous bands 
of sandstone; but the very limited extent of acquaintance with the 
field at that time may be judged from his statement, that “no dykes have 
yet been observed to cut the coal strata.” He speaks of the Pachete Hills 
as “three cones which from their shape must be trap," and speculates 
on the probability of finding dykes proceeding from them,—alludes to 
the occurrence of hot springs, and concludes his brief notices, by stating 
that little was known of the extent or boundaries of this formation. 
Dr. Forbes Royle, in the introduction to the “Illustrations of the 
Botany, &c., of the Himalayan Mountains,” pub- 
pl mo lished in 1839, briefly mentions, page 29, the 
coal formation of Chinnakooree (Chinaküri) and gives a section of 
the beds from Chinaküri to Pachete (Panchét) Hill. The section is 
slightly inaccurate, inasmuch as the junction of the stratified rocks 
and gneiss South of Panchét is not shown to bea fault : but otherwise itis 
correct, and it is singularly so in one respect; Panchét Hill, which has 
most unaecountably been deseribed by others, and even by Mr. Williams 
(see below), as metamorphic or igneous, being by Dr. Royle correctly laid 
down, not only as of conglomerate and sandstone, but also as of a 
distinct series from the rest of the field. In the same work occur 
representations of some of the fossils obtained in the Damáda formation, 
viz., Vertebraria Indica, V. radiata (probably identical with the first), 
Trizygia speciosa, Pecopteris Lindleyana, and Glossopteris ( Teniopteris, 
or, according to some, Pecopteris) daneoides—all first named and figured 
in the work referred to. 
De la Beche, in his Geological Manual, briefly notices this field, 
gy s ' but, as might be expected, his observations are 
only a repetition of those previously recorded by 

Mr. Everest and others, and some facts contributed by Dr. F. Royle* 

Geological Manual (3rd edition, 1833), page 399. 


Cuap. I] HISTORY OF GEOLOGY. 5 

The first Report of the ** Committee for investigating the coal 
and mineral resources of India," appeared in 
1838. ` The account of the ** Burdwan and Adji 

field" is little more than a repetition of Mr. Jones's paper, with some 

Pd 
Coal Committee, 1838. 

information concerning coal in the neighborhood of the Adjai obtained 
from Mr. Erskine. So little was the value of the field known and 
appreciated at this time, although Calcutta was even then largely -sup- 
plied from it, that it was considered as second in importance to the 
Sylhet field. It appears strange that a tract so near Calcutta should 
have been so little investigated by the Committee, although they were 
supplied with information on many points by Messrs. Homfray and 
Erskine. The value of that supplied by the former will be mentioned 
below, but Mr. Erskine appears to have directed attention to several 
localities previously unreported. 

This Report of the Committee added nothing to the previously exist- 
ing knowledge of the Geology of the field, and but little more to the 
information available as to its resources.: Even the letter from Mr. 

vom eene Homfray to the Collector of Burdwan, dated 
1841, and which is published as a foot-note to 
the Committee's Report of 1845, contains information as to several 
important localities where coal was worked, or had been worked, 
(Mangalpár, Damália, Deziragurh, Narrainpár (or Nádia), Barrákara 

(Chánch, &c.,) which are completely ignored in the text of the Report. 
Ibis singular to find that the Committee, who would seem almost sys- 
tematically to have exaggerated all accounts of distant coal fields, should 
have so much neglected the far more valuable deposits in the neighbor- 
hood of Calcutta; but this may be partly explained by the circumstance 
that one cause of their being appointed was the difficulty of carriage by 
the River Damiida, and the desirability of obtaining coal from some 
district more easy of access. 

In 1842, Mr. J. Homfray, already mentioned as the informant of 


6 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Cnar. I. 

the Coal Committee, and who was at that time the manager of 
Messrs. Jessop and Co.’s colliery of Narrainkiri, 
contributed “ A description of the coal field of the 
* Damüda Valley, and the adjacent countries of Bheerbhoom and Poo- 

Mr. J. Homfray, 1842. 

* rooleeah, as applicable to the present date, 1842,” to the Journal 
of the Asiatic Society of Bengal.* This is the first published general 
account of the Rániganj field, and it lays down the boundaries with 
tolerable correctness, except that the coal-bearing rocks are said 
to extend up the Damáda to an unknown distance, thus making 
the Jeria field and those South of Hazáribágh parts of one great 
basin, whereas they are separated by wide intervening tracts of meta- 
morphic rocks. The geological statements, however, are, for the most 
part, erroneous. For instance, Mr. Homfray states that there are only 
two workable seams of coal in the field: 1s£, that worked at Narrain- 
kúri, Rániganj, Chinakári (Salinchi), and on the Barákar and Küdia 
streams; and, 2nd, a lower seam worked at the old Chinaküri mine and 
Barmári, on the Barákar. It has long since been proved by Mr. 
Williams, that this statement was absurd, and, indeed, the most limited 
geological knowledge and the most superficial observation should have 
sufficed to show the distinctness of the coal seams worked at Ráni- 
ganj and at Narrainküri, within half a mile of each other. Again 
Mr. Homfray declares the Salma trap dyket to be a great fault, 
and that the * upheave is evidently to the North-east.” Nothing 
can be clearer than the total absence of any “ throw" whatever. One 
more instance will suffice. Mr. Homfray says, page 725, ** At some 
«c distance up the Damüda River, on the South-west bank, is the 
** great hill of Pachete, from which innumerable dykes issue, and all 
* around its base and between it and the river, a space of about 
* 4 miles, the country, although abounding in coal, is full of these 

« dislocations.” Itis curious that the country between Panchét (Pachete) 

* Volume XL, page 723. ] Page 725. 


Cuar. I.] HISTORY OF GEOLOGY. 7 

Hill and the river is perhaps more free from trap dykes than any 
other portion of the whole field, and there are no indications of an 
unusual amount of faulting. The hill itself, as already mentioned, is of 
sandstone. 

A second paper, published by Mr. Homfiay in 1847, is merely a 
recapitulation of his former errors. Beyond 
Mr. Homfray, 1847. 
some details of the extent of the field, neither 

paper contains any information of value. 
A few remarks by Dr. Hooker occur at Volume I., page 7 of his 
ee ee Himalayan Journals*; they, however, simply 
refer to the uncertainty of all determinations of the 
age of rocks, when dependent solely upon the evidence of fossil plants. 
Previously to the final Report of the Committee in 1845, there had 
a been but little addition to the information, and 
the Committee then expressed the want of any 
thing like a regular account of the beds of coal in the field. The 

subjoined list of coal localities was given (page 103) :— 

A mile from the junction of the 7 feet. 

[ 1 Singharun River IS 
| 2 Barracara Burmiry Village . — 8 or9 feet. 
Damooda 43 Raneegunge . .. 7 miles above Singharun Nulla ... ^ 9 feet. 
4 .. 5 miles above Raneegunge d VS 
5 Chinakúri 5 miles below the confluence of 7 
the Barracara River n 

“| of a mile from the South bank a 
(6 Churalya es She Adji m 6 , 

Bb or P Mohee sauna North bank of the Adji, 1 of a 

mile from the river Lo anii » 
8 Mammudpore ... i 2 coss South of Seedpür Ghat ... pui 

With reference to these, the information regarding No. 1 is probably 
incorrect—no seam is knownin any such locality. Perhaps Mangalpür 
is referred to, but this place is stated in a note by Mr. Homfray to be 

5 miles from the Damida. The bed at No. 2, Barmuri, is nearer 

* Edition of 1855. 


8 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Cnar. I. 

20 feet thick in reality—that at Ránigan) is 13 feet, not 9. No. 4, 
although no name is here given, is evidently intended for Salma (see 
page 149), where a bed of 7 feet was stated to occur ; but Mr. Homfray 
failed to reach it, although he sank to a depth of more than 200 feet. It 
is doubtful if any such seam occur in thelocality. The bedat Churalya, 
No. 6, has not hitherto been worked to any extent, but was opened 
out last year—that at Moheednuggur is probably the coal now known 
at the Kásta quarries ; but the seam there is above 30 feet thick. No. 8, 
Mammudpore, is Mahamudpár, near Chokidánga, 
In 1845 and 1846 the Rániganj coal field was first carefully exa- 
Mr. D. H. Williams, mined, mapped, and reported upon. Mr. D. H. 
1847. Williams, whohad been attached to the Geological 
Survey of Great Britain, and had, in connection with it, been engaged 
in the examination of the South Wales coal fields, was appointed 
Geological Surveyor to the Honorable East India Company, and was 
dispatched to Bengal, wherehe arrived in 1845. His Report,* dated 7th 
December 1847, was not published till 1850, after his death, and it was 
printed in England. It is full of type errors, especially as regards 
names of places. It is, moreover, by no means clearly written, and 
ed so deficient in arrangement as to be almost 
unintelligible to any one unacquainted with the 
‘district. But, considering the circumstances under which the Report 
was printed and published, these defects are scarcely chargeable to 
Mr. Williams. On the other hand, the statements are, for the most 
part, accurate; the various rocks are well and clearly described, 
and, in general, the relations of the different beds to each other are 
correctly made out. It will, however, be necessary to point out in 
some detail what errors existed in Mr. Williams’s Report. 

* A Geological Report on the Damoodah Valley, by D. H. Williams, Esq., London. 
Printed by order of the Court of Directors. This Report was subsequently reprinted in 
Calcutta, 1853. 


Cmar. I.] HISTORY OF GEOLOGY. 9 

The Geological map, which also bears the date of 1847, was published 
i. in India, together with some horizontal sec- 
NR UL tions, and a vertical section of the whole of the 
strata contained in the field. Of the map, considering that the topo- 
graphical and geological work was necessarily carried on at the same 
time, it is difficult to speak too highly. The boundaries are mostly 
true and well mapped; the coal seams correctly laid down. The sec- 
tions, however, show what is also evidenced by the Report, that Mr. 
Williams, while he clearly understood, and satisfactorily explained, 
many of the geological problems presented by the field, still remained 
in error on several points of detail Although he clearly saw the rela- 
tions of beds to each other in particular localities, he did not recon- 
struct the general section accurately, and he was occasionally misled 
by applying his English experience too literally in the explanation of 
the various phenomena which he observed. But his Report is of so 
much importance, both in consequence of the large amount of detailed 
information which it contains, and also of its being the only account of 
d EUREN the Rániganj field on which any reliance could 
be placed, that a recapitulation of its contents is 
essential, in order to show what knowledge existed on the subject of 
the coal field of the Damüda before the commencement of. the present 
survey. 
The Report commences with a description of the physical geography 
M M s of the district. This is followed by an account 
of the gneiss and metamorphic, or, as Mr. Williams 
terms them, “the inferior stratified rocks," perhaps the least accurate 
portion of the whole Report. It commences thus :— 
* The lithological composition of those ranges which environ the coal 
* field is as follows :—On the North side of Telindah Village, in the bed 
* of the Damoodah River, the rocks are constituted of nodular syenitic 

“ greenstone, arranged in four parallel bands, separated from each other 
B 

‘ 
t 


10 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. - [Cuap. I. 

“ by thick beds of light-grey felspar, both soft and decomposed ; these 
** beds appear to me to compose the contents of the great South or.boun- . 
«dary fault. Proceeding to the West, in the direction of Telindah or 
« Medjeah, these trappean beds are composed of compact contempora- 
“neous conglomerate, with a brownish-grey base, containing large 
“rounded boulders and pebbles of quartz and granite of various colors, 
' * and occasionally pebbles of jasper and fragments of mica-schist : pieces 
“ of a similar conglomerate are found along the whole line of the great 
* South fault, up to the base of Pachete Hills.” 
his is in several points erroneous, it represents the “ great South 
or boundary fault” as being composed of “ nodular syenitic greenstone,” 
&e. The rocks South of the fault are frequently hornblendie, and some- 
times syenitic, but the fault itself is a mere crack, despite its enormous 
throw. It does not even contain a breccia, as is the case with many 
large faults inthe gneiss. The expression, these “ trappean beds are com- 
posed of compact contemporaneous conglomerate,” &c., must either be a 
misprint, or else have arisen from some mistake about terms, otherwise 
it would involve a no less serious error than that of confounding toge- 
ther metamorphie, trap, and ordinary stratified rocks. This is indeed 
one of many cases in the Report in which the inaccuracy is, in all proba- 
bility, due to the want of Mr. Williams’s supervision during publication. 
In his map he has erroneously colored Behárináth, Garangi, and Pan- 
chét Hills as gneiss; and not only has he so colored these hills, which, 
from their difficulty of access, he appears not to have examined closely, 
but he has committed the same error with the small hill of Telinda, 
on the banks of the Damúda, a little below Rániganj, although, from the - 
mention he makes of. the spot, there can be no doubt that he visited it. 
The only reason which can be assigned for this mistake is the circum- 
stance of the coarse sandstones and conglomerates (which form all these 
hills, and are very different in character from those prevailing in other 

parts of the Rániganj field,) being frequently much contorted and turned 


Cuar. I.] HISTORY OF GEOLOGY. : Il 

up at high angles in the immediate vicinity of the boundary fault. But 
they are distinctly confined to the North side of the faults, and belong 
to one of the highest groups of sedimentary beds in the field. It was 
a mistake to suppose them to have any connexion whatever with the 
fault, or with the metamorphic rocks. 

The next five pages are devoted to an account of the distribution of the 
gneiss and other hypogene rocks, South, West, and North of the coal field. 

The description of the coal measures, which comprises the greater 

portion of the Report (from page 17 to page 92), 
bonu nae: follows that of the metamorphic rocks. It com- 
mences by specifying the beds seen about Khyrasol, about 15 miles Hast 
of Rániganj, where sandstones first rise from beneath the laterite 
and alluvium of the delta which conceal them further to the East. 
These rocks, as will be shown hereafter, are, in all probability, distinct 
from all the beds associated with the coal, a fact of which Mr. Williams 
was not aware; he mentions, however, his having been unable to dis- 
cover the least indication of coal, and relates the ill success of the 
borings near Kálipár, by the Bengal Coal Company and by Messrs. 
Erskine and Co. 

The general description proceeds—“ From thence (the neighborhood 
* of Khyrasol) in a Westerly direction, towards the Barákkur, and subse- 
** quently returning along the North bassets of the field.” 

The occurrence of sandstones South of Andál, with a slight Northerly 
dip, and the discovery of coal at Jánjura, at a depth of 20 feet from 
the surface, are considered by Mr. Williams as evidence that the whole 
area between Andal, Khyrasol, Ukra, and Jánjura contains coal 
measures. The ferruginous conglomerate (laterite) of Baktarnagar is 
mentioned, and a description, with sections, given of the rocks asso- 
ciated with the coal of Mangalpár. The extension of the seam to 
Harispür is correctly inferred from borings, but the line of outcrop shown 

on the map, extending from Mangalpár to Harispür, is inaccurate. 


12 . RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Cuar. I. 

From Mangalpár the description proceeds up the Singáran Valley 
with details of the various sections seen, and of the coal seams mined at 
Dhosul and Chokidánga, the only collieries at work in 1845. The 
assertion of the * Damüda Committee, "* that only one workable seam 
of coal exists on the Singáran, is shown to be wrong. 

From the description of Chokidánga, Mr. Williams proceeds to that 
of Sírsol (Searsole), then recently opened. He considers the seam 
identical with that of Rániganj Reasons for differing from this 
opinion will be given hereafter. Some passages in this portion of the 
Report show that Mr. Williams was impressed with an idea derived 
from his experience in England, that disturbance or faulting always 
accompanied the trap dykes. It is, however, clear from other 
parts of the same Report, that he observed the facts correctly, and, 
wherever sections were visible, satisfied himself that 1n this field the trap 
dykes, as a rule, are accompanied by no throw whatever. At the 
same time he had obviously not entirely got rid of his earlier impres- 
sions, and he therefore speaks with great hesitation as to the chances 
of success in the Sirsol (Searsole) mine, owing to the immediate proxi- 
mity of several dykes. Anda little further on, he speaks of the bed 
of coal discovered by Mr. Jackson, close to Bashrah (Bánsra), as cut off 
. *on the North from the coals at Mungulpore and Khantagoriah by 
* several dykes running East and West, and on the South other dykes 
“occur,” &c. This seam has never been worked in the spot men- 
tioned, South of the Grand Trunk Road. It is, in all probability, the 
same as that worked to the North of the road at Gopinathpür and 
Bhángaband (formerly known as Khantagoriah.) 

The next coal locality described is Rogonathchuk, South of Bansra, 
the seam at which place is considered, probably with justice, to underlie 
and the state ‘of the embankments of the Damüda, and on the means of communication 

by land or water between those districts and Calcutta.” It consisted of Major Sage, 
Mr. F. W. Simms, and Dr. McClelland. 


Cuar. I.] HISTORY OF GEOLOGY. 18 

those at Narrainküri and Rániganj. Mr. Williams mentions the dis- 
covery of a fossil plant, which he considered a Sigillaria, but it was 

much decayed, and it 1s probable that he was deceived by an accidental 

resemblance. Several pages are here devoted to the refutation of an 

absurd statement of the Damüda Committee, to the effect that the 

seams at Rogonathchuk and Khantagoriah (Bhángaband) were proved 

to be identical by the similarity of the associated fossils. This 

Mr. Williams disproves: 1s£, by showing that the same fossils may be 

associated with all the coal seams in a formation; 2nd, by the dissimi- 

larity of the sections of the two coal seams. 

In reference to this question, there occurs the only remark in the 
Report, in which the fossil plants, so abundant in the coal series, are 
referred to in general terms—it 1s as follows :— 

« The fossil impressions found associated with the coal measures of 
* the Damoodah Valley have been carefully examined and compared 
* with those discovered in the English coal districts, and are found 
* to have no resemblanee whatever to them, the most characteristic 
** species are Trizygia speciosa, Vertebraria indica, Vertebraria radiata, 
** (plants of a doubtful affinity,) Glossopteris angustifolia, Glossopteris 
* Browniana, Pustularia Calderiana, and Pecopteris Lindleyana ; there | 
** are also several impressions of leaves, reeds, and others of the cyca- 
* deous family. Plants of the above genera have never yet been 
«c discovered in the coal fields of Europe, but this Flora approximates 
** nearer to the Coal Flora of Australia, where similar cycadez, several 
* species of Glossopteris, and Vertebraria, have been discovered. It 
“may be interesting further to state that Glossopteris is a genus 
.* common to the oolitic series of England." 

To criticise this passage at length is unnecessary, and would require 
too much space: the subject has already been treated sufficiently by 
Dr. Oldham.* 

* Mem. Geol, Sury. of India, Vol. IL, pages 299 e¢ seq. 


14 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Cuap. I. 

A short description of the Rániganj mine succeeds, with an account 

MT. of the destruction of the old mine by fire in 
xS Nee 1843. A series of experiments under Mr. 
Williams's superintendence were made in this mine, upon the intro- 
duction of the English system of ventilation.* The successful results 
in cooling the mine are shown from thermometrical observations. 

Tn the next pages Mr. Williams describes the coal worked at Nar- 
rainkári, and shows that the Rániganj] and Narrainküri seams are 
clearly distinct and not identical, as had till that time been supposed. 
He then details the beds seen in the Ninia, from its mouth on the 
Damiida, as far as the suspension bridge on the Grand Trunk Road, 
and proceeds to describe the rocks developed West of the Ninia, and 
South of Asansol. He observes that “these beds are composed of 
*arenaceous shale, with alternating beds of red marl, and beds of 
* greenish-grey sandstone, highly micaceous and soft," (page 531). 

The area covered by these (the Panchét series of our classification),f 
both North and South of the Damáda, is accurately described, with 
the exception of the omission of all mention of their occurrence at the 
base of Beharinath and Panchét Hills. Their place in the general 
series was somewhat misappreciated by Mr. Williams, as is shown by 
his sheets of vertical sections. This error, however, applied more 
particularly to the rocks of the neighborhood of Rániganj, since the 
rocks were traced downwards with perfect accuracy from the Panchét 
series to the base of the Damiidas, in the Western parts of the field, 
where alone sections are well seen. 

A detailed section of 2,747 feet of the rocks near Chinaküri, 
which are considered to be the lower beds of the middle coal mea- 
sures, is next given: then an account of the beds near the Nüdia 

coliery, South of the Damüda, and a measured section of those 

* Ultimately these experiments were the cause of great danger to the mine, from the small 
coal, which had been used to form stoppings in the galleries, having ignited. 
+ See further. 


Cuar. IL] HISTORY OF GEOLOGY. 15 

seen in contact with the fault bounding the field to the West. Mr. 
Williams proceeds to mention the coal seam at Chanch, and to 
refute some statements of Mr. Homfray concerning its mode of 
occurrence. In doing so, however, Mr. Williams may perhaps be 
in error himself in considering the Chánch seam to be necessarily 
co-extensive with the ironstone shales, the base of which is stated 
to be 340 feet higher in the series, and the area covered - by 
which is mentioned. Mr. Williams believed that, “ according to a well- 
known established fact in Geology," the coal underlies the ironstones 
for “ several hundred square miles to the East and North-east.” The 
recent examination, conducted more closely, and altogether under more 
favorable circumstances than existed at the time of Mr. Williams’s 
survey, has induced the belief that coal seams in the Damida field 
generally, and especially in the lower portion of the series, are not con- 
tinuous equally over large areas. And also that there is considerable 
probability of the existence of unconformity between the ironstone 
shales and Lower Damüda rocks, the latter containing the Chánch seam : 
there is therefore much reason to doubt the correctness of the opinions 
expressed upon this point. 

The great mass of carbonaceous shales and ironstones receive only 
a passing notice. The Report proceeds thus :— 

* Having descended through the series of rocks above noted, which 
* are analogous to the lower coal-measures of England and elsewhere, 
and rich in both coal and iron mines, a fact which would have 
** considerable influence on the passing observer and induce him to 
« suppose that he had arrived at the base of the productive coal- 
* bearing measures, especially as the sandstones and conglomerates 
* underlaying them exhibit a close analogy to the millstone grit or 
* farewell-rock series, in which no coal of any commercial value was 
* ever found: the beds generally entombed in this part of the carbo- 

** niferous formation are thin and very inferior in quality, varying in 


16 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Crap. I. 

* thickness from a few inches to about three feet, and the greatest 
“ number of beds found in a single coal field has not exceeded two or 
* three at the utmost. In the Damoodah Valley it will be shown that 
* beneath the black and grey argillaceous shales previously adverted to, 
* there is a considerable deposit of coal-bearing measures, principally 
* composed of sandstones and conglomerates, subordinate beds of shale, 
** seams of coal, and thin beds of argillaceous limestone, resembling in 
* mineral character the nodular limestone of the lias, but these calca- 
« reous accumulations appear to be devoid of organic remains.” 

A measured section of 4,097 feet, embracing the lower 1,000 feet of 
the iron shales, all the lower coal-bearing series, and the Talchir group 
(see below) is given to show the constitution of the lower measures, and ; 
a detailed account of eighteen coal seams contained in them follows. <A 
great portion of this section was deduced from a series of pits sunk 
by Mr. Williams in the neighborhood of Táldánga. Of the eighteen 
coal seams only four are stated to be composed of superior coal. 

Mr. Williams here enters into the question, whether the **lowest 
coal-bearing strata" (of the Damüda field) should be placed on the 
parallel of the millstone grit (of England), or one step higher in the 
series. With regard to this subject the following is worthy of extrac- 
tion, as showing what opinion he held upon the subject :— 
| * The great difference existing between these shales and those of 
* England, is simply this: there they contain all the productive beds 
* of coal commonly developed in the rock termed lower-measures ; 
* and in the Damoodah the lowest coal seams are developed in the rocks 
“inferior in position, and have a greater thickness than the whole 
* quantity contained in the great coal field of South Wales. With this 
* anomaly, together with the absence of the carboniferous limestone, 
« it must be confessed that it is no easy question to decide a point of 
« so much scientific importance. It would seem premature in the 

** present state of the investigation to arrive at a definite conclusion, or 


Cuar. I] HISTORY OF GEOLOGY. 17 

** that we should expect to find the geological equivalents of the English 
^ series of coal measures to square exactly in detail with those in a 
“ distant country like India.” 

The coal at Sangamahál is noticed, but Mr. Williams does not appear 
to have known of the remarkable section on the Kiidia, South of Nirsha, 
nor to have visited the extreme West of the field. 

The beds at Jariagarh, West of the Rániganj field, are stated to 
possess the same lithological characters as those developed at the base of 
the Damáda field. 

“ The greenish-grey argillaceous shales, constituting the fundamental 
“rocks of the series, are also seen at Jurreahghur to occupy the base 
* of the measures ; and, supporting beds of conglomerate and quartzose 
* sandstones, are thick beds of coal, stated in my first Report to have a 
** thickness of at least 40 to 50 feet.” 

A. section of 837 feet, from the neighborhood of Lálbazár, East of 
the Barákar, and embracing the uppermost portion of the lower coal- 
bearing series, is given, and compared with the section previously given 
from the neighborhood of Táldánga, West of the Barákar, and about 
6 miles distant. The identifications of coal seams are, however, for 
reasons already mentioned, open to much doubt. 

Mr. Williams has thus nearly completed the circuit of the field. A 
few remarks on the coal seams, &c., of Lálbazár, and the bands of beds 
of the lower measures extending thence to the Adjai, 'and recurring 
through the intervention of a fault North of that river, in the neigh- 
borhood of Kásta, Afzalpár, &c., conclude the description. Mr. 
Williams calls attention to the occurrence of a “ fresh water lime- 
stone" containing unios on the East of the Darákar, near Rámnagar, 
and its identity with the hunkur of the plains of Bengal, and he also 
describes the greenish-grey shales with calcareous nodules ( Talchir 
beds) near Dabúr North of Samdi, and observes their absence at the 
base of the series North of the Adjai, near Afzalpur, &c. 


18 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Cuar. I. 

Pages 92 to 100- are occupied with a short account of the alluvium. 
Kunkur and laterite are briefly alluded to, but his remarks are chiefly 
directed to the agriculture and population of the district. A chapter 
on faults and dykes succeeds. The two were evidently, as already 
remarked, confounded to a certain extent, for not only does Mr. Williams 
include them under the same head in his description, but he used pre- 
cisely the same symbol, a white line, to represent them on his map. 
He enumerates twenty-seven large dykes, which are but a small propor- 
tion of the whole number in the field, and some of those marked are not 
very correctly laid down in the map. A large tract in the North of 
the field, extending from Máktochandi Hill to Etiapára, is colored by 
Mr. Williams as trap, and considered by him (page 105) as probably 
a continuation of a “ broad belt of altered sandstones seen on the North 
* of Churooleah." The true nature of this tract, a country cut up 
by numerous trap dykes, will be hereafter referred to. 

Some twenty-five pages of the Report (pages 106 to 131) are occupied 
with the * Conclusion,” and fromit we may gain some idea of Mr. 
Williams's geological views, especially by connecting it with the sheets 
of sections, vertical and horizontal, above referred to, which accom- 
panied the map. The first portion refers to the absence in Bengal 
of Cambrian and Silurian rocks, old red sandstone, and carboniferous 
limestone. The geological ideas expressed concerning the mode of 
formation of the sandstones, conglomerates, and coal, are, and were, at 
the time the Report was written, antiquated, and need not be repeated ; 

but the following list of coal seams is worthy of extraction :— 

Upper Measures. 

Ft. in. 
1. Mungulpore seam Ar dol; eas ic a9) 
2, Khantagoreah ditto obs - cos SE Sn wee 0) 
3. Kendah ditto nee s X dL MARE CO) 
4. Coal under ditto zs Aa ons do SETIM 

Carried over ... 35 3 


Y 

. Coal 

. Ditto 
. Doomer Koondah seam 
. Coal under ditto 
. Ditto 
. Ditto 
. Ditto 
. Ditto 
. Ditto 
. Koomerdooby coal 
. Coal under ditto 
. Coal 
. Coal in two beds 

. Coal under ditto 
. Dussul ditto 

. Rogers’ seam 

. Chowkedangah ditto 
. Coal under ditto 
. Raneegunge 

. Two beds under ditto 
. Naraincoory ditto 
. Rogonathchuk 

. Marooleah seam 
. Ditto 
. Saloonchy top bed 
. Ditto, thick bed 
. Cheenacoory 

. Coal under bed 
. Ditto 
. Ditto 
. Ditto 
. Ditto 
. Ditto 
. Ditto 
. Ditto 
. Ditto 
. Noodeah coal 

ditto 
ditto 
ditto 
ditto 
ditto 
ditto 
ditto 
ditto 

ditto 
ditto 
ditto 
ditto 
ditto 

HISTORY OF GEOLOGY. 

Brought forward sə. 35 

A 
ocoococcococooc & 

| 

Middle Measures. 

EH 
I 
© 

Og 0» (0 Oc cc o0oo0]coItunmo0ornmH5o 

e 
. 
e 
— 
rf O mudÍ|oOo;xmWcmu- 

iss odd 300 von U2 

m 
© 
Seow om oee ea (» (€ OIO 

NOrFDOKR AD 
— 

| 

Carried over i55 1005). 45) 

134 8 

5T T7 


20 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Cuar. I. 

Lower Measures.—(Continued.) 

Brought forward  ... 55 5 
43. Taldangah coal - 5 occ aco, OO 
44. Ditto ditto ae oe uae eR CG AG 
45. Coal 1 ar on sis o OON 
45. Ditto od 995 ake Ese OMS 
46. Ditto ditto $95 Es De Send bea (0) 
47. Under ditto 59 pu cd LONG 
48. Coal, No. 2 ae NE M Bigot ee) 
49. Coal, No. 1 5 Sos et 120180. 
50. Coal under ditto aoo aa brio oes 1S © 
161 10 
Motalan: 5a .. 9804 1 

-— 

The Coal Committee are most deservedly reproved for their views 
as to the superior quality of coal being dependent on, or connected with, 
its altitude above the level of the sea and the disturbance it has under- 
gone. They, with alogic perfectly consonant with the appreciation 
which they throughout shewed of the value of evidence, considered that 
the most conclusive proof of the presence of the lowest members of the 
coal measures from which they believed the best coal to be obtained, 
was the position of those “coal measures” on the tops of mountains, 
the highest measures, on the contrary, being found in the low-lands of 
the country. So wild a statement might fairly have been left to be 

-judged by the self-evident contradiction which it involved. Mr. Wil- 
liams proves from the South Wales coal field that good seams may 
be just asabundant in the upper as in the lower part of the coal 
measures. im 

As no published additions of any importance have been made to our 

Points decided by Mr. knowledge of the geology of the Raniganj field 
M: since the publication of Mr. Williams’s Report, 
it may be well to state briefly what was established by him. 

lst—He clearly showed a great succession of beds, the whole of 

which, with one exception (his “ upper measures"), he interpreted 


Cuap. I.] HISTORY OF GEOLOGY. 21 

correctly. From his vertical section we may take the following as 
an abstraet :— 

Upper Measures. 

Feet. 
Beds of Singharun Valley — ... : ee about 15500 
Ditto Raniganj, Narrainküri, and Roconath chuk , A500. 
— 2000 
Middle Measures. 
* Measures containing red marl unexplored” ... oog non SO) 
Ditto ditto Maritilia and Bagalgoria coal ... .. 1,600 

Ditto ditto Salúnchi (Chinaküri new) coal 21600 
Ditto ditto Chinaküri ditto, and thence to top of 

the carbonaceous shales, containing ironstone, including 

all the beds seen North-west of Chinaküri the Nudia 

Coal C ao bbe Ga bac doo see .. 2,300 
E EN 
Carbonaceous shales and ironstones „.. boo 2 Ws 1,000 
Lower measures ies ood .. 2,500 
Conglomerates and gr aney dion (Talchir) oda wo 700 

—€—112:200 

"Tor d 11,500 

It will be seen that, although some difference in the exact figures 
may occur, the above has, in the main, been perfectly confirmed by the 
results of. the present survey—always with the exception of the upper 

measures of Mr. Williams, which will be shown to be equivalent to the 
beds in the neighborhood of Chinakári forming the central parts of his 
middle measures. 

2nd.—The great faults cutting off and bounding the coal-bearing rocks 
on the South and West were correctly determined and mapped, and the 
general geological structure of the field and its Southerly dip clearly 
shown by the sections. 

3rd.—The various coal seams were, in many cases first discovered, in 
all cases first mapped. Several additional seams have, however, been 
discovered since Mr. Williams's survey. 

4th.—Many of the errors of Mr. Homfray and of the Coal Com- 
mittee were exposed and corrected. 


22 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. | Cuar. I. 

5th.—The occurrence of the great band of carbonaceous shales, 
containing ironstones, and their position in the series, was determined. 
The *'greenish-grey shales” of the Talchir group were noticed, as 
also their absence in the North-eastern portion of the field. 

But, on the other hand, several important geological facts were left 

Questions left unde. Undetermined. The greenish-grey shales and 
ry conglomerates, (now recognized as belonging to 
the Talchir group,) and the beds containing red marls, (here described 
as the Panchét group,) were observed, but were not'separated from the 
other rocks, sufficient importance not having been attached to the 
evidence of their unconformity with the true Damüda series. The 
separation caused in the general series by the band of ironstone shales 
was not given sufficient prominence, and the beds of Raniganj and of 
the Singhárun Valley were entirely misplaced. Mr. Williams was also 
led by his English experience erroneously to anticipate that faults would 
be found co-existent with trap dykes, and that the coal seams would be 
found equally co-extensive with the beds accompanying them. The 
map is also erroneous in representing Panchét (Pachete), Beharimath, 
Garangi, and Telinda or Madjia Hills, as gneiss. The boundaries 
generally required greater exactitude. But such detailed errors of 
mapping are more than excused by the difficulties under which he 
labored. No topographical map of the country existed: that published 
was laid down during the progress of Mr. Williams's survey, and the 
geological work was frequently in advance of the topographical, and 
had to be put on paper subsequently. 

As regards the geological relations of the beds of the Damüda 
field with those in Europe, Mr. Williams appears never to have 
doubted that all the Indian coal-bearing strata belonged to the same 
age as the carboniferous formation of European geologists. One or 
two extracts have already been given. The following, however, appear 
conclusive. 


Cuap. I] HISTORY OF GEOLOGY. 1:29 

^ 

* [In Lower Bengal there is not the least indication of those enor- 
* mous accumulations of sedimentary matter, formerly known as the 
* primary fossiliferous strata, to which, however, the more appropriate 
** names Cambrian and Silurian have of late years been applied; these 
** grand divisions embrace the whole mass of detrital matter, from the 
* old red sandstone to the inferior stratified rocks. It is also essen- 
* tially necessary to mention that both the old red sandstone and carbo- 
 * niferous limestone are likewise absent in the districts which have 
“ been examined. (P. 107). 

* But prior to the deposition of the coal series, there can be little 
“doubt that the area now occupied by them had been elevated above 
* the surface of the surrounding ocean during those epochs of time 
* which have elapsed from the first organization of animal life on the 
** crust of the globe to the commencement of the coal-formation era." 
(P. 109). | 

He only questioned (page 82), whether the minor sub-divisions were 
precisely parallel in the two countries. Nothing throughout the Report 
seems to convey.any question as to the general age of the deposit. 

It is evident that Mr. Williams's attention was principally directed to 
the economic geology of the district. His main object was to examine 
` and ascertain the quantity and quality of coal and iron ore available. 
On these subjects his Report leaves less to be added, and would leave 
searcely anything, but that more extended exploration for commercial 
purposes has enabled the present survey to add enormously to the previous 
knowledge of the mineral wealth of the district. But upon the geo- 
logieal structure an amount of light has been thrown by the examin- 
ation of the various distriets of the Narbadda, the Rájmahál Hills, 
and Talchir (Cuttack), which enables the rocks associated with coal in 
the Damáda Valley to be placed on a distinct and definite horizon with 
respect to many of the other rock systems of India. And the examin- 

ation of the Rániganj field, while it has borrowed from previous 


24 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Cuar. II. 

explorations, has richly returned the loan by the assistance which its 
rocks, read by the light thus discovered elsewhere, have given to the 
further elucidation of other areas. 

The description of the Geology of the Rániganj basin is given in 

detail in the following pages. 

CHAPTER II.— General Topography and Geology. 

THE area of, coal-bearing rocks, known as the Damüda or Rániganj 
field, lies between latitude 23? 35" and 23° 45' 

North, and longitude 86* 40° and 87° 15’ East, and 

at a distance of from about 120 to 160 miles North-west of Calcutta. 
Its greatest linear extent is from W. by N. to E. by S.; the length of 
which, from near Gyra dak bungalow, on the Grand Trunk Road, and 
from Girwa Hill on the West, to the extreme point towards the East at 

which coal is known to occur, viz. the neighborhood of Harispár, is 39 

Position of field. 

miles; but there ean be no doubt of a considerable extension further 
East, although it is concealed by over-lying laterite and alluvium. How | 
farit extends is uncertain; a careful examination of the surface has 
only shown that the few rocks seen about Khyrasol, and from thence 
towards Ukra, are distinct from any beds seen within the area of the 
field. "They are, doubtless, higher, but whether coal-bearing rocks 
underlie them or not, cannot be positively ascertained by an examination 
of the surface. 
The greatest breadth on a line at right angles to the above is from 
the neighborhood of the Adjai, north of Chu- 
ener aay ralya, Madanpár, Domaháni, and Panúri, to Beha- 

rináth Hill, or from Afzalptir to near Güsra and Kastüra, a distance 


Cuar. IL] GENERAL TOPOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY. 25 

of 18 miles in each case. The area contained in this belt of somewhat 
irregular breadth is about 500 square miles. 

The general geology is simple. A series of between 11 and 12,000 

e feet of rocks, dip in succession from the Northern 

3 boundary, at angles varying from-5° to about 20° 
towards the South. All are suddenly cut off at the Southern boundary 
by one of tke largest distinct faults that has ever 

eur been carefully observed and recorded. There is 
some crumpling of the strata near this fault, and at about 4 or 5 miles 
North of it, there is a roll of the beds throughout a considerable area. 
The dip changes from S. S. W. in the East of the field and to the 
North of Rániganj, to S. S. E. as it approaches the Darákar, West of 
which river it recurs to S. S. W.: the general direction of the dip 
throughout being, as already stated, Southernly. It increases in amount 
considerably towards the West, causing great contraction in the width 
of the field, the same thickness of rocks, or even more, cropping to the 
surface between the North base of Panchét Hill and Débitan on the 
DBarákar, a distance of 10 miles,* or between Hirapúr, East of 
Chinaküri, and Dendwa near Jamiari, a distance of 9 miles, as between 
Kastüra, South of the Damüda, and the boundary North of Birkánti, 
on the Adjai, a distance of 16 miles. 

The greater portion of the field is enclosed between the Rivers 
Damáda and Adjai. South of the former a band of sedimentary rocks, 
6 miles wide, where broadest, stretches from the stream to the base of a 
range of small hills of metamorphic rocks. This range is by no means 
continuous, and in places recedes considerably from the boundary, 
being, as are most hills in the metamorphie rocks of Bengal, parallel 
to the strike of their foliation, which does not always exactly coincide 
with the direction of the fault bounding the field to the South, although 
there is a general parallelism: North of the Adjai the lowest portion of 

* In a direction somewhat transverse to the line of dip. s 


26 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Cnar. IT. 

the beds is repeated by a fault, which follows the course of the river. 
Only a thin band, however, of the rocks can be examined, a consider- 
able breadth of the Adjai Valley, South of Afzalpür, and further 
East, being occupied by alluvium. Another fault, still further North, 
brings in a second strip of rocks, which, however, appears to 
be separated throughout from the first by a band of metamorphic 
rocks. 
The principal drainage of this small area flows into the Damáüda, the 
DUM AS ier edd water-shed between which and the Adjai runs in 
most places only 4 or 5 miles South of the latter 
river, and consists of a range of high ground, composed, for a consi- 
derable distance, of a band of carbonaceous shales containing iron- 
Stones, which will presently be described. Within the boundaries of 
the field the Damáda receives the Darákar, a river but little inferior to 
itself in size, and two smaller streams, the Nünia and the Singáran: 
the course of the former of these two and of the three streams, which, 
near Asansol, combine to form it, is entirely within the area of the field, 
and that of the latter only leaves the coal-bearing rocks to pass in the 
lower part of its course, through a tract of alluvium bordering the Da- 
muda. The Barákar, near its confluence with the Damáda, receives the 
Kádia, which, with its tributary, the Pasai, drains the West of the field. 
From the South the Damáda receives several small streams, most of 
which rise in the metamorphic country to the South of the boundary. 
The surface of the field is undulating, and was formerly covered with 
jungle, which has now been cleared nearly throughout. It is generally 
covered with clay, in some parts alluvial, but in others formed from 
the decomposition of the rocks. This covering is in general much 
thicker upon the beds hereafter to be described as the “ Rániganj 
series,” and upon the upper portion of the “ Panchét beds" than upon 
the Lower Damüda or Talchir rocks, while generally it is wanting 

upon the carbonaceous shales.containing ironstone bands. In many 


Cuar. II] GENERAL TOPOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY. 2T 

portions of the country, and especially in the large tracts occupied by 
rocks of the Rániganj series, North of the Damüda, (with the exception 
of the valley lying North of Chinaküri, portions of the Nünia Valley, 
and some small valleys, immediately North and West of Rániganj,) this 
clay, whether alluvial, or produced by surface action, restricts all 
geological researches to the banks of streams, and even these frequently 
show but little. The circumstance of its being so much more generally 
spread upon some rocks than upon others shows it to be due, in part at 
least, to the effects of surface action upon the beds; soft sandstones 
abounding in felspar apparently becoming easily converted into clay, 
while, as might have been expected, shales and quartzose sandstones 
resist decomposition. 
Along the South border of the field, and abutting against the fault, 
are two isolated hills of considerable size, and 
Priücipal hills. 
two smaller ones, composed of sedimentary rocks. 
The largest of these, Panchét (Pachete) Hill, is at the South-west 
corner of the area occupied by the Damuda beds and their associates. 
It is about 1,600 feet high and 2 miles long. The scarp towards the 
North is precipitous, and marked by terraces, corresponding to the out- 
crop of beds of hard conglomerate ;* the other sides are also very steep, 
the top about 2 miles broad, comprising an undulating tract of dense 
jungle. Behárináth Hill is 10 miles to the East of Panchét; it is of 
rather less height (1,481 feet), and of much smaller extent. Garangi 
Hill, between Panchét and Behárináth, is of inconsiderable size, and Te- 
linda Hill, or, as it is often called, Madjia Hill, South-east of Rániganj, 
is still smaller. Each of the larger hills has a thick cap of a peculiar 

conglomerate, and the two smaller hills are entirely formed of it. 

* These were noticed by Mr. Williams, who speaks of “ well-defined contour lines of, 
apparently, stratification, running parallel with each other, and extending along the whole 
length of the North side.” It is clear from his Report that Mr. Williams never actually 
visited Panchét Hill. 


28 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Cuap. II. 

Excepting these, the only rises within the field are some low 
hillocks not exceeding 60 feet in height, formed by hard conglomerate 
bands in the neighborhood of Nirsha, in the 
extreme West of the area; the rounded ridge of 

Smaller elevations. 

ironstone shales about 4 miles South of the Adjai already mentioned; 
the low laterite hills of Baktarnagar, Mangalptr, Harispür, and other 
places near the Singáran Valley, or East of it; and the little mass 
of trap near Samdi, which is known as Muktichandi Hill. 

The rocks beyond the boundaries of the field belong to the meta- 
morphie series, and consist of different kinds of gneiss, hornblende 
rock, quartzite, &c., similar to the formations covering the greater 
portion of Bengal, (excepting the alluvial plains bordering the Ganges 
and its tributaries,) Orissa and most other tracts in the East and South 

gk of the Peninsula of India. They have been 
referred to frequently in preceding Memoirs, and 
until the time shall come for a full general description to be published 
of them, but little additional information can be conveyed by isolated 
remarks upon small and detached areas. 

The following pages will contain a detailed description of those rocks 
alone, which are comprised within the boundaries of the Raniganj field. 
How those boundaries run, what their direction is, where they are 
faulted, and where natural, can be learned more quickly and more ac- 
curately from a glance at the map than from a prolix verbal description. 

The remaining sections of this portion of our Report will be devoted 
to the rocks of the Ránigan) field, embracing mainly the Damáda 
group and its associates. Before proceeding to describe these in detail, 
it wil be well to state succinctly into what divisions the beds may 
be grouped. These are the following, commencing from the bottom :— 

1. At the base of the field, in places, and 
resting upon the metamorphie rocks, there occur 

Talchir rocks. 

greenish-grey muds and fine sandstones, occasionally containing 


Onar. I] GENERAL TOPOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY. 29 

boulders. These are easily recognized by their mineral character as 
belonging to the Talchir group.* 
2. Above the Talchir group comes a great thickness of beds con- 
a Sh ary taining coal. By both mineral character and 
fossil contents, these are recognized as of the 
Damiida group.[ Reasons will hereafter be given for concluding that 
in this field only the lower portion represents that group as developed 
in neighboring localities, as on the flanks of the Rájmahál Hills, and in 
Orissa. To this portion will be restricted the name of Lower Damüda. 
Above the Lower Damáüda sub-division are found beds markedly 
MA distinet in mineral character, and at the base 
of which there is a considerable thickness of 
carbonaceous shales, with ironstones, the band already alluded to as the 
ironstone shales. In the presence of coal in large quantities, and, des- 
pite some minor distinctions, in their fossil contents, these beds are 
closely allied to the Lower Damuda rocks, and they might well have 
been named “ Upper Damüda," had not that term been already 
m applied to a series of beds occurring in the 
Nerbudda district, which there is every reason to 
suppose are distinct from, and more recent than, the upper portion of 
the Damüda group in the Raniganj field. For these, therefore, 
as they contain all the most important coal seams now worked 
in the neighborhood of Rániganj, and as they are well developed 
around that station, the term ** Rániganj series" appears appropriate. 
3. The Damüda group is over-laid by grey and greenish sandy 
shales, and upon these rest coarse false-bedded sandstones, with deep 

red clays.{ These beds are clearly quite distinct from the true Damida 

* See Memoirs, Vol. I., pp. 46—56, 76—80, &c., Vol. II. 

1 Jour. Asiat. Soc., Beng., Vol. XXV., p. 249. Mem. Geo. Surv., India, Vols. I. and II. 

I These are termed marls by Mr. Williams in the same way as the clays of the Trias (which 
the beds of the Panchét group much resemble,) are known as * New Red Marls” in England. 
The term, however, is not quite correctly applied in either case, the clay not being calcareous. 


30 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Cnar. II. 

rocks; their Flora, so far as known, shows an almost complete change, 
| and animal remains of reptiles, fish, and crus- 
un Pd taceans, have been discovered in them. They 
are also completely distinct in mineral character, and contain no coal 
seams. For these beds, which, although noticed and described by Wil- 
liams, have not, until now, been separated as a distinct group, the name 
Panchét is proposed, from the fine hill of Panchét, the lower portion of 
which consists of them. The village of the same name, just South of 
the hill, is the residence of a Rajah, whose predecessors owned a large 
portion of the area of the coal field, and a considerable proportion is 
still included in his estates. 
4. In the hills already mentioned near the South boundary of the 
i OT ANE field, (Panchét, Behárináth, and Garangi,) the 
clays and sandstones of the Panchét group are 
capped by coarser sandstones with conglomerates. It is possible that 
these also belong to the Panchét group, the upper beds of which are in 
places very similar; but this is quite uncertain, and some reasons will 
hereafter be given for supposing that these beds may be of the same 
age as the lower portion of the Rájmahál group,* to which, though with 
considerable doubt, they may be provisionally referred. 
5. The higher rocks which occur are: Ist, a series of very coarse 
ferruginous sandstones, with mottled clays, which 
fue form a high ridge near Khyrasol, East of Ráni- 
ganj, and are but ill seen, being mainly covered and concealed by late- 
rite ; 2nd, the laterite itself; 3rd, alluvium in various forms. Each 
must receive a short notice, but the main object of the present Report 
is the description in detail of the Damüda beds, and their immediate 
associates of the Talchir and Panchét groups. 
* In the belief that these beds might be merely an upper series of the Panchéts, I suggested, 
in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, the name of Upper Panchéts for them ; but 
further consideration has induced me to doubt the advisability of expressing a decided opinion 

upon the subject. 


Cuar. II.] 

GENERAL TOPOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY. 

3l 

The following is a brief recapitulation in descending order of the vari- 

ous beds above-mentioned, with their divisions, together with the thick- 

ness, mostly calculated from their dips, and the dimensions of their 

out-crops. 
THICK- 
NAME. DESCRIPTION OF BEDS. FOssILs. NESS IN 
FEET, 
I. Upper Panchét f Coarse sandstones and conglome- dT 
(? Rájmahál group) rates 5o] Unfossiliferous - 500 
( Several ferns distinct} 
| from Damiuda 
Coarse sandstones, very es | forms, Teniopteris 
p bedded, and red clays. t the Sphenopteris. Schi- ! 
II. PANCHET GROUP base greenish and grey shales zonewra—Reptilian ft 1500 
and fine sandstones coc and fish remains— 
Aistheria ^ (Posi- 
LC donia). coo J 
III. DAMUDA GROUP. 
Coarse and fine sandstones, mostly ( Vertebraria, Trizygia, ) 
false-bedded and  felspathico— |  Glossopteris, Pecop- | 
a. Rániganjseries 4 shales—coal seams. The latter4 teris,  Schizoneura, + 5,000 
frequently continuous over con- |  PAyllotheca, &c. : all | 
siderable areas ..L plants. J 
5 Fossils abundant 
Black carbonaceous shales, with ; 
a*, Ironstone shales tongan ux mall 1,400 

numerous bands of clay iron- 
stone o 

Coarse conglomerates, with white 
sandstones, numerous coal seams 
of very irregular character, thin- 
ning out at short distances 

b. Lower Damüdas 

Coarse sandstone, white, or with) 
a bluish-green tint at top, fine ! 
greenish-grey mud, silt, sandy 
shales, and fine sandstone con- \ 
taining undecomposed felspar; 
at base rolled masses of great 
size, 15 feet in diameter, occur , 
in fine silty beds Sag 

IV. TALCHIR GROUP ... 

a a m Áo nM 

Total 

Very rare, a few stems, 

preserved. Glossop- 
teris, &c. 300 

Glossopteris, Verte- 
braria, Zeugophyl- > 2,000 
lites ? &c. opo 

a 800 

seeds? &c. 

———— 

11,200 

In describing these beds in detail, it will be more convenient to 

treat of them in ascending order, that is, to commence with the 

Talchir group. 


Cuaprer IIL— The Talchir Group. 

ExcrPT in the East of the area, or where cut out by faults, the 
lowest beds resting upon the metamorphic rocks along the Northern 
boundary of the Rániganj field, are the green, grey, and purplish-red 
muddy and silty beds, which, recognized as identical by their singu- 
lar mineral character, form the base, in places, of several of the 
Indian eoal fields. "Their peculiarities attracted the attention of Mr. 
Williams, and they have, since 1856, been considered as a group distinct 
from the over-lying Damüda rocks. 

The best sections of the Talchir beds in the Rániganj field are: 1st, 
North of Panra and Nirsha; 2nd, North of Táldánga, near the right 
bank ofthe DBarákar; 3rd, North of Samdi, and in the stream which 
flows to the East of Jámiari and Baghrám. The lower beds alone are 
seen in the latter case. 

The greatest thickness perhaps occurs North of Táldánga. The 
section there is well seen over a considerable area of ground, broken 
and cut up by ravines, in the neighborhood of the village of Railyádi. 
At the top the beds appear to pass into those belonging to the Lower 
Damüda. This is the only locality in which such a passage occurs, and 
there can be no doubt that, at this spot, the interval between the 
periods of formation of the Talchirs and Damüdas was not one of 
erosion, and that when the latter group began to be deposited, the 
sources whence its constituents were derived were identical with 
those which had previously contributed to the formation of the Talchir 
beds. The rocks seen near Railyádi form the lowest portion of the 
measured section given by Mr. Williams at page 73 of his Report, and 
they were referred to in the Report on the Talchir coal field* as being, 

probably, from the description of their mineral character and from 

* Memoirs of Geological Survey of India, Vol. I., page 78. 


uar. III.] THE TALCHIR GROUP. 93 

their position in the series, representatives of the Talchir group, 

a surmise which has proved correct. The section is 

Fre. 1. DIAGRAM SECTION OF THE TALCHIR Rocks, NORTH or TALDANGA. 

( Descending. 

A. Damida Rocks. i 
Feet. 

1. Coarse, purple and brown sandstones, with occasional thin interstra- 

tifications of fine silty beds. The coarse beds contain numerous 

pebbles and boulders, mainly of quartzites, and varying in dia- 

meter from about 12 inches downwards  ... EE bac 165. 
2. Similar, but less coarse bed of whitish sandstone, weathering with a 

botryoidal or rather reniform surface. This is in places of a pe- 

culiar bluish-green or greenish-grey. These beds become gra- 

dually finer in texture towards the base. They are false-bedded 280 
3. Thin sandstones and some mudstones, with caleareous nodules .., 50 

Trap dyke. 
4, Sandstones interstratified with mudstones—the latter predomi- 
nating towards the base... Ba cd 3d mE 245 
5. Finemudstone, with some bands, irregularly interspersed, of fine 
hard calcareous sandstone co 452 A 75 

Mowe! «ee 815 

6. Gneiss. 
Mr. Williams’s section gives 675 feet, but it was probably measured 
a little further West, where some of the uppermost beds may be denud- 
ed. In either case only an approximation has, in all probability, been 
obtained, there being no easily measured section of the beds exposed. 
Where the Talchir group is thick and well developed, the above may 
be considered fairly to represent the section ; codrse white or brown fels- 
pathic sandstones, occasionally conglomeritic, occur at the top, and from 
them there is a gradual passage downwards to fine silty beds. But in 

proceeding either East or West from the place where the above section 

E 


34 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Cuap. III. 

was measured, viz. the country North of Taldanga, the uppermost beds 
in the above section entirely disappear. In the extreme West of the field, 
the total thickness 1s nearly the same, but the coarse sandstones are, ina 
great measure, replaced by finer beds, more typical of the group, and 
the silty “mudstones” are more abundant. The section seen in the 
stream running from the North into the Pasai, West of Sonbad, shows :— 
(Descending. ) 

l. Hard, fine greenish-grey sandstone, intercalated with softer 
muddy beds. 

2. Fine grey sandstone, with occasional pebbles. 

3. Coarse, black shaley sandstones, with bluish, flaggy beds, and 
hard grey sandstone. These beds form the greater mass of the group. 

4. Fine blackish, shaley bed. 

5. Hard, grey shales, rippled in places, and silty beds (mudstones). 

The hard, greenish-grey sandstones, which become yellowish-brown by 
weathering, are seen at the surface in numerousplaces, Northand North- 
west of Panra, and indeed prevail wherever the Talchir beds occur. 

Proceeding towards the East, the Talchirs are gradually denuded away 
above, and, although no striking unconformity is seen between them 
and the Damudas, this gradual thinning, caused by the deficiency of 
their uppermost beds, plainly shows that it exists. This absence 
| might certainly be due to either of two causes, viz. to the cir- 
cumstance of the upper beds never having been deposited, or to 
their having been removed by denudation and the very gradual 
and regular diminution in thickness from East to West indicates 
the possibility of the former; but there are so few places where 
the boundaries of the rocks can be traced for more than a few 
yards, that minor irregularities are very difficult of detection. On 
the other hand, there are sometimes seen small faults in the Talchir 
rocks, which cannot be traced into the Damúda beds, and the amount 

of disturbance, as evidenced by high dips and strongly marked jointing 


Cuar. IIL] THE TALCHIR GROUP. 35 

in several directions, must have been greater in the Talchir group 
than in the Damúda; so it is probable that upheaval, and denudation 
also, preceded the period of formation of the latter beds. 

One of the best general sections in the whole field is that seen in 
the West branch of the Núnia stream. In the neighborhood of 
Jamiari the Talchir rocks are cut through and are well seen. Their 
total thickness cannot be measured however, the section being inter- 
sected by a fault. The greater portion of them consists of greenish- 

grey sandstones of fine texture. The beds seen are 

Fic. 2. SKETCH SECTION OF TALCHIR ROCKS NEAR JAMIARI. 

( Descending. ) 
A. Damüda Rocks. 

1. Mudstones, and hard bands of fine sandstone, one thin bed of 
hard, grey calcareous shale contains seeds of plants. 

2. Coarse brown grits, containing undecomposed gneiss fragments, 
with some conglomerate bands. (Pebbles of gneiss throughout.) 

3. Finer sandstones, greenish-grey and rather muddy. 

4. Sandstone, muddy and hard, and flagstone beds. 

Fault. 

5. (—2and3?) Interstratifications of coarse and fine sandstone, 
greenish-grey, and dark, and light-brown, with occasional conglome- 
ritic bands and hard lumps of shale. Stratification in parts indistinct. 

6. (= 4?) Finer sandstone, generally hard, with occasional irregular 

beds of muddy flagstones, and flaggy sandstone, all becoming finer 
towards the base. 

7. Fine mudstones. 

8. Fault-rock, forming the boundary. 
9. Gneiss. 


96 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Cnar. III. 

North of Samdi some good sections are seen, showing, however, only 
the lower portion of the Talchir group. In a small stream near 

Pahárpür the following section occurs :— 

Fia. 3. DIAGRAM SECTION Or Rocks. NEAR PAHARPUR. 

( Descending. ) 

A. Damida Group. 

White felspathic sandstone, with numerous pebbles. 

T'alchir Group. 

l. Rather coarse shales and shaley sandstones, with hard, yellowish- 
brown calcareous bands. 

2. Finer slate-colored and dark olive-green shales, breaking into 
nodular fragments. 

3. Fine mudstones, dark olive in color, with a few hard calcareous 
masses, These beds split up into extremely fine and thin angular 
splinters, which in places cover the surface of the earth. They are 
also very much jointed. 

4. “ Boulder bed,” masses of gneiss, of diameters from 1 foot down- 
wards, and numerous small pebbles in a fine calcareous sandstone. 
This is only a few feet thick. 

Gneiss. 

The thickness of the above is only 320 feet, being 500 feet less than 
the section near Mira, North of Táldánga. 

The Talehir rocks are cut out by faults in places between Jamiari 
and the Barákar, East of Jamiari; they continue steadily to Bhadang 
and Kenjia, where the boundary is thrown to the Northward for seve- 
ral miles by the Alipür faults. Thence to the East the North boun- 
dary is formed by a fault, which cuts out the Talchir beds North of 


Os 
Lg 

Cuar. III.] THE TALCHIR GROUP. 

Panuri. They do not re-appear further East: North of the Adjai, 
near Kásta, Afzalpür, and Raswán, a natural boundary extends for 
about 12 miles, and along the whole of this distance the Damüda 
series rests directly upon the gneiss, as was observed by Mr. Williams, 
so that the 'Talchir beds are completely over-lapped. 

Two or three small patches of Talchir beds are brought in by the 
faults forming the South-west boundary of the field. None of these 
small areas present any features of interest. 

None of the sections above given illustrates the most singular pecu- 

Qus 'liarity of the Talehir group, viz. the presence, 

so frequently referred to, of enormous boulders 
of gneiss and other metamorphic rocks, in a matrix of the singularly 
fine silty deposit referred to as mudstone. This boulder bed is 
not very widely distributed in the Rániganj field, although boulders, 
here as elsewhere, occasionally occur in the Talchir beds, especially 
towards the bottom. The best development observed is seen North 
of Panra, in the West of the field, and especially in the neighbor- 
hood of the village of Chárgora. Here the mudstones are pürple 
and greenish-grey in color, and break up, at the surface, into 
extremely thin angular fragments, an inch or less in breadth, and from 
gg to of an inch in thickness, with conchoidal surfaces above and below. 
The only substance with which it can be compared is fine river silt. 
Some of the beds are a little coarser, and occasionally thin bands of sand- 
stone occur and form regular interstratifications with the mudstone. 
Throughout these beds pebbles of all sizes and huge boulders are 
scattered, the small pebbles being frequently few in number com- 
pared to the large ones and boulders. "Two boulders, which lay partly 
broken, were measured ; when perfect, they must each have exceeded 15 
feet 1n their longest diameter, and have weighed not less than 30 tons. 

All the ** boulders” are completely rolled and rounded. The majority 

consist of varieties of metamorphic rocks common in the neighborhood 


38 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Cuar. III. 

of the places where they occur. But a few are occasionally met 
with, composed of an altered and hardened sandstone, very distinct 
from any bed now occurring in the immediate vicinity, and apparently 
even less altered than the sandstones of the Karakpür Hills, near Mon- 
ghyr. In one instance, near Chargora, a boulder of clay slate, contain- 
ing pyrites, was met with. Greenstone pebbles are also found. But 
the largest pebbles are always composed of gneissic rocks, and those of 
sandstone, &c., are always rare. 

The surface of the metamorphic rocks, upon which the base of the 
Talchir group rests, is extremely uneven. Its great irregularity is well 
seen along the North boundary, West of the Barakar, where small hills 
of it, in some places, as at Madanpáür, stand up through the Talchirs 
surrounding them. Another instance is seen at Kenjia, North-east of 
Samdi. In one of the preceding sections, page 37, a hard, green, 
calcareous conglomerate or boulder bed is mentioned. ‘This appears 
to plaster over the hollows of the metamorphic rocks in places, 
and may be the remains of a formation of older age than the 
Talchirs. 

Within the Damuda area, the only fossils obtained from the Talchir 
m EE group have been a few seed vessels and indistinct 

carbonaceous markings, probably of stems. These 

occurred at a spot in the West branch of the Nünia, close to the 
villages of Gopalpür and Alkósa. In one of the small patches of 
Talehir beds whieh dot the country North of the Rániganj field, 
that on which the village of Karaon stands, a few ferns were found 
in a calcareous concretion. The best marked was a form interme- 
diate between Glossopteris and C'yclopteris. Only one or two impres- 
sions were found altogether. 

In many places, about the middle of the Talchirs, the flags and 
shales, which are frequently rippled, are covered with irregular pitted 

impressions, so much resembling foot-prints, that it is difficult to avoid 


Cuar. IV. § 1e] THE DAMUDA SERIES. 39 

believing them to be such. But, although frequently searched, no im- 
pressions have been found sufficiently definite to prove their origin. 
They are well seen on the left bank of the Barákar, above Ramnagar, 
Mr. Hislop has noticed the occurrence of similar doubtful marks in 

Nagpur upon beds probably corresponding to the Talchir.* 

CHAPTER LV.—Damida Group. 

RzsTING upon the Talchir rocks on the West, and upon the meta- 
morphic rocks in the East, (and, therefore, un- 
ee a conformable in the Rániganj field, as elsewhere, 
upon the first-named beds,) occurs the most important group of the 
basin. In thickness, in the area covered, and in economic value, the 
Damáda group greatly exceeds all the others; to it are confined all the 
deposits of coal and seams of ironstone, and although fossil remains of 
greater interest have been found in a higher group, those from the beds 
now to be described have been longer known, and are far more abundant. 
This group of rocks attains a great thickness in the Rániganj field, 
and it has already been remarked that a distinetion exists between the 
upper and lower portion. In proceeding from the base at the Northern 
boundary, the first beds met with are coarse, white sandstones, and 
frequently conglomerates. With these are asso- 
M n. ciated coarse micaceous shaley sandstone, or sandy 
shale of dark-brown and purple colors, and seams of coal frequently of 
great thickness, some measuring 30 feet in thickness or even more. 
These seams are irregular both in thickness and quality; they fre- 

quently disappear entirely, or pass into shale or even sandstone within 

* Quart. Jour., Geol. Soc., London, Vol. XI., page 371. 


40 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Gnar. IV. § 1. 

short distances. There are seldom very thick beds of sandstone; thin 
bands, coarse or fine, but more frequently the former, succeed each 
other at short distances. Many bands are very regular, and have a 
considerable horizontal extent ; very little false bedding is observable. 
Oceasionally poor micaceous runs of ironstone are found, but the most 
characteristic beds of the formation are the white felspathic sandstones 
and conglomerates, and the thick beds of coal. 

After passing over about 2,000 feet of these rocks in ascend- 
ing order, a very different class of beds is met with. These are 
very fine black carbonaceous shales, with numerous runs of clay 
ironstone (argillaceous carbonate of iron), the latter varying in thick- 
ness from about 2 feet downwards. A few beds of sandstone occur 
especially towards the base of the shales. The soil over-lying these 
beds is usually -strewn with fragments of ironstone, now red from the 
peroxidation of the iron. No coal has been found associated with this 
section of the Damüda group. 

These shales, with ironstones, are about 1,200 to 1,500 feet thick, and 

again are over-laid by sandstones, shales, and coal. 
Ironstones and shales. n 
But the sandstones are generally finer in texture, 
and are massed in beds of greater thickness, than those below the iron- 
stones; the coarse, white felspathie sandstone, 
Upper beds. f i ) 
and conglomerates are almost entirely wanting. 
Nodular hard calcareous bands are frequent ; the coal is more regular, 
of more even quality, and not so frequently a mixture of coal and 
shale, and the seams have a uniform thickness over considerable areas. 
Pebbles are scarcely ever seen, shales are common. 
The questions which arise under these circumstances are, whether 
between the upper and lower series there is any 
Conformity. Shiai : 5 5 
well-marked distinction either in conformity or 
in fossil contents, indicating a break? and whether such a break, if it 

exist, occurs both above and below the ironstone shales, or only in one 


Cnar. IV. § 1] THE DAMUDA SERIES. 41 

of those places? and also how far the different sub-divisions are repre~ 
sented elsewhere. 

The unconformity, if it exists, is evidently of small amount, for the 
general strike and dip of the three series is the same. But this 
is also the case with the Talchir beds which have been shown to 
underlie the Damüda rocks so unconformably as to be probably 
over-lapped to the extent of 500 feet, within a distance of less than 
10 miles. 

No clear evidence of the unconformity of the upper series of sand- 

Upper beds conforma. ' Stones and coals upon the ironstone shales has been 
cds Pa MOSO met with. The same strata appear to be in con- 
tact throughout, the uppermost bed of the ironstone measures being a 
somewhat sandy, black shale, and the lowest of the upper series being 
thin bedded sandstones, with nodular hard bands. It is true that these 
may both belong to the upper series, but the lower of them appears 
to pass down into the ordinary carbonaceous shale of the ironstone 
series. Itis, however, difficult in a bed in which sections showing 
the dip accurately are as rare as they are in the carbonaceous shales, to 
decide this point. 

But at the base of the ironstones there is better evidence of uncon- 

formity. At the first glance at the map it would 

Tronstones unconform- 

Eton iyd beds: almost appear as if a great over-lap of the lower 

Damuda group took place towards the East, the area occupied by 
them being so much broader to the West of the Barákar. They may 
perhaps thicken somewhat to the Westward, but if so, the increase is 
due to the greater vertical development of the rocks composing them, 
and not to their being overlapped to the Hast, nor to their having 
been denuded to any great extent before the deposition of the iron 
shales. Mainly, however, the appearance is due to the higher dips 
to the’ East, and to the lower beds being cut out by faults along the 
boundary. 


42 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [ Cuar. IV. § 1. 

Still some denudation does appear to have taken place. Local 
unconformity is seen at Bágonia, where the Grand 

Local unconformity. À 3 
Trunk Road crosses the Barákar River. Close 
to the old Jain temples, North of the Road, both rocks are seen dipping 

Fie. 4. SECTION or Rocks NEAR JAIN TEMPLES or BAGONIA. 

a. Lower Damúda bed. b. Ironstone shales. 

South by East, at an angle about 10°, but just North of the boundary 
the dip rolls over sharply to the North for a few yards, and instead 
of the ironstones being brought in again as they would be, if strictly 
conformable, the sandstones of the Lower Damüdas are overlaid by 
beds similar to themselves. 

The boundary between the ironstone shales and Lower Damüdas 
South of the Damüda River, and on the extreme South-west of the 
field, is very peculiar, but unquestionably indicative of unconformity. 
The runs of conglomeritic sandstone of the lower series form little 
ridge-like elevations, 20 or 30 feet high, and on following some of 
these along their strike, they are found to be cut off without a fault, 
and to abut abruptly against ironstones with the same dip and strike. 
In one case one of these is far prolonged into the ironstones being 
interstratified between them, and narrowing gradually from about 
50 yards in breadth. To the South the ironstones thin out completely ; 
their lower beds being over-lapped by the higher ones. Nowhere 
South of the fault, which crosses from North-west to South-east by 
Chánch and Nüchibád, are they more than a few hundred feet thick. 
The upper series rests throughout regularly upon them. 

It is probable, that in this place were the shores of the original basin 
of deposit of the ironstone shales, those shales having been formed of 
denuded but horizontal beds of the Damüda group. Hence the perfect 


| Cuar. IV. 81.] THE DAMUDA SERIES. 43 

conformity in dip. Therun of conglomeritic sandstone extending into 
the ironstone shales is most anomalous and difficult to account for, the 
E UM only explanation which appears probable is, that 

it may have been a beach deposit, formed from 
the Lower Damüdas, and thus resembling them so closely as to be 
undistinguishable when consolidated. A sharp change in the direction 
of the strike, which occurs just where ironstone shales come in beneath 
the conglomerate bed, supports this probability. 

It is also possible, as the ironstone shales are evidently much thinner 
South of the Cháneh fault than they are to the North, that that 
fault was partly formed at a period subsequent to the age of the 
Lower Damüda group and antecedent to that of the ironstone shales, 
and that disturbance and denudation of the former took place prior to 
the formation of the latter. 

Altogether there seems to be little reason to doubt that a slight break 
of continuity exists between the Lower Damüdas and the ironstone 
shales. But no evidence of a similar break has been observed on the top 
of the ironstones. It may exist: careful search, however, has failed to 
prove its presence, and the tendency of the evidence at present is to 
show that the ironstone shales are the lowest portion of the upper series. 

So few good fossils have been obtained from the Lower Damüda 
group, in comparison with the large collections 
Comparison of fossils. A ; 

obtained from the upper series, that the merely 
negative characters exhibited cannot be considered to have any great 
weight in confirming the value of the two divisions. Fossils are 
not rare in the ironstone shales, though badly preserved. But, 
although good specimens of fossil plants are, in consequence of 
the sandy nature of the beds, less frequently obtained from the Lower 
Damida, the impressions themselves are quite as abundant, and as 
generally scattered as in the Upper series. The latter alone have fur- 

nished in the Damuda field forms of Pecopteris, Trizygia, and a plant 


44 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. ~ [Cuar. IV. $1. 

allied to SeAizoneura. The two first-named genera are very rare, but 
the last is so abundant and so generally distributed, that the circum- 
stance of its not having been discovered in the lower series is very 
probably due to its absence, while leaves of a similar or closely allied 
plant ( Zeugophyllites) have been found in the lower, but not in the 
upper series.  Vertebraria, Glossopteris of several species (more in the 
higher than in the lower beds), Phyllotheca, and other plant remains 
abound throughout. 

There being thus, both on physical grounds and on fossil evidence, 

Representations of Da- - & probability of a division in the Damüda group 
mula rocks elsewhere. — of the Raniganj field, it remains to be seen 
which portion represents the group as described elsewhere, for as yet 
there has, in no other area, been found evidence of a distinction. 

The districts in which Damúda rocks occur, and of which the writer 
can speak from personal experience, are the Raj- 
mahal Hills andthe Talchir basin. In the former 
case, and, probably, in the latter, the representatives of the beds of the 
Rániganj field are confined to the Lower Damüda group, to which the 
mineral character of the beds closely approximates. In the caseof the 

Rájmahál Hills this is so marked as to be sufficient evidence, but the 

Rájmahál Hills. 

Talchir field is too far away for certainty. In the former instance, 
and to some extent in the latter, no such beds of rather fine felspathic ^ 
sandstone false-bedded and of great thickness are found as occur in the 
upper series of Rániganj. Sandy micaceous shales, poor gritty iron- 
stones, white and grey conglomeritic sandstone, all of which, if abun- 
dant, charaeterize the lower division, are abundant, and the coal seams 
are of inferior quality and irregular thickness. Of the Lower Damáüdas 
of the Narbadda it is more difficult to speak with 
mye certainty ; the description of their mineral cha- 
racter would apply equally to either division, and, indeed, at so great 

a distance, mineral character must be unusually marked and peculiar in 


Cuar. IV. 81.] THE DAMUDA SERIES. 45 

order to have any value. But in this instance, as in every other, the non- 
discovery of either of the species of Schizoneura-like plant, one of which 
is so abundant in the Upper series of the Rániganj field, is strong evi- 
dence in favor of the opinion that no representatives of the Upper series 
have yet been examined beyond the area now under consideration.* 

A field of Damüda rocks exists near Jariagarh, about 15 or 20 miles 

sheda West 2t the Rániganj field. It has not been 

visited by the present survey ; but it is stated 
that it contains ironstones with carbonaceous shales. It is difficult to 
say if these represent, in any way, the great band of the Raniganj field, 
as numerous similar deposits of small extent and thickness occur, both 
in the higher and lower series of the Damúda group. The circumstance 
that Mr. David Smitht considered the deposit at Jaria as unimportant, 
renders it probable that it is merely a thin loeal bed. We have there- 
fore no evidence as to the presence of the Rániganj series at Jaria. 

Mr. Williams distinctly states that both the ironstone shales and the 
upper series occur in the Ramghur coal fields, 
South of Hazáribágh.] The only information con- 
cerning these fields, however, is contained in this Report, based’ on the 

imperfect notes found after Mr. Williams’s death, which took place 

Ramghur. 

while he was engaged in the examination of those districts. The remarks 
on the subject are extremely confused, but if they imply, as they appear 
to do, that the few bands of ironstone detailed in the section, at pages 
49 to 52, represent the great band of ironstones of the Rániganj field, the 
evidence offered appears scarcely sufficient to warrant such an opinion. 

It is also worthy of notice, that conglomerates, the absence of which is 

* It must be remembered that the collections of fossils obtained from the Narbadda Valley 
are as yet exceedingly small and imperfect.—T. OLDHAM. 

t Report on the Coal and Iron Districts of Bengal, page 9. 1856. 

i Geological Reports on the Kymore Mountains, Ramgurh Coal Fields, $c. Calcutta, 
1852. Pages 27, 43, 44, and 53. 


46 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Cuap. IV. § 2. 

one of the chief peculiarities of the Upper series in the Rániganj field, 
form the highest beds of the section. 

From all these facts, whether the upper series be represented else- 
where or not, there can be little doubt that the term Lower Damüda 
must be restricted to that portion of the group in the Raniganj field 
which underlies the ironstone shales, and which, doubtless, represents a 
portion of, if not all, the Damüda rocks of other areas. For the Upper 

D . - ^ . e * ° 
series, as already mentioned, the name of Rániganj series is proposed. 

CHAPTER IV., Section 2.— Lower Damúda Group. 

THE principal general characteristics of this series having been 
described above, it only remains to mention the local forms which it 
assumes, and the places where coal is nown 4 exist within its area. 
Commencing for this purpose in the North-east of the field, we find 
Toh eA two long strips of sandstone, both belonging to 

this portion of the Damúda group, lying North of 
the River Adjai, and in the district of Beerbhoom. The more East- 
"wardly of these lies North of the Hingla stream; it is about 6 miles 
in length, and nowhere more than a mile in breadth, being bounded 
on the South by a fault, which brings up metamorphic rocks. It only 
contains sandstones and sandy shales, and no coal is known to occur. 

The other small area is more interesting. It extends from Haz- 
ratpür on the East, to beyond Kásta, a distance of about 13 miles. 
To the North it rests naturally on the gneiss for the greater portion of 
the distance, but it appears to be let in by faults about Kásta. It is 
very narrow, being covered up to the South by the alluvium of the. 
Adjai as far as a little West of Afzalpár; beyond that, a large fault, 


Czar. IV. § 2.] LOWER DAMUDA GROUP. 4T 

running down the bed of the Adjai, forms its Southern boundary, and 
eauses the metamorphic rocks to be brought up South of the river. 

All the Western portion of this small area, until the rocks are cover- 

CORE ed by alluvium, consists of coarse sandstone. This 
is fairly exposed about Raswán, just East. of 
which a boring was made by the East India Coal Company, in 
consequence of some carbonaceous shale being found in the village. ‘As 
might have been expected, no coal was found, and at a depth of 95 feet 
the borer came upon the hard gneiss rock. 

Just at the North end of Bara Village, a vein of quartz is seen 
apparently cutting through the Damáüda beds 
Bec oe and altering them. It so resembles granitic veins, 
that it is difficult to avoid believing that it is one. However, it may 
be aqueous in origin, as it is by no means well seen. 

- Near to this, conglomerate bands occur near the boundary, which is 
much faulted between Bara and Afzalpür. Some carbonaceous shales, 
and, it is said, coal, were found in digging a well 15 or 20 feet deep at 
Afzalpüár, but the thickness is not known. | 
Near Khorabád a quarry was opened in a seam of very inferior 
coal, by Mr. Nicol. It has now been abandoned 
enor for many years, and, being of course full of water, 
all that can be seen is a thin seam of carbonaceous shale. The coal 
seam was of but small thickness. Further West, in the Sadarangi 
stream, about 14 miles East of Kásta, the rocks seen at the base of the 
Damüdas are coarse, white, felspathie sandstones, upon which come 
purple and brown shales and a small seam of coal, about 1 foot thick, 
then two or three little runs of ironstone of good quality, with shales. 

The only coal seam worked, or that is known to be worth working, in 

/ this strip of measures, is at Kásta. Here two 
PANI collieries exist, one, now the property of the East 

India Coal Company, the other belonging to Messrs. Nicol and Sage. 


48 RANIGANI COAL FIELD. [Cuap. IV. § 2. 

The rocks near the quarries dip at a high angle (30°), and 
consist of hard sandstones and shaley flags. The section of the seam 

in Messrs. Nicol and Sage’s quarries is 

Ji, COD 
l. "Thin, shaley, false-bedded sandstone, pink in color, coarse. and 
felspathie ... - S 3c Mia n Ue 
2. Coarser sandstone, white ES Ropa ad 5: TOO 
3. Thin sandstone similar to No. 1 . sis at 1-16 
4. Carbonaceous shale dus ee 600 A. IRO 
5. Coarse sandstone M. wee Sc 0 2 
6. Carbonaceous shale ot E6 
7. a. Coal, very bright in parts... 396 ác REO 
b. Carbonaceous shale .. Dos IG 
c. Coal, with irregular pute of diale arial 
somewhat shaley and inferior io Berens nella (0) 
d. Shale re a ee On 
e. Coal of good satiny bat Samal ae ve wp ue 
34 2 

8. Carbonaceous shale 
The quarry of the East India Coal Company is not 100 yards off, 
but in it the coal is 2 feet thicker: some of the partings disappear, and 

the section roughly is 

Ft. in 

Coal, shaley and inferior... 2m odo A SEC iG 
Carbonaceous shale s H6 z: mi des 1k 
Coal, poor above, good below act sag 2 oe OUO, 
Total ste pede 

The seam cannot be traced here in either direction, and despite its 
immense thickness, probably thins out at no great distance. It is 
even possible that it may be represented by the thin strings of coal 
already mentioned, on the Sadarangi stream and near Khorabád. 

In this seam, the lower 11 feet are by far the finest portion, and 
although variable, as are all the seams of the Lower Damidas, it con- 
tains in places excellent coal. It has been worked away in large 

galleries close to the out-crop. From the distance of this seam from 


Cmar. IV. 82.] LOWER DAMUDA GROUP. 49 

the Damüda, and from the railway, it can scarcely be worked at a 
profit, but in the years 1858-59, owing to the great demand for coal for 
the East India Railway, between the Adjai and the More, large quan- 
tities, even of the inferior portions of the Kásta seam, were quarried, 
and carried in carts to Sainthia and Sürül (Soorool). 
The tract of alluvium North of the Adjai, and South of the villages 
_ of Afzalpür, Bara, Raswán, Hazratpür, &c., is, doubtless, under-laid 
by rocks of the Lower Damáüda series; and borings near Parsündhi, 
Támra; Samúldhi, and Binanptr, may show the presence of coal seams. 
About Seria (or Sira), Jamalpár, and Lobasán, itis very possible that 
ironstone shales may occur, or they may extend even farther to the 
North. But their position can only be conjectured. 
South of the Adjai, the area occupied by the Lower Damüda group is 
Pate CON considerable, and it increases gradually to TW e 
ward towards the Barákar. West of that river, 
nearly the whole area is occupied by these rocks. In describing this 
large tract of coal-bearing rocks, it will be most convenient to speak ofthe 
various localities in succession, commencing with the most Eastwardly. 
Lower Damúda rocks first appear South of the River Adjai, close to 
UN aly Darbatdánga, a little East of Birkanti. The 
wor great fault, with a down-throw to the North-east, 
which has been already mentioned as passing down the river and bring- 
ing in the Kásta beds, to the East of Darbatdánga, passes across the 
Lower Damida rocks, cutting out all beds below the ironstone shales; 
but the immediate neighborhood of the river here is occupied by 
alluvium. In the bed of the Adjai, close to the place where 
the Nánlin Jor, a small stream from the South, falls into the river, 
| the sandstones are much infiltrated with carbonate 
2g To ny of lime, and are covered in places with a tufaceous 
deposit. The quantity of carbonate of lime is, however, small, and it is 

worthless for economic purposes. 
G 


90 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Cuap. IV. § 2. 

West of Birkünti, in the neighborhood of Jainagar and Churalia, the 
Lower Damüdas are fairly seen. Metamorphic rocks come in South of 
the Adjai fault, but the North boundary of the field being here also a 
fault, the whole thickness of the lower series is not exposed. The 
beds consist of grits and coarse felspathic sandstones below, and, near 
the top, of sandy shales, coarse and fine ferruginous sandstones, mica- 
ceous sandstone, and occasionally coal. The highest beds beneath the 
ironstones are very thin micaceous shales, sometimes containing black 
band, as is well seen near Barbatdánga. Below these some ordinary 
ironstone shales are seen, and there is an appearance, in this part of 
the field, of a passage from the Lower Damüda group into the ironstone 
shales, just as North of Táldánga there is an apparent passage from 
the Talchir into the Damüda series. 

These rocks stretch across the high ground between several small 

streams running North to the Adjai. At Jai- 
SYNC oe nagar 4 quarry was once opened by a native,* in a 
seam said to be 7 or 8 feet thick, and of good quality, but no reliance 
can be placed upon the information. The out-crop of the seam is seen 
for some distance in the neighborhood of a trap dyke, which, in all 
probability, throws off small irregular intrusions into the coal, and 
injures it. 

In the small stream due North of Churalia, three out-crops of coal are 

seen: of these, the lowest bed, near the boundary of 

Ty M the metamorphic rocks, may be 8 or 10 feet thick, 
and the out-crop can be traced for 2 or 300 yards to the West, close 
to the boundary. This seam is perhaps identical with that seen 
near Jainagar. The higher seams cannot exceed 3 or 4 feet in 
thickness. They lie just above the thicker one, but all are extremely 

ill seen. 

* It is frequently most difficult to ascertain by whom the numerous small quarries scat- 

tered over the country were worked. 


Cuar. IV. $2.] LOWER DAMUDA GROUP. öl 

No coal is known to occur West of this for a considerable distance, 
MS BET the beds from Madanpür to Etiapára on the 
Nünia, being very similar to those seen from 
Birkünti to Churalia. Coal may, however, very probably be found 
throughout this area, if a proper system of exploration by borings 
or small sinkings be adopted. West of Panüria, and just South of a 
small village called Digalpahári, there is an out-crop of what appears 
to be a burnt seam of coal. 

Hast of Alipür and Etiapüra, a great fault, with a down-throw to the 
North-east, completely cuts off the fault, which has so far formed the 
North boundary of the field. West of this, (and for a short distance 
East of it,) the Talchir rocks come in, and the whole thickness of the 
Lower Damáda group crops out. No good sections through them, how- 
ever, are seen for a considerable distance. In the Nónia, just North 
of Etiapüra, two out-crops of coal are seen, and two, or perhaps three, 
more near Alipür. All, however, here dip at high angles, and are doubt- 
less broken from the proximity of the North-west and South-east faults. 

The lower beds of the Lower Damüda group are well exposed from 

ad eu Etapüra to Samdi, in the numerous ravines and 
broken ground in the neighborhood of the Núnia. 
The following section, in continuation of that given previously from 
‘the Talchir series, (see Fig. 3, page 36,) North of Samdi, illustrates well 
the character of the beds. 

Fie. 5. SKETCH SECTION OF THE LowER DAMUDA ROCKS NEAR SAMDI. 

( Ascending. ) 

A, Tulchir rocks. 
1. White felspathic false-bedded grits and sandstone, conglomeritic 

in places. 


52 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Cuap. IV. § 2. 

2. Coarse conglomerate of quartz pebbles, in white felspathic sand. 

3. Sandstone, with two thin irregular seams of coal. 

4. Thick seam of coal (exact thickness not seen) containing intru- 
sive trap. 

5. Coarse, false-bedded brown grits. 

No carbonaceous shales are seen to occur—just here coal, and white 
or grey sandstone being the principal beds. A thick seam of coal 
extends in the neighborhood of the Nünia, from near Etiapüára to 
Samdi. The out-crop is seen for a considerable distance North-east 
of the last-named village. It is extremely irregular, nor is it indeed 
certain that it can be considered as one continuous seam, for it 
frequently splits up into three or four, and the partings generally 
are masses of sandstone of extreme irregularity in thickness and 
appearance. ‘This irregularity, as will be seen, is characteristic of all 
the seams of coal in the Lower Damáda group. 

Just where the Sálma dyke crosses the Nünia, this coal seam is seen 

to be of enormous thickness, perhaps as much as 

Thick seam in Nania. H i p : 
70 or 80 feet. But of this the greater portion is 
utterly worthless, being merely a mixture of coal, shale, and sandstone, 
and it may be doubted whether any portion would repay extraction. 
Still it is well worthy of exploration, as portions of the seam or seams 
may be found to supply excellent fuel. A native has cut into the out- 
crop near Amdia, but the coal abounds in pyrites, and is of very infe- 
rior quality. 

The thick bed of white felspathic grit forms the base of the Damida 
Bir dir me i SEMIS for a great distance to the West, and is 
muda series. found beyond the Darákar. It is distinguished 
from somewhat similar beds in the Talchir group, by being somewhat 
coarser and more decomposed, and by never, so far as observed, having 

the bluish-green tinge so generally seen in the coarser sandstones of 

the Talchir group. 


Onar. IV. § 2.] LOWER DAMUDA GROUP. 53 

Above these lowest beds comes a series of grits and shales, inter- 

n i ry directi i o much 
Trap intrusions near Se¢ted in every direction by traps, and s c 

Samdi: hardened by them, that they form a raised ridge, 

on which stand the villages of Etiapúra, Amdia, Pahárgora, Samdi, 
Nauháth, &c. No coal is seen to occur in these beds, and if 
any exist, it is, doubtless, too much hardened and injured by trap 
to be workable. Some coal, however, is seen immediately beneath. 
South of the ridge there are no sections of the Lower Damüda 
rocks. ? 

These beds are tolerably exposed in the West branch of the Nünia. 

The upper part of the section is not well seen, 

West branch of Nünia. 

but some are cut through towards the base. 

The following beds are seen in descending order :— 

l. Sandy shale and sandstone of purplish-red and brown colors, 
somewhat micaceous, and containing a few runs of ironstone. 

2. Coarse micaceous carbonaceous shale, with fossil plants. 

3. Coarse, dark-brown ferruginous sandstone, in beds of moderate 
thickness, with some carbonaceous shale. 

4, Shale, with bands of hard grits. 

5. Black carbonaceous shale, with seams of sandy and impure 
ironstone. 

6. Coarse, black shale, with imperfect plant remains. 

7. Hard massive bands of slightly ferruginous quartzose grits at 
intervals. Intermediate beds not exposed, 

8. Reddish and yellowish sandstone. 

9. Massive, coarse, grey and yellow sandstone, with peculiarly joint- 
ed (tesselated) ferruginous bands. Some beds of carbonaceous sandy 
shale, with imperfect plant remains. 

10. Coal, about 2 feet thick, resting on about 3 inches of ferruginous 
sandstone. - 

11. Sandstone, hardened by trap. 


94 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Cuar IV. § 2. 

12. Coarse carbonaceous and ferruginous sandstone, false-bedded, 
and in places passing into shale. 

13. Coarse brown grits, with little pieces of quartz, only imperfectly 
rounded. 

14. Carbonaceous shale. $ 
15. Coal, thickness not seen, but apparently consider- 

able, about E a ye feet: 

The lower part of the seam contains trap. 

16. Coal and carbonaceous grit, with trap, about ERE De. 

17. Light-brown sandstone, with some pebbles, and a few 

shaley beds interstratified, about Ga ees 
18. Trap Bode T dede 
19. Black carbonaceous shales and sandstone qo 

20. Conglomerate, quartz pebbles in white felspathie grits 

and sandstones  ... m SOONG, 
Black carbonaceous shale ae 6 

21. « Sandstone T s00 2 DU 
Black carbonaceous shale Um 5 

22. White felspathic sandstone, with pieces of quartz and felspar, 
and a few hard bands. 

The only coal seam worthy of notice is No. 5, 12 or 14 feet thick, 
which is seen between Alküsa and Gopalptr. Like most of the seams 
in this neighborhood, it is much cut up and hardened by trap. A 
smaller and thinner seam underlies it. 

West of the Nünia and North of Lachmanpür, Lálbazár, &c., 
Mis eem uheE the beds are much twisted and faulted, and are 
Lálbazár. still full of trap dykes, which, indeed, oceur 
more or less abundantly throughout the Lower Damáüda rocks, and 
almost always send out ramifications into the coal seams. The lower 
beds here are similar to those already described as occurring North 

of Samdi: the higher beds are well seen just North of Lálbazár, 


Cuap. IV. §2.] LOWER DAMUDA GROUP. 

Or 
Ox 

and are best exemplified by the following measured section of 
Mr. Williams.* 

Ft. in 
1. Black and gray argillaceous shales, containing iron-mine 
(seen) oot Ses 000 ». 40 0 
2. Gray and brown sandstone *  ... ^o oce „o 40 0 
3. Inferior coal (seen) oec coc i 1 0 
4. Gray underclay, with arenaceous nodules ... P) (i). 
5. Light-gray sandstone, coarse- -grained, quartzose, Cpu md 
micaceous coc bo ooo 3A . O 
6. Argillo-arenaceous shales, with “one of carbonaceous matter , 4 0 
7. Brown sandstone SB Suc UE ee KONTS 
8. Argillo-arenaceous shale we eons a 8. @ 
9. Brown sandstone with ripple-marks sss oco 3o. 484. b 
10. Inferior coal ae a v9. 
11. Gray argillo-arenaceous underbed s. des scu o LOKO 
12. Brown sandstone, coarse-grained, felspathic, and quartzose ... 56 0 
13. Arenaceous shale ss J an con 2X0 O 
14. Black argillaceous shale ijs xn Ga OS IO; 
15. Dark-brown sandstone, micaceous, and alemnatine with arena- 
ceous shale an con a) 
16. Black argillaceous shale sss AE à RITE 0) 

17. Thin-bedded sandstone, alternating with arenaceous Jele nO 3 0) 
—18. Brown sandstone, quartzose, felspathie, coarse-grained, and 

hard es re is xo. 19. 
19. Arenaceous shale i ae we Ae ROO 
20. Brown sandstone, containing concretions of arenaceous lime- 

stone . 21 0 
21. Hard sandstone, ste and [n -gray, TELA sined. 

red and brown atte seen a0 
22. Brown sandstone, quartzose, fia e and Pes o "nn 19520 
23. Coal, seen on out-crop boc ji do 2508 T. KO) 
24. Gray under-bed : Es 0 

25. Brown and light-gray sandstone, E aid regularly bestes. 

and containing rounded boulders of quartz six inches diameter 18 O 

26. Thick-bedded sandstone, containing large grains of quartz ... 30 0 
*97. Brown arenaceous limestone in large concretions Ses «ser to OUO 
28. Argillo-arenaceous shale de es m pon do (9) 
29. Gray arenaceous shale Box d ae .. 24 0 
30. Arenaceous ironstone 556 Dod. Boc dee OM 
Carried over .. 466 10 

* Geological Report on the Damoodah Valley—pages 84—87. 


^ 

*36. Argillaceous limestone concretions d DN 
37. Black and gray argillaceous shale 
*38. Argillaceous limestone concretions 
39. Argillo-arenaceous shale apa v 
40. Hard arenaceous shale set AG 
41. Dark-blue argillo-arenaceous shale 
42. Argillo-arenaceous shale sec T: occ 
43. Arenaceous ironstone i oot aoc ; 
44. Dark-gray argillo-arenaceous shale 
45. Brown sandstone.  . 500 tee ae 
46. Argillo-arenaceous shale 

47, Arenaceous shale ; 
48. Dark-gray argillo-arenaceous Jele 

*49. Argillaceous limestone in two beds 
50. Gray argillaceous shale ru) m. Da 
51. Dark-gray arenaceous shale 
59. Brown sandstone cos Bos 
53. Arenaceous shale : 

*54. Yellowish-brown argillaceous Hinestome coo dc 
55. Gray argillo-arenaceous shale vss x S60 
56. Light-gray conglomerate AM as 
57. Gray argillaceous shale M Na 
58. Yellowish-brown arenaceous limestone Gedules) 

. Argillo-arenaceous shale 
*62. 
. Dark-gray argillo-arenaceous shale 
. Hard gray sandstone 3c 
. Black argillo-arenaceous shale... e: 
. Gray arenaceous shale 

. Black argillo-arenaceous shale | ; 
. Light-gray conglomerate, with pebbles of wins uas 
. Brown arenaceous shale 

. Light-gray quartzose sandstone 

. Brown and gray limestone Bos 

RANIGANI COAL FIELD. 

Brought forward . 

. Argillo-arenaceous shale 

. Arenaceous ironstone 

. Argillo-arenaceous shale 354 3c d 
. Brown sandstone Sn 

. Dark-gray argillo-arenaceous shale 

. Arenaceous shale, with partings of a red color $ 
. Light-gray sandstone, coarse-grained, quartzose, felspathic, nd 

micaceous d ooo 

Yellowish-brown argillaceous limestone 

act 

Carried over 

[Cuar. IV. § 2. 

4 0 
3 0 
0 6 
9 0 
0 4 
15 0 
1 0 
5 0 
3 0 
OE 
3 0 
2: 10 

2261599 

.. 466 10 

© c 

D 
[=] 

Ror NO RB HL RgNRDEREÍBEOUO-Occ0o0o000o0:-00» OO 
OOoOooccooooooovoonuococrLoouwocoooouvucocmwo 


Cnar. IV. § 2.] LOWER DAMUDA GROUP. o7 

D 
Lm 
Or 
e» 

Brought forward 

72. Light-gray sandstone, felspathic ... sc 200 
73. Compact sandstone, quartzose 
74. Black argillaceous shale 
75. Brown sandstone 
76. Inferior coal Goo 
(7. Arenaceous under-bed, with fibre- lilse 4 impressions of Slots 
78. Brown sandstone, micaceous 
79. Light-gray arenaceous shale 
80. Gray and brown compact sandstone 5 och sa.) AL 
81. Greenish-gray arenaceous shales, lightly TaN red . T 
82. Black and gray argillo-arenaceous shale, with hod c arenaceous 
bands 
83. Gray arenaceous shale 
84. Gray sandstone ese 500 
85. Gray and brown argillaceous shale, micaceous and Hand 
86. Brown sandstone oc 
87. Gray argillaceous shale 
88. Brown sandstone des pad 
89. Dark-gray argillo-arenaceous shale ion oe 
90. Brown sandstone 
91. Black argillo-arenaceous shale 
92. Gray and brown arenaceous shale ... 
93. Light-brown sandstone od 
*94. Yellowish-brown argillaceous, bliestóne 
95. Light-gray argillo- -arenaceous shale 
96. Brown sandstone nob 
97. Yellow and brown sandstone 303 
98. Argillo-arenaceous shale 
99. Black argillaceous shale 
100. Light-gray sandstone dee 
101. Black, gray, and brown arenaceous shale 
102. Inferior shaley coal 
103. Hard sandstone 
104. Inferior coal 
105. Gray arewaceous shaley under-bed.. : 
106. Sandstone, quartzose, and hard, pessum into conglomerates. 

Q9 = = eS e Dw ww DH 
ocOooooocococoooc 

— 
Cr 

oo 
© 

CO pe 
N Q Gr 

"T eco coe 

coe DE ooa aos 

(5) 3 (& € mA (3 «3 e») Gt» (& c9 Soe Foe E 

Q3 09 FE -10 C O 4 Q0 OL. 0 4-000010 

: Total ges ..837 2 

The above section, giving altogether a thickness of 837 feet, which 
are well seen in the streams and ravines North of the village of 

Lálbazár, entirely overlies the representatives of the beds seen North 
H 


58 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Cuar. IV. § 2. 

of Samdi, The measures detailed are destitute of workable coal. In ` 
the lower portion of the Lower Damfidas several seams occur. One 
said to be about 10 feet thick is seen South of Dendwa and East of 
Lakrajori, dipping sharply toward the fault 
Coal near Dendwa. 
which passes there. It was once worked, many 

years since, by a native. 
The seam worked by Messrs. Erskine and Co., North of Lálbazár, 
NU is altogether 18 feet in thickness, of which 10 
d feet is extracted. The coal is hardened by trap, 
by which a proportion of the seam is rendered useless, and it is, as 
usual, variable in quality. A smaller seam underlies it. A little to 
the West of the colliery there is a twist in the strike, and the seams 

are difficult to trace. 

Another seam is seen just North of Ramnagar, and close to the Ba- 
j rákar, but, like so many others, it is cut up and 
MX d injured by trap. A second seam, thin and shaley, 
occurs about half a mile South of Rámnagar. Just North of the Jain 
temples at Bágonia also, close to the spot where the Grand Trunk 
Road crosses the Barákar, a bed, the thickness of which is not seen, 

occurs, and has been irregularly quarried. 

West of the Barákar River 1s an area abounding in coal seams, many 
of them of enormous size. This tract has been by 

West of Barákar. e 
several persons quoted as the most promising and 
valuable portion of the Rániganj field, on account both of the abundance 
and the excellence of the fuel there found. The abundance has not only 
been confirmed, but many seams not previously laid down have been 
mapped by the present Survey. These seams, however, seldom appear 

continuous over the whole area of the field ; they can often not be traced 


Cuar. IV. $2.] LOWER DAMUDA GROUP. 99 

for more than a few hundred yards, and the quality of the coal may 
(and in general does) vary within even shorter distances. An admira- 
ble example is seen in the Küdia stream, at the bend due South of 
Nirsha, and near the village of Sampür. Here à 13 feet seam of coal 
is seen, within 50 yards, to split into two, and thelower seam to change 
intosandy shale. 300 yards from the place where it was first seen, a seam 
apparently identical, but only 7 feet thick, is found; and this is certainly 
not an extreme case. Many seams of considerable thickness seem to 
disappear entirely within a shorter distance. 
Of course, in a region where no mine of any size exists, it is im- 
Tea of) Gol possible to say whether there are exceptions to 
Bene this rule or not. The most extensive workings 
that have ever been made in the beds of the Lower Damüda group, 
within the hániganj field, have never been more than galleries driven 
in from the out-crop, and these have probably in no case reached for 
100 yards in distance, nor to a depth of 50 feet from the surface. The 
quality of the coal is, in many cases, admirable; the best yet procured 
in the Damüda field is said to have come from the mines West of the 
Barákar.* The assertion, however, so frequently made, that, coal 
suitable for coking purposes has been procured from Chanch, Kümar- 
dhábi, and other places, has never been satisfactorily proved, and is 
certainly incorrect in the case of Chánch. 
One circumstance which seriously interferes with the seams of the 
Lower Damáda group is the frequency with which 
Sp ded they are injured by trap dykes. These ramify, for 
great distances, and in a most peculiar manner, through many of the 
seams, converting the coal into a hard, dense, shaley substance, appa- 
rently an impure authracite, which is frequently most beautifully 

columnar. 

* The coal of Sirsol, Nimcha, and some other seams near Rániganj is probably equal to 

any yet found West of the Barákar. 


60 RANIGANJ OOAL FIELD. [Cuar. IV. § 2. 

Immediately West of the Barákar several seams of coal are seen in 
baia b aedi the neighborhood of the village of Barmúri. 
The highest in the series are about half a mile 
South of the village, and consist of two seams seen on the bank 
of the Bardkar, the highest and largest, however, is only 4 feet - 
thick. Immediately South of Barmüri a seam occurs, which has 
been worked to some extent by natives many years ago; it is an 
ani admirable example of an irregular seam, the 
thickness being any thing between 15 feet and 
30, and the seam itself being a mixture of coal, shale, and sand- 
stone, each of which passes into the other, so that some layers of 
i usd the seam which at one point are coal, 20 yards 
further may be hard, gritty sandstone, with- 
out any carbonaceous appearance. Not many feet beneath this seam, 
and just North of the village, occurs another seam from 15 to 20 
feet thick, which has also been cut into. It is, if possible, even 
more irregular and inferior in quality than that South of Barmün. 
Itis also much altered by trap. Thirty or forty feet lower in the 
section, a third seam is seen, of great thickness, probably nearly 30 
feet; a fourth seam occurs about 10 feet below the third, and a fifth a 
‘short distance further North ; but the out-crops of the latter are not 
so well exposed. Supposing the two lower seams, each to measure 
10 feet, there is, in this spot, a thickness of nearly 100 feet of 
coal, nearly the whole of which, so far as can be judged from its 
appearance at the surface, is worthless for anything, except brick and 
lime burning. 
Passing Westwards, many indistinct out-crops are seen near Mira 
and Táldánga. <A fine seam was dug into for 
Md i dee 6 or 8 feet, in sinking a well to the depth of about 
30 feet at the dák bungalow. Immediately West of the latter, there 

runs a stream called the Jhelia, in the banks of which, in places, a 


Cnar. 
very imperfect section of the beds 1s seen. 
Mr. Williams's section. 

ings, and from the combination of these, with other measurements, he 

gives the following as a general section of the Lower Damüda group 

ERSE LOWER DAMUDA GROUP. 

4 

Mr. Williams, partly by means of pits and bor- 

in the neighborhood of Táldánga* :— 

[zr 

The measures seen in the 

banks of this stream were carefully explored by 

* Report on the Damoodah Valley, &c., pages 69 to 74, 

( Descending. ) 
Jil, Wes 
. Black and gray argillaceous shale, containing the carburet of 
iron, or argillaceous ironstone, and bands of sandstone soc LGR AQ) 
. Black and gray argillaceous shale, alternating with bands and 
beds of sandstone, and containing nodules of ironstone soot BST 
. Black argillaceous shale and ironstones in great profusion .. 186 0 
. Indication of coal here. 
. Black and gray argillaceous shale, containing nodules and bands 
of iron-mine .. 218 0 
. Black and gray argillaceous T düssmes: ik hands and 
nodules of iron-mine, and also with beds of sandstone 15921950 
. Gray and brown conglomerate and sandstones, alternating with 
thin beds of gray and brown argillo-arenaceous shale, contain- 
ing nodules of argillo-arenaceous limestone : .. 310 0 
. Brown sandstone conglomerate, very hard and DUE dnos LEA) 
. Light-gray sandstone, coarse grain, quartzose, felspathic, and 
partially stained red and brown ... Soo om 2002010 
. Ooneretionary coal (Chaunch seam) a oco UA D 
. Arenaceous under-bed, with fibre-like i EEE of jte AA O 
. Light-gray and brown sandstone conglomerate, with occasional 
alternations of thin beds of shale a6 ves 2209000 
. Arenaceous shale, with subordinate beds of sandstone oco 610. (9) 
. Sandstone and shale ee soe coc 250022000. 
. Coal, thickness unknown. 
. Light and dark-gray sandstone and shale, alternating in beds 
of various thickness bo e Sus ... 228 0 
. Sandstone, hard and coarse-grained en akg NES sot asi lg DOMO 
. Thin-bedded sandstone, micaceous and gray as ce LATO 
. Black bituminous shale " vss 2 
. Black siliceous rock, with a concheidal A d Cane 
flakes of vegetable charcoal ... ooo Sas SEA 
Carried over ole 


62 

. Black siliceous rock, with conchoidal fracture, idi containing 

RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. 

Brought forward ...1,881 

. Coal seen near experimental shaft No. 17, thickness seen on 

outcrop tee boc oe. ve. 

. Under-bed arenaceous : E 
. Bandstone alternating with gray esos arenaceous ju Jo 

. Gray and black ar Eu shale .. dis 

. Gray and brown arenaceous shale, E ani red 

. Sandstone, quartzose and hard... ; DA S: 

. Black siliceous rock, with conchoidal fracture, and containing 
flakes of vegetable charcoal C ax as ees 

. Black R shale dog 5o 

flakes of vegetable charcoal, and exceedingly hard ... Con 

. Coal inferior in quality d 5c 565 3 0 
. Black bituminous shale 500 Soo 1 6 
. Coal, superior, found in experimental shaft No. lios 2142 
. Under-bed 560 seo ME 
. Sandstone sco 509 ood 5a 
. Gray argillaceous shale oo B 

. Hard sandstone e ooa ^ m 
. Argillo-arenaceous shale E eco 508 

. Hard rock, fine grain e de oe aa 
. Argillo-arenaceous shale 35 i D eed 
. Hard rock, fine grain Ss oe 560 
. Argillo-arenaceous shale of a dank Ge ay color, and a band of rock 

42. Hard sandstone, micaceous, and fine-grained M 
43. Coal seen near shaft No. 15, thickness not ascertained never 
three feet on the out-crop ae 00 cad s 
44. Under-bed zi bag ie. 
45. Sandstone and argillo-arenaceous dicil vus ce a 
46. Brown sandstoue ood E Ves 
47. Arenaceous shale, micaceous vai ie coo AN 
48. Thin-bedded sandstone ze ate us: a 
49. Superior coa us a ae Pia 
50. Carbonaceous shale ce abe o5c E 
51. Superior coal E We aon 
59. Gray arenaceous under-bed, with see like impressions of plants 
53. Brown conglomerate 00 - sac 
54. Superior coal found in Soc shaft No. 13 

. Gray arenaceous under-bed, containing large concretions of 

arenaceous iron-mine ze 7E p V 

~y 
© 

Qvo cocco od d 

| Cua». IV. $2. 

0 

(c) TO (3 (3 (3 2 

Oc» cHn».cocomniccoooco 

expe» (€ (€3 (3€ © 

© 

oo o» 

© 

Carried over T2203 0 


Cuar. IV. § 2.] LOWER DAMUDA GROUP. 

Brought forward ...2,293 2 

56. Light-gray conglomerate sandstone, containing white pebbles of 
rounded quartz ove oos. Gc OTIO 
57. Gray argillaceous shale 3 0 
58. Black argillaceous shale 4 0 
59. Superior coal found in excavation No. 12 iu mo Uae! 
60. Gray arenaceous under-bed, containing large concretions of are- à 
naceous ironstone from 3 to 4 feet diaméter, and 1 foot thick 5 0 
61. Black and gray argillaceous shale 6 0 
62. Brown sandstone dco occ 300 KEZI 
63. Carbonaceous shale > : 4 0 
64. Light-gray sandstone, quartzose, EES, cud hard 3 0 
65. Hard bright coal, found in shaft No. 11 2 M Te 0:58 
66. Gray argillo-arenaceous under-bed hah 2n Wo 
67. Gray sandstone owo doc s 0 4 
68. Black and gray argillaceous shale ... a oon von, O 
69. Gray sandstone, fine-grained, micaceous œ... Bae co @ © 
70. Gray and brown sandstone conglomerate... oco OON 
71. Coal 2 AY E aus, 1T 
72. Carbonaceous shale or 0 8 
73. Coal ie 000 0 1 
74. Under-bed A oh 20000310 

75. Sandstone, gray and brown, passing into conglomerate near 
the top Bcc Pr oos Con 10) O 
76. Argillo-arenaceous shale bee ons soc 9 0 
77. Inferior coal atc doc Boc O y 
78. Sandstone dc os As van ORTA 
79. Coal 500 0 5 
80. Black argillaceous shale bed con 3 0 
81. Brown and gray sandstone conglomerate  ... Ue « 162 0 
82. Inferior coal in excavation No. 8 ... iao ET aco, LO 
83. Arenaceous under-bed 508 ct as a 0. 
84. Argillo-arenaceous shale ox coc ucc 3m 5 UU 
85. Light-gray conglomerate o ác bor a8! M0) 
86. Coal seen in brook near shaft No. 7 6 0 
87. Gray under-clay ar 2 0 
88. Slaty coal gek iis D Bee 1 0 
89. Hard bright coal oon nc er pep. re 0) 
90. Gray arenaceous under-bed 6 0 
91. Brown conglomerate ons n. ood On sumo 
92. Light-gray argillaceous shale 25. Gp zs 7 0 
93. Brown conglomerate R es V 2025180 
10 

Carried over +012, (99 


64 

94. 

95. 

96. 

97. 

98. 

99; 
100. 
101. 
102. 
103. 
104. 
105. 
106. 
107. 
108. 
109. 
110. 
111. 
112. 
113. 
114. 
115. 
116. 
117. 
118. 
119. 
120. 
121. 
122. 
123. 
124. 
125. 
126. 
127. 
128. 
129. 
130. 
131. 
132. 
133. 
134. 

RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Cnar. IV. § 2. 

Brought forward ...2,735 10 

Inferior coal, with metallic fracture i 3 
Hard rock, colored red, alternating with black ar Bill c eo. shale. 0 
Gray arenaceous shale 4 

o 0 £0 O-100000000500000050505000mm09o0000€0290 

So CON KE DS 

Grayish-white sandstone conglomerate A UE Na DX) 
Brown conglomerate TE ses AG pac a 
Black carbonaceous shale id 500 Sat west A 
Gray argillaceous shale iei Abo dee So Med 
Red sandstone ee Ae sat sx 
Gray and brown conglomerate  ... 60 Ab «ipd 
Inferior coal, with metallic fracture 460 Pos dO 
Gray argillaceous shale . 900 ane i don. 
Sandstone, stained red vee ie See i MAS 
Gray and brown conglomerate ^... s s Some 248) 
Gray argillaceous shale teo fes oa nell 
Brown and gray conglomerate A. ES SOINS 
Bright coal found in shaft No. 4, impr egind with iron pyrites 13 
Gray under-bed oo ius Sc SE 
Black argillaceous shale ooc oe e ONE 
Coal 366 2»: aad eee 0, 
Black argillaceous shale et X BR 
Thin-bedded sandstone Ms 1296 
Gray and brown conglomerate ^... x boo ne 23 
Bright coal, impregnated with iron pyrites ... oa ap G 
Carbonaceous shale a os E NO 
Sandstone Ae 560 ae 222260 
Black argillaceous shale a 6 
Gray sandstone, coarse-grained  ,.. 3) 
Red sandstone 1 
Gray sandstone 30 1 
Black carbonaceous shale . Ww. 0 
Dark-gray shale ae 1 
Light-gray argillaceous shale sae 1 
Black bituminous shale 9 
Brown sandstone 1 
Black carbonaceous shale Aan 0 
Brown sandstone od 1 
Black carbonaceous shale zm 1 
Inferior shaley coal, found in shaft No. DM 12 
White sandstone 5 
Black bituminous shale and coal " 5 
Yellow sandstone, irregular 1 

Carried over 123,201 

Ha 


Cuar. IV. § 2.] LOWER DAMUDA GROUP. 65 

Brought forward... 3,271 4 

135. Inferior coal and bituminous shale mixed, found in shaft No.1 20 0 

136. Dark-gray under-bed ene ooo : GLO 
137. Hard and compaet gray sandstone, ia ate 50: 2960/0 
138. Black siliceous rock, with a conchoidal fracture, and contain- 
ing flakes of vegetable charcoal eee Tes 1 2 EO 
139. A bed s inferior coal eec ze oM 
140. Gray argillaceous shale, with thin bed: of Eae 3n .. 26 0 
141. White and light-sray sandstone, conglomerate, containing 
boulders of white quartz 19 inch diameter see .. 825 0 
142. Greenish-gray argillaceous shale, alternating ue thin beds of 
sandstone oo: .. 200 0 
143. Greenish-gray argillaceous shale, OT large (— 
of gray limestone vc se s ER ING 
4,097 4 

The first six beds of the above, embracing a thickness of 993 feet, 
belong to the ironstone shales; the beds 141, 142, 143, being 678 feet, 
belong to the Talchirs. Thus the thickness of the Lower Damüda 
groupis,by Mr. Williams's measurements, 2,426 feet. This is probably 
very nearly correct, but as it may be slightly too high, 2,000 feet may 
very safely be taken as the minimum thickness. 

The above section shows the existence of fourteen beds of coal 
known to equal or exceed 3 feet in thickness; of these, however, 
several are of similar quality to those already mentioned as occurring 
in the neighborhood of Barmüri. It has not always been found pos- 
sible to recognize the seams mentioned by Mr. Williams, probably in 
consequence of the out-crops having been covered by changes in the 
course of the stream, since the time of his visiting the locality. 

No. 10, which is called the Chánch seam, is probably that now work- 

ed at Dumarkhünda, the identification of which 

Dumarkhinda seam, 

with the Chanch seam is doubtful, the latter being 
probably higher in the series, and nearer the base of the ironstone 

shales. The Dumarkhünda seam has hitherto only been worked on 
I 

- 


66 RANIGANJ OOAL FIELD. [Cuap. IV. $2. 

the out-crop, but a deep shaft is now (1860) being sunk. The mineis 
the property of the Bengal Coal Company, as are also those of Chánch 
BOUE wa and Nüchibád, the former East, the latter West of 
the Kudiá stream. They lie about a mile South- 

west of Dumarkhünda. The coal, which has a thickness of about 
10 feet, has hitherto only been worked by quarries, and by workings 
carried in from the out-crop. It is of fair quality, and, like many other 
seams in the Lower Damüdas, e. g. Darmüári and Lálbazár, has a concre- 
tionary structure. However this may have been produced, there can 
be no doubt that it is due to action subsequent to the consolidation of 
i the coal, and not to the “ original form of the 

Boi vegetation (probably drifted wood”), as suggested 
by Mr. Williams, page 74, nor to pebbles of coal washed out of 
another bed previously deposited, as supposed by Mr. Homfray,* and 
as was at first believed by Mr. Piddington,f who, however, on receiv- 
ing additional specimens in better condition, immediately saw that 
the structure was of later date than the formation of the coal. This it 
evidently is, for the curved surfaces of the nodules are clearly seen 
to pass across the laminated structure parallel to the planes of stratifi- 
cation, which is so strongly marked in all Damáda coal. The nodules, 
indeed, have all the appearance of concretionary action, but whether 
that is due to chemical action alone, or to heat, or to both combined, 

it is difficult to say. 

* Second paper, page 26. 

1 On the ball coal of the Burdwan mines, Asiatic Soc. Jour. Beng., Vol. XVII., page 60. 

l Asiatice Society's Journal, Vol. XVIIL, page 412, and Vol. XTX., page 76. 

Mr. Piddington attributed it to heat under pressure, and showed its analogy to columnar 
Structure. 

Mr. Williams also, in writing of the Ramghur coal, which possesses the same structure, says 
—“ These concretionary nodules have been erroneously supposed to be drifted boulders of coal 
of a prior origin, which is manifestly not the case ; it is, in fact, a structure common to the coal 
itself,” &c. &c., page 28. 


Onar. IV. § 2.] LOWER DAMUDA GROUP. 67 

Not far North-west of Chánch, a mine was worked for a short time 
PAM i aks. in 1855 or 1856, by ihe Bengal Coal Company, 
in a seam 20 feet thick, near Patlabári. Very 
little coal was taken out. | 

To return to the seams cut through in the Jhelia stream, and to 

PN Mr. Williams's section, Nos. 21, 30, and 43 were 
only partially explored by Mr. Williams, the pits 
sunk to prove them being stopped by water. All are thicker than the 
amount given, but it is not known how much. The ground where 
their out-crops were discovered is now the bed of a large tank, so that 
nothing can be seen of them. 

No. 53—9 feet thick, is described by Mr. Williams* as a coking 
coal of excellent quality. A Company was formed to work it, and other 
beds, and a shaft sunk at Kumardhábi. But disputes arose between 
rival Companies, and the land fell into the hands of the Bengal Coal 
Company, who abandoned the mine; it is said by their eels: on 
account of the bad quality of the coal. 

. This bad quality, if the statement be correct, may have been 
due to either of two causes, both of which have frequently been allud- 
ed to as influencing the seams of the Lower Damüdas. It is not pro- 
- bable that Mr. Williams, who, from long experience in coal mines, was 
peculiarly capable of forming a correct opinion, was deceived in his esti- 
mate of the excellence of the coal at the spots where he excavated ; hut 
from the great tendency of the seams of the Lower Damüdas to vary in 
quality, it is quite possible that, at 50 yards distance, the coal may have 
been poor.t In this case, however, there is little dosis that the coal near 

Nearly all the details concerning these beds are taken from Mr. Williams's Report. He 
sank small shafts upon the seams, and, consequently, had better means of judging of their 
quality than the present Survey. 

T It is only fair to state that, in the strong opinion I have expressed throughout as to 
the inferiority of the seams of coal in the Lower Damüdas, I differ from those who have 
preceded me in the examination of the field. At the same time, I had the advantage of 


68 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Cuapr. IV. § 2. 

the shaft was hardened by trap, and the seam mined elsewhere may 
prove of good quality. 

Of the next seams seen, No. 59, 16 inches thick, and No. 65, 

8 inches, are stated to be of the best quality of coking coals; their size, 
however, would prevent their being extracted by the present system: 
seams also of so small dimensions may very possibly thin out in these 
beds within a few yards. No. 82, 10 feet thick, is very inferior, but 
No. 86, seen just South of the bridge on the Grand Trunk Road, and 
7 feet 6 inches thick, is apparently of good quality, and is probably 
that already spoken of as having been cut into in a well at Táldánga 
dik bungalow. A thin seam is seen just North of the bridge. 

A little further up is seen No. 103, 94 feet thick, of very inferior 
shaley coal. The two seams, 109 and 116, which are said to be of fair 
quality, are seen about a quarter of a mile from the Grand Trunk Road, 
and may be traced for some distance towards Hejiakhünd. The seams, 
however, which cross the road West of Hejiakhünd are not clearly conti- 
nuations of those last mentioned ; it appears rather as if the more Easterly 
seams died out, and others came in nearly on the same general level 
in the series. All seams below these are described by Mr. Williams 
as worthless, and only two are seen, and those by no means well, in 
the banks of the stream. 

In the Kádia only thin strings of coal occur as far as Sángamahal, 
and South of it, the few beds seen are too much 
disturbed by the neighborhood of the fault, 
bounding the field to the South-west, to be of any use. Just South 

Section in the Kádia 
stream. 

being acquainted with the researches of the few previous observers, and I went to the spots 
fully impressed with their estimate of the richness of the district, and the excellence of the 
coal Nor did I change my opinion without ample evidence to the contrary. Nevertheless, 
I may be mistaken, or it may so happen that only some seams are variable in size and quality. 
That a very large proportion are greatly injured by trap is unquestionable. As will be seen, 
the evidence in the Rániganj series is different, and there is far more evidence of seams being 

continuous over considerable areas. 


Ouar. IV. § 2.] LOWER DAMUDA GROUP. 69 

of the Grand Trunk Road, a little East of Bindrabandpár, two seams of 
coal, each about 10 or 12 feet in thickness, crop out separated by 
5 or 6 feet of shale. Two other seams occur between this point and 
the Kádia: of one of these only traces are seen, the other is 4 feet in 
thickness. : 
__ There can be little doubt that very many seams are concealed by 
gravel, clay, and other surface accumulations, 
since throughout the West of the field, almost 
wherever sections exist, coal seams are numerous. Of all sections, 
however, none equal those seen South of Nirsha, in the Küdia stream, 
in the quantity of coal. 

The Pasai runs into the Kiidia about quarter of a mile South of the 
bridge on the Grand Trunk Road, over the first- 
named stream. Inthe Pasaia seam of coal, 9 feet 

thick, is seen, the lowest in the following section. Down the Kidia, from 
the junction of the two streams, but few seams are met with, and these of 
inferior quality, and thin, Two, of 2 and 3 feet in thickness respect- 
ively, crop out some distance down the stream, and at Sangamahál 
the seam formerly worked there is seen. It is 54 feet thick, and the 
quality was, by Mr. Williams, stated to be inferior and similar to that 
at Barmüri About this the beds are turned up by the fault forming 
the South-west boundary of the field, and dip North. 

Proceeding in the other direction, from the Pasai, 7. e. to the West- 

South of Nirsha. 

In the Pasai stream. 

ward and up the Kádia, a magnificent section of the Lower Damida 
beds is seen dipping at about 15? or 20° to the South-west. 

The highest measurable section is seen at the first bend of the 
stream below Pitakári, thence in descending order the following beds 
are seen :— 

Ft. in. 
1. Sandstone and shale d S on P ve Oa 
2. Coal 6 0 

Carried over 6n O 


70 

NDNA 

© oo 

RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. 

Brought forward ... 16 

. Carbonaceous shale 

. Shaley sandstone d a: a: 
. Carbonaceous shale 

. Coal, shaley in parts : t 
. Bhaley sandstone and some CO gas th strings of 

coal, about pr 

z 

. Coal, good Bee gin 
. Shaley sandstone ce ses 
. Coarse, brown gritty sandstone 

11. 
12. 
13. 
14. 
15. 
16. 
17. 

Shale, sandy 

Sandstone : 
Carbonaceous shale and "e of wr quate 
Shaley sandstone ; 

Carbonaceous shale and ol 

Shaley sandstone 

Coal, variable, about 

Total 

[Cuap. IV. § 2. 

e 

“Im Qx Ct 
oco 

ie) 
© 

e.a 

. 
EE 
-]J C2 Qv O» Hf» [tO [PD Qv FN 

ONONUONSONONOSUODIOSCUOEO 

. 120 0 

Here the stream turns to the South-west, and continues along the 

strike of the beds. 

The coal seam, No. l7, is seen towards the next 

bend to the North, to have gained in thickness at the base, the sand- 

stone and shale beneath it passing into coal along the strike. From 

this spot the section is magnificently seen in the bed of the stream. 

18. 
19. 
20. 
21. 
22. 
23. 
24. 
25. 
26. 
27. 

(Repeated) shaley sandstone 

(Ditto) coal, 13 feet, passing at the base, into 
Carbonaceous shale 
Sandy carbonaceous shale and saa D stceone 
Grit, variable and thinning out, coal 
Shale and shaley sandstone. 
Quartzo-felspathic grit do 
Carbonaceous shale and coal 
Grit and shaley sandstone 
Carbonaceous shale 
Quartzo-felspathic grit oco scm 
Coal : aon o 

Carried over 

Et n- 
120 0 
6 0 
vs 9 0 
0 6 
4 0 
I8 O0 
3 0 
5 5 0 
EP) 
16 0 
1 0 


CHAP. 

28. 
29. 
30. 
31. 
32. 
33. 
34. 
35. 
36. 
37. 

38. 
39. 
40. 
41. 
42. 
43. 

44. 

45. 
46. 
4T. 
48. 
49. 
50. 

51. 
52. 

53. 
54. 
55. 
56. 
oT. 
58. 

59. 
60. 
61. 
62. 

^ 

IV. § 2.] LOWER DAMUDA GROUP. 

Brought forward 

Shaley sandstone 

Coal NN. 1e 

Grit, intercalated and thinning s duse by; ss. - 

Coal : D 

Shaley sandstone, with strings of — VAT ies Ae 
Shaley sandstone and shale ust Soo 

Coal, shaley towards the top 

Shaley sandstone : 

Carbonaceous shale and inferior coal UM x en 

Carbonaceous shale, some sandstone, and some laicis of coal 
interstratified See 

Sandstone and shale of various minds tors ded 203 

Carbonaceous shale becoming more coal-like towards the base .. 
Coal, best towards the base s nde wee 

Thin shaley sandstone ico MT soo oe 
Carbonaceous shale vee 

Grayish and brown sandstone, with isum AAE of carbona- 
ceous shale, coarse and fine AT, 

Carbonaceous shale, with interstratifications of one ferru- 
ginous, calcareous, and carbonaceous sandstone 

Hard calcareous sandstone boc 

Carbonaceous shale and shaley sandstone js Bac 

Hard calcareous sandstone Bek ax bor Y 

Shaley sandstone cc acc m 

Hard, gray calcareous sandstone  ... ET m doc 

Dark-gray shaley sandstones, carbonaceous in parts, with thin 
caleareous bed Sus acc 203 

Hard, gray calcareous sandstone ... E ave 

Shaley sandstone, ferruginous, thin-bedded and pple passing 

down into sandy carbonaceous shale eee s 

Carbonaceous shale and coal out 

Thin ferruginous sandstone and shale uc Soe 5 

Coarse felspathie sandstone and grit A Ea 

Shaley sandstone and shale te vad gu yas 

Carbonaceous shale 35 i MT 

'Thin brown sandstone, in parts carbonaceous, ns some shale 

interstratified 383 

Carbonaceous shale and some .coal... c th 

Thin shaley sandstone 

Coarse, white quartzo-felspathic gr 4 

Sandstone and carbonaceous shale "b dac 

Carried over 

. 184 6 
3 6 
14 0 
5 0 
1 0 
7 0 
10 0 
15 .0 
7 0 
5 0 
8 0 
10 0 
7 0 
10 0 
7 0 
8 0 
34 0 
20 0 
1 0 
12 0 
1 0 
7 0 
1 0 
23 0 
1 0 
44 0 
10 O0 
13 0 
4 0 
3 0 
3 0 
12 0 
5 0 
3 0 
4 0 
2 0 
405 0 


RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Cuap. IV. § 2. 

Brought forward .. 405 0 

63. Coal of good quality siete Me PA IG 
64. Light-gray shaley sandstone, func sia iod om: O 
65. Carbonaceous shale 5c E n i dre amo) 
66. Coal, shaley in parts 354 os 503 27 
67. Ditto, cut up by trap doo A ze 5 
— 32 0 
68. Coarse felspathic sandstone 9 70 
69. Carbonaceous shale $us 509 E 2 0 
70. Coal, shaley in parts A v WB 10 
71. Interstratifications of blue shale ad felspathic Sun dstode repre) en: 
72. Quartzo-felspathic grit 369 e Soc nas Ne) 
73. Coal and carbonaceous shale 200 536 200 2 0 
74. Fine sandstone, reddish-brown Sb ds UC QUARTA) 
75. Bluish-gray shale . so dog su dae a NO 
76. Coal 2 0 
77. Carbonaceous shale and sandstone s: soed . 4 6 
78. Fine, thin-bedded, white sandstone, with layers of carbota teos 
shale cod 3 0 
79. Coarse, white, gritty sandstone ... 505 500 7 0 
80. Red sandstone, with specks of mica 53 v w 9 
81. Carbonaceous shale and some coal ooa aod : 3. 0 
82. Whitish quartzose grit xe. 50 kek scale Olu) 
83. Shale and shaley sandstone wae ee An 2 0 
84. Fine gray and brownish-red sandstone coo e 7 0 
85. Shale slightly carbonaceous oco 2 6 
86. Quartzose grit 300 c0 O O 
87. Shaley, thin-bedded variegated sendatone E ed M6 
88. Coarse, gritty, massive, false-bedded sandstone, I and dark- 
gray, felspathie in parts oe E 208 ~ 30. 0 
89. Carbonaceous shale S08 iae ae LI O 
90. Fine gray sandstone, in distinct beds E EP ver old o0 
9i Com i 353 ES «dba fO 
92. Coarse grit and sandstone inter oce Mus ie Se LOO 
93. Coal, thin, thickness not seen 
94, Fine gray sandstone, about so " des 6 0 
95. Coal, about 3 0 
96. Felspathic sandstone S40 ee 433 SCA 1:10 
97. Coal dandi wae +o qud x0 
98. Carbonaceous shale 2.0 
99. Sandy shale and some sandstone 4 0 
100. Carbonaceous shale 3 0 

Carried over 1229976 


Crap. IV. § 2.] LOWER DAMUDA GROUP,  - 73 

Brought forward |... 722 6 

101. Coarse quartzo-felspathie grit, containing fragments of quartz. 
This bed breaks up sometimes and becomes shaley towards the 

top* da i uk SUE f) 
102. Shale alternating with thin sandstone 9 0 
103. Ironstone of poor quality soc E S00 Vete OLG 
104. Black carbonaceous shale occ oct sc song OL) 
105. Thin shaley sandstone fhe EOM 2 6 
106. Coal, shaley in parts, especially towards the top 9110 
107. Shale a 5 0 
108. Grit, thickness not seen. 
833 6 

In this grand section there are altogether twenty-seven seams of coal, 

Seams of coal in this Of the respective thicknesses of 6, 7, 7, 4, 5, 13, 
EA (varying to 7,) 2, 3, 1, 14, 1, 15, 5, 10, 10, 5, 41, 
32, 8, 2, 2,3, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 9, and an aggregate thickness of 175, feet ! 
But a large proportion of this is merely shale, and, if one-half even be 
tolerable coal, there is still an enormous thickness. "Twenty seams are 
3 feet and upwards in thickness, the best of these are No. 2,6 feet ; No. 
8, 7 feet, both seen near Pitakári; portions of No. 17, 29, and 40, and 
No. 63, 4i feet. Perhaps part of the thick seam, No. 66, might also 
be workable, but the presence of trap is a great disadvantage. All 
other seams appear to be more or less shaley. 

Further up the Küdia, beyond Pitakári, and approaching the bound- 
ary of the Damüdas near Khika, many partial out-crops are seen, but 
no continuous section, and nothing can be determined as to the quality 
or thickness of the coal seams; the majority of which must be conti- 
nuations of those in the preceding section. All these seams, if they 
continue a few hundred yards to the West, must be cut off by the 
fault between Tilturia and Belküpa. 

* This thick bed of grit occurs at the junction of the Pasai and Küdia. The remainder of 
the section is seen: in the Pasai. 

K 


"74. RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Cnar. IV. § 3. 

A seam of very carbonaceous shale is seen in the Pasai, a little 
North of the Grand Trunk Road. Beyond this, the stream, for a long 
distance, exposes no section, and the next coal seen occurs a little 
South of Pathápidhi. This is about 10 feet thick. On the same 
horizon, and possibly in continuation of this seam, an out-crop of a bed, 
about 8 feet thick, occurs North of Patlaküri, and extends to the 
boundary near Bareghar. At no great distance beneath this, one 
or two other seams of unknown thickness are seen, and just above the 
top of the Talchir beds, a very thick seam, 30 feet altogether, but 
very shaley in parts, crops out along the stream for nearly half a mile, 
presenting a very peculiar appearance. This seam is again intersected 
by the Pasai, at the extreme point to the West, to which Lower 
Damüda rocks reach. The base of the Lower Damüdas is not more than 
30 or 40 feet below the last-mentioned seam of coal, and the lowest 
rocks of that series consist, in this locality, of hard, grey sandstones and 
shales, the white sandstones and conglomerates, which formed the base 
from near Etiapura, Samdi, and the Barákar, having disappeared. Near 
the Pasai there is unconformity between the Damúdas and Talchirs. 

Many of the seams along the Pasai and Kúdia streams are occasionally 
worked by the inhabitants of the villages around, and small quantities 
. of coal obtained. But such desultory workings never result in more than 

the digging out of a few hundred maunds from the banks of the streams. 

CHAPTER IV., SECTION 3.—4ronstone Shales. 

So few sections of these rocks are seen, that any detailed description 
: of them is impossible. They are, throughout, 
ad sections. - 1 e 
s almost of the same mineral character, consisting 

of a very fine black carbonaceous shale, which breaks up into small 


Cuar. IV. § 3.] IRONSTONE SHALES. 49 

angular fragments, and in which seams of argillaceous iron ore, vary- 
ing in thickness from 2 inches to a foot, occur at irregular intervals. 

Throughout the area represented upon the map, as occupied by these 

Uniform mineral cha. beds, the argillaceous carbonate of iron is com- 
UY mon, but it appears to be both more abundant 
and of better quality towards the top than near the base of the 
series. 

Though sections, even the smallest, are rare, fragments of the iron- 
stones generally occur upon the surface so abundantly as to mark well 
the area covered by the out-crop of these beds. They appear, despite 
their softness, to resist atmospheric denudation better than the harder 
grits or sandstones which rest upon or underlie them, for the ironstone 
shales form a high ridge, stretching across the country. This is pro- 
bably due to their resisting the corroding action of water containing 
carbonic acid better than the felspathic ingredients of the sandstones. 

Sandstones occasionally occur, especially towards the base of these 

beds. On the banks of the Barákar, at Bagonia, 

Section near Bagonia. y T N 
the following section is seen :— 

(Descending. ) i 
: JA to 
1. Ordinary ironstones and shales, containing a few thin bands of 
micaceous sandstone. 
2. Rather coarse felspathic and micaceous sandstone, thickness not 
quite certain, as a slight throw occurs, but probably within a 

foot or two abe Gon 300 aoa II) @) 

3. Hardened carbonaceous shale X Len ee 0 
4. Trap, intrusive 50: ae ae aie ae WONG 
5. Hardened carbonaceous shale age 6 
6. Blue micaceous sandy shale si bs E AN, 
7. Blueish thin-bedded micaceous sandstone ,,. 503 52290090 
8. Hard massive felspathic sandstone .. ste) da 
9. Coarse felspathic sandstone, micaceous and bikes pease 0 
10. Shaley micaceous sandstone, passing down into 2 veo ESO, 
11. Black carbonaceous shales and ironstones, Lower Damádas ... 90 0 

Total as. i898 


76 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Cuar. IV. § 3. 

It is difficult to form an accurate estimate of the quantity of iron- 
stone contained in these beds; it varies through- 
Quantity of ironstone. i 
out. In one place, near Jámsul, in 150 feet of 

beds, 26 runs were met with, varying in thickness from 2 inches to 
about a foot, and occurring at intervals of from 6 inches to 10 feet from 
each other. The whole thickness, taking the average of each seam at 
4 inches, was 8 feet 8 inches or about 4— of the whole. Thisis probably 
about the average of the upper part of the beds. It is exclusive of 
many nodules from 6 inches to 3 feet in thickness, which are not regu- 
larly interstratified, although, like similar nodules in the English iron- 
stone formations, they may be found to recur on about the same hori- 
zon for considerable distances. None of the seams appear to be conti- 
nuous over large spaces, all thin out. There is, therefore, a proba- 
bility that an attempt to follow up any particular seam or seams by min- 
ing would not be successful. But where some seams thinned out, others 
would come in, and therefore,in quarrying, or in mining by large exca- 
vations, a tolerably uniform produce might, on the whole, be expected. 
Mr. David Smith,* when examining the iron districts of Bengal, on 
MD ca d account of Government, endeavored to test the 
sucus. richness of the ironstone shales by sinking a pit f 
. 3n the neighborhood of Badal (Barrool), to a depth of 52 feet, and in that 

* Mr. David Smith's Report to the Government of India on the Coal and Iron Districts 
of Bengal. 1856. Mr. Smith does not appear to have been well acquainted with Mr. 
Williams’s previous work in the Raniganj district, nor to have understood (if he saw) the map, 
in which the boundaries of the ironstone shales are laid down. Unfortunately these 
boundaries haye been marked in the map by white lines, indicating “ dykes or faults," and 
Mr. Williams’s Report is difficult to understand without a very accurate knowledge of the 
district. Mr. Smith’s remarks on the area of the iron-producing strata show that he was 
not aware of its extent, nor of the circumstance of the beds between Niamatpür and Táldánga, 
being merely a continuation of those in the neighborhood of “ Barrool" (Bádül). He is 
also, I think, in error in considering seams of ironstone as necessarily continuous throughout 
the whole of the iron-shale area. These objections in no way detract from the value of Mr. 
Smith's Report, which relates essentially to metallurgical and mineralogical, and not to 
geological questions. 

+ Marked in the Revenue Survey Map as a copper mine ! 


Cuar. IV. $4.] RANIGANJ GROUP. 77 

depth passed through four seams, amounting in the aggregate to a thick- 
ness of 18 inches of clay ironstone, and 52 inches, in two seams, of 
black band, all of good quality, besides 18* inches of inferior black band. 
This gives 444 of black band, and +, of clay iron ore, altogether 
about +; but the inferior richness of the black band would render the 
` quantity of iron extracted from the ore obtainable from a given area 
very little larger than in the case of the other section above quoted. 
One note-worthy circumstance, which would be of great advantage 
in mining these beds, is their impermeability to water. Mr. Smith’s 
shaft, after standing open for three years, had only a few feet of water 
at the bottom: almost every where else throughout the field, shafts, 
after being left for a season, fill with water. 
Black band or carbonaceous clay iron ore is by no means rare 
` tfhroughouttheironstone shales, though the shaft at 
Black band ” ore. 5 à 
Badal probably supplied an exceptional case of its 
abundance, as in general there is less of it than of the ordinary clay iron 

ore. Considerable quantities occur around Birkúnti, North of Baddl. 

CHAPTER IV., SECTION 4.—Rdniganj Series. 

THE large area upon the map occupied by the rocks of this group, 
and the number of coal seams worked within its 

Sub-division into districts. f 5n : 
area, render 1t necessary to sub-divide it some- 
what before proceeding to describe its local peculiarities in detail. In 
the same manner as with the Lower Damáüda, the most convenient plan 
appears to be to commence the description on the Hast. The tract 

lying North of the River Damüda will be treated of before the area to 

* Mr. D. Smith says 38 inches, but this comprises three seams of 8, 9, and 3 inches respect- 

ively, which were not intersected in the pit. 


78 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. Cuar. IV. § 4.] 

the South. The area may, consequently, be thus subdivided, and the 
sub-divisions described in the succession in which they are placed below. 

1. The country East of the Singáran. 

2. Valley of the Singáran. 

3. Rániganj and its neighborhood. 

4. Valley of the main stream of the Núnia, and of the Eastern and 
central branches North of the Grand Trunk Road, in short, East Divi- 
sion of the Nánia. 

5. West division of ditto, 7. e. the valley of the West branch of the 
Nünia. | 

6. Chinakóri and its neighborhood, with the country to the West, 
as far as the Darákar. 

7. The country South of the Damüda, commencing from the West. 

I. Country East of the Singaran. 
1. Of the district Hast of the Singáran, but little need be said. 
Duc MM n The rocks forming a high ridge West of Khyra- 
sol, and which are well seen in the railway cut- 
ting near Kalipür, form no part of the Damüda Series. The whole 
tract to the West of them, for 8 or 10 miles, is concealed by laterite on 
the higher ground, and alluvium in the lower. In stream sections 
through the laterite, sandstone is occasionally seen, which probably 
belongs to the Damáda formation, this is certainly the case near Barpa- 
hari, in the neighborhood ofthe Adjai. South of Andal, on the Grand 
Trunk Road, a small patch of sandstone, apparently belonging to the 
Damida beds, is seen to rise through the alluvium. 
lt is a most interesting question whether the coal-bearing deposits 
Probable extension of  €xtend beneath this tract of country, and fur- 
coal. 

ther to the Eastward, beneath the alluvium 
and laterite of the Burdwan District, Every possible attention 


Cuar. IV. $ 4] RANIGANJ GROUP. 79 

has been paid to the elucidation of this point during the progress 
of the Survey, but the conclusions arrived at are purely of a negative 
character. There is no direct evidence to the effect that the Damüdas 
extend further East than the neighborhood of Andál and Ukra. 
But neither is there any evidence, direct or indirect, to show that they 
are here cut off; indeed, if they were so, and the hard metamorphic 
rocks succeeded them, it is probable that hills of the latter would jut 
up somewhere within the extensive laterite area, which stretches 
from Rániganj to the neighborhood of Burdwan. The field is at its 
widest where it disappears beneath the alluvial deposits, and, although 
there is nothing in the least improbable in the occurrence of a fault a 
short distance to the East, which may cut out all the Damüda rocks, not 
the slightest indication of such a phenomenon exists. Nor is it pro- 
bable that the sandstones of Khyrasol and Kalipür are in that place of 
any great thickness, and a boring, to the depth of 200 or 300 feet, would 
probably suffice to ascertain the presence or absence of the Damüda 
rocks beneath them. At the extreme East of the field, the coal at 
Harispür colliery is of excellent quality, and lying nearly horizontal, 
so as to be easy to work, and there can be little doubt that coal 
seams equally valuable will be found further East, if the ground be 
properly and systematically explored by sinkings or borings. How far 
East they may be found, is impossible to say. 

It is stated by Mr. Williams* that coal was found at Jánjura, about 
2 miles East of Ukra, at a depth of only 20 feet from the surface. 
No details are given, and enquiries upon the spot have failed in ascer- 
taining any facts, either in confirmation or contradiction of the statement. 
There is nothing improbable in the circumstance, but Mr. Williams 

does not state whence he derived his information. 

* Report, page 20, 


80 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Cnar. IV. § 4. 

II. Singáran Valley. 

The Singáran rises in the extreme North of the area occupied by 

OEE A the beds of the Rániganj series. Just beyond its 

valley, near Bádúl, the lowest beds are seen rest- 

ing on the ironstone shales. They consist of thin-bedded micaceous 
sandstones, and the same appear frequently at the base of the series 
throughout, resting on the somewhat sandy black shales, which form 
the top of the rocks containing ironstone. 

For some miles South of this very little rock is seen. About 14 miles 

CN DL West of the Singáran, a seam of coal crops out 
in a tank just East of the village of Damüdapár. 
Upon this two pits were sunk by a zemindar, and it is stated that 4 or 
5 feet of coal had been cut through, when the quantity of water met 
with stopped the workings. Near this the country is, for the most 
part, covered with laterite. Coal is marked in Mr. Williams’s map upon 
the small stream flowing from Nündi, about half a mile from the spot 
where it joins the Singáran. Nothing but carbonaceous shale is seen. 

Reports of the occurrence of coal, and of its discovery by boring, or 
in tanks and wells, are current throughout the district. To these 
reports, as well as to statements of its non-discovery, very little credit 
can be attached.* Nothing is’ seen in the Singáran itself, except beds 
of coarse massive sandstones, and these are only at wide intervals, there 
being much alluvium. 

Near Chokidánga a better section is seen, some coarse micaceous 

sandstones, brownish-yellow in color, and containing a small seam of 

* In one instance several wells had been sunk to a considerable depth to try for coal, and 
on my enquiring from the Gomashta of the Zemindar of the village, who was the ostensible 
agent, I was assured that none whatever had been found. I made particular inquiries, 
not only in the village itself, but in others around, for I had previously learned that coal 
had been found. All my enquiries were fruitless. I was shown the pits, and assured that 
nothing had been cut. A few months afterwards a colliery was at work upon the spot. 
I quote this case merely to show the difficulty of obtaining reliable information. 


Cuar. IV. 8 4.] RANIGANJ GROUP. 81 

coal, 2 or 3 feet thick, are overlaid by thin sandy shales, containing 
Glossopteris. Upon these rests the coal seam worked at Chokidanga 
and Mámudpür, the former colliery belonging to Messrs. Nicol and 
Sage, the latter to the Bengal Coal Company. * Mámudpár has hitherto 
only been worked as an open quarry. 

The section of the seam at Chokidánga is 

Ft. in 
Sandstone and shale. 
1. Coal ane v Ses Ws 506 noe EA NO 
2. Shale NN. ses Tee sss ae ecd 6 
93. Coal qs ace ox ies 6 6 
4. Shale DOG uno Boo be Od 0 3 
5. Coal MK ee ve js AY 5 0 
Shale, 6 inches. 
White sandstone. 
'T'otal thickness of seam aoo LS SS] 
Coal in ditto Geo did. O 
At Mámudpür :— . 

Ft. in 

Sandstone and shale. 
Blue shale m dac ee 6 0 
Coal 3 s v ae ses ones! SOMIT) 
Blue shale e. A ee ES ies sud «ON 
Coal es we "S: EE EK on 91216 
Blue shale, with strings of coal variable, average about ... ONES 
Coal not seen, said to be  ... p v. vss RE EE du 6 
* Hard rock" E 500 ae 0 0 
a Total thickness of seam sot LA at 
i i Coal in ditto AORO 

showing a wide difference from the other section, which is at a dis- 
tance of not more than half a mile. 

The whole of this seam near the out-crop, for some distance, on both 
sides of the Singáran, but especially to the East of the stream, has been 

worked out. The colliery extends on the East as far as a fault, which 

* Mámudpür was till lately worked by a native. 
L 


82 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Cuar. IV. § 4. 

throws down the coal on its Eastern side about 150 feet, and 
throws the out-crop to the South about a quarter of a mile. The 
direction of this fault is North 33° West. The “backs” or jointing 
in the coal vary greatly: near the fault they are* North 35° West 
and North-east; in another place West 5° North and North 25? East; 
in another again, North 5° West and East 20° North. At Mámudpár 
they are East and West and North 10? East in the coal, but there 
is jointing in the shale above, North 25? East, which is not seen in the 
coal seam. 

This seam appears to be cut off on the West side also by a fault, for 
two shafts were sunk at Sathakpür, about a quarter of a mile South-west 
of Mámudpür, to a depth of nearly 200 feet, without any coal being 
cut; it must necessarily have been found had the seam continued 
steadily and without interruption. 

Passing down the Singáran, about half a mile below Chokidánga, 

iu there is an old.quarry filled with water. No 

rocks are seen in its neighborhood. The seam 
1s variously stated by natives about the place to have been 7 feet or 
3 feet in thickness. Mr. Williams says it was reported to be 12 feet in 
thickness. Its quality was probably inferior. The mine was opened 
^ by Mr. MeSorly, about the year 1843 or 1844, and the site is within 
the boundary of the village of Dhosul. 

The next seam of coal met with is one, which, from its size, and also 
from the very variable quality of the fuel it affords, 
recalls the great beds of the Lower Damüda. 

Tt is 22 feet in thickness, without partings of shale, and is overlaid by 

Tapassi. 

3 feet of blue shale, upon which rests sandstone. The high dips of 

10° and 15? prevailing about Chokidánga are here succeeded by nearly 

* That is, there are two backs, one striking North 35° West and South 35° East. The other 
North-east to South-west. 
+ Report, page 28. 


Cuar. IV. § 4.] RANIGANJ GROUP. 83 

horizontal stratification, the beds not being inclined more than from 
3° to 77. The direction continues to the South-east. 
- In this huge seam there are two sets of workings, both belonging to 
the East India Coal Company. One a quarry, situated at Dhosul, 
East of the Singáran, the other a mine at Tapassi, West of the stream. 
The former has long been worked upon the extreme out-crop of the 
coal; the latter, after being abandoned for many years, was recommenc- 
ed in 1857: in the mine, 11 feet, in the middle of the seam, is extracted, 
leaving 5 or 6 feet above and below. Just West of the colliery, at 
Tapassi, is a fault with a down-throw to the West, probably the same 
as that which throws the coal seam East of Chokidánga. The quarry 
of Dhosul lies West of this fault, which is of small extent here. 

The out-crop of the Tapassi seam can be traced for more than half 

a mile to the East of the Singáran, towards the 

o village of Jorjánki. It is marked throughout by 
pieces of burnt cinder, showing that like many other seams in the distriet, 
it has been on fire at the surface. The out-crop lies some distance within 
the boundary of Dhosul village, but as the dip 1s small, there can be no 
doubt that this fine seam underlies the whole of the Western part of the 
land belonging to the village of Jorjánki, at a depth of not more than 
150 or 200 feet at the outside. The extent is probably greater than 
merely a portion of the village lands, but there are so many faults in this 
part of the country, that nothing is certain, the evidence of which is not 
seen, and all the country around Jorjanki is covered by laterite. 

The Tapassi seam is probably about 400 or 500 feet above that at 
Chokidánga "The exact depth of the latter below the former cannot 
be measured, as no continuous section exists between them. 

About a quarter of a mile South of the Tapassi seam, the intervening ' 
Obl Metu rocks being coarse sandstones, about 150 feet thick, 
Singaran stream. a small seam of inferiorcoalis seen, which is largely 

worked near Jorjánki, although, from its quality, it can be only used 


84 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Cnar. IV. § 4. 

for brick burning. Three or four quarries belonging to various proprie- 
tors are at work. The dip is 5° to 10° South 30° East, and the 

section in Messrs. Acland and Co.’s quarry is:— 

IP, Oe 
Shale and sandstone about  .... Be boo ur jie LOFO 
Hard gray sandstones on 10 
Shale and sandstone interstratified EA es NE 6 6 
Dark shale " nen a ae es ae OF NG 
Gray sandstone m 35: aos 508 B55 zm O 
Coal v s d S00 3 10 
Shale oo aie tee ae sek 0 2 
Coal A 2 iut ES Ves 0 10 
Shale Bee wes aaa my ate One 
Coal Ed des see E iss TO 
Total of seam bai Tue Ves 6 0 
Coal in ditto v Ex 5 8 

| 

The section, as usual, however, shows some variation, and in the next 

quarry becomes 

Coal os ds eie s oo 4 6 

Shale ae aa and ak ae 0 4 

Coal d Jes x 3 és 0 9 
Total of seam Bs Wh e aus Y — 57 
Ditto Coal v RC. i ae nae DES 

No deep workings whatever have been made upon this seam, but the 
whole out-crop, or nearly the whole, appears to have been extracted. 

Between Jorjánki and Parasia, the section in the Singáran is frag- 
mentary, no regular succession of rocks being seen, and the valley 
being filled in most parts with alluvium. So far as can be made out, 
the beds appear to dip regularly, but there is no doubt that the whole 
district is much disturbed by faults, some of them probably of consi- 
derable size. Two small seams of. coal, the largest only 3 feet thick, 
occur within 80 or 100 feet above that worked at J orjinki, The dip 
becomes more Eastwardly, and the burnt out-crop of a large seam is 

seen about 1 mile East of the village of Kolasturi. It is possible 


Cuar. IV. $4.] RANIGANJ GROUF. 85 

that this seam, which dips about East 5° South, may be identical 

with that now worked at Parasia mine. The dip at the mine 

is East by North, but less than a quarter of a mile to the East- 

ward two small seams of coal are seen in the Taladári Khál, dip- 

ping to the South-east. The thickness is about 3 feet and 1 

foot respectively, but they are ill seen. In the stream which runs 

between Kamda and Parasia, the out-crop of another seam is seen, 

about a mile above the junction with the Singáran. Its thickness cannot - 
be made out. 

Few tracts about Raniganj are more promising than that lying 
immediately East of the Singáran. There is no doubt but that coal 
exists, the dips are in general low and favorable, and the distance from 
the railway will be small, when the new line along the Singáran 
valley is completed. 

Parasia colliery, now the property of the East India Coal Com- 
pany, lies close to the left (East) bank of the 
eingáran. The mine is 110 feet deep, and the 
seam has been dug into a depth of 13 feet, but 1t is not known whether 
more coal underlies it or not. It is consequently difficult to judge 

what bed is being worked, as the whole section is not exposed: 7 

Parasia mine. 

feet in the centre of the seam is mined, and is of better quality 
than the remainder. About a quarter mile to the South-west, 
on the opposite bank of the Singáran, and in Bánsra village, a 
shaft was sunk some years ago, and coal was found, in all proba- 
bility the same as that now worked at Parasia, for the draining of 
the mine at the latter place has sensibly diminished the water in the 
DBánsra pit. 

About half a mile West of this pit, at Külastori, a shaft was 

QUAE MM sunk by the East India Coal Company, but 

although some very carbonaceous shale was cut 
through, no workable coal was found. 


86 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Cnar. IV. § 4. 

The next mine to the South, Mangalpür, is one of the most import- 

ant in the district. It lies about a mile due 
Mangalpár. x X 
South of Parasia, and is the property of Messrs. 
Erskine and Co. It is worked by means of both shafts and quarries 

upon a seam of coal, of which the following is the section :— 

White sandstone, felspathie, over 100 feet. Ft. in. 
a. Inferior coal and shale 9 0 
b. Good coal 8 0 
c. Shale 0 0 
d. Coal 0. 6} 
e. Shale 0 0i 
f. Coal, good 3 6 
g. Shale 0 3 
h. Coal 0 6 
i. Shale 0 1 
J. Coal 2 6 
Shale. 

Total thickness of seam d oO Dot n gos, N92 1895; 
Coal in ditto sss ans fac Be T coo” M. 0) 

Or in places 24 feet. 

The dip is North-east, about 7°. Just East of the Singáran, and 
South of the village of Sonachora, the coal is cut off by a fault, the 
direction of the throw of which has not been ascertained. A large 
trap dyke, about 6 feet in breadth, runs through the colliery from 
W. N. W. to E. S. E., and to the South of this the coal is nearly 
exhausted on the West side of the Singáran. Pits have now been 
sunk, and the mine 1s being worked North of the dyke. 

The backs at Mangalpár strike East 40° North and West 30? North. 
'The out-erop of the coal is marked by a series of quarries, many of them 
abandoned, which run for some distance up the little valley between 
the rise on which the colliery is situated, and that upon which, about 
half a mile South, is the village of Mangalptr. After running North- 
west for some distance, the line of out-crop turns North over the ridge ; 
and, if continuous, might be expected precisely where coal is found in 


Cuap. IV. 84.] RANIGANJ GROUP. 87 

the Bánsra and Parasia shafts. But until the coal in these shafts is 
cut through, and the section fairly exposed, it 1s impossible to ascer- 
tain, in the presence of the numerous faults which unquestionably 
exist in the neighborhood, whether the seams are identical or not. If 
they are, and, as is in that case probable, the burnt out-crop already 
referred to as occurring in the Singáran, North-west of Parasia, 
belong to the same seam, the coal must underlie a basin of considerable 
size. The dips alone would favor this view. 

Whether the Mangalpüár seam be identical with that worked at 

T p Parasia or not, there can be little doubt about 
Harispür mine. 

its being the same as that worked at Harispür 
and Balaso. both mines belonging to the Bengal Coal Company. The 
first-named lies about 2 miles South-east of Mangalpúr mine, the latter 
rather more than a mile South of the former. At Harispúr the 

section is :— 

Sandstone, white and felspathic. : Ft. in. 

Black shale a 2 
«| Bituminous shale, with strings of vm 8 
Good coal : dde BBS one PR Ven dS 
Shale Bc Tus ae iss CORDON Kochi s e ERST LU 
Coal : 0 
Shale 0 
Coal 
Hard bluish-gray bandedotle 
Coal 
Blue shale 
Coal 
Bluish-gray Seeders 
Total thickness of seam  ... iss E Bex we DOO, 
Coal in ditto m 2. m Me M pnd LEY © 

|e 

SS SSS SES 
cQ 00 Oo ^ 
So N Hm o» t2 

The main “ backs” are North 10° East, secondary ones about East 
and West. 
The dip 1s doubtful, the workings not having extended far, and the 

bed being nearly horizontal, or slightly undulating. Coal has been 


88 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Cuap. IV. § 4. 

found North-east of Harispür, near Kájra, at a depth of only 40 feet, 
and if, as is probable, the seam is the same, the dip is probably South- 
erly or South-west. 
At Babüsol the dip is about 5° to the East, the 
shaft 145 feet deep, and the section 

Babüsol mine. 

$ Ft. in. 
Hard white sandstone y ee boo doc 150) 124 0 
Blue sandy shale, with impressions of plants 2 0 
a. Bituminous shale, with some coal irregularly interstr need 8 0 
b. Coal, good E oen 208 I eas dme 9 0 
c. Shale d SE se 580 T nr MOVE 
d. Coal, about 0 8 
e. Shale, thickness not seen 0 0 

Beneath this coal again occurs, as has been proved by borings. The 
mine isa new one. There can be but little question of the identity of 
the seam with that found at Mangalpár and Harispür, and there ap- 
pears every probability that, beneath the wide space between llarispür 
and Babüsol, there is one continuous bed of coal. It is one of the best 
seams in the district, the quality of the fuel being excellent. The 
principal backs at Babüsol are North 40° East and North 30° East, cut- 
ting each other at a very acute angle, and another secondary series 
heading North-west. 

All this country is completely covered with laterite on the higher 
E d ground, and alluvium on the lower. How the 
rocks concealed. Mangalpür seam is brought in at Harispár and 
Babüsol can therefore only be matter of conjecture. The coal may lie 
in a basin, the out-crop extending through Babüsol, to Hast of Mangal- 
ptr village, crossing the Singáran above Parasia, and thence running 
South-east to a little North-east of Harispúr ; ‘or it may be thrown 
by a fault between Mangalpár and Babusol. This would account for 
no coal having been found in the shafts sunk South-west of the village. 

It is probable that the Harispir and Babüsol seam extends further 
to the East than is at present known. Its value will, doubtless, induce 


Cuar. IV. $4.] . RANIGANJ GROUP. 89 

the proprietors of Kájra, Diguala, Dakhinkhand, &c., to explore their 

lands by borings. 

III. Rdniganj and its neighborhood. 

The small area embraced in this title, and comprising the mines of 
Gopinathpür, Bhangaband, Sirsol,  Rániganj, 
Rogonáthchuk, Damulia, Harabhánga, Nimcha, 
Jemeri, and Banáh, although not covering a larger area than 20 square 

Richness in coal. 

miles, produces half of the whole amount of fuel mined in the Rániganj 

field. But, despite the lights thrown upon its geo- 

Obscurity of relations 

ef somme, logy by these numerous mines, it is so much cut up 

by faults, and so little 1s seen of the surface, that the relations of some 
of the most important coal seams to each other, and their position in 
the general section, are, in the last degree, obscure. 

About half a mile West of Mangalpár colliery, and close to the Grand 

uua Mangas Trunk Road, the out-crop of a seam, apparently 

par. 4 or 5 feet thick, is seen, in which a quarry was 
once worked by the Bengal Coal Company. The spot is an excellent 
one for fossils, and very beautiful impressions of leaves abound in some 
soft shales beneath the coal. 
About 1 mile West of Mangalpár, in the village of Gopináthpár 
: f or Bánsra, is the mine known by the first name, 
Gopináthpür or Bánsra. 
the property ofthe East India Coal Company. It 
has been worked for a few years. The seam dips to the South, so some 
peculiar faulting must intervene between this mine and that at Man- 
galpür. 'The seam is 7 feet thick, and is of unequal, and in parts, of 
inferior quality ; its out-crop can be traced for more than a mile to the 
Bengal Coal Company's quarry at Bhángaband, 
(formerly worked by a native, and then known as 
Kántagaria,) which is upon the same seam. The quality of the coal 

Bhángaband. 

M 


90 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Cuapr. IV. § 4. 

" here is also very variable, and the section is very similar to that at 
Gopináthpür. It is 

Ft. in 

Shale and sandstone. 
Coal e "od coc oco ves dat 3 6 
Shale e eus des ee ae eae 2. 1010256 
Coal ee a 3a AUAM Se ses za bae (D 
Shale Em LS Sd. EY Foo Sm 0 2 
Coal Ax eee ase ae Bae des 3 6 
Total thickness of seam ... 8 8 
Coal in ditto SAAR s AL) 

This bed probably underlies those at Rániganj. A little West of 
Bhángaband it appears to be cut off by a fault. 

On the opposite side of the Grand Trunk Road, and about half a mile 

South of Gopináthpür, are two pits sunk by Mr. 

Pits near Khatsuli. : 
Watkins, and in which coal is said to have been 
found. It was probably the Gopináthpúr seam. At Khatsuli, just 
East of the bazaar, in the town of Rániganj, two other pits were sunk, 
and there also coal was found. It is difficult to say what seam can 
have been cut: possibly that worked at Rániganj. 

Sirsol mine is about 2 miles West of Gopináthpár, and 14 S. S. W. 
of Bhángaband. The coal seam crops out along 
the East face of a valley to the West of the 
village, and lies very nearly flat, there being a slight dip of not more 

Sirsol colliery. 

than 2° towards the East. The quality of the coal is excellent, per- 
haps, on the whole, the best yet worked to any extent in the field. The 
section is not well exposed towards the bottom, even in the quarries, 

but it appears to be 

Ft. in 

Sandy shale and sandstone. 
Carbonaceous shale ... M As AY uis 22511,9070 
Coal oe ane d As pn Sirk Bo GS 
Shale, sandy , Becks Jo% m Sob "e gov 1 0d 
Coal, said to be so» occ y "s s PRECIOS) 
Total thickness of seam ... 17 10 
Coal in ditto Se AWA «(8 


Cuar. IV. $4] RANIGANJ GROUP. 91 

In the mine no complete section is seen, there is, however, said 

to be :— 
Ft. in, 
Carbonaceous shale,., Hie ihe ES A. RETIR O 
Coal, good occ co occ ooo e vs UA O 
Shale des m ie oe dus eoe TU QUSE 
Coal, inferior soc có 538 aa Go PS ROS) 
Total thickness of seam ES DIO ed] 

Coal in ditto bea: .. 20 0 

The lower portion of the seam, though inferior to the upper, is still 
very fair coal. The backs in the quarries strike North 20° West, under- 
laying to the West, and East 30° North, vertical. In the mine they 
are slightly different, being North 20? to 30? West, and about East 15? 
North. 'The mine is ill worked, the galleries irregular and unevenly 
cut. A large area of the coal has been extracted from beneath the 
ground between Sirsol village and the out-crop, but the workings do 
not extend far either to the East or to the North. 

Rániganj mine, the most extensive in the district, lies rather more 
than a mile South of Sirsol. The seam dips to the 
North, or North by East, about 3? in the mine, 
and at 5° near the out-crop, which runs from West to East, along a 

Rániganj colliery. 

little hollow between the villages of Raniganj and Narrainküri, and has 

been on fire. The following is the section of the beds above and below 

the coal, taken from borings made by the Bengal Coal Company :— 
RáwicANJ NEw MINE. 

Ft. in. 
1. Coarse, white sandstone, soft Ae Bae ads kon TALO 
2. Ditto ditto, hard a ik me Acl) 40 
3. Sandstone yielding water se - ibe 2116.90 
4. Ditto, very compact, with thin wavy seams of coal interspersed 4 0 
5. Blue shale ae x Pes 2:9 850 EQ 
6. Ditto, with numerous fossil plants... ood oon œ 18 0 
7. Clay (indurated) sometimes wanting "n aco zo (D m 
8. a. Carbonaceous black shale do xc see scent 0, 

Carried over ex Ehe (Que 


92 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Cuar. IV. § 4. 

Brought forward .., 72 1 
9. Blue shale, with fossil plants joa soi oc corners 310 

b. Coal 9 0 

[e Shale me QS 

WO d: Coal 0 9 

e. Shale 0 2 

J. Coal 4 0 
Total thickness of seam 14 2 14 2 

Coal in ditto 58 13:059 
iis e OO Carbonaceous shale — ... 500 An v. DN 
19. Blue shale ie ae ue dug ae X2 86 RO 
13. White felspathie sandstone 39s Go m ee 0G 
14. Very compact sandstone M 5 6 
15. Loose, gritty sandstone ... Xe 3g i 25582429 
16. Hard ditto ditto as on exe oec S328 0 
17. Shale, blue and carbonaceous : ver ree pode 1050 
18. Coal, Narrainküri seam... M wer Ae boss shee) 
19. Shale, blue and carbonaceous Uns ae ee 5s LOO 
20. Sandstone occ 000 we ies n 260 0 
21. Ditto, very hard ‘ ae MN wae 2 OO 
22. Blue shale awa den dno vs ot s noi 
93. Sandstone Yee dn xd Con o DE Ge) 
24. Carbonaceous shale ad s : DE 
Total 4. 260 11 

The depth of the last shaft sunk was 162 feet to the top of the coal, 
the section being i 
White felspathic sandstone 

oot doo 400 2190/90 
Blue shale, with fossil plants ... 366 as doc dme pun FR) 
a. Bituminous black shale  ... hoo dod DR eM () 
b. Coal Sed EE ate 589 9 0 
c. Shale oc 0 3 
d. Coal doo 0 9 
e. Shale Me 0 2 
f. Coal 3 0 

Total thickness of seam 13 2 
Ditto coal 19:39 

While in a pit sunk at the ghát on the Damüda, and just outside the 
out-crop of the Narraink&ri coal seam, the following section was passed 


Ouar. IV. § 4.] RANIGANJ GROUP. 93 

through, the numbers referring to their equivalents in the preceding 
sections. 

Ft.. in. 

Surface soil and clay i: 8 8 

Black carbonaceous shale 0 6 

19. < Blue shale m ves 4 8 
L Carbonaceous shale, with coal ... 1 6 
Sandstone ene ses s 4 9 

[Dito micaceous, with thin wavy seams of coal 5 0 
Gritty sandstone 6 0 

20 & 21, i Carbonaceous shale — ,.. ves Ves Pia 1 0 
Sandstone, with scales of mica ... zw 

Blue shale M 3 0 

L Sandstone «co 33 0 

22. Blue shale 3 0 
23. Coarse sandstone ; 3 0 
24, Carbonaceous shale ve US 12; ca coo DA © 

Sandstone. 
The above will also serve to give some idea of the rocks met with 
in this portion of the series, amongst the highest of the Damüda beds. 
No. 18 isa seam formerly worked by Messrs. Jessop and Co., and sub- 
sequently by Messrs. Gilmore, Homfray and Co., 
at Narrainkári, a village about half a mile South of 
Rániganj. Its quality was inferior, and when, in 1844, the two Com- 
panies, which worked respectively the mines of Narrainküri and Ráni- 
ganj, were amalgamated, the former mine was abandoned, and all the 

available labor transferred to the higher and better seam. A large 

Narrainkári colliery. 

area near the out-crop has been worked out, the extent being marked 
upon the ground by the numerous pits. The section of the Narrain- 

küri coal seam given by Mr. Williams* is :— 
Ft. in. 
13. 14. 15. and 16. Gray and brown sandstone ind .. 40 0 
Gray arenaceous shale ... m 10 0 
Coal and carbonaceous shale 
Gray shale 
17.4 Coul 
Carbonaceous shale 
|. Coal, inferior 

Sie 2 

gee 

VEST TORO =S 
= OD WwW: 

Or 
tole 

* Report, page 48. 


94 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Cuar. IV. § 4. 

Ft. an. 

( Carbonaceous shale 05 

| Coal, inferior 4 

Carbonaceous shale 0 2 

nel Coal, inferior 1 10 

Carbonaceous shale 0,79 

Coal DIES 
Total thickness of seam . US 7 

Gray arenaceous shale, Pn fibre- like impres- 
19 sions of plants uo Eos do d Mee 
` ) Coal, sulphurous hoc Bee sc lel Ow 
Gray arenaceous shale — ... DA veo os Ui 
While Mr. Homfray’s section* is 

Ft in 
15. Sandstone e aes oho os MU 
16. Ditto, very hard bos 560 un ds 0 
Clunch and clay slate (blue shale) : a DE 
17. Coal Boc 20 MO Ueto 
Shale and Blackbats (stones shale) Scis e) 
18. Main Coal 30 38 T 8 10 
EN Fire clay 4 8 
Black shale 0 4 
n Clunch and slate clay. ~. 4 0 
| Coal 1 6 
0 0 

20. Sandstone a T 
There is either error in these various sections, or else they 

show the Narrainküri seam and its accompanying shales to be 
extremely variable, the greatest variation being in the shale over- 
lying the coal. The whole of the Narrainküri seam is said to be 
of inferior quality. 

Across the Rániganj colliery, from East ni West, extend two small 
trap dykes, which are a few feet apart, each being about 3 feet in 
breadth, and the mine, before 1843, was wrought mainly on the South 
side of these, between them and the out-crop. From the practice, which 

e old deron then prevailed, of leaving all small coal which 
dus it did not pay to raise, in the mine, and in 

consequence of the tendency to spontaneous combustion of the 

* As. Soc. Jour., Vol. XI, page 738. 


Cuar. IV. § 4.] RANIGANJ GROUP. 95 

Raniganj coal, the mine took fire, and was necessarily abandoned; a 
general sinking of the surface subsequently took place,* so that it is 
probable the coal remaining as pillars and that unworked, beneath the 
area occupied by the old mine, was consumed. The extent, however, 
was small, probably not exceeding 200 yards square. The new colliery 
North of the dykes is far more extensive, stretching for nearly half a mile 
from South to North, and but little less at its widest part from East to 
West. The 9 feet of coal forming the upper portion of the seam are 
first extracted; the coal is excellent, though scarcely so light as that 
of Sirsol; that from the two lower seams is even a better fuel for 
most purposes, but it contains iron pyrites largely, and, consequently, is 
liable to decompose. Formerly, when all coal was sent to Calcutta by 
river, and was liable to one, or, in some cases, to two years' exposure to 
the weather upon the bank, and in the boats, this lower portion of the 
seam could not be worked, but the facilities afforded by the railway 
for rapid conveyance have enabled it to be sent to market in good 
condition, and it is now largely extracted. 

The mine at Rániganj is bounded on the North-west by a large 
fault, bearing N. N. E. to S. S. W., having a 
down-throw to the East. It is probable that the 
fault increases in amount towards the North, as the beds which, on its 
Eastern side, dip West, on the West, or up-throw side, dip to the 
South. Its amount at Raniganj is probably not much more than 
150 feet; what it may be further North it is difficult to say, and 

Faults near Raniganj. 

it is impossible to ascertain, until the workings are far more extensive, 
how far it may be complicated by being split or by cross faults, If 

continuous, it would pass between the Rániganj and Sirsol collieries, 

* Mr, Williams’s Report, page 40 ; and his statement is borne out by the appearance of the 
surface. 

f More correctly by two, or, in one place, three parallel faults very near each other. 
They are, however, in all essentials, equivalent to one large fault, and may be considered 

as such. 


96 . RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Cuap. IV. § 4. 

isolating them from each other, and complicating the relations of the 
coal seams. 

From this fault there branches due North, along the line of a 
small dyke, which runs up the valley towards Sirsol, another fault 
having the same down-throw to the Hast. Between these two faults 
the Rániganj seam exists, at a depth of 30 feet greater than to the East 
of the N. N. E. fault, so that the continuation of that fault here, or 

a fault apparently in continuation, and with the same strike, has a 

down-throw to the West, instead of the East. 

Fic, 6. SKETCH SHOWING THE SUPPOSED RELATIONS OF THE RANIGANJ AND SIRSOL 
COLLIERIES. 

a. Outerop of Sirsol seam; 6. Outcrop of Raniganj seam; c. Sirsol Mine ; 
d. Raniganj Mine; ee. N. N. E. faults; f. N. and S. fault; g. Possible 
fault. The arrows show the direction of the down-throw. 

But we have no certainty that there may not be another fault be- 
tween this area and Sirsol. It is very possible that there is, otherwise 
the Sirsol coal is probably 200 or 300 feet higher in the series than the 
Rániganj seam ; and, in this case, sinkings through the Sirsol coal will 

reach the Rániganj seam. But if, on the other hand, the North and 


Cuar. IV. § 4. ] - RANIGANJ GROUP. 97 

South fault is of small extent, and a large fault separates the two 
collieries, the Sirsol coal would be lower in the section than that of 
Rániganj. lt is improbable that they should be identical, there is so 
great a difference in their sections, and the partings of the Rániganj coal 
are quite distinct from those seen in the mine of Sirsol. 

At the same time that there is so much difference between the Ráni- 
m e ganj and Sirsol seams, there are remarkable points 
and Sirsol seams. of resemblance between the former and that of 
Mangalpür, but before entering upon these, it will be well to specify 
what other seams are known to exist around Rániganj. 

In the first place, to the South-east, at a distance of about 14 miles, 
Dd usc and close to the Damiida River, is the mine of 
Rogonáthehuk, the property of Messrs. Erskine 
and Co., no out-crop is seen, as it is concealed by the alluvium of 

the river. The seam dips North at an angle of about 3°, and has the 

following section :— 

Ft. in. 

Coarse sandstone. 
(Pon TET A iod E óc sce OO 
Shale Vus ^ o6 A nae es ecd) 3046, 
Goal ie wae ae ksa Tes 500 an Oy 0 
Total thickness of seam ... 11. 6 
Coal iniditto Od A KO) 

This seam, like Rániganj and Mangalpür, is intersected by a trap 
dyke, South of which the coal has been exhausted, and the mine aban- 
doned. The depth of the two shafts at present worked is 138 and 148 
feet. The West of the colliery is bounded by a fault, the down-throw 
of which is unknown, and beyond which the seam has not been found. 
It is evident that neither the section, nor the probable relations of the 
coal seam give the slightest clue to the elucidation of the seams of 

Rániganj and Sirsol. 
N 


98 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Cuar. IV. § 4. 

But West of Rániganj it is different. Beyond the faults bounding 
the colliery all the Northerly dips disappear, and 
Damália Colliery. k y Wye 
the rocks come in with a steady South dip 
averaging about 3° or 4.° South of the Nünia, coal is found underlying 
the village of Damália, and, although thrown by several small faults, 
the seam appears to underlie the greater portion of the alluvium and 
gravel between the Nünia and the Damüda, on the banks of both 
of which it crops out in places. Being so close to the surface, the 
coal is of course inferior and somewhat decomposed. It is however, 
worked to a considerable extent, and its section is as. follows :— 

Fic. 7. SKETCH SECTION or THE DAMULIA COAL. 

a, gravel—bd, coal seam. 

1. Damida River. 2. Damilia village. 3. Nünia River. - 

Ft. in. 

a. Shale : ME ia boo 0 0 
Coal Bs Ns ne Fx 6 0 

P.f Tronson Pe x we $e 0.1 
Coal cas Has Soo 500 Occ See ee HO 

c. Shale 5 gee win eens 336 FER vos EURO LoT 
d. Coal 500 500 0 9 
e. Shale Ht Nee Bee 0 3 
f. Coal ae e ono 6 0 

Total thickness of seam — ,., 16 2 
Coal in ditto Ves ae 

The quarries are situated just North of the village of Damilia, and 
North-east of Harábhánga. But the seam has also been worked 
E. S. E. of Damilia, and is seen South of the village, while it is 
stated that a pit sunk (by Mr. Jackson) in the bed of the Damüda 
also proved its existence, so that it probably underlies a considerable 


Cuar. IV. $4.] RANIGANJ GROUP. à 99 

“proportion of the tracts here covered by alluvium, It is difficult 
to say how far it extends Hast. It is extremely probable that: it 
would be found South of the Damüda if sunk for West of the place 
where the Müsüria stream runs into the Damüda, about a mile West | 
of Adgaon. 

There can be little doubt that the seam is identical with that of 
Rániganj The only difference is the thickening of the lower portion, 
probably at the expense of the shale below. 

Beneath this seam comes coarse sandstone, probably not above 
50 feet thick, and then the following section, at the place where 
the stream running from the North of Morgáthi joins the Nünia. 

Ft. in. 
Coarse felspathie sandstone, speckled white and brown 30 to 40 feet seen. 

Blue clay, shale and strings of coal BG} 
Coal (good apparently) ... 2 0 
Blue shale 50 BAe Pe 0 6 
Coal de Va js 0 3 
Blue shale, about 2 0 
Micaceous ae sandstone and shale 7 6 
Fine sandstone .. 4 0 
Blue shale 0 6 
Carbonaceous thin- headed! ade cee ORTA 
Blue shale vts UN ae BH wea dob 
Ironstone 000 doó boo Bab oo 9 d, qw9 9 6 
Shale O00 66a o0 ae 0 10 
Ironstone, sandy OF 2 
Carbonaceous shale and strings of dou Br cuc XQ 4 
Blue sandy shale du 500 2. S d 
Clay shale 0 4 
Carbonaceous shale, ih Vouk ala irr erudi bands of 
sandstone ... oc 9. O 
Sandy shale and DM nds of p Ene O 

These beds, with the interstratified coal and carbonaceous shale, 
appear to occupy the place of the Narrainküri coal seam. They are 
traced West about a mile as far as a sharp bend of the Nünia, North- 
east of Theraut, and to the Hast they wind among the rocky valleys 
between Morgáthi and Rániganj, and are traced up the valley West of 


100 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Cuap. IV. § 4. 

Sirsol, but outside the fault running up the valley. The possibility of 

tracing them, however, proves that no great fault intervenes between 

that immediately West of Rániganj and Sirsol, and the quarries at 

Jemeri. There is not the slightest indication of any Hast and West 
fault in this patch of ground. 

The section continues therefore regularly to 

Jemeri Colliery. 

Jemeri, where a fine seam of coal offers the 

following section :— 

Ft. in 
Sandstone. 

( Carbonaceous shale, variable im thickness, from 1 foot to 6 or 8, 
average about ` 500 aco e E Sae lO 
Shaley coal : 1 0 
4-^ Shale ves a zs rad 0 I 
Coal, inferior and shaley... con S68 ES 2 0 
Shale oc igs Vs 0 3 
b. Coalof excellent quality aug dot B 50 55 
c. Shale Ms as oon 3ac ooc z- 002 
GL Dom NS Hs se. S a he IONS 
e. Shale 560 M. Uoc Bn or es MO. di 
f. Coal sop E a00 es 4 3 
g. Shale doc aco ace is r O 1 
h. Carbonaceous shale and inferior coal un +f 0 6 
i. Shale oe 2 s coo aes O 1 
j. Coal, 3 or asc E 3c 4 0 
Total thickness of seam  ... Pu of i Cà 
Coal in ditto ae Bac ee ORE 

If now we proceed to the comparison of this seam with the various 
seams of Damália, Rániganj, Mangalpár, Harispár, and Bábúsol, we 
shall see that in every one of these seams there is, 

a. A bed of carbonaceous shale, varying from 8 to 1 foot in thick- 
ness. 

b. Good coal, 8 or 9 feet thick, in one instance (Dámália) with a 
thin parting of ironstone. 

c. Shale parting from 1 inch to 3 inches. 


VES 

NEED 
Ne. m 


BABUSOL. 

JEMERI. DAMULIA. RANIGANJ MANGALPUR. HARISPUR. 
[omg no Sand stone} —.-| Sand stond i = 
Surface | c. NG 
Sow [ueri = E 
| eae = == 
- jum = 
hale TE Shale Gil S= = 
4 0" Surface 1. 44 0" cL == M 
Soil RI i = and, = aad = 
Seil Coaly Galy = 
Shaly- = = Skalo == Shale 
Coal f o Eu E PEN — ;c^ E 
Shale 1" z Pe x = 
E Ec s == = 
IE Shale = = E 
Coal 2: 0” Rex = = 
Gal Coal Coal Coal Gal Coal 
8:0" 6 0" 92'0* 8:0" 8:0" $:0* 
Fron srona m" 
Coal 
3/0" Shale. z WEN Shole? B Shae ' BN 
SII 2U j j CoaL 67, CaL6: x ls: O 
Coal, 8" Shale. 5 WEBER) Shale 3! WH (Ole > me Bias Sic, E 
ed Coal, 9 Gat. 9” y 
Shale. 3 Shaler — — ee al, 2 
5 ZM 0" Co 
Coal. Coal. z 
43 3.0 Shale. à x 
Gal Galo: 
p kt — Sand, stone ence " 
Shade. 1° | T cii m 
du Ga Goal, Zi Ja: 
ale. f Shale E— 2 
3:40 = boal 
Greil ——— 3.0 
4 0" = E : 
E E Shale 
= == =| Sand stone z "E 
Shade = BE 
pd 5e 
Em Sh 
3 = A 
Sand, stone| ~~. -| Sand stone | 
COMPARATIVE SECTIONS OF COAL SEAMS NEAR- 

RANIGANJ. 

SCALE ONE INCH=6 FEET, 

DRAWN ON- STONE BY RUMANATH DASS,AND LITH: By H.M-SMITH,SUAV-GENUS OFFICE,CALCUTTA,I2G1 


Cuar. IV. $4.] RANIGANJ GROUP. 101 

d. A thin bed of coal, 6 to 9 inches thick. 
e. A second narrow shale parting. 
f. A bed of coal 3 feet to 6 feet. This differs slightly in. thickness, 
more so than any of the others. | | 
But beneath this there is a wide distinction between the seams. 
| In Rániganj and Damilia no more coal is found ; 
Comparison of sections. , aE ia é 
aN OF in Jemeri, Harispár, and Mangalpür there are two 
more seams of coal, and two shale partings. Still there is nothing im- 
| probable in this amount of difference being shown by a seam of coal with- 
in a few miles, and there would be on this score no difficulty in believing 
that all of the seams were identical. But it is evident that the Jemeri 
seam is far lower in the section than the Damilia seam. Equally clear 
that the Damália seam is identical with that of Rániganj, and there 
can be no question that, judging from the astonishing exactitude of 
the sections, the Mangalpür bed is far more likely to be the same as 
that of Jemeri than as that at Raniganj. (See comparative Sections.) 
Again, as regards the Sirsol seam, it appears that, in a considerable 
series of beds, underlying the Rániganj seam, we have no representa- 
tive of it. The only bed of coal of any thickness is that of Jemeri, 
and it, instead of corresponding to the section at the neighboring 
colliery of Sirsol, answers to that at the far more distant mine of Man- 
galpüár. We are therefore driven to the conclusion that the Sirsol 
seam is higher than that of Rániganj, unless, as is improbable, it be 
identical.* ; 
The principal fault West of Raniganj must therefore be continued 
up the valley, West of Sirsol, and it must there be of very considerable 
dimensions. There is, in all probability, only a small fault between. 

the collieries of Rániganj and Sirsol. 

* Tf the lower parting of shale in the Rániganj seam were wanting, its section would be 
nearly identical with that of Sirsol. But these small partings seem singularly persistent. 

There is, of course, a possibility that the seams may be the same, but it is not very likely. 


102 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Cuar. IV. § 4. 

To recapitulate. There are, in the Rániganj area, three principal 
seams of excellent coal. The highest of these, 171 feet thick, is worked 
at Sirsol only, and is unknown elsewhere. The second, about 250 
feet lower in the section, and 13 feet to 16 feet thick, is found and 
worked at Rániganj and Damülia, and probably underlies a consider- 
able tract North of Rániganj, including the station, and a third seam 
15 to 20 feet thick worked at Jemeri, Mangalpúr, Harispúr, Bábúsol, 
and perhaps at Parasia. 

But these conclusions may be fallacious. There can be very little 
doubt that the Mangalpúr, Harispúr, and Bábúsol seams are the same, 
but their close representation by the Jemeri seam may be accidental. * 

Several quarries are worked in the J emeri seam, within the village 
lands, by Bábú Gobind Persad, the owner of Sirsol, and a mine has 
been commenced upon the same seam, in the adjoining village of 
Nimcha, by the Bengal Coal Company. The coal from the main seam is 
of excellent quality, and, probably, when mined from a sufficient depth 
to be beyond the range of the decomposing action of surface waters, 
will be found equal to that of Sirsol, if not even better. The out-crop 
cannot be traced for any distance to the West, but it is seen running in 
a direction of East 10-20? West for nearly a mile, as far as the village of 

 Nimcha. 

The backs in Rániganj mine are North 25° East and West 20° North, 
a less marked one being W. S. W.; in Rogonáthchuk they are West 40° 
North and North 10° East; in Jemeri North 30-35° East and North 
10° West. 

The rocks associated with these coal seams are, in general, very thick, 

Rocks associated with massive, and rather coarse-grained felspathic 

coal. sandstones, excessively false-bedded, and occa- 

sionally with extremely hard, nodular bands, which are calcareous. 

* Should the seams prove as surmised above, the Tapassi or Chokidánga seam may 
represent that of Banáli. But this is very doubtful. 


Cuar. IV. $4.] RANIGANJ GROUP. - 108 

Some shales occur, but they are of no great thickness. Faults are 
generally marked by the prevalence of ** kunkur" along them. 

Three miles North of Jemeri, and beyond the Grand Trunk Road, 
M a'coal seam has recently been discovered by 
boring in the land of the village of Banáli, and 
workings upon it have been commenced by Messrs. Erskine and. Co. 

The dip is South about 30?, and the thickness of the seam is said to 
be 12 feet. The out-crop crosses the valley lying West of the village 
of Sathgram. This is an instance of what 1s, doubtless, common, viz. 
a coal seam, the out-crop of which is concealed by alluvium, and which 

can, consequently, only be detected by boring. 

IV. Núnia Valley, East Division. 

This area comprises but few mines of importance, and, owing to the 
distance of a considerable portion of it from all carriage, whether by 
river or railway, it has never probably received the attention which 
has been given to Rániganj and the Singáran valley. It contains, 
however, some valuable coal seams, comprised within a tract bounded 
on the East by the water-shed of the Nünia and Singáran, that is, the 
neighborhood of the villages of Táltur, Nündi, Akalpár, &e., and by 
the Rániganj area, just described, and on the West by a line drawn 
North and South through Asansol. 

Commencing, as usual, from the base of the beds, the lowest rocks 
; met with are the same fine sandstones, with occa- 

Beds at base. 

sional hard bands as occur further East. But 
very few sections are seen, the best being South of Púchra, in streams 
running into the central branch of the Núnia. The mass of the rocks 
seen are the usual massive, false-bedded sandstones, white or brownish, 


104 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Cuar. IV. 8 4. 

seldom very coarse, and almost always abounding in felspar. The 
Charpor id eaa only seam of coal known to occur is that worked 
spp near Charnpür and at Samsundarpür, by Messrs. 
Apear and Co., and by a native, respectively. The seam is 13 feet 
thick, of which 12 are worked, and the coal is of fair quality. The 
workings are not extensive, but the out-crop has been cut into to a 
considerable extent from quarries. 
About 2 miles W. N. W. of these collieries, on the line of strike 
rey of the beds, a quarry has been opened close to 
the village of Baraboni, on the property of the 
Rani Srinamoni The seam is 17 feet thick, and the coal unusually 
bright and excellent in quality, but it contains much pyrites. The 
“backs” head N. 10° E., but for want of cross jointing, the coal cuts 
badly. It is very possibly the same seam as that worked at Charnpür, 
and, if so, should be sought for South of Domaháni. 
Nothing except the usual coarse sandstone is seen above these seams, 
teas till near Purihárpár, on the Eastern stream. 
Here a quarry, with under-ground workings, 
extending to a considerable distance, has been worked for three years 
by the Bengal Coal Company, in a 9 feet seam of coal of fair quality. 
The seam dips to the South-west about 3°. 
No more is seen in the Eastern branch of the Nünia till near its 
junetion with the main stream. On the latter 
coal is worked by Bábá Debhidin Sákal, about 

1 mile South of Madanmonpür, at a spot called Mainanagar. The 

Mainanagar. 

seam has the following section :— 

Ft. in 

Hard blue shale, with nodules of clay ironstone. 
Coal : Be 0% Y3 ese 5 0 
Shale Sh 680 aac 2 M 559 ses 0 0020 
Coal och cee cc nbs E er e. A6 
Total thickness of seam 10 3 
Coal in ditto 9 6 

| 


Lg 

Cuap. IV. § 4.] RANIGANJ GROUP. - 105 

The coal is of good quality. Not many feet lower is a second 
seam, which has also been quarried close to the Núnia, but which 
is, where exposed by the stream, so cut up by trap as to be worthless. 
These seams must be much higher in the series than that of. 
Purihárpár. The Mainanagar seam is now being worked by Messrs. 
Erskine and Co. on the right (West) bank of the Núnia, at 
Dadkia. 

Blue micaceous shales and felspathic sandstones, all dipping steadily 
to the South-west, follow, and contain one seam of coal 2 feet thick, 
but the higher series of the Panchét beds come in on the Nünia, 
about half a mile South of Mainanagar. The stream, for some distance, 
continues along their strike, and just inside their boundary, until it 
turns sharply to the East, about due North of Asansol, exposing flagg 
sandstones dipping to the West. Near to the spot where a rather large 
trap dyke crosses the stream, a seam of coal 4 feet 6 inches to 5 feet 
thick is seen, in which a small mine is worked by Messrs. Acland 
and Co., at Sáth Pokaria. The coal is of excellent quality, probably 
surpassed by none in the field. The roof in this case, as in many 
others, is coarse, hard sandstone. 

A little further East, the Western and Central branches of the 
Nünia join, and not far below the seam last mentioned, the following 

section occurs :— 

Ft. in. 
Coarse felspathic sandstone ... Du. SRI e.e O0 or 60 feet seen, 
Shale and shaley sandstone .... son oon 5 0 
Coal nn bus ase ee ah Ri 0 3 
Shale and thin sandstone alternating, and containing fossil plants ... 3 0 
Fine gray sandstone... see 1 0 
Carbonaceous shale and coal ... Do We 0 3 
Shale and shaley sandstone alternating... 6 0 
Blue sandy shale  ... cor see boo oca e 3 0 
Thin-bedded sandstone ane S. and ds VINA 126 
Carbonaceous shale ,,. rba ox ee» "p 0 8 

© 


106 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Cuar. IV. § 4. 

Ft. in. 
Coal de aos 1 8 
Carbonaceous shale ... d Pu a 3x 0 10 
Coal cos aac dao: jac ius Gon 0 4 
Blue and carbonaceous shale ... deca Pod 0 6 
Coal, shaley, in parts Ue 506 da cao 1 0 
i — 44 
Very fine blue and gray sandy shale — ... "seu di e 
Ditto eoarser, with bands of s hard Nro dius s 10 (9 
Coal and carbonaceous shale .. des 506 e. wee ets! O) 
Shale, carbonaceous, in parts ... sas co nog eee Ome 
Sandstone, in thin beds $e vs rcs IQ zt 

Beneath the above come some hundreds of feet of coarse, yellowish- 
brown felspathie sandstone, containing mica, with a few shaley beds, 
and a thin seam of coal near the base; but the section is not good 

enough for measurement. Below these are :— 

Fi. dn. 
Thin sandstone and shale, about ... Bb: LO 0 
Hard, blue shale n Bae see ie) 
Giishin Coal ... H 1 0 
and Shale ... 0 6 
Asansol e : 
— Coal „a coc Soe 7 0 
Total thickness of seam dod dere 
Coal in. ditto as Ge GN 
Coarse sandstone pus eus MU .. 80 to 100 
Coal ... e Se. an E 2 10 
Shale ,.. us et i esi Q 9 
; Coal ... 508 ood 500 1,1 
pee Shale ... ic is s 9. 
Coal ... 55 ae co8 1 10 
Blue shale oe s 2 0 4 
| Coal s sis ae 0 11 

Total thickness of seam Maan TE ont 
Coal in ditto 8 

(os) 

— 

The two lower seams occur close to the spot where the Grand 
Trunk Road is carried across the Nánia by a suspension bridge. The 
beds here dip W. N. W., the strike being nearly parallel with the 


Cuar. IV. $4.] RANIGANJ GROUP. 107 

general direction of the Nünia, which, consequently, crosses their out- 
erop repeatedly. That of the higher seam is first crossed about 200 
yards above the suspension bridge, and North of the Grand Trunk 
Cose o o f -Road; that of the lower seam about the same 
distance South of the bridge. The uppermost is 
worked at Asansol colliery, just North of the road, by Bábú Rama- 
náth Banerji, and in some small quarries, South of the road, by Bábá 
Gobind Parsád, at Güshin. Nearly opposite Babi Ramanáth's 
quarry, and on the East bank of the stream, another has been made 
by a different proprietor, but it is not worked. 
This seam crosses the Nünia again three times below the bridge, 

enun mouth of the two lowest crossings being close together, 

EZ out where an angle in the stream has cut into the 

out-crop of the bed. Here some quarries have been worked by Messrs. 
Tárachander Pal and Co. The section is nearly the same as North of 
the bridge, being 

Ft. in. 
Blue and carbonaceous shale. 

Coal and shale mixed fe 0 6 
— Coal $e Jl. © 
Carbonaceous shale ... 0 4 
Ditto, with coal 0 4 
Coal 6 0 
Total thickness of seam Same 

Coal in ditto On 

| 

The dip is throughout small, but somewhat variable, and inclined 
near the bridge to the W. S. W.: further down to South-west. The 
coal is inferior. : 

The lower seam, also about 7 feet in thickness, has been cut into 
North of the Grand Trunk Road, by Babi Rákal Das, in the village 
land of Sripár. The out-crop crosses the Eastern branch of the Ninia, 
which here joins the main stream, but further North and North-west 

all trace of it is lost. 


108 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Cuap. IV. § 4. 

From the Sripür quarry scarcely any coal has been extracted, but 
South of the road some large quarries have been worked by Baba 
Gobind Parsád. The coal is of fair quality, far superior to that 
in the upper seam. A mine has been commenced near this by 
the East India Coal Company, upon the same seam, but no coal has as 
yet been extracted. 

These two seams, doubtless, underlie all the ground West of the 
Niinia at no great depth, and as the new line of railway will pass close 
to their out-crop, they may probably hereafter be largely worked in the 
villages of Asansol, Mislia, Güshin, &c. The out-crop of the lower 
and superior seam probably passes S. S. E. through the villages of 
Mahántur and Rotibati. 

West of the Nünia, at least 200 or 300 feet above the coal seams 
last described, there is a run of carbonaceous shales and ironstones, the 
latter thin, but of fair quality. These may represent a bed to be 
hereafter described, as having a considerable extension to the West 
of the basin of Panchét beds, which occupies so large a portion 
of the area West of the Nünia, between the Grand Trunk Road 
and the River Damüda. Above these shales again, and close to the 
great trap dyke, which runs, bearing North 20° West, through the 
village of Dhámra, the out-crop of a coal seam is exposed a little 
South of the small stream which crosses the dyke South of the Grand 
Trunk Road. 

Below Rotibáti, a burnt out-crop of coal is seen in the Nünià, 

a aera | oh opposite the village of Kumárdhi, and thence 
Chalwad. for a considerable distance, the stream runs 
through coarse felspathic sandstones, and mostly along their strike. 
A coal seam, intersected by trap, crosses the stream about three- 
quarters of a mile East of the village of Chalwad (or Chalwidi), and has 
been worked by Bábá Gobind Parsád, in Chalbalpár, East of the Núnia, 
and by the Bengal Coal Company, to the West of the stream (Beldánga). 


Cuar. IV. § 4.] RANIGANJ GROUP. 109 

The section is :— 

Ft. in 

Shale e m. ses djs us er SEA ORTO 
Coal Eso eue Sue V ve EE 4 6 
Shale as: M T E Lor 2x 0 2 
Coal 4 6 

Total thickness of seam AO ee 

Coal in ditto 9 0 

The dip is at a low angle to S. S. W. Below this, nothing but 
sandstone is seen in the Nünia, as far as the section already described, 
as occurring North of Harabhánga. 

The high ground on which stand the villages of Dhámra and Chal- 

Coal South of Dhámra Wad is, as usual, covered by alluvium. South 
MID of it, on the banks of the Damúda, massive sand- 
stones and some shales are seen dipping to the South-west. About half 
a mile West of the great Sálma dyke, already mentioned as passing 
through Dhámra, a bed of coal is seen, 8 or 9 feet thick; its out-crop 
being shown on the bank of the River Damáda. It is extraordinary 
that this seam, thus visible upon the bank of the river itself, has never 
been worked; considering the unusual facilities afforded by its place 
of occurrence for the carriage of any coal mined from it to markets ; 
and especially as, until within the last few years, the only mode of 
carriage to Calcutta was by the river. It is difficult to judge from 
merely seeing the out-crop of a seam, whether the coal contained is 
of good quality or not; that of this seam, however, appears to be fair 
coal, and no trace of any excavation is visible in the neighborhood, so 
that I have not been able to come to any other conclusion than that it 
has never been cut into. Yet within half a mile coal, which had 
been brought from beyond Dhámra, has been piled at a ghat for 

shipment. 


110 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Onar. IV. § 4. 

V. Núnia Valley, West Division. 

This embraces all the area occupied by the Rániganj beds North of 
the Grand Trunk Road, and not already described. It is a small dis- 
trict, comprising only the mines of Sitarámpür, Damida, Fatipár, and 
Gharwi. So much of the ground as lies between the Central and 
Western branches of the Núnia is covered with alluvium, all void of 
sections, and completely unexplored by means of borings and sinking. 
There can, however, be little doubt that it is underlaid, in part at least, 
by the seams now to be described, as seen in the section afforded by 
the West branch of the Nünia. 

This section is, perhaps, on the whole, the best and most continuous 

: AEN CURE : 
Diminution jn coal to 8 12 the Rániganj series. The higher beds of 

iesi su Riose that series are, in all probability, wanting, 

and the coal seams are, in general, thinner and fewer than those which 
occur about Rániganj and on the Singáran. There appears to be a 
very great diminution in the size of the seams generally towards 
the West and South, a circumstance which will be further illustrated 
in the discussion of the beds occurring South of the Damáüda. 
Commencing on the top of the ironstone shales, near the village 

of Malakola, the first beds seen are the usual 
Section in Nünia. 

slightly sandy carbonaceous shales. Upon these 
come, all regularly dipping at about 15° to the S. S. E., the following 
beds :— 

1. Rather fine somewhat felspathic sandstone, a few massive bands occur, but the 
rock in general is thinly bedded and soft. 

Fine thin-bedded micaceous sandstone, with hard, yellow calcareous bands and 
nodules. 

Ditto, rather coarser. 

Carbonaceous, shaley sandstone, and shale. 

Fine muddy shales, with numerous fossil plants well preserved. 

Fine, brown micaceous sandstone, carbonaceous in parts, with bands of hard, 
nodular, calcareous rock. ^ 

7. Carbonaceous shales and ironstone. 

8. Ditto and sandstone. 

5 

o mg 


Cuar. IV. S] RANIGANJ GROUP. 111 

9. Massive felspathic sandstone, with calcareous bands. 
10. Coal worked at Sitarámpür. 
11. Fine bedded sandstone, felspathic, brownish-gray, and carbonaceous, some 
lenticular hard bands and some muddy shale. | 
19. Ditto coarser, a small seam of coal 1 foot thick is seen here. 
13. Coal, 6 feet. 
14. Sandstone as before. 
15.. Coal, 12 feet. 

The above embrace a thickness of nearly 3,000 feet, and comprise 

three worked seams of coal, the lowest being that 

Sitarampur colliery. i EER i 

mined by Messrs. Apcar and Co., at Sitarámpár. 
It is said to be of excellent quality, but in consequence of the engine 
on the works being too small for the mine, no coal was extracted during 
the years 1859 and 1860, and, consequently, the workings were full of 
water. The out-crop has been largely worked, the thickness of the 
. seam is said to be 12 feet. 

Messrs. Apcar’s colliery upon this coal seam is to the West of the 
Nünia: East of the stream some quarries have also been worked by the 
Rani Srinamoni, but they are small. The two higher seams enume- 
rated in the above section have been, to some extent, worked by the 
same proprietor, especially the upper one, which is quarried in land 
belonging to the village of Dhámra, and the coal in which is of good 
quality. It is overlaid by shales, containing fine impressions of fossil 
plants. 

Two hundred or three hundred feet above the last mentioned 

- coal, is a seam, probably about 5 feet thick, 

Rogonáthbati. ; F 
and upon which some small quarries have been 
dug. It is about to be worked by Messrs. Apcar and Co., near 
Rogonáthbati. 

The next seam seen is worked by Messrs. Apcar and Co., at Gharwi, 
North of the Núnia, (which here runs from West 
to East,) and at Barachuk, South of the stream : 
until lately the workings at both these places have been merely 

Gharwi: Barachuk, 


112 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Cuap. IV. 8 4. 

quarries. More recently, however, shafts have been sunk at Barachuk. 

The section of the seam is 

Ft. in. 
Sandy shale and thin sandstone. 
Coal ae Eos wae aoe wes aoe Gare o) 
Shale ves oe cae an ‘tis es Baty ened! 
Coal 6 4 
Thickness of seam... .. 10 4 
Coal in ditto ses user TO 0) 

The dip is South 35? East, about 8?, and throughout this portion of 
the section it never exceeds 10°. The rocks are a succession of 
ordinary felspathic sandstones, with frequent interstratifications of finer 
sandstones and shales, the latter frequently fossiliferous. 

The Barachuk seam is also worked at Fatipár, nearly a mile further 
West and on the Grand Trunk Road, the shafts 
being about 90 feet deep. "The whole thickness 

of the seam here is said to be 12 feet, but there can be very little 
doubt of its identity with that mined at Barachuk. 

'l'wo more seams, each about 5 feet in thickness, occur above the last- 

Fatipür. 

named, and their out-crop is seen in the Nünia, about half a mile from 
each other, North of Kumárpür. Both have been worked slightly by Baba 
Debhidin Sákal, of Majuri, but the quarries have been abandoned for 
three or four years. Not far above the highest of these seams, Panchét 
beds come in unconformably in the stream. 

It is probable that but few more coal seams exist in this locality, 

: 1 AES 
Smalt dienti ot coal besides those described above. Their aggregate 

in this section. thickness amounts to only 58 feet, a very much 

smaller quantity than that known to exist in the Singáran valley, 
and about Rániganj. Doubtless, the uppermost beds, which contain 
all the finest seams, are wanting in the Núnia, having been removed 

by denudation previously to the deposition of the Panchét beds, which 


Cuar. IV. § 4.] RANIGANJ GROUP. 118 

here overlap very considerably. Indeed, it appears probable that the 
Niinia section includes a smaller thickness of rocks than occur any 
where else in the Rániganj series, in consequence of the absence of 
all the highest beds. But even allowing for this, there does not appear 
to be the same abundanee of coal in this part of the field as further 

East, and the seams which occur are thinner. 

VL Chinakúri and its neighborhood, with the country West, as far 
as the Barákar River. 

By reference to the map, it will be seen that the rocks intersected 
M in the Nünia, near Sitarámpür, Gharwi, &c., 
strike across to the W. S. W., and are again 
exposed in the Hurál, a stream running into the Damüda, West of 
Chinaküri. No section is seen at the base of the series, the rocks 
near which crop out, however, near Jassaidhi, in one or two places, 
and consist, as elsewhere, of thin micaceous sandstones, with hard, 
somewhat calcareous bands. South of this, at Hatinal, and about 600 
or 700 feet above the ironstone shales, a coal seam is worked, which 

gives the following section :— 

Ft. in 
Shale. ' x 
Carbonaceous ditto Pie 0 3 
Coal D 2 Wes 1.9 
Shale d at a sue E En Ao: OUT 
Coal W as m Se sie Ped SPON 
Shale diu Ts «s je ful 0 2 
Coal ash ee Wes dE ES 6 0 
Total thickness of seam ,.. 8 
Coal in ditto UN RUIT MUTO 

The partings, however, are not constant throughout the workings, 
P 


114 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. Cuar. IV. § 4.] 

The principal backs run North 15° East ; and smaller ones strike 
West 40° North, and North 35° West. The mine has not been long 
worked. The coal is of fair quality. 

About a mile E. 8. E., from Hatinal colliery, a seam crops out in 

AN the bed of a small stream South-west of Dezira- 

garh.. It was formerly worked by Messrs. Carr, 
Tagore and Co., but the quarries have fallen in; the thickness of the 
seam cannot be distinguished ; it is probably from 5 to 6 feet. 

East of this, and near the river, in the broken ground South of the 
village of Shatulpür, two or three out-crops are seen, but the whole 
section is best exposed in the Húrál, commencing about due West 
of the village of Rádanagar. 'The lowest seam of coal seen is 5 or 6 
feet thick apparently, but in this, as in most other cases, the exact 
dimensions are doubtful. 

About 150 or 200 feet of sandstone, generally fine and micaceous, in 

M NO ERIS thin beds, with much shale, intervene between 
gne this seam and a second, also about 5 feet thick ; 
20 feet above the second is a third seam, apparently of good quality, 
but only 3 or 4 feet thick, and just above the last are two or three very 
thin seams, not exceeding 1 foot each. The remainder of the section 
to the place where the stream enters the Damüda, is approximately the 

following :— 

( Ascending. ) 

Ft. in. 

1. Coarse false-bedded sandstone, about ve Bits EO (b 
2. Coal 000 000 iss We aes ane 5 0 
3. Sandstone and shale i We dn ies .. 150 0 
4. Coal, thickness not seen ... E co: T WM NS 
5. Sandstone and shale ids Ves n BOs eo 2200 
6. Coal s n vus 2 0 
7. Sandstone sas als 0 ies 305 265 NONO 
8. Shale A boc Js m ver oes!) LAO. 
9. Sandstone 360 $e ses 500 cB eai) 
10. Shale, carbonaceous, and with some coal in the upper portion ... 3 0 
11. Hard sandstone 2 6 


Cuar. IV. § 4.] RANIGANJ GROUP. 115 

Ft. in 

12. Sandstone and shale, with strings of coal —— ... co sca AW) 

13. Coal sas Saee is s Hd few enm) 

14. Shale a us bof E m be 

15. Coal, about aa xh SM 3e 6250 

16. Shale, about  ... o d bec T 3559920 

17. Coarse sandstone oor doc edd ogo soo, HO @ 
18. Shale and sandstone, containing a seam of coal, 1 foot thick, in 

the upper portion OS EE ie: cac $e. 10; 0 

19. Massive sandstone v. ac 35 5c 55 IO 

Thin sandstones and shales completing the section to the mouth 
of the stream, which is only a short distance. 

There are seen, in this section, 5 seams of coal, exceeding 3 feet in 
thickness, besides several thinner ones, and others whose dimensions 
cannot be ascertained. As none have been worked, it is impossible to 
speak positively of their value. Some may be of rather greater thick- 
ness than is above mentioned, as a portion of the out-crop is, in some 
cases, concealed. 

In the stream between Baghdi and Radanagar, in two or three places, 

ena eee coal crops out. There is, however, no conti- 
; nuous section, and the thickness of the seams is 
not seen. They are, doubtless, the same as those in the Hurál Jor. 

About a quarter ofa mile South-east of the mouth of the Hurál Jor, 
and close to the village of Chinakári, is the old 
Chinaküri mine, worked by Mr. Betts, in the 
years 1826— 1830. The seam is 7 feet thick, and, according to 

-Mr. Williams, has the following section* :— 

Old Chinakári mine. 

Ft. in 
Coal, inferior he He Act jon we vs aO DO 
Carbonaceous shale ... E» 55d ie vos abt O A 
Coal, inferior 1:19 

Total thickness of seam Lape eee 
Coal in ditto 0 8) 

* Report, page 56. 


116 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Cuap. IV. 8 4. 

It is about 80 or 100 feet above the top of the last detailed section. 
The coal is said to have been very inferior. The 
New ditto or Salünchi. : d 3 
seam now worked at the Chinaküri or Saltinchi 

colliery is 600 or 700 feet higher, and none is known to intervene- 
between the two. The new or Salünchi seam is altogether 10 feet 
thick,* but only 7 feet of the upper portion is worked. The section of 

the old engine shafts is said to be f :— 

Fi. in 
Surface earth ... M ^b FUE ae Pee amine oe Tot 

1. Sandstone, decomposed ... ee Ss des seer OE 

2. Ditto, compact ...- one one bbe E e. 94 4 

3. Ditto, yielding water aod ooa jc ^ aes Worl PS 

4. Micaceous sandstone ae ws ane ves dog, 10> (8 

5. Hard calcareous ditto TEM d. Hob iet eure 9 

6. Shale ae ee nion eae nee dors ne ©) 
7. Coal as a idi e T 7 0 
8. Shale Vs A e ai Hs 0 4 
9. Coal 9 6 

Total thickness of seam Soda OPO 

Coal in ditto ae, scili LG 

The quality is good. The seam has been worked for a distance of 
at least a mile along the out-crop, to a depth of about 100 or 120 feet. 
Deeper workings have now been commenced, the coal at a small depth 
having been nearly exhausted. 

The out-crop of this seam probably stretches for 1 or 2 miles to 
the East, and may perhaps be found just South of the villages of 

* This I learn from the section in the possession of the Bengal Coal Company, and which 
is given below. The lower seam, 3 feet 6 inches thick, is also given in the sections of Messrs. 
Williams and Homfray, but as it is not worked, no complete section of the seam is exposed, 
and I have never seen it. It appears to be wanting South of the Damáda, at Hirakünd. 

T About 50 feet above the Chinaküri seam, a bed of coal, about 1 foot thick, occurs, which 
is omitted in this section. It is seen in the stream West of the colliery, and was found in 
sinking for the new engine shafts. 


Cuar. IV. § 4.] RANIGANJ GROUP. 117 

Baráchuk and Patmáni, as it is underlaid at a depth of about 300 feet, 
mc e MEN by a run of carbonaceous shales, with little seams 
and West. of ironstone. This run can be traced without a 
break, from South of Maitani to near Chinaküri village, and recurs 
South of the Damáda. It appears to be concealed by alluvium close to 
Chinakiri village. 

Probably the coal seam is overlapped by the base of the Panchét beds 
near Patmáni: the ironstone and shale disappearing, doubtless, from the 
same cause, somewhat further East, near Digari; and appearing to be 
faulted near the spot where it is overlapped; but this is doubtful. 

To the West the Chinaküri seam has not been traced beyond the 
brook West of the colliery, and it is stated that Mr. Betts bored to a 
depth of 250 feet, without finding coal. No fault, however, can be made 
out to occur, and very little dependence can be placed upon reports of 
borings, the exact locality of which is not known. They may have 
been outside the out-crop: still it is quite possible that a fault exists. 

No rocks are seen for some distance above the Chinakiiri coal seam, 
which does not appear to be more than 200 or 300 feet below the base 
of the Panchét beds. | 

VII. Country South of the Damida. 

West of the Darákar, and North of the Damüda, no rocks are seen 
in the small area of Rániganj beds which are found there. The rocky 
island at the mouth of the Bardkar is entirely composed of sandstone. 

The description of the beds South of the Damáüda will commence 

Chánch and Barékar ™0St conveniently in the neighborhood of those 
folus last alluded to, and, consequently, from the West, 
where alone, on the right bank of the river, the lowest beds of the 
Raniganj series are met with. The two large faults, one passing by 

Chanch, and the other down the Barákar, are not clearly traced to the 


118 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Cnar. IV. § 4. 

South. The latter is, doubtless, cut off by the former,* and as much 
breaking and disturbance is seen in the rocks around Deoli, it is pro- 
bable that the Chánch fault crosses the river there. No probable direc- 
tion is shown in the map, but, as in many other cases, there is an 
apparent diminutiomin the amount of throw towards the South, which 
may possibly be due to these faults having been partly, but not entirely, 
formed after the deposition of the Lower Damüdas, and before that of 
the Raniganj series. They would consequently have a much greater 
throw in the former than in the latter beds. But it is not probable that 
the unconformity between the two series is so great as the existence 
of much disturbance during the intervening period would imply. 

Upon the thin ironstone shales, South of the village of Koelasota, 

rather coarser carbonaceous shales, with bands ,- 

Beds South of Koelasota. 
of calcareous sandstone, and, towards the base, 

runs of sandy black band, rest as usual. These beds are well exposed 
North-west of the village of Nadia. The dip is high, owing, doubt- 
less, to the rapid twist of the strike, and the neighborhood of great 
faults to the West and the North-east. The lowest coal seams seen 
are in the stream between Narrainpür and Bar- 
Scams near Narrainpür. $ 
shádhi, where a small bed occurs about a foot 
. thick, and 100 feet above that a second, apparently 6 or 8 feet thick, 
in the out-crop of which a small quarry was opened by the Bengal 
Coal Company, but the coal, being found to be of inferior quality, was 
not worked. Two hundred or two hundred and fifty feet higher, is the 
seam formerly worked by the Bengal Coal Com- 

And Naudia. as : : t 
pany, at Nüdia; the section of which is thus 

detailed by Mr. Williamst :— 
Ft. in. 
Brown gray sandstone aco T dto ax Seo PAL «© 

* The continuation of the Barákar faults is probably that forming the West boundary of 
the field from the Damáda to Panchét Hills. 
T Report, page 60. 


Ouar. IV. § 4.] RANIGANJ GROUP. 119 

Ft. in, 

Coal, of good quality E NaS a darts geo Site 2095 ae 

Black carbonaceous shale 1 0 

Coal, superior Sop re doo ca ee 2 0 

Gray under-bed 3 0 
Brown and gray sandstone. m 

Total thickness of seam EOT 

Coal in ditto ane sca ier. 

Mr. Williams also considers the quality as superior to the coal of 
Rániganj, Chinakári, Chokidánga, Dhosál, and Mangalpür. As the 
mine has now been abandoned for many years, and the out-crop is 
concealed by rubbish, it is impossible to do more than quote the above. 

The beds above this are ill seen, the country exposing no sections 

till within about a mile of Panchét Hill Here 

the small bed of carbonaceous shales, with runs 

Ironstone shales. 

of ironstone, is met with, which was observed North of Chinakiri. It 
here also is at about the same depth below the base of the Panchét 
beds, or perhaps rather more, viz. about 900 feet. Near Chinaküri 
the depth probably 1s about 700 feet. 

This run of ironstones and shales is traced from near Hirakünd, 
opposite Chinaküri, through Luada and Bara, till cut off by a fault 
near Chándidhi ; it is again seen near Nautundhi, and also, in precisely 
the same position in the general section, near the base of Panchét Hill ; 
disappearing, however, probably from having thinned out, on the West 
side. It also stretches across from North of Panchét to North of 
Garangi Hill, and altogether its out-crop has been traced for not 
less than 15 miles South of the Damüda. It thus becomes a very 
constant and important horizon, and serves to prove the absence of 

Fault North of Ma-  i3ults crossing the direction of its strike, while, 
rülia, on the other hand, it gives the best evidence 
obtainable of the existence of a great line of fault, probably in 
continuation of the Chánch fault, but in a direction more nearly 

approaching East and West; for the run of ironstones comes in, with 


120 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Cua». IV. § 4. 

a low dip, (see Fig. 8) at a much shorter distance North of the anticlinal, 

FrG. 8. SECTION or ANTICLINAL AND FAULT NEAR MARULIA. 

a 

zT 

aa. Ironstone shales. 6. Fault. 

near Marülia, than it does among the higher dips to the South. 

East of the area occupied by the Panchét beds, North of Behárináth 
Hill, these ironstones do not recur. The best section of them is seen 
in the Besram stream, close to Madáwanpür. ‘They are here, with the 
accompanying shales, about 25 to 30 feet thick, the proportion of iron- 
stone, of excellent quality, being larger than is usual in any part of the 
great band at the base of the Rániganj series, Situated as the out-crop 
of this band is, at a distance from other sources of ironstone, it may 
hereafter be worth working for ore, and, in the prospect of such an 
occurrence, and of its becoming of economical value, the out-crop has 
been laid down carefully on the map. 

To the West and North-west of Panchét Hill, the beds of the 

De PP LU PM Tot Rániganj series dip at very high angles, and are 
Hill. much compressed and disturbed. No coal is seen. 
All the beds twist sharply round to the South-west, and are cut off, 
as are the lower series also, by the fault West of Baghmara. It is not 
clear where the Panchét rocks come in, the neighborhood of the bound- 
ary being much broken and confused, but the whole of the hill is 
composed of rocks higher than the Damáüda series. 

A very pnus West of the spot where the Barákar joins the Damúda, 

and upon the South bank of the last-named stream, 
mc DE a rocky promontory projects into the river near 

Deol. In this a seam of coal, about 44 feet thick, is seen, with 


Cmar. IV. § 4.] RANIGANJ GROUP. 121 . 

sandstone both above and below. The seam thins out and disappears 
about 150 yards to the West of the place, where a mine has been com- 
menced upon it by the Bengal Coal Company. A fault is seen to the 
South-west, and, probably, cuts the seam off in that direction. 

In the stream just West of the village of Hijali, three or four seams of 
coal are seen, the lowest and thickest of which is about 4 feet, the 
others 2 feet to 3 feet thick. Passing further.East, and higher in 

the series, North of Párbatia, a seam 31 feet thick 

Coal near Hijali. 
is exposed in the right bank of the Damüda. Pass- 
ing further down the river, past the run of ironstones, a coal seam, 54 
feet thick, occurs at Hírakünd ; it has been worked within the last few 
years by the Bengal Coal Company, but is now abandoned. The seam 
is evidently that of Ohinaküri (new mine), here thrown to the South 
by a fault, with a down-throw to the East, which is seen to form the 
boundary of the Panchét group for some miles on the East of Hirakünd. 
Above it the same 1 foot seam, which occurs also above that at China- 
küri (see note page 116), is seen. 

In the Besram stream a fair section is seen, the lowest beds being 

Section in Beram those exposed near the anticlinal at Marália. 
pinea. South of this the rocks dip towards the great 
fault forming the South boundary ; North of it to the basin-shaped 
depression in the strata occupied by the Panchéts, North of Ma- 
rülia, as already mentioned. A large fault, doubtless, crosses, there 
` being not more than 1,000 feet of strata, North of it, below the 
base of the Panchéts, while there are at least 1,500 to 2,000 feet 
intervening to the South of it, and further West considerably more. 

North of the anticlinal, a seam is seen in the Besram stream, near 

Coal in the Besam  Jvatanpür. It is only 2 feet thick. North 
MR of this, near Alküsa, several thin beds occur, 
but none measuring more than from 6 inches to a foot. "They are very 
shaley, and are, in every case, covered by coarse sandstones. At 

Q 


122 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Cnar. IV. § 4. 

Khyrbona, in the Besram, a little above its confluence with the Mokhára 
or Machkündona stream, a 34-feet seam crops out, from which some 
coal has been extracted by a native. A little North of this is a saline 
spring, slightly warm, and at this spot, probably, the large fault already 
mentioned crosses. - 

North-west of Marülia, a seam about 5 feet thick was formerly 
Na ae worked by the Bengal Coal Company, and to the 

South of it, the out-crops of at least twelve other 
seams are seen in the Besram, none of them exceeding 3 or 4 feet in 
thickness. The section is imperfect, and thicker beds may occur, but 
it is a remarkable fact, that, throughout all this area, no seam is known 
to exceed 5 or 6 feet in thickness, and by far the larger number are 

below 3 feet. In the Machkáündona, South of 
TEE T ned Marilia, only four or five seams are seen on the 
same strike as the more numerous beds in the Besram; one has been a 
little worked, and has produced good coal, but the thickness is only 
21 feet. Itis evident that all the coal seams in this part of the field 
are exceedingly thin. . 

From Marilia to Behárináth few beds are seen, sections being scarce 
and imperfect when met with. Two thin seams of coal, and a thicker 
bed of a mixture of coal and carbonaceous shale, are exposed in the 
stream which runs between Hádhi and Nautundhi. 

In the Tintólarak stream, North of Chakbaga, only one seam is 

cut through, and this, like those already men- 

Coal near Chakbaga. J i 1 
tioned, is a thin bed, totally useless economically. 
This bed is close to the top of the Rániganj series, and rests on thick 
conglomerate beds, with grey muddy shales, the former unusual above 
the Lower Damúdas. The beds dip to three sides, North, East, and 
South, from near Dámradhi, and North of Chakbaga a large fault 
crosses the stream. South of this, and close to the boundary of the 

field, four seams of coal are intersected by the stream. They dip at very 


Cuar. IV. § 4.] RANIGANJ GROUP. m 123 

high angles, the highest is 1 foot thick, and rests upon about 5 feet 
of sandstone, below which the second, 5 feet thick, occurs; the third 
is 20 feet lower, and measures 3 feet, and the fourth, 30 feet lower, 
6 feet. On the second and third small quarries have been dug, and shafts 
were sunk to cut them by the Bengal Coal Company, but, by some 
mistake, they were commenced outside the out-crop of the coal. In 
consequence of the vicinity of the great faults forming the Southern 
boundary of the field, and the consequent disturbed and broken condi- 
tion of the beds, it is in the last degree improbable that any workable 
coal will be found in this locality. A little fuel may, doubtless, be 
obtained from irregular workings, but a large mine is out of the 
question. 

North of the fault and opposite to the village of Parabira, a shaft has 
been sunk to a depth of 86 feet, without any coal being found, a result 
which might have been anticipated, as a considerably greater thickness 
of beds than 100 feet are seen dipping South towards the shaft, with- 
out the slightest indication of a coal seam. 

From this point, near Beharinath Hill, for about 3 miles to the East, 
all the area South of the Damüda is occupied by the Panchét beds. 
East of these again a considerable area is occupied by Rániganj beds, 
but nearly the whole surface being covered with alluvium, which, 
nearly opposite Rániganj, completely covers up all the rocks, very 
little is seen of the beds. They are, doubtless, the highest of the series, 
and may very possibly contain in places useful seams of coal. One is 
said to occur just East of Darhsál, and an old quarry exists, but nothing 
can be seen of the bed. A little West of where the Sálma dyke crosses 
the Damáda, an old shaft exists, which was sunk by Mr. Homfray to 
a depth of, it is stated, more than 200 feet ;* only small seams of coal 
being met with. A few hundred yards South of this, and near the village 

of Sahibdánga, an out-crop of a seam, 4 or 5 feet apparently in thickness, 

* Jour. As. Soc, Bengal, Vol. XI., page 729. 


124 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Cuar. IV. § 4. 

and dipping at a low angle to South 20? West, occurs just West of the 
Sálma dyke. 

Only one other out-crop of coal has been noticed in this part of the 
country. It occurs just South-east of Kálikapüár. The thickness is 
not seen. It dips to North 30° West. 

Before concluding this account of the beds of the Rániganj series, a 
few words upon the representation in one part of the field by beds in 
other places are necessary. 

It has already been remarked in the earlier portion of this Report, 
that the greater flatness of the beds on the East of the field causes 
them to cover a much wider space on their out-crop than further 
West. The base of the Rániganj series is shown throughout on 
the map, but the general imperfection of sections, and the want, 
except in the one instance of the ironstone run near Chinaküri and 
South of the Damáda, of well marked beds, whose out-crop can be 
traced, renders it very difficult to ascertain how far the higher beds 
represent each other, especially as faults of large dimensions, running 
from North to South, confuse and disturb the beds. 

An excellent instance of this difficulty has already been given in the 
comparison instituted between the beds around Rániganj and Man- 
galpür. It is evident that no connected out-crops can be traced in a 
country, the dislocations of which are so little known. No attempt 
has therefore been made on the map to show distinct lines of out-crop 
beyond the points where such are known to occur. Far more exten- 
sive workings must take place upon the coal before any such map, 
showing clearly the relations to each other of all the different seams, 
and the effects upon each and all of the faults of the district, can pos- 
sibly be made. . 

Although to the West mines are so few as scarcely to afford any 
assistance, still the dip of the rocks being steady, and, on the whole, 

considerably higher, and there being less thickness of alluvium, the 


Cnr. IV. § 4.] RANIGANJ GROUP. 125 

relations of the different portions of the series are distinct, and may be 
seen by a glance at the map. The coal seams, for instance, about 
Sitaramptr, Gharwi, and Fatipár, on the West branch of the Nünia, 
are evidently continuations of those seen in the Hüral Jor, and their 
extension occurs in places around Shatalpár and Deziragarh, and South 
of the Damáda, for the faults which occur are insufficient to produce 
any great difference. It is impossible, without either under-ground 
workings or far more numerous and more perfect surface sections than 
exist, to identify particular seams at a distance of 5 or 6 miles, but it 
is clear that the beds accompanying the coal are continuous, and strike 
steadily across. There is by no means any certainty that the coal 
seams are continuous over any extensive area. The disappearance, 
throughout the West and South of all the thick seams so conspicuous, 
not only around Rániganj, but also in the Singáran, renders it impro- 
bable that such is the case. The Chinakáüri seam, South of the river at 
Hírakünd, is but little more than half the thickness it attains at Salün- 
chi, and it seems totally to disappear further South, as no similar seam 
is seen in the Besram stream. Here, however, many thin seams 
are found, which are wanting at Chinakiri; the run of ironstone 
proving the identity of the horizon. | 

So many large faults cut up the rocks in the neighborhood of the 
central stream of the Núnia, owing to the sudden twist which there 
takes place in the strike of the beds, that the strata, which were 
clearly traced up to that point, become diffieult to understand to the 
East, especially as, beyond this, there are scarcely any good sections. 
The small ironstone shale band, which was so valuable a guide in the . 
upper part of the series, may perhaps be represented by a thin and 
rather sandy run, which is seen South of the Grand Trunk Road, just 
West of the Ninia. In this case, the beds of coal worked near Nünia 
Bridge are nearly on the same horizon as the old Chinakiri seam, the 

new or Saltinchi seam, if it ever existed here, having been removed 

Er I 


12850. RANIGANJ COAT, FIELD. CHAP. ay 

by denudation before the deposition of the Panchét group, as has 
been the case, to all appearance, further West near Asansol, 
Gopalpür, &c. Judging from the general strike of the rocks, the 
beds of Nünia bridge are about equivalent to those of Mainanagar 
to the North-west, but to the South-east little more than guesses can 
be made, as large faults unquestionably come in. But, on the whole, 
it appears probable that the beds of Jemeri, Rániganj, Sirsol, &e., 
are higher in the series than those of Núnia bridge—such would cer- 
tainly be the case if the strike were considered as constant and 
unaffected by faults.* 

In this case they must also have been denuded in the area West of 
the Nünia, before the deposition of the Panchéts, and they are con- 
sequently very closely the equivalents of the beds of Chinaküri. The 
beds of Tapassi, Chokidanga, &c., on the Singáran, will thus be on 
nearly the same horizon as those of Nünia bridge, Mainanagar, 
Gharwi, &c. If this be the case, and it bears every impress of proba- 
bility, there can be no question that the coal seams of the Raniganj 
series, although far more constant than those in the Lower Damáda, 
have not the same general distribution over a wide area, as is generally 

the case in the deposits of the true Carboniferous age in Europe. 

CHAPTER V.—Panchét Group. 
4 
Tur evidence of the unconformity of these beds upon the Damáda 
Wernen on Dap rocks has already been alluded to incidentally in 

ps the description of the Rániganj series, but it willbe 

well briefly to recapitulate. In no place is it very conspicuous, but. it 

* The Bhangaband seam may be the same as the lower seam at Núnia bridge, but this is 

only a possibility. 
? 


Cuar. V.] PANCHET GROUP. 127 

is shown by the gradual overlapping in several localities of the edges 
of the beds of the Rániganj series, which beds appear to have been 
denuded before the period at which the Panchét group was deposited. 

The best marked instance occurs along the North-west boundary 
of the great spread of Panchét beds, which occupy the centre of the field. 
The strike of the Rániganj series, where seen in the Western branch of 
the Niinia, in the Hurál, near Chinaküri, &c., is about West 10? to 15° 
South, that of the Panchéts West 20? to 25? South, so that the latter 
group gradually overlaps the edges of the Damüda beds. The iron- 
stone run, which is marked North of Chinakáüri, and is there, as already 
noticed, 700 feet below the base of the Panchéts, disappears near 
Digari, and at the Núnia the difference in strike is well seen. Here 
the thin mieaceous grey shales and sandstones, at the base of the 
Panchét group, are seen to dip 30° or 35° East of South, while the 
Damádas beneath them dip not more than 10° East of South, the angle 
of dip being nearly the same in both cases, viz. 10°. 

The greater thickness of beds between the band of ironstones and 

i the base of the Panchéts, North of Panchét Hill, 
SL ogoni than intervenes near Chinakári, and the probable 
overlap of the Damüda beds, which occur in the neighborhood of 
Rániganj, have also been mentioned. It should, however, be remem- 
bered, that there is a very considerable apparent conformity between 
the two groups, and that, excepting in the section on the banks of the 
Núnia, the want of it can only be made out by a careful comparison of 
the rocks of each formation over considerable areas. 

In mineral character there is a wide difference between the two 

Difevence, iu onn groups. The bands of red clay are as character- 
PIPER istic of the Panchét group as coal and carbona- 

ceous shale are of the Damüda.* These bands vary in thickness from 

* Carbonaceous shale is occasionally met with among the Talchir rocks, but itis rare, In 
the Panchét rocks it has never been seen. 


128 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [CHap. V. 

a few inches to 10 or 15 feet, and occasionally contain thin beds of 
white felspathie sandstone, with mica. The ordinary sandstones, which 
form the bulk of the Panchét formation, much resemble those in the 
higher portion of the Rániganj series, but they are even more false- 
bedded, the stratification being frequently confused in the most extra- 
ordinary manner, and sometimes appearing even contorted. Small 
rolled pieces of silt occur, and these beds have clearly been deposited 
by a rapid and shifting current, such as that of a large river. In 

some respects the Panchét beds re-call the Tal- 

Resemblance to Talchir 

beds. hi Sms > 
chirs; very similar greenish and muddy shales 

occur in places, and the sandstones, although far coarser than they 
usually are in the Talchir group, resemble the latter in the circum- 
stance of the large quantity of felspar, which they contain, being in 
general undecomposed. The sandstones are thus rendered more fusi- 
ble, and the hardened and semi-fused rocks, at each side of the dykes 
which traverse these beds, stand up above the decomposed trap 
between them, and form long wall-like lines stretching across the 
country, as is well seen between Púsathánpúr, Hirapúr, and the Damúda. 
The Panchét series throughout is highly micaceous, and some beds 
occur in it almost solely composed of mica. 

At the base of this group there is everywhere found about 250 to 

-— 300 feet of grey and greenish-grey sandstones 
and shales, often micaceous, and very thin 
bedded, resembling strongly the middle beds of the Talchir series, 
and in some places, almost re-calling the mudstones of that series. 
These beds are extremely constant, and are well seen wherever the 
lower beds of the Panchét group are exposed in section. They are 
succeeded in ascending order by the coarse false-bedded felspathic 
Ge Res Seen MES sandstone, in thick beds, with interstratification 
red clays. of red clays, the typical rocks of the formation. 

Even when no sections can be seen, the color of the surface soil 


Cuar. V.] PANCHET GROUP. 129 

frequently gives indications of the clays beneath, the color of 
which is a dark purplish-red, similar to that of the old red sand- 
stone in England. The clay beds vary from 20 feet in thickness 
downwards. 
The lower 500 or 600 feet of the formation (neglecting the thin 
Clay more abundant sandstones at the base,) contain generally a larger 
near bonor number of beds of clay than the higher portion, 
in which the sandstones are coarser, and conglomerates occur. The 
whole thickness of the group certainly exceeds 1,500 feet where fully 
developed, as at the base of Panchét Hill. 
In one or two places, along the Southern boundary, thick conglome- 
rates occur in the higher beds of the Panchét 
Conglomerates. : 
group, resembling much those overlying the 
group. Pieces of carbonaceous shale and coal, doubtless derived from 
the Damüda group, are seen in some of the sandstones. Just North of 
the village of Deoli, near Bakülia, and about quarter of a mile East of the 
mouth of the Besram stream, a considerable expanse of rocks is exposed 
in the bed of the Damáda, South of the channel occupied by the water 
in the dry season, and here a bone bed was found, 
a containing detached, and, frequently, rolled bones, 
vertebre, and fragments of jaws with teeth; they are not very 
abundant, but a considerable number were procured. Some were 
also found in another spot in the Damúda, a little East of the vil- 
lage of Dikha, and fragments of bone were occasionally met with 
in other localities. The beds will, probably, if further searched, 
yield very satisfactory illustrations of the vertebrate fauna of the 
period. 
In one or two places remains of Estheria, and, perhaps, of one or 
. two other small Entomostraca occurred in the 
iti tt Panchéts. Plant remains arerare, but a consi- 

derable quantity were obtained from a fine, rather muddy sandstone, 
R 


130 RANIGANS COAL FIELD. [Cnar. V. 

on the West branch of the Nünia, South of Maitür. ‘The principal 

| species were of Sphenopteris, Pecopteris, and other 

oa Ferns, distinct from Damúda forms, but with 

them, and in far greater abundance than any other form, was preserved 

the plant (Schizoneura?) already mentioned as occurring plentifully in 

the Réniganj series. No Zamias or Cycads of any kind were met with, 
but fragments of a true T'eniopteris were found. 

The distribution of the Panchét group is simple. They occupy the 

hollow formed by the synclinal in the centre of the 

field. To the South, an anticlinal, least just North 

of Behárináth, and greater East and West of that point, brings up the 

Distribution. 

Ránigánj series. South of this the beds roll over again, and the Pan- 
chét rocks are once more brought in at several places, with high dips, 
close to the South boundary. 
A good section of the lowest portion of the Panchét group is seen 
between the Grand Trunk Road and the Nánia, 
det just West of the 139th milestone from Caleutta, 
and about 2 miles West of Asansol dák bungalow, where the lower 
grey shales are exposed. The best sections of the red clay and coarse 
sandstone are South of the Damida, in the ravines and broken ground 
West of the village of Baspaitáli. A good section also occurs North 
of the river, in the stream to the West of Pásathánpár, and the bone 
bed, as already stated, is exposed on the South of the river, North of 
Deoli, and just East of the mouth of the Besram stream. 
(b.) Conglomerates and grits of Panchét, Behárináth, &c. 
The higher portions of the large hills of Behárináth and Panchét 
ELM E are composed of rocks, differing considerably, in 
mineral characters, from any others in the field. 
They are mainly coarse ferruginous grits and conglomerates, with, in 
places, thin beds of loose white sandstone, and hard, brownish-red shales, 

micaceous in parts. Similar beds form Garangi Hill, and are seen, 


Cear. V.] PANCHET GROUP. 131 

isolated by alluvium, at the village of Jamwa, and at Telinda or Mad- 
jia Hill, South-west of Rániganj. ' 

With the exception of a few stems and imperfectly preserved leaves, 
no fossils have been met with in these beds, and, from their occur- 
rence solely where isolated by alluvium, or upon hills, the sides of 
which are obscured by jungle and covered by blocks, which have 
rior c E fallen from above, it is impossible to ascertain, with 

any degree of certainty, whether this upper series 
is unconformable upon the Panchét group or not. The beds towards the 
top of Panchét Hill appear to dip at much lower angles than is the case 
at the base, and the same is seen, to a smaller extent, in Behárináth, 
and, apparently, in Garangi, but as all these hills abut against an 
enormous fault on their Southern side, no differences in amount of dip 
are sufficient to prove unconformity, unless the beds are seen in con- 
tact, which is not here the case. It is however probable that they are 
not conformable. 3 
On Panchét Hill there are not above 500 feet of these beds, but 
AEUR. Behárináth Hill,* which cannot be less than 900 
feet, above the surface of the country at its base, 
seems to be almost entirely composed of them. As, however, the base 
is much concealed by fallen masses, their thickness may be considered 

as 500 feet. 

* Behárináth is 1,480 feet high above the sea level, but not more than 900 above the plain 

at its base. 


132 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Cuar. VI. 

CHAPTER VI.— On the relations of the Panchét to other groups of 
rocks in Bengal and Central India. 

THE subject of the relations of the rocks of Bengal and Central 
India having already been amply treated in these Memoirs, by Dr. 
Oldham,* in a paper written at the time when the Rániganj field was 
undergoing re-examination, nothing remains, except to show what addi- 
tional lights have been added by the various observations, whose results 
have been detailed in the preceding pages. The subject of the rela- 
tions of the Rániganj and of the Lower Damüda series has already been 
discussed, as far as is possible, until a more thorough examination of the 
fossils be made, than has yet been possible. The most important point, 
therefore, which remains, is the relations of the Panchét series. 

The different groups as yet known associated with the coal bearing beds 
-of Bengal and Central India are the following, in descending order :— 
. Mahadevas, with sub-group of Lameta beds. 

1 
2. Rajmahals. 

= 

Upper Damúdas of Jabalpúr and Central India. 

Lower Damúdas. 

P 

5. Talchirs. 

The characteristic fossils, wherever any are known, being in all cases 
vegetable. The distinguishing forms of plants in the Lower Damida, 
Upper Damtda, and Rájmahál groups, may be briefly expressed as 
Vertebraria and Glossopteris in the first, Conifera and Lycopodiacee 
and Cycadeacee in the second, C'ycadeacee ( Paleozamia and Pterophyl- 
lum) and T'eniopteris in the third; but there is a considerable generic, 
and some specific resemblance, between the Upper Damáda groups of the 
Nerbudda and the Rájmabhál group, while there is none between either 

of those groups and the Lower Damüda—so far at least as now known. 

* Mem. Geological Survey in India, Vol. T., page 299.—On the Geological relations and 
probable Geological age of the several systems of rocks in Central India and Bengal. 


Cuar. VL] RELATIONS OF VARIOUS GROUPS. 133 

Even comprising the additional species procured from the Rájmahál 
series, there is no connection between the true Damáüda group and 
the so-called Upper Damüda or Rájmahál group. The finding, there- 
fore, of a species in the Panchét series, which is known to occur in 
the Raniganj series, appears to show a closer connection with the 
Damida group, and a smaller lapse of time than exists in the other 
instances. 

The fossils of the Panchét group have not been compared with those 
of the Rájmahál and Upper Damúda series of Central India with 
sufücient detail and care to ascertain satisfactorily if any form be 
common or not. One Sphenopteris appears to occur, both in the 
Rájmahál and Panchét groups. ‘There is, however, among the ferns, 
a considerable generic resemblance, greater than with the Damüda 
series. But the total absence of Zamias, which are so abundant and 
so strikingly characteristic in the flora of the Rájmahál series, appears, 
so far as negative evidence can be of value, to show that the Panchét 
rocks were formed either under very distinct climatal conditions, or at 
a different epoch of time from that of the Rájmahál group. The 
former 1s improbable, as the formations occur at a distance of little more 
than 50 miles from each other, and the natural conclusion must be that 
the Panchét group denotes a distinct epoch of time, and as there 
is one fossil at least common to them and the Damüda rocks, and none 
identical in the Damüda and Rájmahál group, that the Panchét series 
represents a period of time intermediate between that of the other 
two groups. 

There is one test, judged by which the Panchéts would appear to 
approach much more nearly to the age of the Damtida rocks than to 
that of the Rájmaháls, and that is, the relative amount of disturbance 
which they have undergone. The Rájmahál group has throughout 
hardly been disturbed at all, scarcely a single fault has been found 
in them. The Panchét and Damüda groups have been faulted and 


134 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [CHar. VI. 

disturbed, and afterwards trap dykes were introduced into them, which 
were very possibly of Rájmahál age.* | 

Such being the probable relations of the Panchét group to the other 
beds of Bengal, the question arises as to their connexion, if any, with 
the rocks of Central India. 

To the * Upper Damüda group" of the Narbadda, Dr. Oldhamf is 
inclined to assign an age nearly equivalent to that of the Rájmaháls, 
but rather older. This would place them nearly on the same 
Geological horizon as has been above shown to be, in all probability, 
that of the Panchét beds. It is possible that the formations may be 
identical, but of this there is no indication in their floras, which are 
certainly fragmentary in both cases as yet.{ And the absence of 
Cycadez and presence of Schizoneura tend much to induce the belief 
that the Panchét group is older than the “ Upper Damáda." 

The relations of the Mangáli shales of Mr. Hislop,§ with the Damáda 
rocks, are not quite certain, but they are probably higher in the general 
series. "The remains contained in them show an interesting case of 
resemblance with those in the Panchét series. Of the plants obtained 
from Mangáli no description has appeared ; but the animal remains 
comprise a reptile (Brachiops laticeps, Owen), fish, and Estheria. Of the 
latter, specimens have been presented by Mr. Hislop to the Geologi- 
cal Museum in Calcutta ; and they appear to comprise two species, the 
smaller of which is undistinguishable from those found in the Panchét 

beds. 

* See below, Chapters VIII. and IX. 

t Memoirs, Vol. TI., page 324, 

f The fossil evidence scarcely proves more than an approach to the same age, in the 
case of the Rájmahál and Upper Damáüda groups. In the absence of any connexion 
between the last named beds and the Lower Damúdas, it appears by no means absolutely 
impossible that the “ Upper Damáda" rocks might be even a little higher than the Rájmahál 
group. 

8 Quart. Journal, Geo. Soc. Lon., Vol. XL, page 370. 


Cmar. VI.] RELATIONS OF VARIOUS GROUPS. 135 

The presence of this form, Zstheria, taken in connexion with the 
occurrence of a’ Labyrinthodont reptile, gives an important clue to the 
age of the Mangáli beds, and gives interest to any thread of connexion, 
even if slight, between them and the rocks of Bengal.* But until the’ 
reptilian fossils of the Panchét group are examined, it 1s premature to 
enter into any further speculations. 

The conglomerates and coarse ferruginous grits of Panchét and other 
hills might, from their mineral character and position in the series, 
belong to either of the groups described as * Máhádeva"ft in Central 
India, or in Orissat; but any such identification could only be of the 
slightest kind on account of the distance at which these beds are known 
to occur, mineral character being a very uncertain guide in determin- 
ing the relations of rocks separated by so wide an interval$ unless 
some very peculiar and marked character exists, as in the case of the 
Talchir rocks. But in the present instance there is no distinct cha- 
racter, beds of conglomerate and grit abound in rocks of all ages, 

while the extension of such beds over a large area is exceptional. | 

* So far as this evidence goes, it tends to confirm Dr. Oldham's suggestions as to the 
Damádas being Upper Paleozoic. For labyrinthodont reptiles, (and consequently the Panchéts 
if equivalent to the Mangalis,) being Permian or Triassic, and the Damádas being but little 
older, would be Upper Carboniferous or Permian, or perhaps intermediate between Permian 
and 'Triassic, but the evidence is very slight. 

T Memoirs, Vol. Il., page 183. 

į Ibid, Vol. I., page 75. 

§ The beds in the Damáda valley are about 250 miles from Talchir, those in Talchir are 
about 350 miles from Central India. 

|| In deference to Dr. Oldham's opinion of the distinctness of the Máhádevas of Central India: 
from those of Orissa (Memoirs of Geological Survey of India, Vol. IL, page 315), I have 
treated them above as separate formations. The evidence of their identity was never very 
strong, and the Orissa beds were referred to the “ Mahadeva” group as being the only known. 
group then described to which they could be assigned. I do not think that any additional evi- 
dence with reference to them has since been procured. It will be seen above that I do not 
agree with Dr. Oldham’s suggestion that the * Máhádevas" of Talchir and the upper grits of 

the Raniganj field may be identical. It is by no means improbable that all three are distinct, 


136 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Cuar. VI. 

Tn all three cases, indeed, the evidence amounts only to this, that there 
are coarse sandstones and conglomerates of later date than Damüda age; 
that in Orissa and Central India the beds are of great thickness (2,000 
to 3,000 feet), cover considerable areas, and rest unconformably upon the 
Damiida rocks. In the Damáda Valley there is no great thickness nor 
extent of the beds, and they rest, whether unconformably or not, is not 
clear, upon a formation unknown in the other two localities. As 
the Damüda rocks are certainly not of later date than Oolitic age,“ 
the newer beds may belong to any subsequent epoch. 

There is, however, a group of beds in the Rájmahál Hills, which 
presents greater facilities for identification. No description of it has 
been published, and it is therefore necessary briefly to allude to the - 
generalsection of the formations there occurring, a sketch of which 
has already been given by Dr. Oldham,+ in anticipation of the full 
description of them. The section is :— : 

1. Trap, with interstratified beds of shale 

and occasionally of sandstone. Rájmahál group. 

2. Coarse grits and conglomerates. | 

3. Sandstone, shale and coal. Damáda group. 

The higher portion of the Rájmahál group, viz. the traps and inter- 
trappean shales, resting unconformably upon the grits and conglomerates, 
which again are unconformable upon the Damidas. These grits and 
conglomerates appear to belong to the Rájmahál group, (they are cer- 

tainly in no way connected with the Damüda series,) and form beds 

(Subsequent research has shown the existence of vegetable remains, stems, &c., in the 
Panchét Hill rocks, which would appear to afford an additional reason for connecting these 
with the Mahadeva group of Cuttack. But the evidence at best is as yet exceedingly defi- 
cient.—T. OLDHAM.) 

* Beds of the lowest Cretaceous group rest in Madras unconformably upon rocks of Rájmahál 
age, and the latter are far newer than the Damüdas.—JMem. Geol. Survey of India, Vol. IL., 
page 323. 

t Mem. Geol. Survey of India, V ol. II., page 313. 


Cuar. VIIL] MORE RECENT BEDS. 137 

about 100 feet to 300 feet thick, stretching along the hills for 70 or 80 
miles; their Southern extension, in the Rámghur Hills, not being above 
50 miles distant from Rániganj. i 

There is nothing improbable in the conglomerates of Panchét, 
Behárináth, &c., being an extension of these beds. In mineral character 
they are similar. But it is possible that, being isolated and only slightly 
unfossiliferous, their affinities may never be satisfactorily determined. 

So far as can be at present predicated, the following conveys briefly 
the probable relations of the beds of Rániganj, Orissa, Rájmahál, Cen- 
tral India, and Nagpár. 

I. TI, III. iV. V. 
Ramgan). Orissa, Rajmahal Hills.  Narbadda Valley. Nagpur. 
Rájmahál group. 

i—a. Wanting. i a. Intertrappean f Wanting. 
ing ? 2 
2.—5. Panchét con- (Wanting ? beds. Upper Damtidas. J 
b. Grits, &c, 
glomerates. 
3. Panchét group. { Mangáli shales.B, 
4 Damáída series. : 
a, Rániganj group. a. Wanting ? a. Wanting. a? a? 
6. Lower Damúdas, b. Lower Damúdas, b. Lower Damúdđas. b. Lower Damúdas, b. Lower Damüdas. B. 
B. 
5 Talchirs. Talchirs, Talchirs. Talchirs. Talchirs, C. 

The letters in the last column being those employed by Mr. Hislop 
to distinguish the various beds in Quart. Jour. Geological Soc., Lon- 
don, Vol. XI., page 370-371. ; 


138 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Cuar. VII. 

CHAPTER VII.— Beds above the Panchét Group. 

I. Beds of Khyrasol. 

THE ridge of high land running from North to South, over which the 
Grand Trunk Road is carried West of Khyrasol, about 16 miles East 
of Rániganj, and through which the Railway passes in a deep cutting 

Erg HR near Kálipár, is formed of coarse yellow and white 

felspathic grit, with beds of white, bluish-grey, and 
mottled clay, and thin bands of hard quartzose ferruginous grit. They 
are well exposed in the Railway cutting just mentioned, where they 
appear to dip about 2° to the North-east. There is no appearance of false- 
bedding. The grits are more earthy than those of the Panchét group, and 
abound in small angular pieces of felspar, which are much decomposed. 

These beds occupy a considerable area, stretching from the Damüda 
near Khyrasol to the Adjai, but they are, in most part, covered and 
concealed by laterite. This area is at some distance to the East of the 
Rániganj field, so that these beds are not represented upon the map 
which accompanies this Report. 

Similar beds occur further to the North, beyond the More River, near 
Be OE ARNA Muhammad Bazar, and East of Deocha, on the 
bhoom. Dwarka River, just South of the end of the 
Rájmahál Hills. Other sandstones, probably belonging to the same for- 
mation, have been noticed by Dr. Oldham and Mr. J. G. Medlicott, in 

Bánküra and Midnapür, and it is possible that the 
to Bankr ndn tract of sandstone lying South-west of the town 
of Cuttack may belong to the same formation.* If so, these beds, 
extending thus along the edge of the alluvium, deserve more notice 
than has hitherto been given to them. They are probably of very 
recent date, as their extension along the old coast line, and parallel to 

* Not, however, the Mahadeva of Talchir, which are very distinct in composition. 


Cuar. VIL] MORE RECENT BEDS. 139 

the present one, seems tọ point to a geographical configuration of the 

land very similar to that now existing. 

II. Laterite. 

Concerning this rock but little need be said. It covers a considerable 
space to the East of the Rániganj field, and patches of it occur within 
the area resting upon the Damúdas. Itis uniformly gritty, and contains 
fragments of sandstone, evidently derived from the neighboring rocks. 
It attains no great thickness, being seldom seen to exceed 5 or 6 feet. 

Large areas to the East are covered with a gravel-like form of 
R EUM laterite, occasionally consolidated so as to resem- 

ble the massive variety. Whether this be pre- 
cisely the same deposit, or whether it is merely the denuded and frag- 
mentary detritus of the typical and massive forms of the rock, seems 
doubtful. There is much in favor of the former view. The gradual 
thinning which is observed, from the higher ground to the West, to the 
low plains of alluvium to the East, and the absence of any clear 
distinction between the two, or of any marked line where the massive 
form ceases, and the gravelly variety commences, in passing from East 
to West, seem to point to a common origin for both forms. The rise 
of level from East to West, already noticed as occurring in Orissa,* 
appears to be general along the East Coast, and further North, and 
perhaps an increase of it in the Rájmahál Hills, may explain the masses 
of laterite which cap their Western ridges. There can now be little 
doubt, but that the typical “detrital” form of the rock is a marine 
deposit, and that its peculiar mineral character is due to subse- 
quent sub-zrial action, the iron having been originally deposited in 
the rock, and derived from the highly ferruginous metamorphic 

formations. 

* Mem. Geol. Survey of India, Vol. L., page 274. 


140 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Cnuar. VII. 

III. Alluvium. 
There are several forms which the various loose surface deposits of 
Eeden the Ganges delta and its neighborhood assume, 
each form probably corresponding to a distinct 
origin. Those covering and concealing the rocks of the Rániganj 
basin consist principally of three kinds. 

1. Modern Alluvium, including the recent deposits from rivers, 
and the river alluvium of the Delta of Lower Bengal. These consist 

of sands and sandy clays, and cover but a small extent of country. 

. 2, Old Delta Alluvium. This spreads over a considerable -area, 
and the Damüdas and their associates disappear beneath it at the 
Eastern boundary of the known coal-bearing area. In some places 
it appears to contain gravelly laterite, in others it unquestionably over- 
lies the laterite unconformably, and fills valleys, as that of the Singá- 
ran, from which the laterite has been denuded. In some places, as to 
the South-east of Ukra, and over a considerable area on the West 
flank of the ridge, extending North from near Khyrasol, the alluvium 
contains large deposits of mottled clays and coarse gravel, beds of quartz 
pebbles occurring in places. 

But little is seen of either of the preceding formations within the 
Rániganj field ; their history and relations are now being traced out over 
large areas, and by such means alone can they be fairly understood. 

: 8. Old River Alluvium. The neighborhood of the Barákar and 
Damáda is covered in many places by considerable masses of gravel, 
with occasional sands and clays. They are well seen between the 
Ninia and Damida, near their confluence, and along the North side 
of the Damáda, in the neighborhood of Hiraptr. They are frequently 
I ME UE highly kunkuriferous, especially to the West, so 
shells. that South of the Damüda, near Hirakünd ; near 
Hatinál, South of Chirkunda, and around Rámnagar,* (the last three 

* Noticed by Mr. Williams as fresh-water limestone, with Unios.—Report, page 89. 


Onar. VIII | TRAP DYKES AND INTRUSIONS. 141 

places upon the banks of the Barákar,) massive beds of kunkur occur, 
and in the two last named localities, where the hardened calcareous rock 
forms a ridge along the bank of the river, fresh-water shells* and bones 
of oxen have been found. 

In the same category may be placed the ferruginous conglomerate, 
which is found in many places plastered over the surface of the 
Damáda field, below other forms of alluvium. It frequently fills 
cracks in the sandstones. It consists of fragments of shale and sand- 
stone, with rolled pebbles, strongly cemented together by oxide of iron. 
It is often exposed by streams. In one place, on the South bank of 
the Damüda, where it filled cracks in the sandstone of the Panchét 

series, fragments of bone of a very large mammal were found in it. 

CHaPTER VIIL— Trap Dykes and Intrusions. 

A GLANCE at the map, which accompanies this Report, will show 
the distriet to which it refers to be intersected in every direction by 
dykes of basaltic trap. Many of these are of considerable length, 
one at least, that which passes from a little West of Etiapora, through 

or near to the villages of Purani Chati, Dhadkia, 
and Dhámra, and South of the Damüda through 
Kálkapür, which is known as the Salma dyke,f extending for at least 

Salma Dyke. 

20 miles, and being, doubtless, continued further, to the North. This 
dyke, where it crosses the Grand Trunk Road about a mile East of 

* Unio marginalis, Paludina Bengalensis, Planorbis Coromandelicus, P. compressus, and 
a small Bythinia. i : 
1 It was so termed by Mr. Homfray, from its passing. close to a shaft, which he sunk in 
Salma. The village itself is at some distance from the dyke, and lies a little South of the 

Damáda,. 


142 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [ CHap. | VIII. 

Asansol dak bungalow, is about 120 feet broad, and it has throughout 
a general direction of South 20°—25° East. No other dyke, within the 
area of the field, attains equal dimensions, although a few nearly parallel 
with it, are of considerable breadth (30 or 40 feet), and can be traced 
for many miles. By very far the largest portion, however, do not 
exceed 3 feet across, but even these may, in many instances, be seen to 
extend for 5 or 6 miles. 

The trap forming the various dykes differs greatly in mineral charac- 

Mineral character of ter. It is generally more or less decomposed, and 

eic frequently contains a whitish micaceous mineral, 

somewhat resembling Margarodite, in little rounded masses. In many 
instances it contains black mica. But these distinctions do not certainly 
prove difference of age, for two or three varieties are frequently found 
in the same dyke, in different portions of its course. Small pieces of 
gneiss and granite, brought up evidently from the metamorphic rocks, 
which must be in some places 10,000 or 12,000 feet below the surface, 
abound in some of the dykes, and occasionally 1n very small ones. 
Among the great mass of the dykes in the beds of the Rániganj 

b 

unb aman d field, above the Lower Damádas, no reliable dis- 

tinction can be made as regards age. There are, 
` however, some appearances, which induce the belief that the traps 
running in general East and West, between Etiapora, Sámdi, and the 
Barákar, those North of Cháralia and Madanpür, and others in the 
Lower Damádas, are older than those spread over the remainder of the 
field. Their distinctive peculiarities will be described presently. 
There seems, among the greater number of the remaining dykes, to be 
a prevalent direction, averaging North-east and South-west, a far 
larger number striking between North and East than between North 
and West. This is doubtless due to the circumstance of the forces 
which had disturbed the district previous to the trap intrusions, having 

produced numerous cracks in this direction, which is that of a large 


Cuar. VIIL] TRAP DYKES AND INTRUSIONS. 143 

number of the principal faults, those faults having been in all cases 
where intersection has been observed of older age than the trap. Many 
apparent cases of trap dykes being faulted arise simply from the crack 
which they have filled having split somewhat irregularly in that place, 
as in the accompanying diagram, Fig. 9. There is a case close to 
the village of Amkula, West of Rániganj, where a dyke is thrown 120 

feet in this manner without any fault. 

Fie. 9. DYKE THROWN WITHOUT A FAULT NEAR BONGHA, 

It is also possible that the Salma dyke, and a few other large dykes, 
lying West of it, and parallel with it, and which are composed of a 
very compact trap, often finely columnar, may be of a different age 
from the smaller dykes; but there is no proof of such being the case. 
Relatively to each other, there can be no question that some dykes 
preceded others. There are very many cases where a newer dyke is 
seen to cut an older one. ‘This may be observed in numerous instances 
in the country immediately West of Rániganj, and nowhere better 
tham in the two parallel dykes which pass through the colliery, and 
separate the old abandoned mine from the new one now worked. One 
of these is seen to cut across the other four or five times at least, and 
affords an interesting example of a second dyke following approximately 
. the same general line of weakness which a former one had taken. But 
there is no evidence that this difference of relative age implies a differ- 
ence of Geological Epochs. Just as in any voleano, where a section is 
exposed, some dykes may be seen cutting others, and yet all may have 

been formed within very few years of each other, and the whole mass 


144 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Cuar. VIII. 

within a portion of a Geological Epoch, so, in this case, the mere fact 
of some dykes having slightly preceded the others, by no means proves 
them to have had a distinct origin. The most careful examination was 
devoted to an endeavor to trace out a supposed case of a distinct series 
of dykes, but the conclusion was that, with the exception of those already 
referred to in the Lower Damüdas, all were of the same general age. 

As regards the Geological age, there appears good reason for sup- 

anes posing that these intrusions may have been con- 
temporaneous with the great volcanic outbursts, 
of which evidence exists in the Rájmahál Hills. The dykes are cer- 
tainly newer than the Panchét rocks, which they traverse in abund- 
ance, and they are also newer than all the faults of the districts. 
Now, however much evidence there may be of faulting and dis- 
turbance preceding the Rájmahál period, the rocks belonging to that 
formation have, in the district where alone they occur in Dengal, 
scarcely been moved from’ their original horizontal position; and 
faults are very rare amongst them. It is probable that a period 
of elevation and of great and long continued disturbance was con- 
cluded in Bengal by the outbursts of lava now forming the range 
of hills which stretches from the neighborhood of Soory to the banks 
of the Ganges. 

No evidence of later volcanic action is known to exist in any part 
of Bengal The circumstance of scarcely any disturbance having 
taken place at a more recent period is, in itself, strongly in favor of 
the belief that the trap dykes of the Damüda country are not newer 
than the lava flows of the Rájmahál Hills; for had voleanie action 
taken place, it would probably have been either preceded or accom- 
panied by disturbance. If, therefore, it be conceded, that the age of 
the trap dykes is not newer than that of the Rájmahál rocks, the period 
during which they might have been formed is reduced to a com- 

paratively small range. 


Cuar. VIIL] TRAP DYKES AND INTRUSIONS. 145 

There is no reason for supposing that the trap outbursts of Central 
India and the Deccan ever extended to the neighborhood of Bengal, 
unless they were contemporaneous with the traps of the Rájmahál Hills, 
a view opposed to the opinions entertained by all Indian geologists ; 
the Deccan traps being considered Eocene. It is, therefore, highly 
improbable that the dykes of the Raniganj field should be in any way 
connected with them. And the balance of probabilities appears to 
be in favor of those dykes being of Rájmahál age. 

It 1s remarkable, considering that both dykes and faults must neces- 
EU MM sarily take place along lines of weakness—along 
dykes. cracks in the rock, in fact —that instances of their 
accompanying each other should be so singularly rare in the Damüda 
Valley. Only two cases were observed. Of these one is the dyke 
(No. 6 of Mr. Williams*) which runs nearly due North and South 
along the valley West of Sirsol, and passes just West of the out-crop 
of the Sirsol coal seam; the other is om the North boundary of the 
field, just East of the Darákar. A fault runs North-west from near 
Debipür to the temple at Debitán. The Southern portion of this is 
accompanied by a trap dyke, which, however, is clearly more recent 
than the fault, for the latter is cut off close to Debipár by a second 
fault, running about East 20? North, while the dyke is continued for 
some distance without being thrown.  Doubtless other cases may 
exist of faults and dykes being along the same lines, but had 
they been other than extremely scarce and exceptional, more in- 
stances would certainly have been noticed. It is evident that the 
disturbing forces producing pressure on the beds, and tending 'to 
crack them, at the time when the traps were intruded, were dis- 
tinct from those existing in the previous period of dislocation and 

disturbance. 

* The dykes marked on Mr. Williams's map were all numbered, but, as before stated, they 
were a very small portion of those which existed. 
T 


146 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Cuar. VIII. 

In many instances, the traps, instead of forming vertical dykes, 

Trap intruded horizon- have intruded themselves between the planes of 
k^ stratification, or have traversed an easily yielding 
bed, such as coal. This is especially the case in the Lower Damádas, 
and is, indeed, almost distinctive of the traps there occurring. Itis best 
seen in the area already referred to, extending for a considerable distance 
in an Eastern and Western direction, near the North boundary of the 
field, and parallel to it, and which was mapped by Mr. Williams as a 
ridge of intrusive trap, extending from Etiapora to beyond Samdi. The 
trap becomes noticeable, in fact, near Chiiralia, North of which village 
two runs of interstratified traps occur. A little further West, North 
of Madanpár, Kapista, &c., along ridge of low hills occurs, which forms, 
for some distance, the Northern boundary of the field. ‘This consists of 
two or three runs of trap, and of the sandstone hardened by it. The 
great North-west and South-east fault, which runs between Alipür 
and Etiapora, and has a down-throw to the North-east, throws the out- 
crop of these traps and sandstones for some miles to the South. They 
are seen at Etiapora, and abound from thence in the ridge of ground 
on which stand the villages of Bila, Amdia, Mohanpür, Pahargora, 
Samdi, &c.; the little hill of Muktochandi is a mass of intrusive trap. 
Again to the West of the West branch of Nünia these traps stretch 
across through Dandarbád and Sabünpür. They are less conspicuous 
near the Barákar and West of it. | 

These dykes alter and harden the sandstones with which they come 

fi nti dub on in contact to a great extent, more than their size, 

š for they are seldom of any thickness, would 
lead any one to anticipate. But their principal effect is upon the 
coal beds. In describing the enormous deposits of fossil fuel which 
occur in the Lower Damüdas, the great injury done by the traps 
occurring associated with them was repeatedly referred to. Seam after 

seam is found traversed by these dykes, which permeate the coal in the 


Cuar. VIIL] TRAP DYKES AND INTRUSIONS. 147 

most irregular manner, altering and hardening it, and at times causing 
it to assume a perfectly columnar structure. Apparently the coal has 
been fused by the trap, and the latter has been driven into the seam, 
wherever it could force itself a passage. | 

The almost universal parallelism of these dykes, with the beds 
ete Roe anong which m occur, almost of necessity 

induces the belief, at first sight, that they are 
interstratified lava flows of contemporaneous age, like those of the 
Rájmahál Hills or of the Deccan. More close examination, however, 
shows that the rocks, both above and below, are altered by them, and 
that if traced for any distance, they, in general, cut across the strata. 
But, in coal seams, there can be no question, from their irregularly 
intrusive character, that they are of posterior and not contem- 
poraneous formation. And in sandstones, they are occasionally seen 
to split up and anastomose, in a manner which can only be due to 
intrusion. 

These dykes (for they are dykes, although horizontal and not 
vertical) are, as already remarked, almost confined to the Lower Damú- 
das. A few instances, however, occur in the Rániganj series. One 
of these is seen stretching from the central branch of the N únia, South 

ptos o Leder of Madanmonptr, to near Sripár ; another occurs 
Damuda group. about 14 miles further East, near Kaithi, and a 
few instances of coal, intersected by trap, have also been referred to ; 
that near Chalwidi, on the Nünia, West of Rániganj, and of the seam 
just below that worked at Mainanagar being examples. But these are 
singularly rare, when compared with the great prevalence of such 
horizontal trap intrusions among the sandstones, and far more conspi- 
cuously among the coals, of the Lower Damüdas. So numerous were 
these little irregular dykes in that group of beds that it was found 
impracticable to map any, except the most important and conspicuous. 

It is worthy of remark that the neighborhood of Samdi and of the 


148 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Cuar. VIII. 

little trap hill of Muktochandi appear to abound more in trap than 
more distant localities. Also the great prevalence of the traps in one 
particular bed of sandstone is noteworthy, but it is probably due to the 
circumstance of that bed being more easily permeable than others, and 
of all the dykes being merely branches and ramifications of one great 
dyke. The principal reasons for supposing these dykes to be of a dif- 
ferent age from those which occur in the higher beds of the field, are, 
lst, the very much larger amount of trap permeating the Lower Damtda 
beds ;* and, 2nd, the circumstance that these horizontal dykes, and these 
alone, appear to be thrown by faults, especially by that near Etiapora. 
They are also thrown by two small faults North of Chúralia, and by 
another North of Madanpár. This may, possibly, be due simply to 
the permeable bed being thrown, and to the trap of subsequent age, 
selecting that bed, although dislocated, wherever it occurs, much as 
coal at all heights in the Lower Damüdas appears to be penetrated in 
preference to any other rock; but this is less probable than the theory 
of the horizontal traps being of prior age to the faults, and perhaps of 
. older date than the ironstone shales and Rániganj series, the very few 
instances of horizontal dykes in the latter being easily explicable by 
supposing that the planes of stratification proved, in a few instances, 
to be the principal lines of weakness. It is easy to conceive that in a 
country already disturbed many more cracks would occur through 
which trap could be forced than in a district where the rocks had not 
undergone dislocation, and that, in the latter instance, the weakest lines 
might be the planes of stratification, and the more easily yielding beds 
of the series, so that, judged by this test, there is a probability of hori- 

zontal dykes- preceding the upheaval of the 

Two series of Dykes. : à 

country, while vertical dykes are of latter origin. 

Taken altogether, the whole circumstances show it to be probable that 

* This might be due, however, to their being lower and nearer the sources of the trap 

outburst. 


Cuar. IX.] FAULTS. 149 

there are two series of dykes in the Rániganj field, the older one of 
which is of Damüda, possibly of Lower Damüda age, and the newer of 
the same period as the Rájmahál group. 

The older or Damüda dykes are almost invariably decomposed and 
soft, forming a red or yellow stone ; they consist of fine grained trap, 
frequently vesicular. à 

Besides regular dykes, there are a few local outbursts of trap. This 

TUA a Ag oie is the case with several small hills North and 
trap. North-east of Afzalpür; they, however, being 
confined to the gneiss, may be of older date. One, known as Maluncha 
Hill, near Nala, in Kündit Kuráya, is the largest. Within the area of 
the field, the most noticeable is Muktochandi Hill, which, however, is of 
no great size. Two small masses occur, one beneath the barracks at 
Rániganj, and another a little to the West of them, while a third is seen 
about half a mile South-west of Parassia village. The last-named is 
amygdaloidal, and contains agate. These outbursts are, doubtless, of the 
same age as the dykes, from which they merely differ in greater 
breadth. That at Muktochandi Hill, near Samdi, and a smaller one in 
the village of Pahargora, may, perhaps, be of the same age as the neigh- 
boring horizontal dykes, which appear to have some connexion with 

them, but it is equally probable that they belong to the newer series. 

CHAPTER IX.— Faults. 

Mvcnu of the most important information which has been accumu- 
lated concerning faults has already been stated in the preceding 
section. Very much remains to be ascertained upon this subject which 
can only be thoroughly understood, when far greater facilities exist 

for examining the various. strata than is now the case. This is 


150 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Onar. IX. 

unfortunate, for. no question can be of greater importance to the miner 
than to know, by the help of a geological map, where he may expect to 
meet with faults or “ troubles,” andif he intends to mine beyond them, 
in which direction 1s the down-throw. 

Even some of the largest and most important faults in the field 
cannot be traced for any great distance into the sedimentary rocks. 
The difficulty of following them has induced a strong belief that they 
are more numerous, and the throw greater, in the Lower Damüdas and 
Talchirs, than in the Rániganj beds and Panchéts. This seems espe- 
cially the case with. the numerous faults running about North 20° 
East in the neighborhood of Jamiari, none of which can be traced to 
have any effect upon the ironstone shales, the boundary of which, how- 
ever, is by no means clearly seen in the places where it should beinter- 
sected by the faults. aie 

The greater number of the dislocations occurring in the Raniganj 
a or ea area may be divided into three series of parallel, 

or nearly parallel, faults. 

I. A series running about West 10°—20° North: to this belongs the 
great fault forming the Southern boundary of the field. One other 
fault may also be referred to it, viz. that forming the Northern 
boundary of the field from the Adjai, near Daskiara, North of Etiapora, 
to beyond Birkunti. It is extremely probable that this series of faults 
may not be entirely the effect of one period of disturbance, but the 
accumulated dislocations of many movements at various times. It 
belongs to a series which has enormously influenced the rocks of 
Bengal and Eastern India, and the throws are frequently, as in the 
present instance, of gigantic dimensions. 

There is perhaps no example on record in which the throw of a large 

un fru MU fault had been determined with greater accuracy 
South boundary. than in the case of that bounding the Rániganj 

field to the South. The steady dip of beds, whose out-crop extends in 


Cmar. IX.] FAULTS. 151 

places over 20 miles of country, is, in portions of the field, perfectly 
uninterrupted. The thickness of the various formations, excluding the 
Upper Panchét and Talchir rocks, has been shown to be about 10,000, 
and as there is no amount of unconformity between any series above 
the Talchir, which can possibly account for an absence of more than 
1,000 feet of rocks altogether, and as all the beds are cut off by the 
South fault, all the higher ones abutting against it, it is only reasonable 
to conclude that the throw of the South fault cannot be less than 9,000 
feet, or nearly 1 mile and three-quarters. How much more it may be it 
is impossible to say. Itis probably more than 12,000, for the above are 
minimum measurements, and the throw is only known to exceed them. 
The great fault which bounds the North of the Talchir field is 
Conpanton miih Tal | Parallel, to that on the South of the Rániganj 
chir feld; field, and, although at a distance of 250 miles, may 
very possibly be due to the same disturbing forces. Its throw, however, 
is reversed. Indeed, the two fields of the Damüda and Bráhmani 
Rivers have some singular points of resemblance, both being brought in 
by parallel faults, which cut off the whole of the rocks comprised in 
them. This, indeed, appears to be the prevailing character of the small 
areas of Damúda, Talchir, and other sedimentary rocks dispersed over 
Bengal and Orissa, and the districts lying immediately West of them. 
Another parallel fault, of great size, exists in the gneiss of Kúndit 
Kuráya. It is marked by scattered rises, composed of the breccia, 
which, in the metamorphic rocks, and occasionally, in the Talchir, but 
never, so far as is known in Bengal, in the Damüda rocks,* accompanies 
most faults of any size. The great faults of Central India appear to 
follow a different direction from those in Bengal, but, in the latter 
province, it is probable that nearly all the largest faults have an Easterly 

and Westerly direction. 

* Itoceurs, however, between Damüdas and Metamorphic rocks, and contains fragments of both, 
T Or more correctly East by South to West by North. 


159 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Cnar. IX. 

II. The second system of faults strikes North 10°—20° East, and is 

Second system older Perhaps older than either of the others, or, even 

RR more probably, may be newer than the commence- 

ment of the East and West series, but older than its completion. To 
this system belong the faults forming the West boundary of the field from 
Rámpür, near the South boundary, to near Chánch and Nichibad; the 
fault down the valley of the Bardkar, (which is possibly the same as that 
West of Panchét, but thrown by the North-west and South-east faults 
bounding the field West of Chánch ;) several small faults near Jamiari, 
and North of Samdi, on the North boundary of the field; and perhaps 
the small faults which throw the boundary of the Panchéts East of 
Asansol, and those which occur West of Rániganj colhery. 

The fault down the Barákar is clearly proved by the throw of the 
boundaries of the ironstone shales and of the lower beds. No trace 
of it, however, can be seen upon the river banks, and it probably 
follows throughout the course of the stream, curving slightly below 
Rámnagar. 

III. Faultsrunning North-west and South-east,or nearly so. These 

Qu M comprise the faults forming the West boundary of 
the field from near Chanch to the extreme West 
near Kalatabür; a small fault at Debitan, just East of the Darákar; that 
near Alipár and Etiapora; that North of Madanpür; and the fault in the 
Adjai. All of these, except the Debitán fault, which may not belong 
to this system, but be an older fault of Talchir age, have the same 
down-throw, viz. to the North-east. They are evidently newer than 
the North 20? East faults, which they cut off in the West of the field 
and probably throw. 

'The faults forming the South-west boundary of the Panchéts, South 
of the Damtida, may, perhaps, belong to this system. The attempted 
tracing of the faults from Chanch across the country North of Marúlia, 

is not quite certain. It is however probable that a large fault does 


Cmar. IX.] FAULTS. 153 

~exist there with a down-throw to the North, for the run of ironstones 
mapped in the Rániganj series comes in immediately North of the 
anticlinal, which traverses the country in the same direction as the 
fault, while many hundreds of feet of rocks intervene to the South of up 
and the presence of some displacement is indicated by the peculiar 
twists and singular dips seen North-east of Marülia. (See p. 120.) . 
There are a few other faults, which cannot, with certainty, be referred 
to any of these three series. Such are the small throws influencing the 
South-west boundary just North of where it crosses the Grand Trunk 
Road near Báreghar and Barwa. These are, however, of small amount. 
Some of the most important faults accompany twists in the strike 
of the rocks. One of these changes of strike occurs about the valley 
of the main branch of Nünia, where it runs from North to South, from 
Htiapora to the neighborhood of Asansol. Another occurs near the 
Darákar, the dip of the rocks changing from S. S. E. to S. S. W. in 
each case. Itis probable that both phenomena were due to the same 
disturbing causes. 
"The age of the faults, as a mass, has already been shown to have been 
An ia probably in the time which intervened between 
the Panchét and Rájmahál periods. No addi- 
ional evidence of importance exists beyond that afforded by the dykes. 
All three series throw every rock from the Panchéts downwards—their 
effect upon the Panchét grits is unknown ; but there is no doubt that 
they were thrown by the East and West fault forming the South boun- 
dary of the field, as no outliers of them are known to exist beyond. 
There appear to have been faults in the Talchir rocks previously to 
the formation of the Damúdas, but their direction has not been clearly 

made out. 


Part IL—COAL MINES. 

CHAPTER I.— History. 

Aw account of the earliest attempt at working coal in the Rániganj 
field will be found in a paper published by Mr. S. G. T. Heatly, in 
the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1842,* and which shows 
by a series of extracts from the records of public offices, the principal 
details of the opening of the first mines. In August 1774, Messrs. 
S. G. Heatly and J. Sumner, of the Bengal Civil Service, made an 
application to Government for the right of working mines of coal, the 
discovery of which they announced, in “ Pachete and Bheerbhoom.” 
Mr. S. G. Heatly was at the time Collector of Chota Nágpúr and 
Palamow, and he was, in all probability, the first discoverer of the 
existence of coal in Bengal. A Mr. Redferne subsequently joined 
the firm, which, as Sumner, Heatly, and Redferne, applied for an 
exclusive right for eighteen years, (which was granted,) to work and sell 

coal in Bengal and its dependencies. The limits of the area, within 

* (Contributions to a History of the Mineral Resources of India, No. I.,) Vol. XI., page 811. 
The following account is based on information derived from this paper, from Mr. Homfray’s 
papers and from some letters of Mr. C. B. Taylor to the Englishman and republished in 1849, 
(the latter only quoted for dates,) and from general information obtained from owners and 

managers of mines. 


Pr. IT. Cmar. I. | COLLIERIES— HISTORY. 155 

which they applied for and obtained permission to- mine, were the Adjai 
and Damúda Rivers, on the North and South, a semi-circular line drawn 
from the village of Aitúra, with a radius of 10 miles to the West, 
(this carried their boundaries for some distance beyond the Barákar,) 
and the border of Burdwan on the East.* They agreed to pay one- 
fifth of the produce to Government, and to supply for five years 10,000 
maunds per annum, at a price of 2 Rupees 12 annnas per maund, pro- 
bably the value of English Coal at the time. 

In 1775 Messrs. Sumner and Co. announced to Government the 
arrival of 2,500 maunds of “ Pachete coal,” and requested that it 
might be received. Such does not, however, appear to have been done 

until 1777, when fresh application having been 
yon made, the Government directed the Commissary of 
Stores to report upon.the coal. From experiments he concluded that it 
was only half as good as English coal, and it was consequently returned to 
the firm, with an intimation from Government, that they would still give 
every assistance to the miners in endeavoring to procure coal of better 
quality, for which they recommended further search and deeper 
excavation. : 

The mines first worked by Messrs. Sumner, Heatly, and Redferne, 

and, subsequently, by Mr. Heatly alone, are said 

ant mies to have been six in number, three of which were at 
Aitára (Aytooreah), Chinakúri, and Damülia. It is difficult to ascer- 
tain which were the others; some were probably in the neighborhood 
of the Barákar, the portion of the field East and West of Rániganj, 
not being, probably, then known to contain coal. The mine (quarry) 
at Damália was, doubtless, close to that now worked, and that at China- 

kúri was probably near the village of that name, upon a lower seam 

* This must have been at that time further East than it is now. One of their mines, 
Damália, is in Burdwan. 

f The present price of Rániganj coal is, and has been for many years, from 63 to 74 annas 
in Calcutta, 


156 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Pr. IT. Cuar. I. 

than that now mined. The position of the Aitúra mine is more doubt- 
ful, as no coal is known in the neighborhood of the village ;* it was 
probably on the seam now worked by Messrs. Apcar and Co., at Sita- 
rámpür, along the out-crop of which, on both sides of the Nünia, old 
workings of considerable extent exist. 

It is stated that; Mr. Heatly procured English miners, and made 
preparations for working the coal upon a large scale. Fever, however, 
carried off the men. Mr. Heatly himself was removed to a different 
part ofthe country, and itis doubtful if any of the coal mined was 
brought into the market. | 

Nothing further was done for thirty years. In 1808, the Government 

of India, in consequence of the difficulty they 

qus experienced in procuring coal in sufficient quan- 
tities from England, made some enquiries concerning the coal on the 
Damáda, but apparently without any practical result for the time. In 
1814, however, just forty years after Mr. Heatly’s 

1814—Mr. Jones. 7 

; quarries were commenced, a Mr. Jones was sent 

by the Government to examine the district in which they had been 
situated, and the result of his mission was the re-discovery of Mr. 
is opeida Heatly’s workings. Mr. Jones also found the 
1815—1817. seam at Rániganj, and began to work it upon 
his own account, about 1815;+ a sum of 40,000 Rupees being ad- 
vanced to him from the publie treasury, at a low rate of interest, to 
enable him to do so. He mined and sold coal, and that from pits, not 
quarries, and probably was the first who ever brought Indian coal 
into the general market; but either he did not succeed in extracting 
it profitably, or, as is more probable, he failed in other speculations, 
for he was unable to repay the Government loan; and an Agency 

mines. 

T Or perhaps a year or two later. 


Pr. II. Cuap. I.] COLLIERIES— HISTORY. 157 

house, Messrs. Alexander and Co., who had been security for Mr. 
Jones, were obliged to do so. "The pottahs of the land on which the 
mine was were, doubtless, placed in their hands, for they became the 
owners of the colliery about 1820. 

The history of the Rániganj field from that period is the history of 
| one continued succession of fightings and litiga- 

Sdn naL tions. The constant endeavors of Messrs. Alex- 
ander and Co., and of their successors, was, not unnaturally, to obtain 
amonopoly of the valuable coal district around them, and to prevent 
any one else from establi?hing himself in it. For every mine it was 
necessary to have, not merely a lease or pottah of the land on which 
the coal was procured, but also of a ghat or shipping place from 
which the coal could be sent by the river to Calcutta, and permission 
to make a road to connect the two. Labor was also necessary, and, 
for the purpose of obtaining command of it, it was, and still is, - 
customary to procure from the proprieters leases of villages. On 
all these points, amongst a race of litigants, and with the peculiar 
facilities afforded by the laws and customs of the country for the 
promotion of legal disputes, it would be strange if questions as to 
right of ownership, right of way, and rights of every sort and kind, 
should not constantly be arising: and they did arise most abundantly. - 
When endless law suits were the price at which alone it was possible 
for any one to commence mines in the Rániganj district, it is not 
surprising that the greater number of speculators would be discouraged, 
and that the longest purse would, in the end, have all the advantage. 
But even if the real facts could be ascertained, no information of value 
would be gained from a detail of the petty squabbles of the various 
coal owners, although, on the whole, they have had a most important 
effect in impeding the progress of the district. Divested of unimportant 
circumstances, the following is a brief summary of the order in which 

various mines were commenced. 


158 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Pr. TE Car. T. 

In 1823, or the commencement of 1824, Chinaküri Colliery was 
opened by Mr. Betts, probably upon the spot 

Chinakári, 1823-94. 
where had formerly been Mr. Heatly’s works. 

Damália, 1824. : P 
Damtlia was, about the same time, or a few 

months later, in 1824, re-opened by Messrs. Jessop and Co., but they 
lost it sometime afterwards by a law suit, and 
opened Narrainküári in 1830. The Salánchi seam 
(near Chinaküri) was first worked a year or 

two after, and the old mine.at Chinaküri was abandoned at the same 

Narrainkiri, 1830. 

Salünchi, 1831-32. 

time, or soon after about 1836. 
The quarries at Chánch and Nüchibad were also commenced about 
Chánch and Nüchibag, 1830, or within a few years subsequently, by Mr. 
bonn: `  Homfray, of the firm of Jessop and Co. Choki- 

Chokidánga, Dhosul ., ; PR 
EC RE ak dánga, Mamadpür, was opened by Dr. Rogers in 

1834, and Dhosúl by Mr. Blake about the same time. 
Within a few years from this time several of the principal collieries 
then existing passed into the hands of other pro- 

Carr, Tagore and Co., : 
1855. prietors. One thousand eight hundred and 

thirty-five was a bad commercial year, and many large agenéy houses 
failed, among them Messrs. Alexander and Co.  Rániganj mine was 
purchased by Bábá Dwarkanath Tagore, and subsequently worked by 
the firm of Carr, Tagore and Co. It is said that, so much was the 
value of such property depreciated at the time of the sale, that the 
whole estate, including several valuable patni and other tenures, 
together with all the buildings, and works, steam engines, &c., on the 
mine, nearly 250,000 maunds of coal* at market, and a large quan- 
tity more at the mine, together with all advances made to boatmen, ~ 
was sold for 70,000 Rupees: less than the value of the coal at market 

alone ! 
In 1837 Narrainküri, Chánch, and Nüchibad passed into the hands 

* Above 9,000 tons. 


LU 

Pr. II. Cua». I] COLLIERIES—HISTORY. 159 

of Messrs. Gilmore, Homfray and Co., and in the same year China- 
Gite BO E rad kúri was purchased from Mr. Betts, Junior, by 
Co., 1837. Messrs. Carr, Tagore and Co. 
Mangalpüár and Rogonáthehuk were opened in 1840 by Mr. 
i Erskine. About this time, or a little ear- 
R lier, quarries were worked by Messrs. Carr, 

Tagore and Co., at Deziragarh, Hirakúnd, and Narrainpür (or Núdia), 

while others were carried on by natives at Barmúri, Deldanga near . 

Rániganj, Kantagoria (now Bhángaband), and some other places. 

In 1843 the concerns of Messrs. Carr, Tagore and Co. and Messrs. 
- Gilmore, Homfray and Co. were amalgamated 
Bengal Coal Company, 
1843. into the Dengal Coal Company, who abandoned 
Narrainküri, and for the time, almost all their mines, except Chinaküri 
and Rániganj, the old mine at the latter place having been destroyed 
by fire in 1842. A new mine, however, was at work before the loss of 
the old one. This Company has existed ever since, and has now, by far, 
the most extensive collieries of any proprietors in the field. 

From 1840 to 1847, (during which period Mr. Williams’s survey 

DELIA E took place (1845-46); the two papers by Mr. 
of workings. Homfray, already mentioned, were published 
(1842 and 1847); and the final report of the Coal Committee was issued 
(1845),) there was a constant and large increase in the quantity of coal 
mined. According to Mr. Homfray, the number of maunds imported 
into Calcutta from Rániganj was, in 1839, 10,00,000—in 1846, 
25,00,000. The Coal Committee give 17,00,000 as the probable con- 
sumption in 1845,* and 12,00,000 for the average of the four previous 
years. Mr. Homíray's figures give respectively 20,50,000 and 
16,30,000. Several new mines were opened; among them Sirsol, by 
Bábá Gobind Parsád Pundit; Nimcha,t Sangamahál, Gopináthpür, 

* Report of 1845, paze 150. 
} In a different spot from the present mine, "These mines were scarcely worked at all. 


160 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Pr. IT. Cmar. I. 

and Kásta, by Messrs. Grob, Dürrschmidt and Co. ; Sitarámpár, by 
Messrs. Apcar and Co.; Kumardhubi and some other mines, by the 
Indian Coal, Coke, and Mining Company. 

There has been, on the whole, a steady progress since that time, both 

Conntenu Moss in the number of collieries worked, and in the: 
Sage lesi total quantity of coal produced. The latter, 
especially, has increased to a great extent since the railway has af- 
forded increased facilities for transmission to a market. This has pro- 

m duced an important change in two ways: First, 
by greatly stimulating mines in its own imme- 
diate vicinity, that is, in the neighborhood of Rániganj ; and, secondly, 
by rendering possession of the gháts unnecessary while the roads are 
easier of access than the river. Its own requirements also have very 
materially increased the demand for fuel. 

The list at the close of this Report shows the existence in 1860 of 
no less than forty-two collieries,* and a production, on the average of 
three years, of 78,08,566 maunds or 281,994 tons of coal, coupled with a 
considerable increase in the quantity mined in the course of that period. 
The amount is now treble what it was in 1846; several most promising 
mines, as Harispár, Babásol, Tapassi, Parassia, and Nimcha have either 
commenced or been resumed, and the value of mining property has 

i M greatly risen. And there appears every reason to 
anticipate a continued increase in the production 
of this rich mineral district. The greatly increased demand which the 
extension of the railways in the Ganges Valley and in Lower Bengal 
must produce, and the aid to distant collieries which the additional 
lines within the field will give, must produce a corresponding augmen- 
tation of the supply. The quantity of coal is practically unlimited, 
and if the difficulty of supply of labor can be overcome, there is no 

* Seven mines or quarries worked in 1858 or 1859 were closed in 1860. In some of these 

the closing is merely temporary, pending the erection of machinery. 


Pr. II. Cuar. IL] COLLIERIES—MODE OF „WORKING. 161 

reason why Rániganj may not be, half a century hence, one of the 
richest and most important districts of Bengal; especially if the 

manufacture of iron be successfully introduced. 

CHAPTER Il.—Present condition of the Coal Mines and methods of 
working employed. 

WrirnrN the known coal-producing area of about 500 square miles, 
there are now at work nearly fifty collieries, dis- 
Collieries, number of. à à 
tributed between about fourteen proprietors or 
proprietary Companies, European or Native. These collieries vary in size, 
from large concerns, with numerous pits, several steam engines, and 
an out-turn of 18 or 20 lakhs of maunds (60,000 or 70,000 tons) of coal 
annually, to small quarries, a few feet square, where half a dozen coolies 
extraet, perhaps, 20,000 maunds of inferior coal in the course of the year. 
The collieries may be divided into those worked by pits, and those 
where the extraction is confined to quarries on 
Two kinds. 
the out-crop of a seam of coal. The latter has 
been the first stage of almost every mine in the field, pits not having 
been resorted to, until the workings became so deep, that it was incon- 
venient any longer to extract the coal from quarries, or until the 
water could no longer be kept under by the pri- 
Open quarries. TM 
mitive methods adopted. In most of the smaller 
collieries, whether worked by pits or by quarries, the water is raised 
by the same contrivances as are commonly employed in Bengal for irri- 
gation and for wells. Of these contrivances, the principal is the 

common “térah,”* a long horizontal pole or bamboo, working on the top 

* The * paieottah" of Madras. 
W 


162 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Pr. I. Car. IT. 

of two vertical poles, and having a bucket, or an earthen pot, attached 
toits longer end by a vertical bamboo, while its shorter end, bearing 
a stone or a mass of mud as a counterpoise, is hauled down by ropes. 
Another plan, less used, is to haul up a skin bucket over a pulley. Mat 
scoops, worked by two men, are occasionally used, especially in steep 
under-ground galleries, if the lift does not exceed 2 or 3 feet, such small 
lifts being repeated at frequent intervals, and the water being, in most 
cases, ultimately raised to the surface by the “térah.” 
Pits from the comparatively small depth and from the low cost of 
ee | labor, are very inexpensive, and, consequently, 
many more are sunk than is the case in England. 
They are almost invariably circular, and are usually sunk in pairs, in 
which case they are 8 to 10 feet in diameter. ** Double pits," in 
which two buckets are used, are 12 feet across. The rocks overlying 
-the coal, throughout the Réniganj series, are mostly sandstones of 
various kinds, sufficiently firm to support the shaft, so that bricking is 
only necessary close to the surface. The majority of the pits now 
being worked do not exceed 100 feet in depth, and no pit has yet been 
sunk exceeding 230; the new engine shaft at Chinaküri, which is of 
that depth, being the only pit at work above 200, although one or 
two are now being sunk. These are extremely shallow when com- 
pared with any English collieries, and insignificant by the side of the 
deep pits, some exceeding 2,000 feet, in the North of England. 
The coal seams mined vary much in thickness; that of each will be 
Thickness of coal SCN by reference to the table at the conclusion 
SCRIBIS: of this Chapter. The thickest seam worked is 
at Kásta, North of the Adjai River, where the bed, with its part- 
ings, is, in one quarry, 35 feet from top to bottom. The whole 
of this is removed in the quarry. No very thick seam can be 
worked out by the system at present employed for under-ground work- 

ing, the sole plan used throughout the field, irrespectively of the 


Pr. II. Cmar. II.] COLLIERIES—MODE OF WORKING. 163 

thickness of the seam mined, being one of the numerous modifications 
of the system, known in England as “post and stall,” or “ pillar 

qa 9p AS. xtr : : ries 
PO ell onl: and board." The coal is extracted in galleries, 

DE crossing each other at right angles, square 

* posts" or * pillars" of coal being left to support the roof. The size 
of the pillars and galleries varies in different collieries, depending 
upon the firmness of the roof, or stratum overlying the coal, and, to 
some extent, upon the thickness of the coal itself. Where the roof is 
good, and the coal seam of moderate thickness, the size of the pillars 
is smaller, and vice versá. Of course the smaller the “ pillars," and 
the broader the galleries between, the greater will be the quantity of 
coal extracted from any given area; since, although as much coal as 
possible is robbed or cut away from the pillars, before abandoning the 
mine, only a small proportion of the mass can be thus extracted, the 
major part of what is left at first being inevitably lost, and a further 
advantage in widening the galleries or “ boards," is the additional 
space given to the workmen to use their tools freely. 
The following are the sizes of the galleries and 
PU ue pillars in a few of the principal mines around 
Rániganj :— 

In Rániganj mine, the pillars are 15 feet square, the galleries 15 feet broad. 

In Sirsol mine, ditto 15 ditto ditto 12 ditto. 
In Tapassi mine, ditto 19 ditto ditto Tog ditto. 
In Chokidánga mine, ditto 15 ditto ditto 14 ^ ditta. 
In Harispár mine, ditto 18 ditto ditto 14 ditto, 
In Rogonathchuk mine, ditto 18 ditto ditto 12 ditto. 

It will be easily seen, that where the “pillars” and “ boards” or 
galleries are equal in breadth, three-quarters of the coal is removed 
in the first instance. This is the most favorable case, and exists in 
Rániganj and Tapassi collieries. Allowing, on the one hand, for the 

quantity of coal which it may be found practicable to “rob” from the 


164 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Pr. II. Omar. IT. 

pillars before abandoning the mine, and, on the other, for the quan- 

tity of small coal and shale extracted, it is evident that, under the 

Fra. 10. DIAGRAM SHOWING MODE OF WORKING AT RANIGANJ COLLIERY. 

Method of working coal in the Rániganj field, the shaded parts represent the coal, 
the unshaded the galleries from which it has been extracted; A A are the posts left 
to support the roof. 

most favorable circumstances, not more than two-thirds of the coal 
can ever be obtained in a marketable state, and in most collieries the 
proportion is unquestionably much lower—probably not more than half. 

In Rániganj mine the seam, as before described, has a thickness of 

13 feet 2 inches, the section being— 

FX. vu. 
Hard black shale. 
Coal Soo 300 50 ee wee Seen BRO 
Shale parting dab hoo ihe oà 503 0 3 
Coal oo 500 200 e 0109 
Shale parting S00 563 500 oco 355 e De 23 
Coal oo E 20 Uno od ae ORO 

Under-bed of shale. 

Of this, the upper 9 feet bed is first removed by the method described, 
and afterwards, the two thinner beds are extracted from the floor of 
the galleries. The roof, which consists of shale, is slightly liable 
to fall off in flakes when first opened, but this liability does not long 
continue, and, even in galleries many years old, no “creep,” or bulging 

of either sides of floor and roof from pressure is perceptible. No 


Pr. II. Cuar. IL] COLLIERIES—MODE OF WORKING. 165 

doubt, this is mainly due to the small depth, the deepest shafts yet 
opened in this mine being only 160 feet from the surface to the bottom 
of the coal, while most pits do not much exceed 100. 
In Tapassi mine, the whole seam is 22 feet in thickness, from the 
ue dud centre of Wien 12 feet of coal manor The 
colliery has not been regularly or largely worked 
untillately. In this case, both roof and sole are formed of coal, which 
is in general finer and safer than either sandstone or shale. Indeed, 
in some mines, as at Sirsol, 2 or 3 feet of coal are left in the roof to 
strengthen it.* Of all the mines above mentioned, the worst condi- 
tons for working exist at Rogonáthchuk. Here a 12 feet seam of 
coal is mined, the roof is of coarse sandstone, very irregular and unsafe, 
and, despite the relatively large size of the pillars, huge blocks conti- 
nually fall, sometimes almost blocking up the galleries. The mine is 
rather deeper than the average, the two shafts at present worked being 
138 feet and 148 feet respectively. The mode of working at Harispür, 
Mangalpür, and Chokidánga is similar to that at Rániganj, and the 
seams worked are similar in thickness. 
Except in the one instance of Chinaküri, the tools employed by the 
E workmen are crowbars, hammers of large size, 
and wedges. In Chinaküri alone, picks are used, 
but the method of working is altogether bad. The coal, instead of 
being * holed under," or cut away at the bottom, and wedged down 
from hone. is cut out above, and then broken away from below, 
mainly by crowbarsand wedges. ‘This plan was probably introduced by 

Mr. Betts; that ordinarily pursued in all mines, except Chinaküri, was 

* This is one reason only. Another is, that it has become customary to work away a seam 
of coal not exceeding 10 or 12 feet in thickness. If the coal is thicker, the lower part is sub- 
sequently removed from the floor of the gallery. The mode of working employed is best 
adapted for seams of moderate thickness, and, unless improvements are introduced, a large 

proportion of the coal in the field will be irrecoverably lost and wasted. 


166 | RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Pr. II. Onar. II. 

the one originally taught to the native miners by Mr. Jones.* This 
consists in chipping out a.small hollow, by means of the crowbar, near 
the bottom of the face of coal to be cut away, and then bringing down 
the coal from above, in blocks of no great size, by means of wedges 
and hammers. An opening at the side of the end of the gallery being 
thus made, wedges and crowbars, driven into the joints, bring down 
the coal from the side of the part cut into. The portion below the 
hollow first cut is afterwards broken out. Where the gallery is high, 
the upper part is worked away first, and then the lower portion is 
wedged out from above. In most mines, where proper supervision is 
exercised, the galleries are regularly eut, and kept of even width and 
straight, but in some, under native management, the greatest irregu- 
larity prevails, and the miners cut the galleries much as they please, 
their object of course being to cut coal any how, provided they get out 
as much round coal as possible. : 

It is evident that either of these systems of cutting is inferior to the 
plan adopted in England of **holeing under," thatis, cutting with a 
pick a deep groove at the bottom of the face of coal, then cutting two 
narrow vertical grooves, and bringing down the mass of coal either by 
wedges or blasting. It would probably be impossible to trust native 
miners with gunpowder, which, as there is no fire-damp, and the * roofs" 
are excellent, might, with careful workmen, be largely and economi- 
cally employed, but even with wedges, and by using the pick, pro- 
vided so great a change could by any means be effected in the habits 
of the workmen, a much larger quantity of coal could, with ease, be 

cut, and, at the same time, a larger proportion of round coal would 

* It is a remarkable circumstance that, although, forty-five years ago, coal mining was 
unknown in India, the miners have now become so attached to a particular method, and to the 
employment of particular tools, that they resist the attempt to introduce any alteration as 
severely as if the innovation interfered with their religious ceremonies. An attempt was 
made to induce the Chinaküri miners to teach the use of the pick to those of Rániganj, but 

the latter rose upon the former, drove them out of the place, and burned their houses down. 


Pr. IT. Cuar. IL] COLLIERIES—MODE OF WORKING. 167 

be obtained, for, with crowbars, far more coal is broken and crushed 
than with the pick. It appears surprising that English workmen have 
never been introduced for the purpose of teaching the native miners 
in the same manner as has been adopted at iron furnaces in India. 

The “long wall" system of working, (by which the whole breadth 

L of the coal is removed in one face, all being 
ong wall mode of o 

working. extracted, no pillars left, and the roof being 

supported behind the workmen by wooden props, which are removed, 
and the mine allowed to fall in, as the workings proceed,) has not been 
introduced into India. It unquestionably is by far the best and most 
economical method, especially with seams of small thickness. In 
thick seams, a modification of it, which has been employed in Central 
France, appears well adapted to overcome most of the difficulties pre- 
sented. ‘This method consists in removing the upper half, of the bed 
first by the long wall system, and then, when the lapse of a few years 
has reconsolidated the ground, the lower half is removed by the same 
plan. But, for anything of this kind, greater skill and greater care is 
necessary in the laborers employed, and, unless the stupidity of the 
native workmen, and their abhorrence of change can be overcome, 
which is most improbable, or unless machinery can be introduced for 
the purpose of cutting coal, there is little chance of any alteration. 
In seams of coal not exceeding 7 or 8 feet 1n thickness, there does not 
appear any good reason, with the great facilities afforded by the shal- 
lowness of the mines, and the firmness of the rocks, why the long 
wall system should not be employed. 

The coal, when cut, is carried to the buckets at the bottom of the 
pits by boys. Trucks are used under-ground in Raniganj colliery 
alone, and these are pushed by the boys who formerly carried the coal. 

The raising is invariably effected in iron buckets or “ kibbles,” 
which contain in different collieries from 5 to 7 maunds of coal (410 

to 572 lbs.), the most common size being 6 maunds. ‘These are used 


168 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Pr. II. Caner. II. 

as a measure of the quantity of coal cut by the miners, who are paid 

i according to the number of buckets.. Chains are 
Method of drawing o 

coal. generally employed for drawing, but wire rope 

has been substituted in a few cases. One shaft at Rániganj has been 
fitted up with guides for raising the coal in the trucks upon which it 
is brought to the shaft under-ground, but the improvement has not yet 
been general employed, even in that colliery. Access to the mines 
is, in most cases, obtained by an inclined plane cut in the rock. 

In only a few mines are the buckets raised by steam power, although 
every year the number of drawing engines is increased. In the greater 
number of collieries, women are employed to drive a “ gin,” which 
is merely a modification for hand labor, of the common “ horse gin” 
or “horse whim” of British collieries and metallic mines. The rope 
passes round a circular wooden drum of the usual form, to the vertical 
axis of which, at the lower portion, are attached four arms, each of which 
is driven or pulled by from six to nine women and girls, of whom, from 
twenty-six to thirty-six, more frequently the latter number, are 
employed upon one gin. These women are generally the wives and 
daughters of the miners, and they keep up a peculiar chant while at 
work. The gin is placed in a building consisting of four brick pillars 
and a roof, thatched to keep out sun and rain. As usual, two buckets, 
one ascending as the other descends, are worked either in the same or 
in different pits by one gin. 

The other arrangements at the pit-head present no peculiarities. 
A wooden platform, running on wheels upon rails, 

Pit-head gear. 3 

is pushed forward over the mouth of the pit, to 
receive the bucket on its arrival at the surface. The coal is then 
generally loaded by hand into ordinary bullock trucks for conveyance 
to the railway or ghat. In Raniganj mine, the railway has been 
prolonged to the colliery, and trucks, drawn by horses upon tramways, 
are used above ground. 


Pr. II. Cuap. IT.] COLLIERIES—MODE OF WORKING. 169 

In the open quarries, where coal can be cut out from above, there 
is naturally much less small coal produced, as all 
Open quarries. ; 
can be split off in large blocks from above by means 
of wedges, instead of its being necessary to cut under at first. A 
very common form of mine, however, is a combination of a quarry 
with under-ground workings. These mines have sometimes been com- 
menced as large open quarries, and when, from the increasing depth of 
the coal seam, the superincumbent mass of rock and earth becomes 
troublesome and expensive to remove, galleries were driven in upon 
the coal, and the ordinary method of under-ground working resorted 
to for its extraction. In other cases, these quarries have been con- 
nected with under-ground workings from the first, and the only essen- 
tial difference from the method of working by pits is in the raising 
of the coal, which, from all quarries, 1s carried out on the heads of 
coolies, generally women and boys. These combinations of quarries 
and under-ground workings are termed “undercut quarries” in the 
following list of mines. 
All quarries are under the disadvantage of being idle for at least 
five months in the year, from June to October 

Closed during rainy 
Season. inclusive, as during the rains water accumulates in 

them more rapidly than it can be removed. A very large proportion 
of the quarries worked are on the banks of streams, the out-erop of 
the coal having been exposed in the sections seen in such places, and 
when, in the rainy season, the streams are flooded, the quarries are 
frequently filled. In fact, the greater number of the quarries are 
only worked from the end of December til April or May, that 
is four to five months in every twelve, the laborers employed in 
them being occupied, during the remainder of the year, in agricul- 
ture, and not commencing to work at coal until after the rice 
crop is cut. 

In many instances, the quarry previously worked is not emptied of 

x 


170 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Pr. II. Cua». II. 

water, and re-worked, after the rains are over, but a new quarry is 
opened at the side of it, so that the out-crop of many seams of coal 
is marked by a series of large excavations filled with water. These 
present, in two ways, serious impediments to deeper workings on the 

c, there is a risk of 

same seam: Ist, if there has been under-cutting, 

tapping the old workings, for no record of their extent is ever kept; 
and, 2nd, the water from the quarries draining through the coal largely 
inereases the quantity in the mine; this has, in some instances, proved 
so serious an inconvenience, that it has been found necessary to refill 
the old quarries with earth. 

There can be no question that the practice of commencing to work 

Working the outcrop Seams of coal by quarries on the out-crop is 

LOU altogether injurious to the prospects of the mine. 
The coal is necessarily inferior; and this fact frequently injures seriously 
the market value.of the fuel. It is, however, very cheaply extracted, 
no expensive machinery being necessary, and only cheap native 
supervision being required, while the laborers are a class who will 
not, for the most part, work underground as miners. The dangers 
of extensive under-ground workings connected with a quarry were, on 
one occasion, forcibly illustrated at Mangalpür. ‘The Singáran stream 
runs past the quarries, one of which was protected by a bank of earth ; 
a sudden rise of the stream breached this, and the water poured into 
the mine. About twenty-five miners, who were in the deeper work- 
ings, were drowned. 

'There is much danger of any recollection of the extent to which 
old workings were carried dying out, and as the 
Necessity for good plans. oe 2 

system of regular mining becomes largely in- 
troduced, the risk of tapping abandoned galleries will be considerable. 
Even a greater risk, if possible, results from abandoning large mines 
without careful records of their extent. The number of cases in which 

this has hitherto occurred is small, and it is most desirable that the 


Pr. IT. Cuar. IL.] COLLIERIES—MODE OF WORKING. TE 

accurate compilation and the preservation of such records should be 
compulsory. 
In a few of the more shallow pits, the water is raised by hand in the 
esu same way asin quarries, or occasionally by means 
of the buckets employed to raise the coal, but in- 
all the deeper mines steam power is used. The steam engines “are 
mostly small, seldom exceeding 25 to 30 H. P., and the majority of 
the mines, except when first opened, contain but little water. The 
pumps, two in number, are placed in a, quadrangular space cut in the 
side of the pit from top to bottom. The pump rods are never worked 
directly from the engine, but are connected by a travelling rod, the 
greater portion of this, and the whole of the pump rods being formed 
of salwood, with iron fastenings. The diameter of the pumps, and 
the length of stroke, depending upon the amount of water to be 
raised, sales in different mines. 
The workmen employed above ground and in quarries are mostly 
2 M agricultural peasants, some being Hindoos or 
Mussulmáns, but the majority of them belong to 
the quasi-aboriginal tribes, Bhaüris, Santháls, &c., who form a large 
proportion of the inhabitants of the district. These races entirely 
furnish the under-ground workmen, the supply of whom is naturally 
one of the most important items connected with the establishment of 
any colliery. Each colliery possesses, either as zemindars (putnidars), 
or on lease, certain villages, from which its labor is, for the most part, 
procured. Want of sufficient labor acts largely, even now, in re- 
stricting the out-turn of coal, many mines being quite competent, so 
far as the remainder of their establishment and their machinery 
is concerned, to raise a considerably larger quantity of coal than 
they at present produce. During the two seasons in which the survey 
was carried on, viz. 1858-59 and 1859-60, the partial failure of the 
crops in the Rániganj or adjoining districts, and the high price of food, 


172 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Pr. II. Onar. II. 

compelled a much larger number of men than usual to have recourse to 
the mines for subsistence, and this circumstance has, doubtless, largely 
contributed to the great increase in the quantity of coal raised. 

Santháls, when procurable, are generally preferred to other work- 
men. They are, however, seldom to be obtained, and, when obtained, 
rarely remain long in regular employment. 

The miners pay is high. They are paid by the quantity of coal 
raised, and the usual price paid, in 1859-60, was 5 pice (one anna and 
three pie) per bucket of 6 maunds of round coal. This has since been 
: | . increased in some mines, if not in al. A good 

Lae workman can get out 3 buckets a day, the aver- 
age is about 24, giving more than 3 annas a day.” They are not paid 
for the rubble or dust coal produced. The boys and girls, who carry 
the coal from the hewers to.the pits, and who are employed in picking 
coal, &e., above ground, receive from 3 to 5 pice (9 pie to 1 anna 3 pie,) 
the “ gin"-women 5 to 6 pie (1 anna 3 pie to 1 anna 6 pie,) according 
to their age and strength. But they do not obtain this every day, 
for they keep so large a number of holidays that they only work, 
on an average, twenty-three days in each month. Allowing for this, a 
family of a man and his wife, with three children, will earn about 
9 Rupeesa month, about treble the pay of an ordinary peasant or cooly 
in the neighboring district. All look well fed, even the children, but 
otherwise they are little, if at all, improved by receiving better pay 
than is usually the case with their countrymen. ‘They seldom, if ever, 
save; they have none of the thrifty habits of the Bengalee, although 
they have his propensity for running into debt. They are lazy and 
debauched, their surplus earnings being dissipated in the grog-shop, the 
invariable appendage to every colliery. The state of morality among 
them is as low as it can possibly be ; in short, they are precisely what 

might be expected of a nearly savage race, with unusually large pay. 

* I have heard of miners making as much as 9 annas in a day. - 


Pr. II Cuap. IL] COLLIERIES—MODE oF WORKING. 173 

The small earthen oil lamps, in the shape of a lipped saucer, com- 
et] monly used in native houses, are employed to 
give light to the miners at their work, When 
more light is required torches are used. Fire-damp is almost unknown, 
and, consequently, no precautions are requisite. Only one instance has 
occurred, in which its existence has been observed, a small blower 
having been cut some years since in Mangalpüár colliery. In the 
absence of the manager, two men, through their own carelessness, 
were so severely burnt that they did not survive.* 
In comparing the condition of the coal mines in India with those in 
ME Europe, several circumstances must be taken 
into eonsideration, one of which, at least, is not 
peculiar to collieries, viz. the comparatively low value of unskilled 
native labor,t and the high cost of skilled European superintendence. 
The majority of improvements in Europe tend to substitute machinery 
for manual labor. In India, the cost of each article differs in an 
inverse ratio; manual labor is of comparatively small value ; machinery, 
from the necessity of importation and transport, 
Cost of machinery. 
considerably more expensive than in England. 
Still, as the demand has considerably outstripped the supply of labor 
in the Rániganj district, and as the improvement of railway commu- 
nication must produce largely increased calls upon the coal field, to 
meet the wants of Northern and Eastern Bengal, and possibly of 

Behar, unless the supply of labor can be augmented, improved 

* A second instance occurred in the spring of this year (1861) in the East India Coal 
Company's mine at Parassia, by which two or three men were severely burnt. The 
connection between the two shafts in this colliery has not been established underground, 
and, owing to some Native Holidays, there had been no work in progress for a few days, 
before the explosion took place. There is, however, no reason to anticipate a recurrence 
of similar accidents, when the ventilation is once established.—T. OLDHAM. 

T There is not probably in India a more remarkable illustration of the low value of human 
Jabor than the employment of women to raise the coal from the pits. - Any stranger would 
suppose that bullocks would be much cheaper, but apparently such is not the case, for so 
obvious a source of power must have been tried. 


174 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Pr. IL. Cuar. 1T. 

methods of extraction and the use of machinery must be resorted to 
for the purpose of economizing it. 
The mines of Rániganj enjoy all the advantages of a new district 

which has as yet scarcely been tapped. Many 

Advantages of Rani- 

and id highly productive seams of coal, doubtless, re- 

main as yet undiscovered, and a large proportion of the field has not 
even been explored for mining purposes. Borings are now being 
made pretty generally in the vicinity of the mines, but formerly they 
were neglected to an absurd extent; so much so, that several cases have 
occurred, in which pits were sunk, an engine house and the other 
necessary buildings erected, without the existence of coal having been 
proved, and, naturally, in some cases,* in places where no coal existed 
within such depths as have hitherto alone been worked. But far more 
remains to be done in this way, before the area, over which the seams 
extend, can be known. 
The advantages of a new and rich district are numerous. The 
abundance of the mineral, near the surface of 
Small cost of pits. 
the ground, renders deep pits unnecessary, hence 
a great saving of expense in sinking pits and in raising the coal; in 
machinery for pumping, &c. Another advantage of perhaps equal 
importance is the absence of fire-damp, and the small number of 
old and abandoned workings. Immunity from 
Absence of fire-damp. 
these risks is probably of far greater importance 
in India than in Europe, since it should be remembered that, careless - 
and ignorant as are the miners in English collieries, it is absurd to 
compare them with a race like Bhaáris or Santháls. Unquestionably, 
were a mine worked in which fire-damp proved abundant, numerous 

accidents might be feared. And, although there is none or nearly none, 

in the shallow mines at present working, there is no certainty that 

the working will be equally free from that same danger, when, 

* Babüsol, Sathakptr, Kálastori, &c. 


Pr. II. Onar. II.] COLLIERIES—MODI OF WORKING. 175 

in course of time, the seams near the surface being exhausted, it 
may become necessary to sink pits to a greater depth. When this 
occurs, the increased expenditure for sinking pits will induce proprie- 
tors to work a larger area from a single pit, or pair of pits, than they 
now do. 
This will produce a considerable change in the circumstances attend- 
ing the collieries. At present the ventilation is entirely natural, and 
the large number of pits renders it, in general, very good, but with 
greater depth, the necessity for good ventilation 
Ventilation. Y 
will increase, especially if fire-damp occurs. If, 
under these circumstances, the means of natural ventilation are not 
increased, (and they will, doubtless, on the other hand, be diminished), 
it will be necessary, both for the health of the miners, and the safety 
of the mine, to have recourse to some of the artificial methods for 
passing a current of air through the workings, which are employed 
in European collieries. 
The liability of the coal of the Damiida field to spontaneous 
Daaa combustion is probably the greatest drawback 
B combus- Which exists to its universal employment; other- 
jion: wise its comparative cheapness would, in a great 
measure, compensate for its disadvantages in competing with English 
coal even for marine purposes. It was, for many years, the practice 
in the various collieries around Rániganj, to leave the small coal, 
which was, at that time, quite unsaleable, in the mine, and several 
fires were the result. An account of the conflagration which necessi- 
tated the abandonment of the former mine at 
Rániganj, in 1842, will be found in Mr. Williams’s 

Report. A portion of the Mangalpür mine has also been on fire, and 

Removal of small coal. 

the same is the case at Chokidánga, and, probably, at some other mines, 
in abandoned portions of the workings. An attempt to use small 

coal as “ stoppings” to produce artificial ventilation, once caused great 


176 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. ere ION Girar e 

danger to the new mine at Rániganj, and it has been found 
necessary, throughout the field, to raise all the dust, shale, and small 
coal, and to keep the mine perfectly clear. At present much small 
coal finds a market, being used for brick and lime burning upon the 
railway, and generally, for buildings, in .Bengal; large quantities, 
however, are thrown .away, and heaps are constantly to be seen 
burning around most of the mines. 1 

Many absurdities in the general system of colliery management 

; S l ino ] l 
M sroveehe mme Ae gradually disappearing, as the inereased size 

thods: - of the collieries, the value of the property, and 

the large capital invested, have rendered it advisable to apply greater 
knowledge and skill to the workings. Until lately, many foolish 
practices were prevalent. That of commencing from quarries upon the 
out-crop, and working downward, has already been adverted to. 
Among other disadvantages, one result of this system was amusing 
from its absurdity. The pumps were very soon left behind by the 
work, and, instead of their draining the mine, all the portion below 
them, upon the dip of the seam, became filled by water. This 
was generally raised to the pumps by hand labor. This system or 
want of system was universal a few years since, and may still be 
seen in some mines. But, in the larger collieries, great improve- 
ments have taken place, and some would well bear comparison with 
English collieries of the same size. Rániganj mine is the largest 
and best worked. It has all the advantages of belonging to a wealthy 
corporation, and of being better situated with regard to railway 
carriage than any other; its out-turn exceeds that of any other mine, 
and its workings underground extend for more than half a mile in two . 

directions. 

* A portion of the present colliery at Chokidanga took fire early in the present season, 1861, 
and is still burning (May). This accident has very seriously interfered with the present 

out-turn of this valuable colliery.—T. OLDHAM. 


Pr. II. Cuar. I.]. COLLIERIES—MODE OF WORKING. 177 

The above details may serve to convey some idea of the present 
SOME s E method of working coal at Raniganj. The follow- 
ing table has been drawn up in order to show, as 

far as possible, the present condition and capability of the collieries. 

The greater portion of the statistics may be relied upon, a few errors 

may have crept in, but all possible care has been used to eliminate 
them. The statements of the out-turn of coal are those given by the 

proprietors of the various mines. 

The several columns of the table refer to the following subjects :— 

I. The names of the collieries. They are, in general, those of the 
villages upon the land belonging to which the mine or quarry is situated. 

II. The names of the proprietors. 

III. The nature of the colliery, whether worked by pits, by quar- 
ries, or by the combination already specified as “ undercut quarries.” 

IV. The number of pits and quarries at present at work in each 
colliery. This, however, varies from year to year. 

.V. The year in which each colliery was first established. Many 
have been alternately worked and abandoned several times, and by 
various proprietors, and in such cases the year when they were first 
worked, whenever it is known, is that given. 

VI. VIL VIII. The out-turn of “ round” or large coal for the 
twelvemonth ending the 30th September, or October, in each of the 
three years 1858, 1859, 1860. This date is considered the close of the 
mining season, a custom which originated in the practice of sending all 
coal to Calcutta by the Damüda River, which is only navigable during 
the rains. At the time of the river's closing, towards the end of Septem- 
ber, the returns of the quantity sent to market could be accurately 
determined. 

In some cases, the returns given, by the proprietors, comprised 
* rubble” and ** dust," or small coal, as well as * round" coal. In such 
cases, a calculated deduction has been made, and the gross quantity has 

Y 


178 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [Pr II. Cuar. T 

been given in the margin. It should be remembered that a very con- 
siderable quantity of both rubble and small coal is sold, so that the 
gross produce of marketable fuel is considerably greater than that 
given, probably amounting to about one-fifth to one-sixth more. 

IX. The number. of steam engines, whether for pumping, or 
pumping and drawing, employed at each mine. No engines are used 
for drawing alone. 

X. The total thickness of the seam of coal on which the workings 
are carried on. - | 

XL The thickness of the portion extracted. 

X 


179 

LIST OF COLLIERIES. 

Pr. IT. Cuar. IT.] 

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LIST OF COLLIERIES. 

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181 

OF COLLIERIES 

LIST 

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LIST OF COLLIERTIES, 

182 

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188 

LIST OF COLLIERIES. 

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184 

LIST OF ABANDONED COLLIERIES. 

NorE.—THOSE ABANDONED SINCE 1857 ARE NOT INCLUDED IN THIS LisT. 

Name of Colliery. 

Proprietor. 

Locality. 

REMARKS. 

Khorabad 
Jainagar 

Dhosul 

Narrainküri 
Mangalpür 
Nimcha 

Chinakári (old) 

Deziragarh 

Lakrajori 
Kumardhtbi 

Patlabari 
Barmári 

Sángamahál 
Nadia 

Maráülia 

Messrs, Nicol & Co. 
A Native : 

Mr. MeSorley. 

Messrs, Jessop & Co. 
& Messrs. Gilmore, 
Homfray & Co. ... 

Bengal Coal Co. 

Messrs. Durrschmidt 

& Co. 
Mr. Betts 

Messrs. Carr, Tagore 
and Co. aoc 

A Native 

Indian Coal, Coke & 
Mining Co. ode 

Bengal Coal Co. 
A. Native dao 
Messrs. Durrschmidt 

and Co. 

Bengal Coal Co. 

Ditto 

N. of the Adjai 

S. of the Adjai near 
Cháralia 20 

Singaran Valley 

Near Raniganj 

Ditto 
Ditto 

On the Damáda 1 
mile W. of the new 
Colliery 

A little W. of China- 
kari 

About 1 mile E. of 
Lalbazar 

Near Taldangah W. 
of the Bar ákar 

Near Chánch : 
On the W. bank of 
the Barákar 

On the Kádia S. of 
Nirsha 

S. of the Damida 
and in W. of the 
field ux 

S. of the Damáda ... 

A quarry of small extent. 

Ditto. 
Ditto. 

A mine. of considerable 

extent. 

A small quarry opened 
again in 1860. 

Pits, but little coal was got 
out. 

An undereut quarry of 
considerable extent. 

An undercut quarry. 

A small quarry. 

A mine not much worked. 

An undercut quarry. 
Two or three large quar- 
ries. 

Quarries. 
A large undercut quarry. 

One or two quarries. 

There are numerous other places, as Sathakpür, Kulastori, Ronai, 
Khatsüli the ghats at Narrainküri (Mattrachandi,) Salma, &c., &c., 

where pits have been sunk, but either no coal has been found, or it has 

not been worked. 


Pr. II. Omar. II.] List oF ABANDONED COLLIERIES. . 185 

On the other hand, new pits have been put down or quarries opened 
at Kajra, Mohuntagram, Alátia, Salburia, &c., but the workings had 
not extended so far as to bring any coal to market in the year 1860. 

The thirtieth of September is given above as the close of the 
* coal year." This year is closed on the thirtieth of October by some 

firms, but this makes no essential difference in the returns.. 


Part III.—Economic GEOLOGY—SUMMARY. 

THE progress of exploration in the Rániganj field has not yet been 
sufficient to supply materials for a complete list of the coal seams. 
Such a list was attempted by Mr. Williams, but it will have, been 
seen from the preceding pages, that that geologist was misled as to 
the position of some of the richest strata, and classed as distinct beds 
which were of contemporaneous origin. It has also been shown above, 
that even in the portion of the district which has been most extensively 
opened out by mines, viz. the country in the neighborhood of Raniganj, 
the knowledge which can be obtained of the relations of the different 
beds to each other is vague in the extreme. If this is the case where 
the different mines are only 2 or 3 miles apart, it must be evident, 
that only surmise can exist as to the identity of coal seams only known 
at distances of 10, 15, or 20 miles from each other. The seams now 
worked, and their respective thicknesses, are the following in descend- 
ing order :— ' + 

RÄNIGANJ SERIES. 
East of the Field, 

Name. u Gh Also worked ai 

1. Sirsol seam coc 20 ————— 

2. Rániganj ditto i :14 to 16 Damília, Harabhánga., 

3. Mangalpur ditto coe 15 to 20 TE Babssol 
Jemeri? Parassia?* 

4. Gopináthpár ditto so 7 Bhángaband. 

5. Jor Janki ditto ae 54 

6. Tapassi ditto uae 22 Dhosal, Banali ?f 

7. Chokidánga ditto - 15 Mamadpur. 

8. Rogonath Chuk ditto 06 12 

9. Chalwad ditto, or Beldangah... 9 

* This identification is extremely doubtful, T Very doubtful, 


Pr. IIT. ] ECONOMIC GEOLOGY—-SUMMARY. 187 

West of the Field. 

1. Chinaktiri seam bce 103 Hirakhund. 

2. Sath Pokaria ditto ae 44 

3. Grishin ditto one 8 Asansol, Mainanagar? Dhadkia ? 
4. Ninga ditto oc 7 Sripur. 

5. Purihárpár ditto ds 9 

6. Gharwi ditto hoo 10 Fattipár, Baráchuk. 

7. Dhanwa ditto $a , 3 

8. Sitarampur ditto ails 8 

9. Charnpür ditto MA 13 Samsúndarpúr, Baraboni? 
10. Hatinál ditto awe 10 
11. Deoli ditto ses 4l 

LowrR Damupa. 

1. Chánch seam 5 9 Nuchibad, 
*2, Dumarkhünda ditto $i 9 

3. Lálbázar ditto d 18 

4. Kásta ditto "am 33 to 35 

Thus, in the Rániganj beds, nine seams, (perhaps eleven,) with an 
aggregate thickness of 120 feet, are worked in the Eastern portion of the 
field; eleven (perhaps thirteen) seams, amounting to about 100 feet, in 
the Western portion, and four seams, with a thickness altogether of 69 
feet, in the Lower Damüda. But many other seams are known to exist 
in all these areas, and are enumerated in the preceding pages, while the 
beds in the Rániganj series, West of the Nunia, may be considered as 
replacing those East of that stream, although it is by no means certain 
that any known seams in each locality exactly correspond. 

Before, therefore, any reliable statement can be put forth of the 
Pe or ar, absolute thickness of coal in the Raniganj field, 

far more extensive underground explorations will 
be necessary, and as the total available quantity of coal depends, in the 
first place, upon the thickness of each seam; and, secondly, upon the 
area underlied by that seam at such a distance beneath the surface, as 
to be accessible by ordinary mining operations, the problem of 

ascertaining the whole amount is one for which none of the requisite 

data are sufficiently exact. It has been conclusively established 

* Perhaps Nos. 1 and 2 are the same, 


188 tou ECONOMIO GEOLOGY. [ Pr. IE 

above, that the presence of a seam in one locality in the Lower 
Damtidas is not sufficient evidence of its extension over the whole 
area occupied by beds of the same horizon in that series, and although 
it is possible that the beds of the Rániganj series are continuous 
over larger districts of country, there is no absolute proof that 
they preserve their thickness and quality to any considerable dis- 
tance. 
The quality of Rániganj coal has at times been much disputed, 
Osi eh du: although long since practically ascertained. One 
opinion expressed concerning it is, that it consists 
of a mixture of anthracitic and bituminous coal. This is not correct; 
the coal is by no means anthracitic, nor is it richly bituminous, but 
it belongs to a variety of non-coking bituminous coal, with a large 
proportion both of volatile matter and ash, and the apparent mixture 
of different kinds of coal is caused by its being invariably composed 
of lamine of varying thickness, and consisting alternately of a bright 
jetty black substance, and of a dull lustreless rock. The brighter por- 
tions consist of a very pure coal, a sample of which from Sirsol mine 

gave the following results on assay* :— 

Volatile VIUA aa A Um Bt e. 40° 
Fixed Carbon SH G3 m ses ec TS 
Ash eco ecc [XX DEI ecc eee 9:5 

This is the composition of some bituminous coals, but contains 
rather more volatile gases than those best adapted for the production 
of coke. But there can be but little doubt that, if a seam were disco- 
vered, the whole of whieh showed the above proportions of carbon 
and ash, a very fair coke indeed could be made from it. An inferior 
coke may indeed be made from picked specimens of the coal from 
some of the mines now at work, where the proportion of the bright . 

jetty black layers is large. 

* This and the following two analyses are by Mr. A. Tween. 


IBS ORBE, SUMMARY. 189 

On a close examination the brighter streaks are seen to have a 
lenticular section. Where thickest, they seldom exceed an inch, and 
they thin out towards both ends. They appear to be flattened masses 
of irregular shape, in a matrix of a dull black color. This has not 
been separately assayed, but the whole mass of the coal, in two 
good samples from Rániganj and Sirsol mines, gave the following 

results, viz. :— 

Sirsol. Rániganj. 
Volatile is ae d. Jod v SIS) 36:5 
Fixed Carbon ER we emo el 59:5 
Ash wee Ade sate 35 41074 11: 

And the results of a series of assays of various coals on the Rániganj 
field shows that the above is a fair representation of the composition of 

the best class of coal obtainable from the mines.* 

* The following list gives the average composition of several of the principal coals in the 
field :— 

Indian Coal, Damáda Field. | Carbon. Volatile matter. Ash. 
Finitipurnbeca ese un HE IF es apre eS 80 25:0 11-20 
katma (Gog, E do A Boo 1909 lode, EE 61:0 27:50 11:50 
Ranisanj nsee ees sc esa NU d eleg e eik 60:50 30:0 9-50 
(OlnoWESQENQEES ~ 550 coo. coo. ono . cocos 56:50 35:0 8:50 
Jemeri DEM ICD S DOE RC DATI DOG T TTL SOC 55:60 34:0 10:40 
Mainanagar, Dhadkia ... ... ... ss... 54:35 35:52 10:13 
Gopima tipari ke Ne NE ee EIE MUSS 53:25 35:25 11:50 
JIENSEREIL- opacv dO! coo rod dis JOURS e COCOOG 53°75 31:50 14°75 
Sirsol Resavipa vas at 4 ratte M eroe ehe d npe d eod 51:1 38:5 10:4 
Roconathi Chukni a e deer ee ie e Mise estas 50:50 36:0 13:50 
IG demit: "aede! Toug. Looed veo eb. copa Drago 48:50 30:50 21 eI) 
INTACT «oo. ono... odo | 900! 400) "QOO! eo0059 47:0 31:50 21:50 
Mancalput a e oe eer pees eds see A 44:75 37:0 18:25 
Pee Gon ode «cuo noo 60D "ood, Anoa 44:0 320 94-0 
Kasta cei, ! Ooh Odo. cdo. ona: | CODI TOGO 43:50 32°80 23°70 
Harispür O00. "Ong: ‘000 4 odo" deb DOOQOD 41:20 " 37:20 21:60 
IGNITION BNE °° "oso Neco! “aby doo! Vaca jad 39:20 25:60 35:20 

With reference to the above table, it should be stated that probably no second analysis of 
coals from the same localities would give exactly similar results. They depend much on the 
sample submitted to examination. And, inasmuch as we could only deal with small quan- 
tities, and were compelled to take these at the time of our visit to the mines, all we can assert 
with reference to the above is, that it gives accurately the composition of fair average speci- 
mens of the coals which were being raised for market at each colliery during the years 
1859-60. ‘The assays were made by Mr. G. E. Evans.— THoMAs OLDHAM, 


190 ECONOMIC GEOLOGY. [Pr. III. 

Bearing in mind the small quantity of ash in the brighter portions 
of the seams, it will be at once evident that the quantity in the duller 
portions must be considerable. It is at least 20 to 30 per cent, so that 
these duller portions are evidently nothing more than an extremely 
carbonaceous shale. Hence the value of any coal from Rániganj, or, 
so far as is known from any Damüda rocks, depends mainly upon the 
proportion of bright lamine contained in it.* 

The presence of this carbonaceous shale is the main impediment to coke 
being manufactured from Damtida coal. It is too impure to soften by heat. 

The drawbacks to the universal employment of Raniganj coal, and 
the reason why, despite its greater cost, English coal is still generally 
employed for many purposes in Bengal, and especially for sea-going 
steamers on long voyages, may be briefly summed up in the following :— 

lst. ‘The non-coking property of Rániganj coal. 

2nd. The small proportion of fixed carbon. The value of a coal 
for heating purposes varies very nearly as the amount of fixed carbon 
contained in it. 

3rd. "Thelargeproportion of ash. This and the last mentioned disad- 
vantage may be briefly summed up by stating that Rániganj coal gives a 
much lower “ duty” than any good quality of English coal, and, con- 
sequently, a larger quantity is required to do the same amount of work. 

Ath. Its liability to spontaneous ignition, The first three objections 
to the use of Indian coal need no further remarks. The liability to 
spontaneous combustion is mainly due to the large quantity of iron 
pyrites in the coal, and it appears probable that, as the proportion of 
pyrites varies very much in different seams, coal may be found, by 
careful selection, to which this objection will not apply, especially if 
care-be taken that the coal is shipped fresh from the mine, and that 

it is not exposed to the action of moisture. 

* The above is, more or less, the case with all coals, but the lamin are far more marked 
in the coals of India than in those of Europe. 


Pr. MI] | SUMMARY. 191 

The three most important purposes for which coal is now a deside- 
ratum in India are, for railways; for steam 
Uses for. L 
vessels ; and for the manufacture of iron. For 
the two first-named purposes, with the important exception of sea- 
going steamers making long voyages, the coal has been proved, by 
experience, to be perfectly adequate, and also for the use of stationary 
steam engines. The objections above mentioned may be consideréd as 
only slightly affecting its application to these purposes. 

With regard to its application to the manufacture of iron, there 
does not seem any sound theoretical ground 
For iron manufacture. d i s d 

for doubting that, with the better qualities of 
Rániganj coal, iron can be made in any quantity. The quantity of 
ash, although large, is not more than in some kinds of Welsh coal, 
which are used in iron smelting. One great drawback, however, to 
the quality of the iron will ensue from the proportion of iron pyrites 
present in much of the Damüda coal. 

One element of importance in the manufacture of iron by the blast 
furnace 18 the composition of the ash of the coal. 

Composition of ash. 

Careful analyses were made by Mr. A. Tween, 
of the Geological Survey of India, of the ashes of the two coals from 
Raniganj and Sirsol, the assays of which were stated above, and these 

analyses show a very unusual composition, viz. :— 

Sirsol. Rániganj. 

Silica Boc soc oda Boo 49:0 42-0 
Alumina 32 En en. sod 92:4 31:3 
Peroxide of Iron cnn See EO 10:1 
Lime Geo es Mus ox Qu 5:8 
Magnesia... oan aA are leg 9-7 
Alkalies SER ind "ss PAM 1:5 1:6 
Phosphorie Acid AA óc duc ees 2:9 

98-7 96-4* 

———— —— 

* The loss, 3'6 per cent., was partly due to carbon remaining in the ash, 


192 ECONOMIC GEOLOGY. [Pr. IMI. 

The sole peculiarity in the above, affecting the manufacture of iron, 

is the presence of the very appreciable proportions of phosphoric acid. * 

For comparison the following analyses of ashes of coal may be taken.t 

| Ash in pare. Silica mea Ba Titra, Magne- Sulphu- Phospho- i5 
Coal ro isst. | : eee of sia.  |ric Acid.|rie Acid. Total. 
WELSH COAL. 
Pontypool ......... eee 5:52 59:3 40:00 44°78 12:00 trace. | 02:22 00°75 99°75 
Bedwas .....eeee eoe 6:94 64:8 26:87 56:95 510 1°19 7°23 00°74 98°08 
iIPorbhmawr 2.06.99» ov» | 1472 | 484 34:21 52:00 6:199 0:659 4:12 0:633| 97:821 
IE DD W Avil Celelsieleisielels(sleieielelels 1:50 76:0 53:00 35:01 3:94 2:20 4'89 0:88 99:92 
Coleshill... cee. eeen eee ree 8:92 471 59°27 29:09 6:02 1:35 3°84 | | 0:40 99:97 
Scorcu COAL. 
Fordel Splint...-. 5... ee 4:00 48:0 37°60 52:00 313 1:10 4:14 0:88 99°45 
Wallsend, Elgin ...... «s 10:70 ATI 61°66 24°42 2:62 1-73 8:38 1:18 99*99 
PATENT FUEL. 
"Warlich'S ... «ees eee rerere 2°91 82:2 25:20 57°30 6:90 trace. 1:85 dabo 99°41 

It will be immediately seen that in Rániganj coal the proportion of 
phosphoric acid in the ash is more than double that in any of the 
above analyses, and as the ash is above the average percentage, the 
amount of phosphoric acid in Damüda coal, judging from the above 
analyses, obtained from two distinct seams, is considerable; the 
percentage of phosphorus being in Sirsol 0-172, and in Raniganj coal 
0:139, the average amounting to 0:155, or between § and + per cent. 

If such coal were used in a blast furnace, a considerable portion of 
the phosphorus would doubtless be found to combine with the iron 
produced. 

The effect of phosphorus upon iron is to render the pig, or cast 

iron produced very fluid, and slow in solidifying, 

Phosphorus. 

so that it is, if the quantity of phosphorus be 

* In beds so completely destitute of animal organic remains, the presence of so much 
phosphoric acid is curious. à 

t First Report on the Coals, &c., suited to the Steam Navy.—JMemoirs of the Geological 
Survey of Great Britain, Vol. II., Part-II., pp. 550—629, 


Pr. IL] SUMMARY. 193 

not too large, well adapted for castings. In the manufacture of bar 
iron, however, the presence of phosphorus is injurious, as it renders 
the iron “cold short." - MS | 

The effect of sulphur is very different. It renders the pig iron 
— viscid, and much impairs the quality of caine 
making them liable to contain flaws and air- 
bubbles. For the manufacture of bar iron, pig iron containing much 
sulphur cannot be employed, as the resulting metal is “red short” to 
an extent which renders it perfectly useless. 

The principal objection therefore to the use of Réniganj coal, 
whether for sea-going steamers or for the manufacture of iron, is the 
same, viz. the presence of iron pyrites. The opinion has already 
been put forward above, that there are some seams in the Raniganj 
field sufficiently free from this impurity to be available for both pur- 
poses. The attention of coal proprietors in the field may however 
well be directed to the importance of this point. 

The iron ores of the country have been largely collected during the 
M nd progress of the survey. They have already been 

described with reference to their mode of occur- 
rence, abundance, &c. (See ante pp. 74-77.) They comprise, however, 
Ree ba besides the clay iron ores, some very rich deposits 
of magnetic iron, associated with metamorphic 
quartzite just beyond the south boundary of the field, near the 
village of Titúri, about 2 miles West of Behariáth Hill. The ore 
occurs interlaminated with the quartzite and gneiss in bands varying 
in thickness from 3 inches to 2 feet. They are very pure, and contain ` 
from 60 to 70 per cent of iron. 
CUPS The following list gives the percentage of iroh 
in several different varieties of clay iron ore 

from different spots on the Rániganj field.* 

* These assays were by Mr, G. E. Evans, late Curator of the Geological Museum, Calcutta. 
» y ? S E 
ASA 


194 

ECONOMIC GEOLOGY. 

[ Pr. III. 

Iron Ores, Damáda Field. 

Percentage of Iron. 

1. North of Badül ...,.. Sante 53:96 
9. South of Amnolah  ...... DOCE E Melee aiden bane 59:00 
3. North of Pahargora Vete rede UN To aa 51:28 
4. South-east of Badul ...... aes d 50:40 
5. Between Birkunti and Ditto ...... se... 49:33 
OI North otis cubo yates e 49-00 
7. South of Lynuggur ^  ..... God Wi. oe ano 48:62 
8. East of Badül VIA EE RU SR HEU RBS Te Ra 47:38 
G Opala an 010. "Daoddo 9 ous" f obeoog! | V 1 C90 os 47:35 
KOS EAO y e e e A eae e E RM 46:66 
qa Near Ohuralia 9... 0 ees SD BE ce oS D DN we 44-00 
12. Gobmpur ....-. GO 006 AR OGNUNO SS : 43:24 
13. Near Churalia ...... nixus tae Roos win pacers 49-94. 
14. Between Birkunti and Badil ..... TECUM S 40:99 
don) South easton Madunpur ee etes eee 40:99 
No SeN ear C huralia NM Toce MEE ME MUS 40:46 
io NET AG oaao Met oaa oo sails E 40°81 
Ts Clo EIE YE untae e XT ERES. TO OC PA ANDERE 40:46 
UG), dede Chak JOEXS OF IMAI Go.» ggneco ou anoe 39°75 
20. Hast of Badul E IER GEM MM SEE ed ODE 37-97 
DEEN ear BIEK ANC E EE e un E 94:72 
Do Madanpurs cei ere: vee) eerie shee DIS 30-00 
2815. IDR) adoa o008 bon Eae 29:31 
2A TRATTO, dde C RS TUO QUESO IG esiti pup Ede 27°50 
25. Churalia... a Raa AGN Ai Wea Ser LOMA 23:00 
20 ESoubhdorPAmnola qp vetere e ium d M elc MEE S00 29:30 
DTE DRE YE Kktybl e AN ONT IESU A AEOS 22:00 
28. Badul (Shaft) MULUS eese Ma as cupi i 14-19 
29. Churalia ... NAS S 18:00 

The several ores are arranged above in the relative order of their 

percentage of iron. As will be seen, there is a 

Average yield. $ , 
very considerable difference between the several 

beds, or varieties, and specimens taken from almost the same locality 
Compare Nos. 29, 25, 16, 13, 

If this list be supposed to represent fairly the clay iron 

vary from 18:00 up to 44:00 per cent. 
11, &c. 
stones of the districts, the average percentage of iron would be, as 
above, 38:92 per cent—a fair and productive percentage. 

It should be remembered that the majority of these specimens were 
obtained at the surface, where the carbonate of iron had been 

The 
percentage of iron, however, is but little changed by this process. 

converted by a process of oxidation, into hydrous peroxide. 


m 

impp SUMMARY. 195 

The magnetie ores would be available for the purpose of mixing. The 
ores seem perfectly suited for the production of good iron. | 
There is much doubt if a sufficient quantity of limestone exist in the 
£x cA MN district, to be available as flux for large works 
for an extended period. A large quantity might 
however be derived from the kunkur deposit on the banks of the - 
Barakur, in the neighborhood of Ramnagar and Doldi, on the left 
bank, and east of Dumarkhunda, on the right bank, and a smaller 
‘amount lies scattered over the field in many places. The subject of 
limestone has, however, been already treated by Mr. Williams, Mr. 
Smith, and Dr. Oldham at length, and possibly the extension of the 
East Indian Railway to the Soane may, in the course of a year or two, 
enable flux to be brought from the neighborhood of Rhotas at a 
sufficiently low rate to enable manufacturers in the Rániganj field to 
employ it. 

Many of the sandstones of the Damüda country might be used to 
Pi is A | some extent as a building material. "The best 
are the peculiar hard bands in the Rániganj 
series, and the somewhat calcareous sandstones occasionally occurring 
in the lower portion of the Talchir group. Some beds near the top of 
the Lower Damüda group (as at Bagonia close to the Barakar on the 

Great Trunk Road) have yielded excellent building stone. 



Additional Remarks on the Geological Relations, and probable Geological 
Age of the several systems of rocks in Central India and Bengal, by 
THOMAS OLDHAM, L. L. D., F. R. S., &c., &c., Superintendent of the 
Geological Survey of India. 

. IN a paper published in the second volume of these Memoirs of the 
Geological Survey of India,* I endeavored to give, so far as known 
up to the date of that communication (February 1860), a brief summary 
of the evidence which had then been accumulated, bearing on the very 
important and very interesting question of the age of the coal-bear- 
ing rocks of India; and their associated groups. The additional data 
which have been acquired during the examination of the Rániganj coal 
field, reported on in the preceding pages, render it necessary to add 
here a few words, so as to bring up the facts to the present state of our 
knowledge. 

In the accompanying report (pages 132—137) Mr. Blanford has 
briefly entered on this discussion with especial reference to that peculiar 
group of beds,t which he has for the first time separated as a distinct 
sub-division in the present Memoir, under the name of Panchet. And 
in doing so, he has arrived at a conclusion regarding the age generally 
of the coal-bearing rocks identieal with that previously announced by 
myself in the paper I have referred to. Indeed, there was little addi- 
tional evidence to bring to the question, with the exception of the 
abundant occurrence of an Estheria, believed to be identical with others 
also found abundantly by the Rev. S. Hislop, in the Nagpár country at 

Mangali. These small entomostracous crustaceans having been submit- 
ted to the careful examination of Mr. Rupert Jones, of the Geological 
Society, London, had been identified by him as the Estheria minuta 

* On the Geological Relations and probable Geological Age, &c.. &¢., vol. ii., page 299, 
1 See also Journal Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1860, page 352, 


198 GEOLOGICAL RELATIONS OF THE ROCK SYSTEMS 

(first figured and described by Goldfuss, as Posidonia minuta, Petre- 
facta Germanis, Pl. cxiii, fig. 5) a widely spread and abundant species 
in the Triassic rocks of Europe and (?) America. Although this fact 
was of slight importance in itself, it nevertheless tended to confirm all 
the other evidence, in leading to the conviction that the beds in which 
it occurred in this country were also of, or nearly of, the same Triassic 
epoch. 

But the discovery of many remains of reptiles in the same group of 
beds promised to go far towards settling definitely this long agitated 
question. These had not been carefully examined when Mr. Blanford 
wrote, and he very justly remarks, that “ until these had been examined, 
itis premature to enter into any further speculations." 

When in February 1860, Mr. Blanford first announced to me that 
he had met with these fossils, and briefly alluded to their character, I 
at once replied, “ are the teeth like Dicynodon? I almost suspect from 
your brief description of them, that they will prove something of this 
kind"—remarking also, that I was led to think that these beds would 
be found to represent the Mangali beds of Nagpür, an opinion which 
it will be seen was fully borne out by subsequent examination. I had 
no opportunity of examining these fossils at that time. I saw a few of 
them very hastily before leaving Calcutta in March, and certainly saw, 
among those few, nothing to confirm my suspicion of the occurrence 
of Dicynodon remains. There were a few teeth, which were apparently 
true labyrinthodonts, and some vertebre, which I was more inclined 
to consider fish vertebre than reptilian. I left Calcutta almost im- 
mediately, and did not return until the end of the year (December.) 
Meanwhile all these fossils had been brought together and cleared out; 
and on again going over them’ with a little more care, I felt quite satis- l 
fied that my original conjecture was correct, and that there were 
Dicynodont remains among them. Knowing, however, how totally 

incompetent I was to'form a critical opinion on such matters, never 


OF CENTRAL INDIA AND BENGAL. 199 

having given more than cursory attention to such investigations, I at 
once despatched the whole collection to my friend, Professor T. H. 
Huxley, London, and at the same time made arrangements for the 
further and more complete examination of the beds in which they 
occurred. This was accomplished by Mr. Tween, (who was origi- 
nally with Mr. Blanford when these remains were first found,) and 
the second collection was also subsequently sent to Professor Huxley. 
Meanwhile I had the pleasure of hearing from him (as he also 
announced to the Geological Society of London, on the 20th March 
1861,) that “the bones belonged to Labyrinthodont Amphibia, and 

Dicynodont reptiles." | 
Hitherto no traces of Dicynodont reptiles had been found, excepting 
in South Africa, and this discovery of similar remains in these. Indian 
beds was of peculiar interest, inasmuch as from considerations based 
on the evidence of the fossil plants alone, I had been led to refer to 
these same fossiliferous beds of South Africa, and to indieate the 
importance of a comparison of their organie remains with those of the 
Indian rocks. 

l was then discussing only the vegetable remains found in the 
Indian rocks, and said,—** Another district, which will hereafter, when 
“ its fossil plants shall have been worked out, afford many and valu- 
* able points of comparison, is that richly fossiliferous series of rocks 
“in South Africa, described by Mr. Bain and others. A cursory 
‘inspection of a few of the fossil plants from that district satisfied me 
“of the marked resemblance which many of them offered to our 
** Indian plants.” * 

Now these are the very beds, the “ Karoo beds,” or, as they have 
often been called, the “ Dicynodont beds,” in which those remarkable 
remains were found, which, under the skilful interpretation of Owen 

and Huxley, have added so much to our knowledge of the reptiles of 

* Mem. Geological Survey of India, vol. ii. p. 327—333. 


200 - GEOLOGICAL RELATIONS OF THE ROCK SYSTEMS 

the earlier Geological periods. Unfortunately, however, even this dis- 
covery, all important as it is, does not yet give a definite horizon, inas- 
much as it is not settled whether these ** Dicynodont strata" should be 
considered Triassic or Permian, and the doubt will (so far as the rep-- 
tilian evidence goes) still hang over our Indian rocks. But while this 
may be the case, (and we shall refer to the question again), the evi- 
dence seems conclusive, and generally admitted, that these beds con- 
taining Dicynodont remains are mot more recent than Triassic, and 
inasmuch as their representatives in India are above, and rest uncon- 
formably on beds which are, so far as now known, the upper beds of 
our coal-bearing rocks (the * Damiida” series of our classification) in 
India, it follows immediately that the opinion hitherto held by most 
geologists who have written on the subject (McCoy, D’Archiac, Carter, 
Hislop, &c., &c.), that the coal strata of India were of Jurassic age, 
must be abandoned. 

In the paper previously referred to, I have endeavored to give an 
idea of the severalsteps by which I had been led from one point to 
another in this investigation. I do not think it necessary here to repeat 
these, but simply to notice that, while I was at first disposed to consider 
these beds as Oolitie, misled by supposed identifications of plants, (and 
so misled, until an opportunity occurred for the re-examination of our 
collections), I also from the first expressed doubts as to the correctness 
of this view. So long since as 1853,* I said that “some of the fossils 
have a Triassic aspect, and probably indicate a period a little more 
ancient than the Oolitic.” Again in 1854 (September) I said that we 
might “ provisionally consider the coal-bearing rocks of Bengal as 
belonging rather to the mesozoic than to the paleozoie period"—and as 
being “ probably Oolitic, possibly carboniferous."f This notice of these 

rocks ina great measure led to the publication of a paperin the same 

* Jour. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, vol. xxiii. p. 273. 
T Ibid, vol, xxiii. p. 620. 


OF CENTRAL INDIA AND BENGAL. 201 

Journal, * On the age of the coal strata in Western Bengal and Central 
India’, by the Rev. S. Hislop,* in which he strenuously combated this 
view of the possibility of these coal rocks being older than Oolitic, with 
great skill and zeal; but with arguments which could have but very 
little. weight, inasmuch as there had been no critical examination 
of the fossil plants, on which he based his conclusions, and as the 
supposed resemblance to known species was far indeed from involving 
identity. 

In 1856 again, the Permian analogies eof the reptiliferous beds of 
Mangali were insisted on,f while I stated that no additional evidence 
had been obtained, tending to settle the question one way or the other. 

The same paleozoie view of their epoch was again urged more 
definitely in these Memoirs. And when the establishment of a Museum 
of Geology in Calcutta enabled me to carefully examine the fossils and 
to obtain the necessary works of reference for their comparison, I gave 
at some length the results, as already noticed, in the previous paper | 
referred to, where I have shown that, from physical evidence alone, the 
Rájmahal group of our classification must be considered as older than 
the Lower Oolitic stage of European Geology—and that this Rájma- 
hal group is separated by a total change in its flora, accompanied by a 
strongly marked unconformity attesting the lapse of considerable time, 
from the Damüda beds below: and that, therefore, these Damüda beds 
must, in all probability, “belong to some portion of the upper Palaozoic 
division of European Geological sequence, or to the lowermost portion 
of the Mesozoic division. In fact, we may possibly hereafter find 
that it will represent that great interval indicated by the marked 
separation and great break between the two series in other countries.Ӥ 

Meanwhile other evidence of the occurrence of rocks of an older date 

* Jour. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, vol. xxiv. 1855, p. 347. 
T Ibd., vol. xxv. 1856, p. 251. 

^ t Vol. i, pp. 81-82. 
§ Mem. Geol. Surv, of India, vol, i., p. 333. 


202 GEOLOGICAL RELATIONS OF THE ROCK SYSTEMS 

than the Jurassic age assigned to these coal strata had been accumu- 
latins. The abundance of Ceratodus teeth at Maledi, in the south of 
Nagpúr, at once determined the horizon of those beds, as nearly, if not 
exactly, that of the Upper Trias of Europe, while the abundance of 
Estheria minuta,* and the occurrence of the labyrinthodont Brachyops 
at Mangali went far to fix the age of the Mangali rocks, as decidedly 
older than Oolitic, if not truly Triassic. 

I have, however, hitherto in my remarks on this subject commonly 
avoided any attemptt to bring into correlation beds or groups of beds 
in other parts of India, which the Geological Survey has not visited, 
with those in Bengal, excepting in the broadest and most general way. 
With the experience we already have of how very little has yet been 
learned of even the physical eyidence of these rocks, I believe it to be 
useless, if not worse than useless, to attempt any very close identifica- 
tions of rocks, separated by a distance of some 500 miles, the inter- 
vening country being quite unknown. I feel perfectly satisfied that 
every portion of the series will, as facts accumulate, take 1ts proper place 
in the general series, and I have already said that ** great as the delay 
may be, it is safer and wiser not to hazard any erroneous conclusion by 
hasty speculation.” $ 

The Nagpúr country, which will undoubtedly throw much light on 
these rocks, must be examined by itself, and the relation of its groups 
of strata to each other determined before they can justly be brought 
into comparison with those in Bengal. And great as have been the 
contributions of Messrs. Hislop and Hunter, much, very much yet 

*Jour. Geol. Soc. London, vol. xii. p. 376. 
1 Vol. IL, p. 334. 

+ Ihave for this reason avoided insisting on the confirmation of my views, which is appa- 
rently afforded by the Ichthyolite beds at Kotah. There is very strong reason for believing 
these to be above and separated by a very marked break in sequence from the “ laminated 
sandstone” or“ Damüda" rocks. And if it be admitted that the Kotah beds are Liassic, it 
will follow that the others are much older, But we know too little of the relations of these 
rocks to insist on this conclusion, 


OF CENTRAL INDIA AND BENGAL. | 203 

remains to be done in this respect.* We have long since noticed that 
the group A. of Mr. Hislop’s series probably was representative of the 
Mahadeva of our classification) a view now adopted by Mr. Hislop 
himself, although partly on independent evidence; we have also 
noticed the probable identity of his group B. (“ laminated sandstone, 
&c.,) with the Damida of our series, but with doubts as to whether 
two distinct groups have not been included in one. But in either case 
I do not as yet see that there is any conclusive evidence for admitting 
more than this probability. We rejoice to see that Sir Charles Bunbury 
has taken up the examination of the plants collected by Messrs. Hislop 
and Hunter, and we look with great interest for his destription. As 
yet we have only his nominallist of genera and species,] but even this 
seems to us, if the references are borne out by further examination, to 
bear out the paleozoic age of the rocks. Excluding all those which 
are Indian (or Australian) Glossopteris, &c., we find ** Pecopteris like 
P. Pluckenetii,” * Neggerathia, Knorria (?) Stigmaria (?) stem some- 
what Sigillarian in appearance, * Vuceites (?)" a group which certainly 
has more relations with. the carboniferous flora of Europe than with 
the Oolitic. And the evidence altogether has led Mr. Hislop himself 
to qualify his opinion as to the age of these rocks, for he now concludes 
that, on the whole * they probably represent the Jurassic (or possibly 
the Triassic) period, at all events some portion of the Lower Mesozoic 
epoch."$ 

* We can scarcely reconcile the statement that the upper and laminated sandstones are 
“ conformable,” with the evidence of great denudation, and exposure of the lower beds given 
by the blocks of these beds, containing fossils, found in the upper series.—Q. J. G. S. L., 1859, 

p. 156. 

+ I must here protest against the error of Mr. Hislop's statement (Quar. Jour. Geol. Soc. 
London, 1859, June 15th, p. 165), that the term “ Mahadeva Sandstone” was introduced by 
me inany way whatever “ to supersede the loose designation of diamond sandstone.” The 
Mahadeva group has nothing whatever to do with the diamond sandstone, is not synchronous 
with it, and the identity can only have existed in imagination. 

į Proceedings Geol. Soc. London, March 20, 1861. 
§ Ibid. March 20, 1861. 


204 GEOLOGICAL RELATIONS OF THE ROCK SYSTEMS 

The marked break between the “ Rájmahal," and the Damüda rocks, 
as proved by the total change in their flora, has now, to a certain extent, 
been filled up by the establishment, by Mr. Blanford in. the preceding 
report, of the Panchét group or sub-division intermediate between 
the two. Mr. Blanford has also very clearly shown how the physical 
evidence of the districts tends to unite this group with the Damüda 
series below, rather than with any series above it. The uncon- 
formity between them is butslight, (in truth such as would never 
probably have been noticed, were the change from one group to another 
not marked by a change in mineral character of the rocks,) and the 
Panchét group has been subjected to the same disturbances and intru- 
sions of trap as the Damádas below, while the beds above are free from 
these. Seeing then that while intermediate it is physically more con- 
nected with the beds below than with those above, it becomes interest- 
ing to examine its fossil contents a little more in detail. 

We have already noticed the abundant occurrence of Estheria 
minuta; and also the existence of the reptihan remains of Labyrin- | 
thodons, and Dicynodons. There remain then only the plants. 

The flora of the Panchét beds is, so far as known, very limited, not 
yielding more than six or eight varieties in all. Of this number there 
are, Schizoneura, 1. Teniopteris, 1. Sphenopteris, 2. Neuropteris? 
1. Pecopteris? (2) Preissleria, 1. There are a few mutilated and 
drifted fragments beside, one of which (fragment of one side of a 
frond) shows the existence of Glossopteris, undistinguishable save 
generically. Of the genera noticed above, Schizoneura is one of the 
most abundant, and is common to the Damüda rocks below, (the species 
seem distinct.) lt is a truly Triassic plant in Europe. Sphenopteris, 
Neuropteris, Teeniopteris, are common to both Mesozoic and Palæ- 

zoic rocks,* although the latter was more abundant in Mesozoic 

* Lerroneously stated that Toeniopteris was “ only known in Mesozoic and Cainozoic 
rocks” (Vol. II. p. 320) forgetting at the moment that Gutbier and Geinitz had described it 
from the Permian of Saxony. That paper having been printed during my absence, some few 


OF CENTRAL INDIA AND BENGAL. 205 

times. A Pecopteris is undistinguishable from P. concinna of Stern- 
berg, (Pl. XLI. fig. 3,) a Triassic (Keuper) form. And the curious — 
fossils which we have assigned to Preissleria. are very similar, if not 
identical with the P. antiqua (Pl. XXXIII., fig. 10, of Sternberg;) 
also a Triassic (Keuper) fossil. But this flora, although its testimony 
seems clear enough, would, taken alone, be altogether insufficient on 
which to base any conclusion. Still it becomes useful inasmuch as the 
whole amount of its evidence tends to the same result as all the other 
facts, and thus it gives a cumulative force to all. l 

Admitting then all this evidence ; Dicynodont and Labyrinthodont 
remains among the vertebrata, Estheria minuta in abundance; and 
peculiar forms of plants identical with some known in European Triassic 
rocks, I feel no hesitation in expressing my belief that the Panchét 
group of the present report represents the earliest portion of the 
great Mesozoic division* in the general geological scale, or, in other 
words, is of about the same age as the Bunter sandstein and Keuper of 
Europe. We have in this country, as yet at least, met with no repre- 
sentative of the Muschelkalk, but, as we know from the report of 
Dr. Fleming, that in all probability it does exist in the Salt Range, 
Punjab,f it is not impossible that future researches may make known its 
existence in Bengal or Central India, in neither of which have any 
marine beds, associated with these sandstones, been as yet met with. 

If this be the case, and that the Panchét group does belong to this 
age, as we conceive has been conclusively established, it remains 

to consider what are its relations with the beds above and below it. 

typographical errors crept in, which were not noticed ; among others (page 320) ‘ Liassic 
Lettenkohlen gruppe of Thuringia’ should have been Triassic. 

* I use this term in the sense in which the majority of English Geologists would use it, 
the line between the Paleozoic and the Mesozoic being supposed to be at the base of the 
Triassic and above the Permian : but I do not wish to be understood as adopting or rejecting 
this view, the accuracy of which must be tested by far wider researches than those we are 
now dealing with. i 

T Jour. Asiat. Soc., Bengal, vol, xxii. 1853, 


206 GEOLOGICAL RELATIONS OF THE ROCK SYSTEMS 

In the district at present under description we have no definite group 
of beds above the Panchét division. I put aside the doubtful sub- 
group of the ** Upper Panchét,” which occurs only in detached localities, 
where the physical evidence of its position is more than obscure ; and 
which, containing no recognizable fossils, can afford no evidence of 
trustworthy character one way or the other. It is very probable that 
Mr. Blanford is correct in supposing that these so-called Upper Pan- 
chét beds represent the coarse grits and sandstones which occur in the 
Rájmahal Hills at the base of the Rájmahal group; but this is 
by no means established. 

Below the strata of the Panchét group, we come immediately upon the 
upper beds of the great Damüda system, the group to which Mr. Blanford 
has applied the name ‘ Zéniganj, Between this Rániganj group, 
including at its base the Ironstone shales, and the * Lower Damüda" 
group of Mr. Blanford's report, there 1s evidence of a slight unconfor- 
mity and change of both area and condition of deposit. But, indepen- 
dently of this, there are many links of connection, both in the general 
lithological character of the rocks, in the continuance almost through- | 
out the entire system of large deposits and growth of vegetable matter, 
now existing in-the mineralized condition of coal; and in general 
stratigraphical relations tending to bind all these groups of beds (having 
a total thickness of nearly ten thousand feet) into one system, the 
DAMUDA of my classification. § 

But, coincident with this general connection there are most im- 
portant and most marked proofs of separation into distinct groups. 
We have spoken of the physical evidence ; the paleontological is 
equally, if not more, definite. Immediately on passing down into the 
Damida series, we find abundant representatives of the genus Glossop- 
teris, of which no trace whatever has been seen in the * Rájmahal" 

group, and only one small drifted and broken fragment of a frond in 

* Jour. As. Soc., Bengal, vol. 1856, p. 249. 


OF CENTRAL INDIA AND BENGAL. 207 

the Panchét rocks. And from these uppermost beds to the very lowest 
beds of the system, so far as known, these Glossopteris remains continue 
to appear. In the Panchét group a single species of Schizoneura is 
met with, (apparently different from those occurring in the Damüda 
rocks), and in the upper sub-division of the Damüda system this genus 
is also largely represented ; but we have not seen it from the lower 
group. Pecopteris, Sphenopteris, Phyllotheca, are also well represented 
in the upper group of the Damüda system, but are almost entirely 
wanting in the lower. We have not as yet been fortunate enough 
to find any organie remains other than vegetable in these rocks. 
The evidence seems, therefore, abundant to lead us to group all 
these sub-divisions (* Rániganj," “Ironstone shale,” and ** Lower 
Damiida”) into one system, but not sufficient as yet to define 
the epoch of this system. On the one hand it is connected by 
the occurrence of a single genus of plants common to both, with the 
Triassic strata of Panchét, on the other it is widely separated by the 
general facies of its flora, which is far more abundant and varied, 
as well as by the break in continuity of deposition. The Damüda 
system is then older, probably considerably older, than the Triassic 
epoch of the Panchét group. It exhibits a thickness of several thou- 
sand feet, marked at intervals, during the tranquil deposit of this 
enormous mass of material, by the successive growths of luxuriant 
vegetation and thick masses of ferns and other plants. And it must 
represent the lapse of a very long period of time, and great changes 
in general conditions of the area during that period. 

I am, therefore, led to think from all this, that the “ Damáda 
system" of our Indian classification will be found to represent, (if not 
in its entirety, certainly in part) the Permian period of European geo- 
logy.* But I think further, that it will be found also to include a 

* The “ Dyas” of Marcou. While fully appreciating the skill with which M. Marcou 
has set forth his opinions, and while agreeing with him, as will be seen, as to the age of these 
rocks, I do not adopt all his reasons for this proposed change of names. 


208 GEOLOGICAL RELATIONS OF THE ROCK SYSTEMS 

large portion of the Upper Carboniferous epoch. Indeed, although 
the data on which to base an opinion are still deficient both in number 
and exactitude, it would seem probable that the southern hemisphere, 
even the southern portion of the northern hemisphere, will be found 
to supply, in great part, those wanting links in the chain, those gaps 
in the succession of organic existences, which are so marked in Europe. 

It has long been known that the Indian coal-bearing rocks (the 
Damáüda system) contained many fossils identical with those found in 
the coal rocks of Australia, and that this series of stratified deposits 
in both these countries was therefore, synchronous. The age of 
these coal rocks in Australia has itself been the subject of much con- 
tention, andis not as yet by any means finally settled. To these 
rocks I have already referred elsewhere,* and have endeavored to 
draw from the analogy of these Australian beds some evidence bear- 
ing on our Indian coal beds. We can now, I believe, reflect the light 
derived from our Indian series on the Australian succession; and can 
so far remove the doubt which hangs over the question of their age, 
as to fix conclusively a period more recent than which they cannot be. 

I may take this opportunity of noticing briefly a few facts bearing 
on these rocks. Through the kindness of His Excellency Sir William 
| Denison, now Governor of Madras, I had recently the advantage of 
receiving a small but excellent series of specimens from the neighbor- 
hood of Sydney, prepared at Sir William Denison’s request by 
Mr. W. Keene, Examiner of Coal Fields, Newcastle, N. S. W., for 
the Geological Survey Museum, Calcutta, and accompanied by an 
admirably drawn and detailed section showing the exaet position from 
which each specimen was obtained. This series contained specimens 
from the rocks both above and below the coal-bearing beds of the 
section. I was surprised on examining this series of specimens not 

only to find, as I had expected, a perfect identity in the contained 

* Memoirs Geological Survey of India, Vol. II., p. 330, 


OF CENTRAL INDIA AND BENGAL. 209 

plant remains with those with which I was familiar from India, but 
further a very remarkable and strikingly curious identity in the 
lithological character and structure of the rocks themselves; this 
identity being by no means confined to one of the groups of beds, 
but having a marked persistence in all. Thus the fine-grained, 
earthy, fawn-colored sandstones and shales in which the remains of 
Phyllotheca and Glossopteris abound in the Australian rocks are pre- 
cisely such as might, from mineral character, be supposed to have been 
taken from the upper beds of Central India, (the “ Upper Damáda" 
of Mr. Medlicott): the coal itself presents identically the same lami- 
nated texture, the surface of the laminz thickly covered with mineral 
charcoal, or the half fossilized remains of woody-tissue; and still 
more curiously, the same very peculiar curved jointing giving rise to 
that remarkable “ ball” structure (see above) as in the Indian coal of 
the Rániganj Field; and this, in just as great perfection in the Aus- 
tralian coals. And still further, many of the lower beds of the 
Australian group, there so abundantly rich in marine fossils, are very 
similar to many of the beds in the Indian Talchir series. There is 
the same mixture of pebbles, and large rolled masses in a matrix of 
fine silt; and much of this silt is of exactly the same peculiar blueish- 
green tint, so characteristic of these beds in this country, and which, 
once seen, can never be mistaken. 

I would not be misunderstood as desiring to give any great weight 
to a similarity in mineral texture or lithological aspect, in attempting 
to ascertain the true position of these rocks. But I am satisfied that 
this identity has a value, and by no means a light value, when, taken 
in connexion with every other point of evidence which is available, it 
is found in all cases tending to turn the balance in the same direction. 
And, basing my views on these considerations, I ventured* to hold out 

a prospect in anticipation, that future researches would enable a more 

* Jour. As. Soc., Bengal, May 1861. 
c 2 


210 GEOLOGICAL RELATIONS OF THE ROCK SYSTEMS 

accurate and detailed parallelism to be established between the rocks 
in both these countries, portions of which were now known to be syn- 
chronous: and that, while in all probability, it would be found, that 
starting from the common datum line of the coal-bearing rocks in 
either land, the sequence upwards would be established from Indian 
researches in this country, apparently supplying links wanting in 
Australia; on the other hand we should be enabled to supplement 
the evidences of the succession downwards (which is deficient in 
India) by a reference to Australian groups. As yet we have not been 
able to trace the existence of any marine deposits in this country, of 
the same age as the “ Wollongong” sandstones of Australia, but there 
is nothing whatever in the few plants which occur in our Talchir beds 
which would militate against their being of the same general age, 
(which I am disposed to think they are). 

But such speculations are, perhaps, premature, and I have no doubt 
whatever that, as our detailed investigations progress, each successive 
group will find its appropriate place. 

But it is certainly not by any forced assimilation, or any narrow 
parallelism with European types that this end is to be gained. Each 
country, each district, each basin, must be examined by itself, and 
for itself, and long before the slightest attempt at any true identifica- 
tion of the smaller sub-divisions or beds can safely be made we 
must have a far wider, and a far more accurate, knowledge of the 
stratigraphical relations, and of the geographical area, of each of the 
larger systems. 

And even then we must never forget that we are dealing with the 
remains of animals and plants which once lived in countries, separated 
from the typical localities with which we attempt to correlate them, 
by half the surface of the globe; that there were as truly zoological 
and botanical provinces in earlier periods of the earth’s history as there 

are now: that the atmosphere, the elevation, the climatal conditions 


OF CENTRAL INDIA AND BENGAL. 211 

generally, of each locality exerted as powerful and controlling an in- 
fluence then as now, and that, therefore, while we seek for and proba- 
bly obtain resemblances, or even identities, in these tropical and sub- 
tropical remains, as compared with the European types, we must also 
be prepared to see vast differences, and marked discrepancies. 

I have only to add a few words on the nomenclature adopted by 
Mr. Blanford. 

The term Panchét, the name of a remarkable hill, the name also of a 
raj or estate, on which this hill stands, and the title ofthe Rajah who now 
holds much of this country, and whose ancestors once held almost it 
all, serves well to denote the peculiar group of rocks which occurs 
there. The name of Raniganj, also, the well known terminus of the 
East Indian Railway, situated close to the largest mines in the district, 
and on the Rániganj series, serves well for that group. While the 
Talchir series has been already well defined from the locality where 
first it was separated, as a distinct group, from the overlying rocks. 

There remains the term * Lower Damida.” The group to which 
this term has been applied has been very well separated by Mr. Blan- 
ford, but I fear the name itself is open to objections, which render it 
desirable to alter it. Mr. Blanford has himself shown the inconve- 
nience of names derived from relative position only, especially where 

the whole feries in detail is not known, in the case of the “ Upper 
" Damiida.” And the term Lower Damüda is open to similar objection. 
It is more than probable that future research will fill up the gap now 
existing between the lowermost beds of this Lower Damúda and the 
Talchir rocks, (indeed, I believe, that these intermediate beds are to 
a certain extent already known,) and should these intermediate beds 
be found to belong to the Damáda system, there would then be a 
group lower than the * Lower Damüda. I think it, in every point 


212 GEOLOGICAL RELATIONS OF THE ROCK SYSTEMS 

of view, wiser and better to adopt the same course with this group as 
with the others, and to give to it a name. derived from some marked 
locality where it occurs. And, inasmuch as the bank and the imme- 
diate neighborhood of the Bárákar river exhibit excellent and character- 
istic sections of this group, I would substitute for * Lower Damüda" 
the name “ Bárákar group." 

To prevent any misconception, I would add here that the excellent 
remarks of my colleague on the value of the coals from this * Lower 
Damáüda group, must be taken as applicable only to the field imme- 
diately under consideration, in which the almost universal intrusion of 
trappean rocks into these lower coal beds would alone be sufficient to 
account for the inferior quality of much of the coal. The Kurhurbari 
coal beds, are, however, all in * Lower Damüda' rocks, and the coal 
is fully equal to any found in the Raniganj field, while at the same 
time there is evidence of the occurrence also of the lower beds of 
the upper series in the same field. 

I would also take advantage of the present opportunity to state that 
more recent researches have given to Mr. Medlicott from his * Upper 
Damáüda" rocks of Central India, many varieties of fossil plants, of 
which no specimens had been procured from these beds up to 1860, and 
which go far to prove that these groups in Central India must be 
referred to the Damüda system, and not to the Rájmahal. So marked 
indeed is the resemblance of the flora of these rocks from the vicinity of 
Sohagpár to the true Damida flora, ( Glossopteris, Phyllotheca, &c.,) . 
that I am almost led to suspect, although the fact may not at first be 
traceable, that these will be found to be a different group of beds from 
those first called Upper Damüda, and the plant remains in which 
were so markedly different from those known in the ordinary coal- 
bearing rocks of India. While, therefore, I think it will be desirable 
to get rid of the term * Upper Damáda,' as applied to a sub-division 
of a series or system, the true limits of which are not yet known, I 


OF CENTRAL INDIA AND BENGAL. 213 

believe we stil want very much more satisfactory fossil data before 
we would definitely refer the rocks which have been called Upper 
Damáda to any fixed parallel in the rocks of Bengal.* 

The age of the Mahadeva group, referred to by Mr. Blanford, I 
would abstain from discussing at present, as I feel convinced that there 
are as yet no sufficient data on which to base any satisfactory conclu- 
sion. 

CALCUTTA, June 1861. 

* In speaking of the fossils of these rocks in NIRE T ET 
(p. 324,) a number of what seemed to be the “ detached scales or bracts of the cones of 

cycadeous plants." Shortly after writing that, some better specimens were procured, which 
led me to think them rather coniferous than cycadeous. 

SAVIELLE & CRANENBURGH, Printers, BENGAL PRINTING Company LIMITED, 



INDIA. 

MINERAL STATISTIOCS. 

I—C OAL. 

THE accompanying returns give as full and complete data regarding 
the actual amount of coal raised throughout India generally as I have 
been able to procure. It is not supposed that a first attempt of this 
kind may be free from errors, or mistake. All that can be expected 
is, that all proper precautions have been taken. In this respect I may 
state that, with the exception of the smaller workings in the Raniganj 
field, the produce of which was obtained at the pits themselves, and 
with all possible precaution of repeated enquiry and cross questioning, 
the amounts given below are those stated to me under authority of the 
several proprietors, agents, or secretaries of Companies, &c., and 
these proprietors thus become responsible for the accuracy, each of 
his own return. 

There are still a few collieries known to be at work, from which I 
have not succeeded in obtaining any return. These are those at Kotah, 
Singrowli, &c.: but the out-turn of these is known to be small, and 
would not seriously affect the general result. 

The returns are given for three years past, that is, from the Ist of 
October or November 1857, to the same date 1860. This is, by 
custom, considered the close of the “coal year," from the circum- 
stance that, until recently, the only mode of conveyance for coal from 
the Rániganj field was by the River Damáda, and as the accounts were 
closed, when, after the rainy season, the river had so diminished in the 

amount of its waters, that there appeared no chance of sending any 

Memoirs of Geological Survey of India, Vol. IIL, Art. 2. 


2 MINERAL STATISTICS. 

more coals to market that season—this period thus became the cus- 
tomary close of the local year. 

The total returns give an average out-turn of coal for the past three 
years of 87,937,454 maunds, or about 320,631 tons. But it is scarcely 
just to consider this as giving a fair mean of the present out-turn, for 
during the first of these years there were, as is well known, disturbing 
causes at work tending to injure the regular trade of the country— 
and a fairer average, though determined by too small a number of years, 
will be obtained by taking the mean of the last two year’s produce. 
This will give 100,25,020 maunds, or about 367,890 tons in the twelve 
months. 

The returns also show one important and interesting fact, namely, 
that however the local out-turn may have increased or diminished, as 
affected by local causes, the general out-turn has steadily and mark- 
edly increased, apparently indicating a healthy and sound extension 
of trade and commerce. 

The total out-turn for 1860 (that is, for the twelve-months ending 
October 1860) was 100,88,113 munde or 370,206 tons, an amount 
almost contemptible (about the 200th part) if compared with the won- 
drous total of the coals raised annually in Great Britian, viz. 72 
millions of tons! But still evidencing a large and increasing commerce 

and the spread of many of the arts of civilization. 

To the table a few notes have been appended, referring to other 
parts of the country where coal is either known not to occur, or where 
it may have been found in small quantities, but is not workable. 

The tables commence with the details of the Rániganj coal field, 
by far the most productive as well as important coal field in India, 

and the other localities are referred to afterwards. 


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Of the Singrowli coal field, which lies to the south of the River 
Sone, in the Rewah Territory, I have not been able to procure any 
return. I am, however, aware that the amount of coal raised has 
been small, and will not materially affect the general total. More 
than one bed of coal has been practically examined in the continuation 
of this field to the west and towards Singhpoor. But none of these 
are as yet at work as collieries. 

The Nerbudda Valley has long been known to contain coal, but. 
owing to the distance from any available market, and the comparative 
inaccessibility of the localities where it occurs, it has not been hitherto 
economized. The Nerbudda Coal and Iron Company have this year 
commenced their operations and I suppose will shortly be turning out 
coal. 

In other parts of the North-Western Provinces territory there is 
no known workable coal. Seams of lignite of very irregular size and 
very limited extent occur in several places along the foot of the 
Sub-Himalayas, marking a certain group of sandstone rocks, of 
comparatively recent date; but nowhere are these deposits known 
to be of extent rendering it probable they will ever be of any 
practical use. 

In Oude no coal is known to occur. In the Punjab no coal is 
known to occur, if we except, as above in the North-Western Pro- 
vinces, the patches of lignite which have been found in several 
localities along the base of the outer Himalaya, as well as in the Salt 
Range. i 

In Seinde the only coal raised was that of Lynah Valley, as given 
above, but the irregularity and the small extent of this deposit has caused 
it to be abandoned. It was, in fact, an irregular patch of lignite. 

In Bombay no coal is known to occur. In Hyderabad none. 
In Nagpore a small coal field is known near to Umret, on the border 
of the Nerbudda District, which may, in fact, be considered a 


Rutas 

12 MINERAL STATISTICS. 

continuation (although actually separated) of the Nerbudda deposits. 
The coal is not now economized. j 

In Madras no coal is known. Coal has been more than once stated. 
to occur on the Godavery, or some of its feeders. And even very 
recently ; but as yet nothing but black shales, which will not support . 
combustion, and which are,in all probability, of a totally different , 
age from the coal-bearing rocks of India, have been met with. 

í E OLDHAM. 
Supt. of Geological Survey of India. 
Calcutta, 1st June 1861. 

Var 
or 

SAVIELLE & CRANENBURGH, PRINTERS, BENGAL PRINTING COMPANY LIMITED. 




GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF 

| 
IND 1A. 

| y Voc: HI - 

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Mon A d 4 3 H 4 s 4 
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AUTHORITIES. | S atrii 
Topogr phu The topography or this map 15 based. chiefly om a plan of this Qal- Freld, 
prepared fron original surveys ta accompany the report of MT Williams, en MT 
The Eastern portion: of the map, 30 far os the district of Burdwiuv extende, is based: 
onthe Revenue Survey of that district by Major Smyth Beng. Arillery, The western 
portow, inelading alrest all Die. country west of the Baräkar River from original 
Surveys by the officers of the Geslogical Survey. Minor correctione and additions 
have beer made in almost wery part ofthe map. | dy n 
Orihegraphy The orthography cs in accordance uith the system (Jonestan) adopted: by the ir a p « 
Mcr 

Geology - 

Great Trigt Survey of Mitia 

` Tho whole has beer Geologicallu examined, and 

PGS. assisted: by Mess Willson, Mollet, and. Tween. Trae) RIRE | ae 

^ S s = b aiani 
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GEOLQGICAL COLOURS & SIGNS. X 

"UN i 
ý SI 
(C ij Ts 

Ñ 

laavan e E = == 
Viele (t2)  E 

Upper (1 Raymahul) — — = = 
Panchit Group 

Lower — — — E 

Ranigaiy Sees = — me Jaspur 

E HIE om 
>R Saraliche > = Tila 
: ; E al Ses Sw 
Danuida Group }Ironstene Shales = sr isi Gaugepür eg (ANG! HILL 
E - 
, [C 
Lower Damuda (Barakar.) aie i 
T^ h Su 
ich Š Ej Bir aon ehe pe ls, Meradhy 
Ji do Crain d E p m, 
Gress -) a 
Tronstone’ wv Damudas or magnetic Ire (n Grass. 
Trap idriestuel ———— — == | irc NU tr 
pee Pe Dain 
Uff. Bigg Mi > MN 
Bip Ml 
Ties rs 

and. the amount uv degrees is marked, thu: 

The dip rs shew by an arrow 

Ny 
foliation of metamerphie racks thus. F M 
ted. by w black line, and) the thickness of thè Seam 

3 a 
where ascertained is gwen! uv feet thus ————————_* 

Outcrows of Gral are designa 

Trap dykes ure marked bh w grees bina this ——— 

Tauts by w while ma and the direction of their downthrow us shown by 

am arrow: thus — i 

Quartnose breccia! along lines of farltbyayellan und whale) Line! this RR 
i 

tollieries in worki» de abandoned x 

Where dips. brap dykes, or 0wterep. of coal are shewn on: laterite or Alluwiwn, they retir lo ; 

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On transfer pa 

, Calcutta, May, 1861. - { 

Dase and Moheshchunder She 

per by Sobhan Buksh, "Rormanautl. 

` =| 
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} CSS Aten 
: " E ar c RUNS c Eoi 
Lith by t. M. Smith, Surv’ Cenl? Office, Caleutia Nay, 1861 ; 
. 

% 



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Jett 

Geol: Surv: of India. III. P+2 

Calcutta 

ROUPS 

Y 

( 

THE SIVALIK AND NAHAN 

IN THE MARKUNDA, 

JUNCTION OF 

H.L. Frazer Lith: 


MEMOIRS 

OF THE 

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA. 

On the Geological structure and relations of the Southern portion of 
the HIMALAYAN range between the rivers GANGES and RAVEE, by 
H. B. MEDLICOTT, A. B., F. G. S., Geological Survey of India. 

CHAPTER 1—General description of area and rocks. 

A TREATISE of which the Himalayas form the subject bears on its 
title-page a sufficient recommendation to a large class of readers, 
Many causes, mythical as well as scientific, have tended to spread, even 
among popular readers, a deep and general interest in all questions 
relating to the physical history of this portion of the globe. The follow- 

ing memoir is, primarily, a record of geological 

Rud observations ; but, as a work of systematic geo- 
logical observation could not be carried on without implicating many 
questions in physical geography and other kindred sciences, this report 
treats also of these subjects in so Jar as they appear to be connected 
with the geology of the district. There must necessarily be many 
imperfections in a work which has been conducted on a very limited 
scale, when compared with the whole region involved; and general 
conclusions must be considered as more or less premature which are 
hazarded upon a partial review of facts. While I would claim a gene- 
rous indulgence for these imperfections, —imperfections which depend on 
the scanty state of our knowledge of the Himalayas, —I would remind the 
reader that I also make them an apology for introducing many facts 

A 


D SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. [Cuar. I. 

which may appear at first sight unimportant, trifling, or irrelevant, feel- 
ing, as I do, that such facts may afterwards supply valuable evidence, 
when investigations have been extended over a wider range.* 

In deciding on a plan for the extension of the Geological Survey 
into North-Western Hindustan, there were two courses prominently 
open for selection. Already the fossil fauna of the Siválik hills, brought 
to light by Cautley and Falconer, had created a deep and enduring 
publie interest in the geology of the southern slopes of the Himalayas ; 
and, more recently, the valuable labors of D’Archiac and Haime in the 
paleontology of the Nummulitic strata, including those of Subathu, 
had given additional attractions to the same regions. In opposition to 
these strong inducements to begin with the Himalayas there was the 
well ascertained fact that the original stratification of the formations 
composing these mountains had been much complicated by disturbances. 
Judging from this fact that insurmountable difficulties would present 
themselves at every step in the attempt to elucidate the physical history 
of the Himalayas,—and it will be seen in the following pages that this 
surmise was well founded,—it was resolved that the country beyond the 
great plains which stretch southwards from the base of the Himalayas 
should be examined first. It was considered probable that the structure 
and relations of the rocks composing this extensive and comparatively 
plain tract of country were much more simple than in the mountain 
regions, and it was hoped that thus some clue might be discovered to 
the complicated geology of the latter. Accordingly I was deputed in 
1856-57 to survey Bundelcund and parts of the adjacent country, and 
the great Vindhyan formation. was then traced from Rewah, where it is 
typically developed, into the country towards Gwalior. The result 

of this work has been published in the form of a memoir in the 

* In order to elucidate my observations upon the obscure question of mountain formation, 
I have given in an appendix a brief summary of the most prominent opinions with regard 
to it. 


Cuar. I] GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF AREA. 3 

second volume of the “Memoirs of the Geological Survey of India.” In 
the following seasons it was intended to carry on this work towards 
Delhi and through the country to the south and west of that city, 
but in 1857 the mutiny broke out, and for two successive seasons it was 
impossible to visit that part of the North-Western Provinces for the 
peaceful purposes of field geology. The hills, however, were compara- 
tively secure, and to them accordingly the attention of the Survey was 
temporarily directed. The great series of tertiary strata, of which the 
Subathu beds form the base and the Sivaliks the top, was chosen as the 
special object of investigation, because these rocks had already excited so 
much publie interest ; and the excellent map of a large section of the 
North-Western Himalayas, which had just been published by the Sur- 
veyor General, offered rare facilities for pursuing successfully the geology 
of this portion of the hills. 

In endeavouring to add to the valuable knowledge of the geological 
relations of the Sub-Himalayan regions, with which palzontologists have 
supplied us, I have almost exclusively attended to the questions of 
lithology and stratigraphy, because up till this time little or nothing had 
been known of the nature of these relations, though some of the rocks 
have been so well known from the fossils which they have yielded. 

The area included in the accompanying map, and to the description of 
which this memoir is more particularly devoted, is contained between 
the Ganges on the south-east and the Ravee on the north-west. The 
direct length of this tract of country is about 230 miles ; its width varies 
from twenty to sixty miles, the average being at least 
EE MM thirty ; so that the entire area 1s about 7,000 square 
miles. Although equal in length to that of the base of the Pyrenees on 
the French side, this area does not represent more than a sixth part of 
the entire range of the Himalayas. In addition to the description of the 
Sub-Himalayan zone, included in the accompanying map, I shall have 

some observations to record upon the rocks that bound this great tertiary 


4 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. [CHAR I. 

serles on the north-east ; and also on the extension of all these rocks 
towards the south-east to Naini Tal, near the frontier of Nepal, and 
towards the north-west to Murree, near the extreme frontier of British 
India. On account of the advantages offered to health-seekers, as well 
as on account of the physical peculiarities of these hills, they have always 
attracted crowds of visitors: The oldest and the most fashionable of our 
Indian hill-stations, or sanitaria, are in the region I have indicated. Simla 
occupies a nearly central position between the Ganges and the Ravee ; 
between Simla and the plains are the military depóts of Subathu, 
Kasaoli, and Dugshai; Masuri lies more to the south-east, near the 
Ganges; and to the north-west there are Dhurmsala, and the now rapid- 
ly increasing station of Dalhousie. Besides, some of the most accessible 
routes to the Tibetan regions, beyond the snowy passes, lie through these 
hills, and from numerous descriptions that have been given of this coun- 
try from time to time by tourists, it has become almost as well known as 
many familiar regions in Europe. 

On every physical map of India will be found the remarkably regular 

Eastern and Western lme which indicates the north boundary of the 
Himalaya. plains of Northern Hindustan. From the dead 
level of these plains the Himalayan region rises as from an ocean. The 
effect of this contrast is, I think, rather heightened than diminished by 
the great distance of the culminating points of the range ; the extent of 
panorama visible at a short distance from the base of the range is thereby 
greatly increased, and the imagination seldom fails to allow for the great 
distance of the principal objects of the landscape. The extreme regularity 
of the outer boundary of the mountain region is maintained from the 
Brahmaputra to the J helum, but we do not find a corresponding uniformi- 
ty in the features within, or to the north of this boundary. At about the 
middle of the distance just indicated, and which also happens to be the 
middle of the district under description, there is an entire change in 

the characters of the hills and in the distribution of. the rocks. The 


= 

Cuap. L] GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF AREA. 5 

distinction of Eastern and Western Himalaya is familiar to many ; it is 
not, as some may think, an arrangement of simple convenience, nor yet, 
as has been argued, is it a question to be settled from mere hypsometrical 
data. It isa change of which the full significance in the structure and 
history of the mountain system cannot yet be determined, but the facts I 
will point out seem to indicate that the range (under the stricter definition 
of this term) to which the peaks of the Eastern Himalaya belong, ceases 
or rather becomes subordinate here, and is not to be identified with any 
such chain of peaks to the north-west, excepting as independent mem- 
bers of the same system. Regarding the Western Himalaya, I have only 
indirect remarks to make ; the Eastern Himalaya are essentially the snowy 
mountains of Hindustan. They present, as a whole, three well marked 
regions :—the range of peaks; then a broad band of hills commonly 
spoken of as the Lower, or Outer, Himalaya ; and outside or to the south of 
these comes a narrow fringing band of much lower hills, for which the name 
Sub-Himalaya is appropriate, and of which the Sivalik hills are the type. 
The Lower, or Outer Himalaya exhibit no approach to a regular 
gradation of elevation. From within ten to twenty 

ERU. miles of the peaks to about an equal distance from 
the plains the hills have a very uniform aspect and elevation. They 
average from 7,000 to 9,000 feet in height, in some exceptional cases rising 
to 10,000, or even 12,000 feet. The peak of the Chor, about twenty-five 
miles to the south-east of Simla, is one instance of this higher elevation 
close upon the outer limits of the region. The Naini Tal hills too, near 
the very edge of the plains, are considerably higher than the ridges for 
some distance to the north-east of them. Herbert describes this feature 
more minutely. He says:—* If we divide the country south of the line 
of greatest elevation into five parallel zones, the fifth will be as high as 
the third, and the fourth considerably lower than either" The form and 
general direction of the ridges throughout the Lower Himalaya is a 

question of much importance in relation to the structure of the whole 


6 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. [Cuap. I. 

mountain system; I will here only call attention to the fact—as 
indicated on the map by the features of elevation and of drainage—of 
how strongly the denudation type of hill-contour is stamped upon the 
Lower Himalaya region,—a type characterized by the close recurrence of 
irregular ridges and equally irregular river courses, transverse to the 
general direction of the mountain region, They are watershed-ridges 
only. As a rule, I fail to trace even the guiding influence of simple 
fissures, in any definite system, in pre-determining the lines of drainage. 

The scenery of these hills presents, generally, great sameness,—a mono- 
tony of steep slopes, and ridges of almost uniform height, and with little 
variety of outline, only occasionally relieved by a bold cliff or a rocky 
gorge. Not unfrequently also forests of magnificent trees are met with, 
no longer of those tropical forms which are associated with the intense 
heat of the lower country, but with all the aspect familiar to travellers 
in the more temperate regions of Europe. These forests stand almost 
invariably on the northern slopes of the ridges,—a peculiarity of posi- 
tion which is no doubt principally due to the greater moisture of 
the sunless aspect favouring such a vegetation ; the southern slopes, 
however, have no doubt been extensively cleared artificially for the 
purposes of cultivation, and for village sites. 

The outer limit of the Lower Himalaya is generally a very marked 
feature. Along it the change is a rapid one to hills of much less 
elevation, and of different aspect. As a general rule, the hills of this 
zone attain only very moderate elevations, but they exhibit a striking 
uniformity of arrangement ; they are true hill-ranges,—members proper, 
though very subordinate, of the great Himalayan system. Their regula- 
rity in this respect forms a strong contrast with the arrangement of the 
Lower Himalaya ridges. The ridges of the Sub-Himalayan zone are 
approximately coincident with lines of disturbance, being usually formed 
by anticlinals, or on the upthrow side of faults ; the intervening depres- 

sions, forming the longitudinal valleys, are locally known as duns. "The 


Cuar. L] GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF AREA. 7 

scenery of the Sub-Himalayan hills has few attractions. Near the gorges 
of the great rivers, or where the view opens out upon the duns, and the 
higher hills beyond, the landscape is often striking ; but among the hills 
themselves the range of vision is generally limited to afew yards ; the 
only paths are along the beds of torrents, hemmed in either by sheer 
walls of rocks, or by steep banks densely covered with jungle. 
The snowy peaks of the Eastern Himalaya form by no means so regular 
a range as might be supposed. They form groups 
B of summits along a culminating zone, rather than 
any approach to a regular ridge. This feature has been well described 
by Herbert, Strachey, and others. 
The most opposite views have been put forward as to the relations of 
MET the eres ane es Himalayas. Capen 
c Western Hima- Herbert, in his mineralogical survey of the Hima- 
laya, is strangely confused in this matter of ranges. 
He lays down the Simla ridge as the proper continuation of the Eastern 
snowy range, consistently giving as his criterion the fact of its being the 
watershed of the Sutlej and the Ganges ; yet, in speaking of the other 
transverse ridges, parallel to the Simla ridge, he says :—* Like the princi- 
pal chain they cease suddenly, nor 1s there any trace either 1n the Doab 
or in Rohileund of a continuation of them, however obscure" (Jour. As. 
Soc, Ben, No. 126, p. 17). Adopting wider views on the subject, but 
still only such as are within the ken of the physical geographer, Colonel 
Cunningham considers the Bara Lacha range, bounding Chumba and 
Kashmir on the north, as the continuation of the ‘true’ Himalaya (Cun- 
ningham's ‘ Ladak,’ p. 42). If such relations as those of drainage system, 
ethnography, climatology, &c., are to be the criteria in determining 
the continuity of these ranges, east and west, this view is no doubt 
correct, for these in a great measure depend upon the one unquestionable 
fact that the Bara Lacha range is the culminating ridge. But not even 

this latter fact is of much weight in establishing the inference that these 


8 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. - [CnHar I. 

two ranges are one and the same member of the great Himalayan system, 
—a, signification which the word ‘true’ ought to convey ; indeed, it is the 
only sense in which the word ‘ true’ can here be made use of; for, as I 
have said, the mere fact of orography cannot be questioned. The whole 
question gives an apt illustration of how distinct are the views of the 
geologist and the physical geographer, or even of how incongruous the 
latter may be among themselves. Each of these writers is correct upon 
the bond fide basis which he adopts. From the geological point of view 
it may be doubted whether the question of identity can be entertained at 
all: the transverse ridges, such as that of Simla, are eliminated as being: 
superficial only, and among the true ranges each may either be an in- 
dependent member of the general system, or, relations of homology 
may be established between them. The complete change that takes 
place in the configuration of the mountain region suggests some radical 
difference of conditions. This contrast could not escape the notice of so 
acute an observer as Colonel Cunningham. Notwithstanding his iden- 
tification of the two snowy ranges, he says, in the work already referred to, 
“there is one marked difference between the Eastern and Western 
ranges which can scarcely fail to strike the most casual observer. The 
inferior mountains of the Eastern chain generally run at right angles to . 
its axis, whereas those of the Western range are mostly disposed in 
subordinate parallel ranges. The same facts may be illustrated by 
saying that the hills of Ohamba exhibit in a marked manner orographical 
features depending on the symmetry of elevatory action, whilein the hills 
lying to the south of the Eastern Himalaya there is seen an equally 
close approximation to that type of hill outline which results from denu- 
dation alone. No doubt, the actual contours in both cases are the 
immediate results of denudation, this result in each case having been 
influenced, or even predetermined, by the succession of previous 
subterranean phenomena. In the Lower Himalaya the ultimate or 

present configuration has been the result of denuding forces alone, in 


ut 
Ants 
ASCU 
Nh K 


46 Miles = 1| Inch. 

jee 

Fig: 1. SKELETON PLAN Shewing the position and relations of 
the mam ranges of the HIMALAYA, between the degrees of 

Longitude of 75° and 79:30 .E. 


CHAP. L] GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ROCKS. 9 

consequence of the absence of any dominant or marked lines of elevation. 
This region is one of comparatively neutral disturbance, whereas, in. 
the ridges of Chamba, we have strongly marked structural characters 
which I conjecture to be the attenuated, yet locally concentrated, result 
of the causes which produced the culminating zone of the Eastern 
Himalaya. The Dhaoladhar range is in the direct continuation of the 
Eastern Himalayan range, and is, I conceive, its true representative. We 
will see how very different its structure is from anything known in 
the Lower Himalayan region. But whatever views may ultimately be 
adopted regarding the true equivalence of these several chains of the 
Himalayan system, the structural peculiarities of the outer region of 
the Eastern Himalaya, and the external configuration resulting therefrom 
will require special explanation. The annexed diagram (Fig. 1) exhi- 
bits clearly in outline the features to which I am now drawing anion 
and the remarkable manner in which the Sub-Himalayan region is 
affected by the changes of the greater mountain-features. To the east 
of the Sutlej this region forms only a very subordinate fringing belt, 
while to the west it expands over a wide area; the outer or southern 
boundary undergoes little or no modification in direction, but northwards 
the Sub-Himalayan hills stretch to the very base of the Dhaola- 
dhar, thus oceupying the position corresponding to that of the region, 
which, more to the east, is specially designated the Lower, or Outer, 
Himalaya. The lines of disturbance are graduated with considerable 
regularity between the straight outer boundary and the sharp curves of the 
mner boundary (wide larger map). West of the Beas there is no equivalent 

for the Lower Himalayan region, as described to the east of that river. 

Before entermg upon the details of the stratigraphical features, I would 
indicate the general facts. In 1860 I submitted to 
Two series of rocks. A d 
the Asiatic Society of Bengal an abstract of the 
results I had up till that date arrived at. Although much new ground 

B 


10 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. [Cua»r. I. 

has been examined since then, as well as old ground revisited, the views I 
then expressed have undergone but slight modifications. From end to 
end of our map we find two series of rocks strongly contrasting in com- 
position. It is only provisionally that I speak, collectively, of the inner 
and older of these series. It comprises limestones, shales, sandstones, 
slates, grits, quartzites, schists, and gneiss,—an assemblage offering ample 
room for classification ; but I have as yet only conjectures to offer as to 
their mutual relations. These conjectures will be placed together in a 
separate chapter. I will frequently refer to these rocks throughout the 
following memoir under the indefinite names of Inner and Older rocks. 
The outer rocks, on the contrary, form a well marked geological series or 
system, although composed of several distinct groups and sub-groups. In 
honor of the most distinguished of these groups, I might designate the 
oll as the Sivalik series ; the details of its characters would be found 
to justify this name, but, on the whole, and as not involving an idea of 
geological age, I think the more general term of Sub-Himalayan series 
will be more suitable. 

With one exception, the newer, and the older rocks are separated 

Base of Sub-Himalayan throughout by a well marked boundary, along which 

eas they are in vertical contact. The contrast is striking 

to the least skilled geologist, and there can seldom be any hesitation in 
judging from the relative conditions of the two rocks which is the older. 
Such a junction, however, would be a most unsatisfactory horizon, or 
rather no horizon at all; it would leave the question of the original 
relations of the two series quite uncertain. The exception to which I 
allude clears up this question in the most satisfactory manner. Over a 
considerable area about the middle of our map, nearly occupying the 
whole length between the Sutlej and Jumna, there is to the north and 
east of this marked boundary line an outlier of the Sub-Himalayan 
series. We here find the base of the series, and its original junction 

with the underlying rocks,—a true geological horizon. The bottom beds 


CHAP. I.] ' GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ROCKS. li 

of this outlier rest on a denuded surface of the older rocks, and have 
been folded up with them in the same contortions. 
Although I have only mentioned this outlier as exhibiting the lowest 
member of the Sub-Himalayan series, it contains 
Subathu group. n ud 1 
in itself a well-defined group or formation of con- 
siderable importance, both in vertical thickness and horizontal extent, and 
admitting of two or three sub-divisions, no one of which can be strictly 
identified with beds of the higher groups to the south of it. These 
statements will be appreciated when I say that the Nummulitic strata of 
Subathu, which have so much contributed to bring this region into 
notice, form but a portion of this outlier,—the lowest member of these 
sub-divisions being thus the bottom beds of the whole Sub-Himalayan 
series. The prevalent character of the Subathu beds is calcareo-argil- 
laceous,—thick beds of silty clay, generally of subdued neutral colours, 
of very fine texture, and weathering in splinters, both acicular and 
sub-cubical, very rarely shaly, or even laminated. The calcareous 
element shows most frequently in irregular, sub-concretionary, earthy 
beds, but sometimes in thin beds of pure hard limestone. "There are also 
occasionally beds of hard coarse grits or fine sandstones, of similar dull 
colours with the clays. Among the upper beds of the sub-group thicker 
runs of sandstone become frequent, having a prevailing purplish tint, and 
with them occur strong beds of lumpy, gritty clays, of a bright and deep 
red. The mineral characters of the bottom beds become soon completely 
lost; the upper limit of this sub-group being thus transitional* and 
arbitrary. I have usually taken it at the limit of fossils, which are 
frequently very abundant, though ill-preserved, in the Subathu beds, but 
wanting (as far as my research extended) in those above. These lowest 
beds are nowhere better exposed than at Subathu, and in the khuds 

(deep valleys) to the south and west. 

* It is not intended by the word “ transitional” to convey any idea of locality or position 
but simply a change in lithological character by gradual alteration. 


12 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. [Cuap. I. 

'The lithological elements introduced im the top beds of the Subathu 
rocks increase, till they predominate, to the entire exclusion of any others ; 
they characterize the indefinite middle sub-group, and are typically 
displayed on Dugshai hill, and on the ridge to the north of it, through 
which the tunnel for the Tibet road is being carried. The deep red 
colour of the clays, and the corresponding dark purple of the sandstones 
of the middle portion of the Subathu group are useful, general charac- 
teristics. I used frequently in my note-book to designate the whole 
group as the “ Red Rocks,” as contrasting with the paler clays and gray 
sandstones of the upper groups of the series. As we ascend in the group, 
the arenaceous element increases to the almost total exclusion of any 
other. This is well seen in the steep cliffs that form the summit of 
Kasaoli ridge on the south-west. In these top-beds, both at Kasaoli and 
elsewhere, I have found some well-preserved impressions of land-plants, 
— leaves, seeds, and stems of various species. Among rocks so disturbed 
as these are it is necessarily hazardous to assign thickness; I do not think 
3,000 feet is an over-estimate for the whole group. In separate sections 
each of the sub-groups shows a thickness of at least 1,000 feet. What- 
ever duration it may be found necessary from fossil or other evidence to 
give to this group, or if even it should prove desirable palzeontologically to 
` separate more positively its upper and lower members, it must, I think, 
remain as a well-defined petrographical whole, an uninterrupted period 
of some order. Although there is a total and a very marked difference 
in the composition of the deposits, showing of course an equivalent change 
in circumstances, yet this change was, or at least may have been, a change, 
as it were, of natural growth, not involving the interruption of the 
formative process. The series seems to represent one uninterrupted 
sequence of formation, the deposits of tranquil and deeper waters 
being transitionally succeeded by accumulations of sand, in the upper- 
most of which we find unmistakeable evidence of the immediate proxi- 

mity of land, The absence of conglomerates or even gravels among 


Cuar. I] GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ROCKS. 13 

the Kasaol beds indicates the continuance of peculiarly tranquil con- 
ditions, contrasting, as will be seen, with the phenomena of the suc- 
ceeding groups. There is perhaps now an over-tendenéy to allow fossil 
evidence too exclusively to regulate our classification of rock series. 
Should the fossil evidence here require a great lapse of time, and con- 
sequent sub-division of the series, while accepting these additional 
faets and their consequences, let us not on that account destroy the 
independent unity of the whole. 
The rest of the Sub-Himalayan rocks might, from some general consi- 
derations, be regarded as but one group. Although 
E E the accumulated thickness would thus be enormous, 
there is much greater sameness of composition throughout than I have 
described in the Subathu group. The structural character and compo- 
sition of the Sivalik rocks, already so well marked in the Dugshai and 
Kasaoli beds, continued without exception through all the succeeding 
deposits. But wecan distinguish at least one interruption to the process of 
deposition, resulting in well-marked and general unconformity. The 
groups, thus separated, I will distinguish as the Nahun group, and 
the Sivalik group, or as the middle and the upper groups of the Sub- 
Himalayan series. It will be seen on the map that the junction of the 
Nahun group with the rocks on the south is very irregular: it is, 
however, a very decided boundary, and can be followed with the utmost 
precision through this region of continuous hills between the Kyarda 
and Pinjor duns. In the duns this junction is almost always concealed 
under the talus of the inner slopes. There is no better section of it 
than at a point three miles south of Nahun, in the valley of the Mar- 
kunda ; plate I. is a view of this junction, taken from the bed of the river, 
a few yards to the south. We find there regular beds of unconsolidated, 
brown, earthy conglomerates, and brown clays, dipping steadily at a 
moderate angle against the crushed, upturned, lower beds of the Nahun 

group, in which clays of a clear bright red are conspicuous. The 


14 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. [CHap. I. 

difference of general texture of the two rocks m contact is so slight as 
to be quite compatible with the supposition that they belong to one and 
the same conformable group, the top beds being simply let down by a 
fault against the bottom ones; but this impression is at once contradicted 
by the fact that all the larger boulders and pebbles in the conglomerates 
are of the Nahun sandstone. The identification is easy to any one who 
is familiar with the rocks to the north ; although, as a mass, the Nahun 
rock disintegrates directly into sand, yet strings and lumps of it do 
become tolerably hardened both by calcareous infiltration, and under 
certain conditions of exposure. In the abstract published in the “ Asiatic 
Journal" for 1861, I separated these rocks on this ground alone. I have 
since had the satisfaction of observing, within a mile of the Markunda 
section, a distinct case of unconformable overlap of these same conglome- 
rates on the Nahun beds.* 
Conglomerates, more or less like those on the Markunda, form invari- 
ably the top beds of the Sivalik group, and some- 
EAS PE times to an enormous thickness. They pass down 
conformably, and with a gradual change, into an untold depth of sand- 
stones and clays, the latter generally being very subordinate. In these 
lower beds of this group I failed to discover any reliable primary 
character by which to distinguish them from the beds of the Nahun 
group. There is perhaps a shade of difference in the degree of indura- 
tion of the two, but it is too slight and uncertain to be insisted on. 
The upper conglomerates just mentioned lap over the denuded base of 
the Nahun group. The distinctness thus established physically between 
the two groups is borne out in a most important manner by fossil 
evidence. This central region of our district; already so frequently 
noticed as peculiar, is the classic ground of the Fauna Sivalensis, as at 

present known to us. These giant fossils are found through some 

* The nests of lignite, which frequently occur in the massive sandstone beds of the 
Nahun group, have more than once excited expectations regarding the discovery of coal. 


CHAP. I.] GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ROCKS. 15 

thousands of feet in thickness of the Sivalik rocks, but my most 
patient search and inquiry on the spot has hitherto failed to trace 
one single fossil to the Nahun beds. I give this as my own expe- 
rience, but the contrary has been so circumstantially stated, and by 
such high authority, that the fact, as I put it, must be considered open 
to doubt. A letter of Colonel Cautley's, published in the “Journal 
of the Asiatic Society, Bengal,” for 1834 (Vol. IIL, p. 527), contains 
the following passage—“ Lieutenant Durand, on a late visit to Nahun, 
was fortunate enough to meet with the stratum of marl or clay- 
conglomerate, on the north face* of the mountain on which the town 
of Nahun stands; the remains therein discovered, in my opinion, 
identify it completely with the Sivalik stratum, the position of both 
being similar and in juxta-position with the calcareous sandstone ; 
the fossils in the Nahun deposits are exactly of a similar description 
to those found at the Kalawala Pass,—a pass in the Sivalik hills 
east of the Jumna. Lieutenant Durand’s discovery is of particular 
interest, from its having at once established the formation of the Nahun 
connecting link, as at this point the low line of mountains skirting 
the Dhera and Kyarda duns impinge upon the Himalayan chain. 
Since the discovery of these fossils I have visited the spot, and am 
satisfied with the identity of this formation with that of the Sivalik.” 
In a letter of Dr. Faleoner's (Jour. As. Soc, Ben.. Vol IV., p. 57) 
a less exact mention is made of the Nahun locality :—* In one of my 
tours I have had to return through Nahun. I got a hint of where 
the fossils came from, and on going to the ground I reaped a splendid 
harvest. This was on the 20th November (1834), a couple of days 
after Lieutenants Baker and Durand had got their first specimens 

? 

through their native collectors." The position is not here specified, 

and I venture to surmise that the last words of Dr. Falconer's remarks, 

* [Italics are mine. | 


16 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. [Cnar. I. 

the allusion to native collectors, may explain the doubt created by 
the former quotation. I cannot persuade myself that fossils are abundant 
any where on Nahun hill; I could never get a native even to take 
the trouble to look among the Nahun rocks, but among the lower 
hills to the south of the town every villager is familiar with the exist- 
ence of the fossils. I only insist on this point that special attention 
may be paid to it hereafter. However rare they may be, fossils must 
exist in this middle group of our series, and it will be most interesting 
to detect any change of fauna corresponding to the stratigraphical 
facts which I have indicated, and which must, I conceive, involve a 
considerable lapse of time. In a letter received from Sir iD, Cautley on 
this subject, dated 26th February 1859, he says:—“There is no doubt 
whatever of the fact of vertebrate fossils bemg found on the Himalayan 
side of the Nahun hills" In confirmation of this statement he goes on 
to describe a remarkable fossiliferous stratum in the Sivalik hills east 
of the Jumna, and, returning to the case in point, says:—“The stratum 
is a very remarkable one, and the fossils are equally remarkable; no 
mistake can possibly have arisen on the subject: I found, in company 
with Colonel Durand, the same stratum on the Himalayan side of the 
town of Nahun.” In the face of such a clear statement it may seem 
obstinacy on my part even to question the fact. "The very slight 
ambiguity left by the use of the word stratwm only in the last sentence 
is my last and only hesitation in the matter; if the identification is 
only a lithological one, it goes for nothing. 

Before leaving this subject, I would desire to correct an impression 
that is likely to be formed of the great abundance of these fossils. 
A glorious harvest has been gathered. The discoverers and early 
collectors came upon the untouched accumulations of denudation from 
time immemorial; fossils no doubt actually littered the ground in many 
places; but there will probably never again be such a crop. They 

occur, and are frequent locally, and in places a careful search will 


æ 

Cuar. /T.] GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ROCKS. 17 

be amply rewarded, but I doubt if any future collector will be able 
to say with one of the earlier discoverers that he “bagged three hundred 
specimens in six hours.” I had a man out collecting for about three 
months; he was a native of Nahun, and an old collector of Colonel 
Cautley’s. He did not find half the number that were worth carrying 
away, though, I believe, he worked honestly. A large number of small 
fragments might be obtained, but these are useless. 

The varying nature and the doubtful base of these upper groups of 
the series make it difficult to assign even an approximate thickness. 
It must be enormous in some places. There are local sections of the 
coarse upper beds alone, showing a clear thickness of at least 10,000 
feet. 

. Such, then, are the groups that will be traced out in the details 
that are to follow :— 

Sub- Himalayan. series. 
Upper Juss. vali Conglomerates, sandstones, clays. 

Middle ...... INaintume i Lignite, sandstones, and clays. 

( Kasaoli, gray and purple sandstones. 

| Dugshai, purple sandstones & red clays. 
Subathu, fine silty clays, with limestone. 

L (Nummulites.) 

Himalayan series. 

1, Unmetamorphic. 
Krol o. net Krol Hill ...Limestones. 
Infra Krol...Ditto ......... Carbonaceous shales or slates. 
Blini .........Blini river ...Limestone and conglomerate. 
Infra Blini...Simla......... Slates. 

2. Metamorphic. 
Crystalline and sub-crystalline rocks, &c. 

The remarkable similarity of primary characters pervading all these 

strata, namely, composition, mode of arrangement, and distribution, mark 
Cc 


18 

Fic. 2. 

SUP-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. [Cnar. f. 

SunATHU. Bog. 

NAHUN, 

Dun. 

Diagramatic section of Sub-Himalayan zone. 

SIVALIKS. 

PLAINS. 

KAsAOLI., 

d. Subathu group. e. Nahun group. f. Sivalik group. 

c. Krol group. 

them as having originated from a common 
set of conditions. The lowest beds, the 
Subathu nummulitic strata, offer the only, 
even local, exception to this rule, and they, 
at least in this district, pass transitionally by 
alternation into the prevailing type. The 
arenaceous type is a sharp, fine-grained gra- 
nitic sandstone, more or less felspathic, mica- 
ceous, or earthy, and showing corresponding 
shades of light greenish or bluish gray, 
brown, and purple. The argillaceous type 
is lumpy clay, gritty, micaceous, yellow, 
brown, and red. The massiveness of the 
bedding is remarkable throughout. The cal- 
eareous element is very subordinate, and only 
occurs as an occasional ingredient of the 
other rocks. Its most concentrated state is 
in irregular nodules in the clays, somewhat 
similar to the kunkur of the present plains’ 
deposits. The diagram section (Fig. 2) will 
illustrate the general relations of these sever- 
al groups. I would direct particular atten- 
tion to the fact, that I base the connection 
of the several groups of the Sub-Himalayan 
rocks into one series on purely lithological 
and structural considerations. Geologists are 
aware that the precise age of either the 
Subathu beds at the base, or of the Sivalik 
beds at the top of this series is still undefin- 
ed. And much less are we in a position to 

discuss satisfactorily the general affinities of 


Cuap. I] GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ROCKS. 19 

the local fauna and flora which existed throughout the period including 
these two formations. At the same time, knowing how intimate is the 
relation between the amount of change in organic and inorganic nature, I 
would venture to anticipate that, when fully investigated, the successive 
phases of life in this region, during the entire and prolonged period repre- 
sented by the great Sub-Himalayan series, will be found to exhibit an 
intimate interdependence, correspondimg to that which I shall show must 
have existed in the successive conditions of rock formation during the 
same period. 

A most interesting subject of consideration m connection with the 

ame 
HONOR opt usi acd Sivalik rocks is their relation to the great undis- 

present conditions. 

turbed deposits of the Indo-Gangetie plains. Save 
for the one feature of being in their original position of deposition, 
the Ganges valley deposits have as close an affinity to the Sivalik group 
as this has to the Nahun group, and might take rank as a fourth and 
uppermost member of the series. The comparison is most useful, as 
helping us to attach a proper value to the relations between the older 
groups. ‘The upper beds of the Sivaliks, as for instance in the range 
between the Pinjor dun and the plains, are identical in composition and 
mode of bedding with the deposits of the plains. There is further 
scarcely a shade of difference in their degree of induration. These deposits 
overlap the denuded base of the Sivàlik hills, just as the Siválik rocks 
overlap the denuded base of the Nahun hills. "The actual relation of the 
newer strata to those of the Sivàhk hills is precisely what I conceive that 
of the Sivalik deposits to have been to similar hills of the Nahun rocks, 
before they were crushed against each other by some slow irresistible 
lateral force. The infinitely graduated transition between past and 
present conditions, as suggested by these facts, has been very forcibly 
brought to my mind during the study of these rocks, and, from the 
least expected quarter, namely, that of disturbing causes. A most 

marked coincidence is observable between the variations of the Sivalik 


20 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. [Cuap. I. 

deposits and the actual positions of the great river courses: both in 
quality and ‘quantity the immense accumulations of boulder conglo- 
merates, forming the top of the Sivalik group, correspond with the 
actual debouchures of the great rivers from the main mountain mass, 
thus proving the great antiquity of even the details of the actual con- 
figuration. This is indeed a view to which one is predisposed by the 
contemplation of the prodigious results of atmospheric denudation in 
excavating the deep winding valleys through the mountains; but as this 
process has been variously impugned on the score of inadequacy, it is 
satisfactory to have the stores of geological time thus clearly opened to us. 
This same point has even a more important application than that just 
indieated. "These immense accumulations of coarse detritus have under- 
gone very great disturbance : they are often deeply faulted, sharply folded, 
vertical, and even inverted ; yet all this has been effected without sensi- 
bly affecting the details of contour in the adjoining mountain region. 
The bearing of observation in this direction upon the theories of moun- 
tain formation, and upon theories of disturbance in general, cannot fail 
to be very important. The most interesting example that I can mention 
of the fact here brought to notice is the case of the Sutlej at Bubhor, 
because at this place this mighty torrent has already for many miles 
flowed through rocks of Sub-Himalayan formations. Just north of 
Bubhor the river cuts through a ridge of massive boulder beds stand- 
ing nearly vertical. The materials of this deposit are precisely such 
as we now find in the bed of the river immediately above. Within a few 
miles on either side the low ridge formed by these rocks gradually 
disappears, the rock itself having passed into a pebbly sandstone. 

I regret that I shall have but little to say in connection with more 
recent surface phenomena. As one of the most interesting observations of 
this kind I may here mention the occurrence of what I believe to be 
glacial deposits in the Kangra Valley, along the flanks of the Dhaola- 

dhar, at a present elevation of not more than 3,000 feet. 


Cuar. IL] THE HIMALAYAN SERIES. 21 

CHAPTER IL—TÀhe Himalayan Series. 

BEFORE describing the Sub-Himalayan series, it will be desirable to 
give some account of the rocks upon which it rests, or with which it 
comes in contact. Although my examination of these older formations 
has not been detailed or consecutive, I can point out some structural 
features of great interest, which will, I hope, serve as useful indications 
to future observers. 

The almost total absence of fossils in all the rocks of the Lower 
um MP Himalaya augments indefinitely the difficulty 

of discovering their relations. In attempting to 
arrive at a preliminary idea of what, or how many formations may be 
present, one is left entirely to the unsatisfactory resources of litho- 
logical characters. From this point of view I can at present point out 
but two great divisions of the stratified rocks, —the metamorphic, and 
the unmetamorphie. Among the latter the dominant type of rock 
is a gritty slate, sharply thin-bedded, often finely laminated. With 
these there occur several continuous bands of limestone, some very 
massive.  Sandstones are subordinate, and capriciously distributed. 
Among the metamorphie rocks siliceous and mieaceous schists pre- 
vail ; hornblendic varieties are subordinate. Through these schists there 
occur frequently bands of gneiss, which often assumes a granitoid aspect. 
The only rock of undoubtedly intrusive origin to be found in this whole 
region of the Himalaya is a trap, which is frequently very extensively 
associated with the slates and schists; it shows very little variation 
of type, being, as a rule, basic, only occasionally appearing as a clear 
diorite ; its texture is generally obscurely crystalline, compact, schistose, 

or even vesicular, 


22 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. [Cuap. IT, 

Before going any farther, I must anticipate any ambiguity that 
Ns P might arise from the uncertain meaning of some 
common rock names. The word “ slate" is far 
too familar and appropriate to be limited only to rocks exhibiting 
in some perfection the special phenomenon of cleavage. It is now 
often defined in this sense, but such is not its general use among English 
writers. Such a restricted definition would be an awkward impediment 
in describing these hills where cleaved rocks are not common, though 
there is abundance of indurated argillaceous rocks to which the words 
mr slate d eai in their common apopriation are 
peculiarly applicable. As a correlative word to 
slate, I use the word * grit’ to indicate a large intermediate class of rocks, 
too fine grained and earthy to be called sandstone, and too rough for a 
slate. Of all sedimentary materials in their unaltered state it is only 
the very fine silts that become indurated into slates; most clays, 
earths, and muds would by induration result in grits. In adopting 
this meaning for the word grit, I am again accepting the practice of 
English field geologists, so far as my experience goes. The usual 
glossary-meaning of the word is a sharp sandstone, coarse or fine; but 
for the purposes of descriptive geology this definition is almost useless. 
` There is even a direct objection to such an application of the term; 
why remove a simple variety, as sufficiently indicated by the term 
‘sharp, from under the generic name sandstone? We cannot do with- 
out a class name for the rocks I designate grits. I only apply the word 
‘schist’ to foliated rocks,—rocks in which sub- 

Schist. : . ¢ Ae 
crystalline metamorphism is distinctly seen. Of 
course the varieties produced by gradations are endless; but I wish 
to convey the idea that these terms are only used to designate each 
a class of rocks. In using compound names to express interme- 
diate varieties, the noun, or the last word of a compound name is 

that whose characters preponderate; as e. g. quartzite-sandstone, to 


CHAP. IL| THE HIMALAYAN SERIES. 23 

designate a sandstone in which the granular character is considerably 
obliterated. 
Although I can bring some strong evidence to show that members 

Relative position of ©! the series spoken of as unmetamorphic appear 

rocks. sometimes as schists, and that therefore the sepa- 

ration of the twò series, solely on the basis of alteration, is not strictly 
geological, on the whole, the distinction will, I think, be found to be 
permanent, and more than simply lithological. The fact that the two 
classes of rocks are found in close juxtaposition admits of our giving 
some weight to the generally received opinion, that the least altered 
is, in the normal order, the uppermost, and therefore younger. Their 
relative position in the range bears out this conjecture ; the slaty rocks 
form, without exception, a fringe to the greater area of the metamor- 
phic rocks, and in several places projections from this fringe are deeply 
inserted into that area. In such positions, however, as well as in the 
fringing band, the apparent relation of the less altered rock is that of 
underlying the more altered. I will describe the detailed relations of 
these two series in several detached sections or areas, generally chosen 
with reference to the semi-isolated patches or projections of the sup- 

posed upper or younger series. 

By far the best sections that I have seen of the upper or unaltered series are in the neigh- 
bourhood of Solun, where there is a traveller's bungalow on the new road, midway between 
Kalka and Simla. This bungalow stands on the low watershed which joins two remarkable 
hills, the Krol and the Boj ; on the south-east, the hill of Kanoge, 
of similar features to the other two, joins the watershed as 
about its middle point. "To the north-west lies the open valley of the Blini. Along this 
watershed there is an excellent section, well exposed in the small road-cuttings, in 
which thin-bedded grits and slates alone are to be seen. The crumpling exhibited by 
these rocks is excessive, but towards either end the dip becomes more steady, and in- 
clines into the base of the mountain. Fig. 3 represents the section through the Krol 

Section of the Krol and Boj. 

and the Boj, taken a short distance to the west of Solun. There are on the line of 
section two outliers of the Subathu group, which do not extend so far as the 
watershed ; at present, however, we are only concerned with the older rocks. 
Immediately overlying the shaly slates there is found at all points round the base of these 
hills a coarse, quartzose sandstone ; it has here a pale yellow colour, owing toa very small 
intermixture of fine ochreous clay. In many spots along the road-side it is seen decomposing 


Fic. 3. 

SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. 

XN NI 
AN AN | 

cà da e3 
Gr 

/ 

S 

KUNDAN GHAT, 

BriNr. 

Bos. 
Section of the Krol and Boj mountains. 

. Knor. 

d', Kasaoli beds. 

c?, Blini group. 

c?. Infra-Krol group. 
d’. Subathu beds (nummulitic). 

cl, Krol group. 

d?. Dugshai beds, 

|Cuap. IT. 

into a sharp, coarse, dusty sand, which is carried 
in quantities to the neighbouring stations as an 
ingredient for mortar. Although very regular in 
its position, this sandstone varies considerably in 
thickness within short distances. It is important 
to have unmistakeable evidence of this fact, such 
as we find in the continuous sections round the 
bases of these hills, because we shall have to ap- 
ply it freely in attempting to connect these beds 
with others at a distance. Along the south-east 
side of the Boj there are not more than fifteen or 
twenty feet in thickness of this sandstone ; more- 
over it is here thin bedded, like the gritty slates be- 
low it, and like the limestone over it ; its charac- 
ters are, however, well preserved. Round the south 
and south-east of the Krol there does not seem to 
be much more of it than just noticed on the Boj, 
but on the west and north of the Krol it must be at 
least one hundred feet thick, and is in massive beds: 

Everywhere on these hills the coarse sandstone 

The lower limestone 1$ overlaid by limestone. 
gndishalese This too is subject to very 
decided changes in thickness and in character. 
The most conspicuous section of it is at the south- 
east angle of the Boj. There we have at least 
three or four hundred feet of clear, blue, compact 
limestone, in very regular, thin, three to six inch, 
beds ; it here and there contains some well-formed 
nodules, and regular strings of chert ; while else- 
where, as prominently along the eastern side of 
the Krol, there seems to be no more than a very 
few feet of the pure hard limestone, it being to 
a great extent replaced by thick and thin beds of 
a very fine semi-indurated marl, or calcareous silt, 
that breaks up into acicular splinters. In some of 
the beds of the Boj section an approach to this 
variety is easily detected. Among all these beds, 
as we ascend, shaly clays are introduced, often 
having a light, but bright, pink, and sometimes 
a mottled green colour. These clay rocks oc- 
casionally give rise to a little confusion when 
they occur at the contact with the Suabathu 
group. The average thickness of all these argillo- 
calcareous beds must be from five to eight hundred 
feet. 


Cap. II] THE HIMALAYAN SERIES. 25 

The highest beds of the Krol section consist of strong-bedded, dense, blue limestone, 

i often closely sub-crystalline. This rock is frequently, and 
Upper limestone. E 3 : . 
also largely, impregnated with chert in a strangely irregular, 
angular manner, both in continuous strings, and in distinct, angular pieces ; these latter 
are sometimes very small, and give to the reck a pseudo-fossiliferous aspect. I have failed 
to observe any marked boundary between these limestones and the beds below them. On 
the contrary, there seems rather a transition ; there are, not unfrequently, partings of pink 
and blue shale between the thick beds of hard limestone. There cannot be less than 
six or eight hundred feet of these rocks, forming the highest member of the Krol 

section. 

The group of strata noticed in the last paragraphs is of great import- 
ance in the description of the Lower Himalaya. "There can be very little 
doubt that these limestones are identical with that which most persist- 
ently occurs along the crest of the outer ridges 
from the Krol to Masuri and Naini Tal, and to 

which the greater elevation and the more rugged character of this belt is 

Limestone ridges. 

due. I believe too that many of the ridges and patches of limestone to 
be met with in the interior of the same mountain region will also be 
identified with these Krol rocks. Contorted and broken as these rocks 
are on the Krol and Boj mountains (and I have only attempted to repre- 
sent in the section the main features of these contortions), this is by 
far the least disturbed section of them that I have seen, and the only 
one that leaves their true position with respect to the gritty slate 
unequivocal. 

. Both on the Krol and the Boj these strong, hard rocks are completely 
insulated upon a base of the thin-bedded, underlying rocks. Denudation 
is of course the immediate cause of this insulation, but a deeper denudation 

elsewhere does not insulate them in this manner. 
CO MR These calcareous Krol rocks may, for convenience, 
be spoken of as one group. The coarse quartzite sandstone I will 
also speak of as the Krol sandstone. The rather abrupt change in 
the nature of the deposits indicates a considerable change of con- 
ditions, but I think, we may assert there is here no very great, if 

any, discordance between the Krol group and the underlying series. 
D 


2€ SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. [Cuap. Il. 

The evidence of this section is, I think, conclusive as to the normal 
position of the Krol group of strata, and warrants the supposition that 
the actual order of superposition is the original one. "The Krol group, 
therefore, at least provisionally, is to be considered as the most recent 
formation of all the series of strata of the lower rocks described in the 
present chapter, the next youngest rocks being the nummulitic beds 
of Subathu; but a possible modifieation of this view will be sug- 
gested farther on. In attempting to sketch the portion of the section 
that has been denuded from over the present valley of the Blini, the first 
idea suggested is to suppose it a great anticlinal bend. But such could 
scarcely have been the case ; the hill of Kanoge, as I have already pointed 
out, is at a short distance off in a position corresponding to about the 
centre of this Blini valley, and on it we find the limestone at the 
same height as on the Krol and the Boj, and forming again a broken 
synclinal. 

It may be noticed that the terms I have applied in describing 

e d the rocks of this group indicate a degree of in- 
duration inferior to that of the underlying strata. 
The term slaty is here scarcely applicable. It may be doubtful how far 
this difference in induration is due to the more purely argillaceous 
composition of the earthy beds of this upper group, or to their 
greater thickness of bedding, or to their being intercalated among 
hard limestones, where all have apparently undergone the same amount 
of disturbance. It is a fact, however, not to be lost sight of. Elsewhere, 
beds that I identify with those of the middle Krol are considerably 
more hardened, there being also in such cases independent evidence of 
the rocks having undergone greater compression. 

In the mode of disturbance of the strata these two remarkable moun- 
tains exhibit, typically, a feature that is not so strongly marked else- 
where, if indeed it be not peculiar to this portion of these hills., Tt 

is a very common fact throughout the external zones of the Lower 


Cmar. II] THE HIMALAYAN SERIES. 27 

Himalayas, as in other mountain regions, that the ridges occur along 
uc OUS synclinal axes m the strata. This character is 
even more markedly exhibited in the Subathu 
group than among the Krol rocks. In the Krol and the Boj we find this 
structure exaggerated into a quaquaversal convergence of dips. It 
is best exemplified in the Boj. The main road passes round the sharp 
south-east end of this elongated hill, and on all three sides the rocks 
are seen to have a steady and high dip inwards. At the summit this 
arrangement produces the strangest appearance, though it is only what 
might be expected with such a peculiarity of dip. There isa narrow 
rim of limestone surrounding a deep hollow, which in form perfectly 
resembles a crater. The bottom of this hollow cannot be much less 
ee es than one thousand feet from the rim, and there 
is but one exit, by a narrow slit on the north- 
west side, through which a small stream of water passes to the Blini. 
There are three such craters, or cups, in a distance of four miles and 
a half, which is about the length of the Boj ridge. It were impossible 
to account for such a structure as this by any single operation of dis- 
turbance, but it would readily result from flexures corresponding with 
the actual run of the ridge, if the strata had been previously broken into 
moderate anticlinal and synclinal folds in a transverse direction. The coin- 
eidence of two synclinals crossing each other nearly at right angles might 
evidently produce, by the aid of denudation, these crater-like hollows. 
From the section before us it would seem easy to determine what the 
l rocks are which underlie the Krol group. Along 
Underlying black slates. 3 
the road, on the south side of the Krol, there are 
numerous clear cuttings, showing the Krol limestone and sandstone most 
regularly and conformably overlying black, carbonaceous, shaly slates, 
In following the section downwards into the valley towards Kanoge hill, 
the same description of rock appears throughout. On the Boj we find a 

precisely similar section: along the stream which flows from its inner 


28 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. [CHap. IT. 

basin to the Blini, the slates are throughout more or less carbonaceous, 
yet on the road which winds along the low watershed connecting the two _ 
hills, over rocks, all of which, so far as I can make out, must be the actual 
continuation of some of those noted in the above sections, this carbona- 
ceous character totally disappears. The beds in the valley on either side 
must be at least as low in the series as those on the watershed, which 
are at an elevation of some 3 or 400 feet higher on the same 
strike. At many points on the watershed the rocks have been cut into 
for the road-way to a depth of ten or fifteen feet, but without showing 
any ‘difference. Excepting in this one respect of colour, and the very 
small amount of carbon that produces it, the beds of the watershed are 
readily identifiable with the dark-coloured, carbonaceous rocks to which 
we have just alluded. Similar cases on a smaller scale may be noticed on 
individual spurs. In many instances a transition is traceable by the 
gradual disappearance of this black or colouring ingredient. Frequently 
too, in such positions a calcined appearance is very marked, as if the 
carbon had been abstracted by some rapid process of combustion. This 
calcined appearance is often seen at a distance from the immediate prox- 
imity of any black rocks, but, as a rule, there is not even this slight evi- 
dence (if it can be considered any) of the carbonaceous character having 
formerly existed in beds which I am inclined to suppose once possessed it. 
Although I have not succeeded in finding a single vegetable impres- 
sion in these black rocks, I can hardly think that 

PERO CM AU the carbonaceous ingredient can be other than 
cotemporaneous ; for we find it characteristically displayed over so large 
an area, at such great distances (as will be frequently noticed in the fol- 
lowing pages), always in beds of the same stamp, and which are thus 
mutually identifiable, as well as by analogy of position, and by more or 
less continuous connection. The further inference becomes then very 
strong that an element so widely spread at the time of original deposition 

could not have been very locally absent, as has just been described in the 


CHAP. IL] THE HIMALAYAN SERIES. 29 

beds of the Solun watershed, and elsewhere. We are thus compelled to 
admit its local removal in such cases. Weathering is almost the only cause 
I can suggest, though it seems inadequate to account for all the facts. 
The most concentrated form in which this carbonaceous matter occurs 
is as a fault-rock, or where great crushing has 
a NS taken place.* In such positions it is of very com- 
mon, almost general, occurrence throughout the Lower Himalaya, being 
found in fault ground among schist-rocks even far away in the interior. 
The fact of the very general occurrence of this carbonaceous matter in 
this position, 1n fissures and in lines of crushed rock, in greater proportion 
than anywhere else, and also in places far removed from where there 
is any appearance of the black slates, may, with reason, be thought to 

invalidate the opinion I have expressed as to its origin in those slates; 

it certainly leaves that opinion conjectural. That the two phenomena are 
connected seems probable. 
The Infra-Krol beds consist of an uncertain, but considerable, thick- 
ness of thin-bedded gritty slates, normally carbo- 
meen naceous. Among these there occurs occasionally 
a thicker bed of fine sandstone, generally brown and iron-stained. There 
are also, but more rarely, lenticular layers of limestone. Just at the rise 
to the Boj, from the Solun watershed, there is an instance of the latter 
kind that has puzzled me a good deal ; if original in the slates it must 

be very discontinuous, as it does not show again in many good sections 

* Some little interest was excited about a year ago in these provinces about a rock of this 
kind in the neighbourhood of Subathu. Some discoverers, more ardent than wise, insisted 
that it was coal. There is some excuse for such a mistake being made from a superficial 
inspection of the matter itself. It has a brilliant jet-black colour, and is even slightly bitu- 
minous. Some of this supposed coal, of which I made a rough assay, gave as much as twenty- 
five per cent. of fixed carbon, ten per cent. of volatile matter, with sixty-five per cent. of ash- 
The greater portion of the ten per cent. driven off as volatile consisted of sulphurous fumes, 
a small proportion being combustible hydro-carbons. The ash is impalpable earth. Besides, 
even in hand specimens, this pseudo-coal always betrays its condition, being a flaky mass, break- 
ing up intoscales, like micaceous iron-ore, which it sometimes almost rivals in brilliancy. 


m 

30 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. [Cuap. II. 

close by ; there is, moreover, the possibility in this spot of its being a rem- 
nant of the nummulitie rocks caught in a contortion of the slates; but I 
could not discover any organic formsin it. The beds to which I will apply 
the term Infra-Krol group may be from 1,000 to 2,000 feet in thickness. 
The description I have given of the Infra-Krol beds would answer 
generally for the entire series of the unmetamorphic rocks below the 
Krol group. Although the base to this series of strata is not discoverable 
in this region, we find in them here a well defined horizon, a band of 
rocks that is very peculiar and characteristic, and 

nA which can be traced without any doubt to great dis- 
tances,—a remarkable circumstance when we consider that their united 
thickness is usually inconsiderable. This band promises to be of special 
utility in identifying the rocks in the interior with those of the outer 
parts of the Lower Himalayan region. The principal rock of this little 
group is a pure limestone, very dense, sometimes 

ae compact, sometimes sub-crystalline; its commonest 
colour is pale pink, but often blue and greenish yellow; it occurs in 
thin, well-defined layers, but these are often agglomerated together into 
one mass, the beds showing only as bands in this mass. From fifteen to 
twenty feet is the pretty constant thickness of the whole. The limestone 
by itself would be far from a satisfactory guide in the identification 
of disturbed strata, where it is sometimes brought into proximity 
with other similar rocks, such as those of the lower Krol beds, with 
which it might readily be confounded. It has, however, a constant 
companion more peculiar than itself, and the two combined fur- 
nish an unmistakeable clue. This other rock is a kind of conglo- 
merate. It occurs, I believe, below the limestone, though in the 
many inverted contortions it often appears above. The base of this 
conglomerate is a fine, gritty slate, of a dull 

e e green, or blue colour, in fact altogether like 

the thin-bedded rocks in the midst of which it occurs. Through 


Cuap. II] THE HIMALAYAN SERIES. 31 

this base well-rounded pebbles of quartz are thinly scattered, seldom 
larger than a hen's egg. These pebbles are sometimes so scarce as 
easily to pass unnoticed without special search. In most places sub- 
angular fragments of a slate rock are the prevailing foreign elements 
in the conglomerate, which thus assumes a very brecciated aspect. 
The whole appearance of this rock is often that of a trapash. Tt 
1s frequently thick-bedded, sometimes massive; its total thickness 
varies from ten feet to one hundred, or more in some obscure 
sections. I have traced it from the Blini to Naini Tal I will call 
this conglomerate and its attendant limestone by the name of the 
Blini group. From the source of the Blini river to its confluence with 
the Ghumber these rocks are never far off, and in many places 
they crop out across or along the river. As an irregular accompani- 
ment of these Blini beds I must mention a clear coarse quartzite: at 
two or three points in the lower course of the Blini this bed shows 
apparently over the limestone. It may elsewhere assume a greater 
development. 

The bend that the Blini river takes, from the longitudinal band 
of soft nummulitic rocks, through which it flows at first, across the 
general strike of hard rocks, under the north-west base of the Krol, 
enables us to see most unequivocal evidence of the true position of 

M du these Blini beds as regards the Krol group. In 

the valley west of Solun the Blini limestone © 
shows at several places at and near the boundary of the soft nummu- 
litic rocks. In the transverse gorge of the Blini stream the same beds 
are several times exposed crossing the stream; and again, along the 
lower valley of the same stream to its confluence with the Ghumber, 
the course of the Blini beds is about coincident with that of the river. 
The Blini group seems to be underlaid by the same kind of rocks as 
those overlying it. In every section that I have seen (and they are very 

numerous), exactly the same description of thin, shaly slates, and grits, 


32 

Fig. 4. 

SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. [Cnar. IL 

Haru, 

MUvTTIANI. 

MAHASU. 

JAKO. 

Tara Devt. 

SHAKU. 

KEARI. 

BLINI. 

c2. Infra-Krol group. 

Section approximately along the Simla watershed-ridge. 

b. Slates (the cross lines are only conventional). 

c3. Blini group. 

ci. Krol group. 

a2, Crystalline schist. 

with or without the carbonaceous ele- 
ment, are found on both sides; and 
it is impossible to suppose in every case 
that we see only a faulted, or contorted 
repetition of the overlying strata. 
The section along the watershed ridge 
Section from Simla. "pon ee 
la stands, and in 
continuation of that of the Krol, is one 
of the most characteristic that I can 
give. The actual straight line of such 
a section (Fig. 4) may be taken on the 
north-west of the Krol, from a point 
north-east of Subathu to Hatu, a 
summit 10,469 feet in height, rising 
on the east of Narkunda and Kotgurh. 
The direction is about north-east-by- 
east, and the distance thirty-two miles. 
The low ridge at the south-west end of 
the section is nearly in the strike of 
the Krol ; it is formed by a rise of the 
Blini limestone. The valley on the 
north-east is the lower reach of the 
Blini, and corresponds with Kundah 
gap on the north-east side of the Krol. 
It will be simpler to omit the descrip- 
tion of that portion of the section 
immediately to the north of the Blini, 
until after I have noticed the rocks 
at Simla, where, I believe, some of the 

beds already described can be identified. 


DU 

Cnar. IT] THE HIMALAYAN SERIES. 23 

Under that portion of the Simla ridge known as Boileaugunge, on one 
in of the northern spurs, about 600 feet below the 
E oe house called the Yarrows, we find a limestone 
and a grit conglomerate answering exactly to the description I have 
given of the Blini rocks, and which I cannot hesitate to identify with 
that group. At the place indicated these beds have a moderate dip to 
the south-south-west, which is the general dip all along the ridge at 
Simla. On the south-south-east spur from Jako, known as Chota Simla, 
at a small distance below the ridge on the north-east side, the same 
beds crop out. I noted both these localities in going to visit the slate 
quarries. 
The material used so generally at Simla as roofing slate is an 
S MNT imperfect lamination-slate, or indurated shale, 
obtamed always from below the Blini beds; it 
is a finer variety of a great series of shaly slates, grits, and thin, 
fine, earthy sandstones, that are well seen in the downward conti- 
nuation of these local sections at Simla, steadily underlying the 
supposed Blini beds. The strata being far less disturbed here than 
along the outer zone, these slates must, I think, be taken as the 
undoubted basis of the Blini beds; they are in every way similar to 
those often seen with the Blini rocks about the Krol. These Simla 
slates are quite free from carbonaceous colouration, and it may be that 
this character is peculiar to the otherwise similar beds which inter- 
vene between the Blini and the Krol groups, and which I have desig- 
nated the Infra-Krol band. If this inference be correct, this carbonaceous 
character would occasionally be a useful means in helping to distinguish 
between groups of strata that are in other respects very similar. 
Any geologist who had only studied the Simla rocks as seen on 
ee aise the top of the ridge, along the roads and paths 
about the station, would be surprised to be told 

that these upper strata were underlaid, right through the hill, by 
E 


34 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. [Cnar. IL 

such beds as I have just described. These upper rocks are what 

a corto ance ci would be called “metamorphic”; they are highly 
tered, foliated schists ; in parts, as on Jako, mica schists 
predominate; elsewhere, as on Boileaugunge, they are siliceous. They are 
sometimes even hornblendic and garnetiferous, as on the top of Jako, 
and on the point just west of Boileaugunge. Besides being in a more 
highly mineralized condition, all these beds show much more local crush- 
ing and contortion than do the underlying slates, and, as à consequence, 
they are very frequently traversed by large seams and veins of quartz, 
which greatly add to the general metamorphie aspect. Quartz veins are 
rare in the slates unless very locally along lines of strain. 

If then these strata be in their normal relative positions, and if the 
identification of the limestone, &c., below the ridge, with the true Blini 
limestone be correct, we must seek in the Simla beds for the representa- 

Powchonnübesctegn vee of rocks that overlie the Blini group in the 

uL Krol section. This can be done without any great 

strain on the facts. "The schists of Jako must, in this case, be the representa- 
tives of the shaly slates of Solun,—the black shales at the base of the 
Krol At a few spots, as along the Tibet road near the bazaar, on the 
north side of Jako, we find some direct confirmation of this supposition 
in the decided traces of a carbonaceous element in the schistose rocks. 
In the same view the schistose quartzites of Boileaugunge, which in strike 
would come over the Jako beds, and which extend down to the toll-bar, 
at the gap to Tara Devi, would represent the Krol sandstones, only consi- 
derably increased in thickness. At this gap there is a synclinal axis with 
much of the black crush-rock about it; it runs north 40° west, through 
Jatog hill On Tara Devi we have the reverse of the synclinal, and the 
repetition of the Simla section, the highly garnetiferous schists, and the 
schistose quartzites, all having a moderate dip to the north-north-east. 
The high cliffs on the west face of this hill are of these latter rocks. Even 

within so short a distance the thickness of the quartzites is less than on 


CHAP. IL] THE HIMALAYAN SERIES. 35 

the spur to the north of the synclinal,—a fact that increases the probability 
of their being the representatives of the Krol sandstones. In these 
schistose quartzites is found, very well developed, a structure that has, I 

think, been described by the name bacillary, con- 

Bacillary structure. 

sisting of very straight ribs and grooves, both being 
scored with minor ribs and grooves. This structure occurs in the plane 
of the bedding of the rock, and generally transverse to the present dip; 
but I failed to trace any constant relation between the two. 

I have yet to mention the highest rocks that occur about Simla. 
To the west of the toll-bar gap there must be a fault along the 
synclinal axis, with a considerable downthrow to the south-west, and 
accompanied by a general subsidence of the rocks to the north-west 
of Tara Devi This line of fracture passes through a portion of the 

"eus. Simla ridge at Jatog, and we find there a con- 

siderable thickness of the strata that overle the 
quartzites. The section is best seen on the south-westerly spur from 
Jatog hill The quartzites occupy the lower extension of the spur, 
corresponding to the Sairi ridge at Jatea Devi, and they have the 
same low dip to north-north-east; over them on the ascent there is a 
considerable thickness of dark blue limestone, schistose and carbonaceous, 
or perhaps more accurately, graphitic. Above these there come more 
schists, highly altered, almost gneissose, and then again strong-bedded, 
hard, blue limestone, with much irregular chert. Over this there are 
some garnetiferous mica-schists, but being at the summit, and in the 
very line of disturbance, their position may be doubtful On the whole, 
these uppermost beds of the Jatog section correspond well with those 
which we have already noticed in attempting to identify the whole 
series of these rocks about Simla with those of the Krol section. I 
believe we have.here the Krol group in a more altered state. 

All these Simla rocks, from the Blini group up, present the same 

difficulty, —that of their highly metamorphic condition as compared with 


36 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. [Cnuar. IL. 

the beds underlying them. To account for a state of things so appa- 
rently anomalous and incompatible with the generally received notious 
of metamorphic action, one is at first tempted to look for grand inver- 
sions of the strata. I do not think, however, that the general section 
gives any encouragement to this mode of explanation. The very 
approximate correspondence in the sequence of the deposits in the two 
sections, at Simla and the Krol, confirms the negative evidence against the 
inversion of the Simla rocks ; the theoretical puzzle of the metamorphism 
of the upper part of the series must therefore be got over in some other 
way. We may thus consider the more complex composition of the 
upper deposits to be an inducing cause of change, while their more 
heterogeneous conditions of texture as a series would account for their 
greater local contortion and fracture; and this state would itself be 
an inducing cause of mineral modification, and especially of the intro- 

duction of vem quartz. 

The portion of our general section intervening between the rocks I have described about 
Simla, and about the Krol, is not so well understood. Along the two roads to Simla we get 
excellent sections of these beds. On the new road, the more easterly one, we have seen the 
schistose quartzite dipping to north-north-east, and forming the 
south-westerly cliffs of Tara Devi. On the lower road the same 
beds, with a smaller inclination in the same direction, extend along the low ridge for the 
greater part of the way to Sairi. 'The nearest rocks to the south of these, and of which we 

Section south of Tara Devi. 

have already spoken, are the Blini limestone and conglomerate, as they appear at the turn of 
the Blini,on the north-west of the Krol. These beds can be traced for some way from this 
place on the north side of the stream that flows from Kundah Ghát (the gap to the north 
of tue Krol, between it and Hirti Hill), along the base of the spurs south of Keari bungalow. 
In a north-westerly direction these Blini beds stretch up from the river along the south- 
westerly spurs of the Sairi hills ; they are crossed several times along the road between 
Haripur and the erest of the hill, being greatly contorted. Thus there remain about six 
miles in a direct line along the eastern road, and about four miles along the western 
road, still unaccounted for. On both lines there is scarcely an exception to the north- 
easterly dip of the strata, these exceptions being narrow bands of crushed rock, indi- 
cating probably lines of twisting and displacement, or even of considerable faulting. 
About thirteen miles from Simla, a sbort way to the north of Keari bangalow, there is a 
rock that may help us to unravel the section ; it is a hard blue limestone, thin-bedded, about 
twenty feet in all, dipping at a high angle to the north-east. I 
suppose it to be the Blini limestone. In the unimportant character 
of being uniformly of a blue colour, it is less like the Blini rock than what we find at 

Keari limestone. 


CHAP. IL] THE HIMALAYAN SERIES. 37 

Simla. Under it, along the road to the bungalow, and stretching up to form the crest 
of Hirti hill, on a spur of which the bungalow is built, there is a rock that may represent 
the Blini conglomerate, which it resembles in many ways. though here not conglomeritic. 
It is a greenish slaty grit in massive beds, with occasional thick beds of a harder, sandy 
variety of a reddish tint. Below these, down the spurs to Kundah Ghat, there is a fine 
section of beds that one can scarcely hesitate to identify with the Simla slates. Here also, 
though considerably more disturbed than at Simla, they are quite free from foliation, or from 
adventitious veining. The position of these slates confirms greatly the opinion that the 
Keari limestone is the representative of the Blini rock. In proceeding down towards 
Kundah Ghat the dip gradually decreases to a small angle, but 
the beds are greatly broken up, and traversed by frequent 
cracks, and small faults. Fig. 5 represents a section of these rocks, only thirty yards in 
length, on the road side about half way down the hill. Close to the gap (Kundah Ghat) the 
dip becomes suddenly vertical again, and continues so up tothe rise of the Krol. The view 
Fig. 5. 

Kundah Ghat. 

pea res cee UE neath TM e Rt, PIAL oly Bea a —— -— =-= -— -— —- — > 

Exact section, thirty yards long, showing mode of fracture and contortion of the slates, 
north of Kundah Ghat. 
I take of the section here is represented in the section (Fig. 4), showing a considerable fault 
along a folded anticlinal flexure. The small details of structure exhibited in Fig. 5 are 
certainly in keeping with this general view. If my identifications of the rocks be correct, this 
fault must have a total throw of several thousand feet. Itis along this line that the Giri 
flows in such a remarkably straight course to the south-east ; and we will presently see how 
similar the section remains in that direction. 
The description of the section to the north of the Keari limestone, or perhaps we may say 
of the Blini limestone at Keari, is not easy. This portion of the watershed-ridge consists of 
a series of gaps and low eminences connecting Hirti and Tara 
Shaku gap. niin 5 : : 
Devi hills, being across the strike, as is usual in these purely 
denudation-ridges. The rocks are well exposed along the road cuttings. Above the limestone 
there is a thick band of mica-schist much traversed by quartz ; it is altogether very like the 
rock of Jako. It is succeeded in ascending order by very finely bedded, slaty schists, and 
sub-schistose flags, dipping at high angles, more than 509, to north-north-east. There 
is thus altogether a greater apparent thickness of rock than we have as yet supposed 
to intervene between the Blini limestone and the Krol sandstone. The section is not, how- 
ever, unbroken ; a more careful search might find, above the strong siliceous beds that form the 
low peak over Shaku gap on the north, evidence of a repetition of Blini limestone ; imme- 
diately on the north of the knoll formed by these beds there occur again softish micaceous 
schists, that pass, with a low undulating and contorted dip, under the quartzites of Tara 
Devi, as the schists of Jako pass below those on the north of the synclinal. At Shaku gap 
and along the short incline down to the next gap, we are, moreover, at liberty to suppose any 


38 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. [Cuap. II. 

amount of displacement, the rocks being vertical, and with, as usual in such places, much of 
the black crush-rock. By some such supposition the whole section between Simla and the 
Krol is closed up. 

Along the old road, from Haripur to about two miles north of Sairi bungalow, the same 

E EAE eu ee succession of rocks can be recognised as between Kundah Ghat 
and Tara Devi. On the north-east side of Sairi hill there is a 
small thickness of blue limestone like that of Keari, and in an analogous position, but here 
the rock underlying it is abundantly conglomeritic. Here also this limestone is the line of 
demarcation between overlying beds of very decided schistose character, and the underlying 
slaty rocks,—a position already noticed, as so marked in the case of the Blini limestone at 
Simla. The’ Shaku line of strain, with graphitic crush-rock, passes along the steep face of 
the hill north of Sairi bungalow. 

The ridge of Mahasu, to the north-east of Simla, is the best defined longitudinal portion 
x : that occurs along this composite watershed. In Mahasu ridge 
Section N. E. of Simla. 5 : aem E 5 
we have the reverse of the Simla dip ; the anticlinal axis being, 
as usual, a line of greater denudation. This anticlinal is not a single well defined bend. 
Going along the connecting ridge, from the north-east point of Jako, we find the Simla 
slates for about a mile approximately horizontal,as seen in the tunnel through which the 
road passes. Immediately beyond this a high south-south-east dip appears again, and after a 
short distance we come upon a line of intense strain and contortion, horizontal and vertical 
strata being seen abutting against each other repeatedly. Still in all this confusion I could 
detect but the repetition of the thin-bedded grits and slates of the Infra-Blini series ; the 
faulting, if any, must be slight. 
The introduction of a prevailing north-north-east dip towards Mahasu is very gradual. 
Along the rise to the ridge, and on it, the inclination of the 
Change of dip. E X 5 " 
strata is low and irregular. On the new road, which winds at a 
constant level along the north flank of the ridge, the same slaty rocks are seen in this condi- 
. tion of brokenhorizontality ; sharp rolls or contortions are not unfrequent, and in no con- 
stant direction : the flat undulations also vary, although their longest slope is most frequent- 
ly to the east-north-east and east. The beds seen on the top of the ridge are more schistose 
than those below. Itis possible that the Blini group is somewhere to be seen, but I failed to 
notice it. 
From Fagu bungalow, at the east end of Mahasu ridge, passing Theog to Muttiani, 
His there is no remarkable eminence along the winding watershed. 
Fagu to Muttiani. o ug ò q Q o 
At Muttiani this main drainage ridge is connected with the 
more lofty ridge which extends from the snowy peaks in a west-south-west direction to termi- 
at nate in the summit of Shali,—a conical peak that forms a 
well known feature in the landscape from Simla. Between 
Fagu and Theog there are two or three instances of special strain and local contortion, but, 
as we have seen between Jako and Mahasu, no new rock is introduced, and at Theog the 
same thin-bedded slaty grits, which I presume to be the Simla slates are, as usual, irregu- 
larly waved horizontally. To the north of Theog hill a more steady dip commences ; its 
mean direction is east-north-east, but still at a low angle. Some strong quartzose beds here 


CHap. IL] THE HIMALAYAN SERIES. 39 

determine a short ridge along the strike. There is also a general increase of the siliceous 
element, and the texture exhibits incipient foliation. The portion of the higher chain, 
between Muttiani and Narkunda, is made up of these schistose slates, and quartzose rocks ; 
some bands are complete mica-schist. At several points the graphitic ingredient is very 
manifest, The strata have a moderate dip of 20° and under to the north-east and east. 
f Along the road between Narkunda and Baghi there is no change 
Narkunda and Baghi. ‘ 
worthy of notice, save the gradual and complete general develop- 
ment of the foliation. At Baghi the mica-schist still maintains the low easterly dip. The 
portion of the section last noticed is along the north flank of Hatu. At the summit of this 
hill, and overlying the rocks of the lower section, we find coarsely porphyritic gneissose schist, 
in massive beds inclining at 10° east to 30° north. 

The section through Simla, of which I have given an outline, is 
in several respects remarkable. A very critical 
point in the interpretation of it is the identifi- 
cation of the Krol group at Simla itself, and the chief evidence for this 
is the band of strata so like the Blini group, and which I believe to 
represent that group. But for this identification the close connection 
of the uppermost beds of the unaltered series with the great mass 

of these rocks,—the infra Blini beds or Simla slates, would, as far 

Simla Section. 

as my observations extend, remain very doubtful; and without this 
link we should have been still further at a loss for any connection 
between the Krol rocks and the metamorphic rocks. In this section 
the connection is less broken than we shall find it elsewhere: at 
Simla we have the Krol group in an advanced state of metamorphism, 
and resting on strata which appear gradually to become associated 
with the highest type of metamorphism, in the porphyritic gneiss of 
Hatu. What has just been said of the Simla section seems to be 
N eao, connected with the comparatively little disturb- 

ance it exhibits. This character is marked from 
the very outset. In the region of the Krol we find the uppermost rocks 
much less confused than at any other place I could point to. The line 
of the contortion and faulting along the lower Giri and Ushni is much 
reduced beyond Kundah Ghat; it seems to vanish through the greater 

general elevation of the rocks to the south-west of it, of which elevation the 


40 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. | Cn». II. 

removal of the entire Krol group is the most noticeable result. Through- 
out the rest of the section the same comparatively undisturbed stratifi- 
cation obtains, and this seems to become more marked as we proceed 
inwards to the higher hills; the gneiss on the summit of Hatu is almost 
horizontal, There is another peculiarity worthy of notice and suggestive 
of connection with those already mentioned. Throughout the whole of 
this section, although it is the portion of the Lower Himalaya region 

Absence of intrusive Which I have most frequently visited, I have 

“eles. noticed but one instance of intrusive rock; it is 

a small trap dyke in mica schist, about three miles from Narkunda, to- 
wards Muttiani. Within ten miles to the north-west of the Krol, green- 
stone appears among the uppermost rocks, and rapidly increases in fre- 

Abundance in Krol quency. Similarly to the south-east, about the lower 

mocha ee Hero: Giri, green-stone is abundant. Again, due north 

of Simla, in the valley of the Sutlej, where the unaltered Krol and Infra- 
Krol groups appear deeply set in among the metamorphic rocks, trap 

rock occurs in great abundance. 

The Simla section serves as a convenient starting point from which 
Rocks to the south-east tO trace the connection of the rocks on either side : 
OOFSHGE I will first take up the region immediately to 
the south-east. I have already mentioned the Chor mountain as a very 
remarkable feature. It attains an elevation of 11,982 feet, and is by 
far the highest point so near to the edge of the Lower Himalayas. It 

is also in other respects peculiar: it presents on 

Chor mountain. 

a small scale a complete example of a phenomenon 
that is more extensively developed elsewhere, and of which a satisfactory 
interpretation is necessary to the general explanation of the mountain 
structure ; I allude to the strange mode of occurrence of great masses of 

granitoid gneiss. The allwre of this rock, as judged from local and limited 


Cap. II] THE HIMALAYAN SERIES. 41 

sections about the Chor, is apparent interstratification ; although here 
too we have undeniable proof that it is abruptly discontinuous in strike. 

Almost equal anomalies meet any supposition of the rock being intrusive. 

My examination of this mountain has been very incomplete. I have however been on all 
sides of it, in marching from Simla to Masuri by three different routes across its northern and 
southern flanks, and my observations on these three occasions are sufficient to indicate the 
general physical features of this hill. The most northerly of these routes is the regular 
road by Chepal and Deobun, leaving the Chor quite to the south. 

Along the valley of the Giri, from Kot to where the river turns at right angles to the 
eastward, the beds that I have spoken of as the Simla slates 
or Infra-Blini series are the only rocks seen: this line passes 
right across the base of the Chor on the north-west, and is parallel to the section which I have 
described along the Simla watershed. The rocks are in a state of broken horizontality, 
being occasionally crushed or sharply bent, but on the whole only slightly inclined. In the 
northern part the tendency of this inclination is most markedly eastwards, and in the 
southern it is north-north-east; in both instances being more or less in the direction of the 
Chor. In following up the valley of the Junkunta (the stream flowing northwards from the 
Chor) this moderate inclination of the strata is preserved, the rocks becoming gradually more 
schistose ; above Mandera there are hornbiendic and felspathie schists with intermingled 

Upper valley of Giri river. 

graphitic matter, and these are succeeded by garnetiferous  miea-schists, more or less 
siliceous. Such are the rocks on the spur crossing from Mandera to Suran, and they there 
have a moderate dip to north-east and east-north-east. AtSuran coarsely porphyritic gneiss is 
exposed in the river-bed, I believe 2» situ; the schists close by are, as elsewhere, only slightly 
inclined, but here the inclination is outwards, —from the mountain: they thus apparently rest 

on the granitoid rock. Again, in crossing the eastern spur from 

East spur of Chor. ; 

Suran to Baluk these same schists occur the whole way, and in the 
same slightly disturbed position. Massive limestone appears below Baluk. I can only make 
3 faint conjecture as to the identity of the rocks in this section on the north of the Chor 
with the others I have referred to of similar lithological character in the Simla district. The 

Gremium ridge of Bulsun and Chepal, along which the Masuri road runs, 

seems to correspond with Mahasu; the siliceous schists and 
schistose quartzites, having a slight northerly dip, and forming the great precipices on the 
south face of the ridge, may be the same as the Boileaugunge quartzites (Krol sandstone). 
If such be the case, we should expect, in going southwards, along the connecting ridge from 
Chepal to the Chor, to find the Simla slates on the intermediate mountains. In supportof this 
general view we find the Blini limestone and its peculiar conglomerate (or else an exact 
counterfeit of them) where the road crosses the Tons, about three miles below its con- 
fluence with the Pabor ; the eastern pier of the swing-bridge rests upon these rocks. This 
locality is in the line of the general strike on Chepal ridge. 

In the section round the southern flanks of the Chor we meet with rocks similar to those 
onthe northern. In the Bajathu, and on thespur to the south 
of it, the slates are little disturbed. Above Ratub the rocks become 
schistose, still with a low easterly dip. The siliceous mica-schists continue up to Hanuta ; 

F 

South flank of Chor. 


4.2 $ SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. [CHap. If. 

about Banallah and Sohana soft mica-schists, and hornblendic, garnetiferous schists are 
horizontal, or incline at a low angle to the east. A dense hornblendie trap-rock occurs among 
these rocks in this locality ; it is the only rock of its class I have noticed in the vicinity of the 
Chor. On the spur east of Sohana the felspathic rocks show in massive beds, twenty and forty 
feet thick, and still dipping at 15? to east-north-east. The same massive granitoid rocks appear 
in the valley, about a mile above Talichoag ; and again on the spur west of Nara they occur low 
down. ‘There are here some coarse pegmatitic varieties, with lumps of schorl, as large as a 
man’s head. East of this spur a high northerly dip often occurs locally, both in the schists 
and the gneiss. At Chara mica schists are again but slightly inclined, and to north-north- 
east. In the relative positions of the rocks there is however a very important contrast between 
the junction on the north and on the south of the Chor. On the north the schists rest on the 
granitoid rock. On the south the superposition of the latter is decided. 

I went up the Chor along the spur west of the Palar. The ascent was very laborious, as the 
snow was in many places waist-deep (23rd February). The sections were of course concealed, 
but in the great, bare masses on the summit I could see that the 
rock was the same as elsewhere,—a coarse, but distinctly foliated 
rock, weathering in a sub-angular manner, corresponding with such a texture, and not as a 
massive rock. I did not cross the south-eastern spur at a higher point than Geruani, where, 
as might be anticipated, the felspathic or granitoid rocks are not found. Thus, then, the mass 
of granitoid gneiss is isolated. Besides the many local observations proving that the foliated 
structure of this gneiss is constant, and that it always has a stratified appearance in these 
rocks forming the summit of the Chor, and showing also the general parallelism of dip in these 
rocks with that of the associated schistose and slaty beds, we find in addition that the 
general feature of interstratification is equally well marked. : In the great gorges on the 
south of the mountain the outcrop of the junction of the granitoid with the schistose 
rocks forms a decided curve inwards, or to the north ; while at Suran, on the north 
of the mountain, there is an equally distinct curve in the same direction (outwards), the river at 
Suran having markedly undercut the plane of junction. In both cases, however, and especial- 
ly on the south, the underlie of this plane of junction seemed to me steeper than what should 
be due to the low angle of dip in the associated schists, supposing the two coincident. The 
form of the mountain also corresponds with the structure I have described, being more steeply 
scarped on the southern face than on the northern. The ground-plan of the granitoid mass 
(as broad as long) is nearly as great a difficulty on the supposition of intrusion as on that 
of mere metamorphism ; and this difficulty is increased by the absence, so far as observed, 
of any of the concomitants of igneous intrusion, such as disloca- 

tion with permeation of veins, or of special contact action of 
so great a quasi-igneous mass. 

Granitoid rock of summit. 

No veins. 

'The region on the south-east of the Chor presents one important point of agreement with 
the sections on the north-west and on the south-west : the 
inclination of the strata is towards the mountain. I cannot state 

South-east of Chor. 

the facts so closely as in the other cases, as I have not been on the Haripur ridge, which is 
the main south-easterly spur of the Chor, but from Geruani and Juin all down the valley 
of the Neveli to beyond the Tons a north-westerly inclination is general in the strata. The 
section is, however, much more complicated than on the west: from the Giri up to the 


CHAP. IL] THE HIMALAYAN SERIES. 43 

appearance of the crystalline rocks we found on that side an apparently regular succession 
of rocks answering to the general characters of the Infra-Blini series ; on the east, however, 
UM within a few miles of the summit, we find that limestone 
becomes a prominent rock. Below Baluk, far up one of the 
gorges of the Suinj, there is a dark, carbonaceous, and schistose limestone, dipping in 
under the schists of the ridge. It is underlaid by sub-schistose slates, and these by a great 
thickness of massive, compact, and often cherty, limestone. Locally this rock exhibits much 
dislocation and twisting, in consequence of which, and of its generally small inclination, 
it appears low down all along the valley of ‘the Suinj, and in the Tons about its confluence 
with the Suinj. The same limestone reaches up on the east of the Tons to form the lofty 
s ridge of Deobun. .At many places along the Tons and the Suinj 

Deobun ridge. 4 E i ^ 
the limestone is seen to be underlaid by brown, crumbling, clay 
slate, and other varieties of similar rocks. It is in these strata that the rich veins of galena 

occur at Oniar on the Tons, a few miles below the confluence of this river with the Suinj. 
An essential point in the discussion of the district of the Chor is thatof 
the identity or the distinctness of the great limestone 

Suinj and Krol rocks. y AA 

formations of the Suinj valley and of the Krol. 
As bearing upon this question, I will indicate the possible continuity of 
the two rocks. The great spurs which. radiate from the Chor are cut 
off on the south-west and south by the remarkably straight valley of the 
Giri. On the opposite side of this valley runs the equally straight, longi- 
tudinal range of limestone. The synclinal form of 
Lower valley of Giri. ; f é J 
the ridge is maintained throughout, though locally 
the rocks are greatly disturbed. In crossing the ridge from Mypur on 
the south to the confluence of the Palar and Giri, all the members of the 
Krol group are easily recognized. At the base, in the Giri, the Blini 
limestone occurs typically. The great upthrow to the north of the river 
brings in the same series of grits and slates as described south of Keari ; 
for some miles up the Palar there is an unbroken section of these slates, 
showing a varying dip to the north-north-east. The great faulted anticlinal 
of Kundah Ghát, to which the remarkable features just described are due, 
after continuing so steadily in a south 40? east direction for about thirty- 
five miles, down the valley of the Gin to its con- 
End of Giri fault. ! í J 
fluence with the Palar, at this point becomes 

variously split up; and the limestone range, which it had so strictly 


44. SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. [CHap. IT. 

defined, shares its fate. Some obscurity is thrown upon the nature and 
extent of this interruption of the fault, by the fact that the cutüng 
off of the Subathu group, to the south-east, coincides exactly with the 
direction of this fault line. The extinction of the Subathu group 
can be shown to be due to general easterly elevation and consequent 
bevelment of its beds, and the coincidence just noticed suggests that 
the similar upheavals to the north-east of this line are interrupted 
portions of the same phenomenon. However this may be, we find 
that from below the confluence of the Palar, the hills on the left 
of the Giri are composed of the Krol and Infra-Krol rocks, instead 
of exclusively the great Infra-Blini series. 'Phe change is introduced 
below the confluence of the Palar and Giri. The Blini conglomerate 
is found high on the summits over Railu, and Shengri; more to the east, 
in the same line, it is met with m the gorge north of Gailu, and in 
the gap between Geruani and Juin. From Sheng to the Olong peak 
the section is very similar to that between Keari and Tara Devi ; 
schistose slates, graphitic, micaceous, or quartzose, alternate, with a 
variable low northerly dip. On the north-north-west spur from Olong 
they are capped by a considerable thickness of dark earthy lime- 
stone. North of this spur, deep in the gorge of the Palar, we again find 
the slates and grits nearly horizontal, and on the ascent to Chorna 
the graphitic schists are repeated, but here they are surmounted 
by hornblendic and felspathic strata,—possibly the earthy limestone 
altered. North of Chorna there is a band of coarsely crystalline, white 
limestone. 

We can still follow up the Krol group with some certainty. The Giri, below its 

confluence with the Jalar, flows in a more easterly direction 
Continuation of Krol group. z MG ENS REM ? * 
and still along an anticlinal, the Blini limestone showing 
itself at intervals. North of this part of the river we find, in the J'uma ridge, the modified 
continuation of the limestone range to the north-west. On Juma most of the Krol rocks can 
be recognized, though greatly more contorted and obscured than at any point west of the 
Giri; the limestone is often a white marble. To strengthen this identification we find the 

Blini limestone again in the valley to the north of the ridge, under Koad. 


Cmar. IL] THE HIMALAYAN SERIES. 45 

In the hills north of Koad there is a note-worthy example of variability in the rock which 
Isuppose to represent the upper Krol limestone. In the valley 
the Blini group is well exposed ; on ascending to Jerrog dark 
slates and grits have a steady northerly underlie ; at Jerrog there is a band of thin compact 
limestone, over this come more shaly slates, with fine, crumbling, earthy, calcareous beds. 
The dip gradually diminishes to a low angle. So far we have a very fair representation of 
the Infra-Krol and lower Krol strata, except in the absence of the Krol sandstone, in its 
normal position. Conformably resting on these beds, and with the same low northerly dip, we 
find, forming Kerloe peak, some six or eight hundred feet of 
thick clear sandstones, with occasional shaly partings, and at the 
summit of the peak just a remnant of hard, cherty, sandy limestone,—a typical upper Krol 
rock. Besides the evidence of this hard, sandy limestone, I found, in the extension of the 
same band to the eastward, that in many cases beds of sandy limestone occur through the 
more purely arenaceous strata, so that it seemed to me that this band was not to be considered 
so much a newly intercalated member of the series as a local modification, and a true equiva- 
lent of the upper Krol limestone. Far to the west, about the Sutlej, I shall have to call atten- 
tion to a similar fact, in what I sappose to be the same set of beds. Immediately north 
of Kerloe peak there occurs a line of great contortion. The sandstones turn up in a 
uniclinal curve to nearly vertical, and are then folded over on themselves again by a 
sharp anticlinal. Along the line of gaps on the southern spurs of Guma ridge, to the 
north of this arenaceous band, beds of black and calcined shaly 
slates are again brought in, dipping northward under the 
limestone which forms the Guma ridge. 

Near Koad. 

Kerloe Peak, 

Guma ridge. 

In descending into the valley of the Neweli from the west, one passes downwards over a 
thick section of slates and grits. The valley is denuded along a 
flat anticlinal, the axis of which slopes to the north of west ; the 
strata on the north incline more to the north-west, and those on south to the west ; about 
Batewli there is a considerable thickness of black, ferruginous, and flinty slates, and they are 
succeeded by a great thickness of hard, clear, finely granular limestone, sometimes very com- 
pact. Below it, under Othri, there is a conglomeritic band among the slates ; it may repre- 
sent the Blini group. This great limestone in the Neweli is no doubt the same as that seen 
more to the north in the Suinj. In both sections, as so often elsewhere, we are confronted by 
the difficulty of the apparent intercalation of our supposed uppermost rocks with strata, which 
in less troubled sections seem to underlie them. A few weeks’ work on the hills about the 
head-waters of the Neweli, the Bungal, and the Suinj ought to throw much light on this 
important question, as well as on that of the granitoid rocks on the summit of the Chor, and 
with which it is connected. I hope that the few indications I have given will at least show 
what are the difficulties to be encountered. 

Valley of Neweli. 

Whatever links in geological structure we may establish between the 
Chor mountain and the Himalayan range in gene- 
Structure of Chor. ; : i 

ral (and these links are not few), this mountain 

hasa very decided individuality of its own, of which I am ata loss to give 


46 T SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. [CHar. II. 

a satisfactory explanation. Indeed, until this special question of the form- 
ation of the Chor be settled, it would be idle to speculate upon the rela- 
tion which this bears to the more general one of the Himalaya range at 
large. The Chor now stands within, or rather at one side of, an area of 
special elevation : immediately to the east of it the upper rocks of the 
Himalayan series occupy a wide area in the Lower Himalayan region ; 
while to the west, at and above the mean elevation of the hills, we find 
the lower members of the series, although at Simla we found evidence 
that the upper beds had once existed throughout. A leading question to 

Lines of intensity of Pe determined with regard to this area of special 
disturbance: elevation is:—has it any lines of maximum intensity, 
and where are they ? In the south-west portion of the area there can be 
very little hesitation in placing such a Ime near the great fault. The 
action along this fault seems to have extended with undiminished inten- 
sity to as far as the confluence of the Giri and the Palar, and in this region 
it is confronted by the Chor. The features I have described on and about 
the Chor warrant, I think, the inference that it has been a focus of activity, 
but it is still an open question whether or no special elevation is involved. 
The fact that this point is now the highest summit in the district does 
not affect the reasoning ; it will be evident that this may be due to the 
action of denudation,—the Chor may in reality have been a focus of 
depression. In the absence of recognizable stratified rocks, the question 
will turn upon the view to be taken of the central granitoid mass, 
— whether it has resulted from the elevation of a more deeply 
seated metamorphic rock, or whether it be a simple intrusion, in 
the more exact meaning of the word, of a more or less plastic rock. 
In the former case we should have to regard the Chor as a most remark- 
able instance of special elevation, while in the latter case its special 
depression might be surmised. The lithological and special structural 
characters of the granitoid mass are against the probability of its origin 

from fluid intrusion. The exception on the north-east side to the 


Cuap. II.] THE HIMALAYAN SERIES. 4T 

convergence of dip that forms so peculiar a feature of the region round 
the Chor, seems to me strongly in favour of a faulted elevation and 

semi-intrusion, such as I have attempted to represent in Fig. 6. 
Fig. 6. 
S. W. N. E. 

Conjectural section of the Chor Mountain. 

The probability of this mode of explanation is greatly strengthened 
by the analogy of other sections. On the Dhaoladhar there is a section 
very similar to that of the Chor; there, however, we have a very long 
and straight range, in which case there seems nothing forced in sup- 
posing it to be the result of a great, faulted, anticlinal flexure ; whereas, 
whether going north-west or south-east from the summit of the Chor, 
we should be obliged to suppose a section similar to that I have shown 
on the south-west, and at about the same distance from the summit, —a 
kind of button-like intrusion, of which it is difficult to conceive the possi- 
bility without considerable plasticity in the mass, or indeed even granting 
such plasticity. To this however we find also an analogy in the Dhaola- 
dhar: at the abrupt termination of this great ridge of granitoid rock, over 
the bend of the Ravee, we find the flanking schist rocks to curve round, and 
to dip under the end of the ridge as steadily as they had done along 
its southern base. If then viewed as due to the elevation and semi-in- 
trusion of a normally underlying mass, the upheaval or tilting in the Chor 
must be at least 10,000 feet greater than anything that occurs along the 
Giri fault. 

The Simla synclinal axis, if continued, would pass on the south of the 

Chor. In the north-west direction it points to, 

NULLE and reaches the farthest limit of the partial area 

of elevation. In the amphitheatre of hills west of Sukrar we first find 


48 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. [CuaPr. IL. 

the western termination of the synclinal axis, forming a three-sided 

Dies out west of Suk- Converging dip; the ridge of Gharog belongs to 
aie the south-south-west dip of the Simla ridge, of 
which watershed it is a branch continuation. For several miles in the 
same direction, this acute curve in the strike obtains, until at last the 
sides of the synclinal come together, so that the reverse dips form a 
general anticlinal down the valley of the Ulley. With this synclinal the 
partial area of elevation terminates. It must be remembered that 
it is only as belonging to the outer belt of the Lower Himalaya, as com- 
pared with the country to the south-east of the Chor, that this area can 
be spoken of as one of special elevation. We have seen in the section 

from Simla to Hatu a steady rise in the rocks as we proceed north- 

eastwards. 

In the valley of the Sutlej, to the north of Simla, we find a good example 
of the deep indentations in the older rocks occupied 

Valley of Sutlej. 
by younger strata. The south-south-west dip at 
Simla, which to the east-north-east passes by a uniclinal, rather than an 
anticlinal, curve into the undulating eastern inclination at Mahasu, is main- 
. tained on the north down to the Sutlej valley, through a descending section 
of the Simla slates, or Infra-Bliniseries. A strong band of slightly mica- 
ceous sandstone occurs at Bogora, the slates in contact being sub-schistose, 
as is usual in such positions. On the spur from Mahasu the dip flattens 
greatly, but soon rises again in the same direction along the ridge over 
Basantpur. A thin band of limestone shows here on the crest, passing 
obliquely into the valley on the south. On the north side are more 
slates, greatly crushed towards the base. In the area represented ap- 
proximately by the actual gorge of the Sutlej, utter confusion pervades 
À the rocks; ribs of massive limestone strike up 

Area of disturbance. 

promiscuously among slates and sub-schistose rocks; 

there is also much trap rock. Below Suni a copious hot spring rises in 


Cuap. IL] THE HIMALAYAN SERIES. 49 

the very bed of the Sutlej. This area has been no doubt a focus of 
intense local disturbance, and of accompanying igneous intrusion. 

It will be recollected that, on the section described from Simla to Hatu, 
passing at only a short distance to the east of the section I have now 
brought to notice, and right across the direction of this axis of disturbance, 
we found no sign of similar conditions ; a general easting in the point of 
EM dip was the only noticeable change. The Shali 

mountain, the peak that forms so prominent an 
| object in the middle landscape as one looks northward from Simla, stands 
at the eastern focus and terminus of this line of disturbance. It attains 
an elevation of 9,420 feet, while the Sutlej, only five miles distant, flows 

Fee dee at a level of about 2,500 feet. The stratigraphical 
conditions have aided to make the most of these 
circumstances of elevation ; massive bands of limestone are tossed 
about in every direction; the crumpled slate rocks have yielded easily 
to denuding forces ; thus producing a combination of deep narrow gorges 
and of lofty rock cliffs, which are densely covered with forest on every 
available spot. 

In going from Shali to the south, to the east, or to the north, 
we find the same rocks have assumed a steady diverging dip. We 
have seen how it is to the south. The connecting ridge between 
Shah and Tikar is formed by the massive limestone, and its asso- 
ciated quartzite-sandstone, having a south-easterly dip. On Tikar this 
has become easterly. In the valley about Darampur or along the 
ridge over Runi, this rock is overlaid, at an angle of 20° to 30°, by 
schistose slates. Over a variable thickness of these slates there occurs 
a thin band of limestone, often of a slaty aspect; it is worth noticing 
as forming a pretty constant feature in these sections; and in places, 
as for instance east of Runi, it has reminded me of the Kukurhutti 
limestone, to be presently mentioned.  Hereabouts it is overlaid by 

the siliceous schist of Theog and Muttiani. The same section may 
G 


Cx 

0 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. [CHaP. II. 

be equally well seen about Baot, in the valley to the north of the 

ridge over Runi. 
Along the north side of the Sutlej valley the position of the limestone is better defined 
Run UM than on the south. ‘There is an excellent section in ascending 
from Malgi to the Dhamun Nag summit. The independent bill 
of Balu, rising nearly as high as Dhamun Nag, from which it is separated by a deeply cut 
gap, isformed of the massive limestone. The Sutlej at Malg1 
runs over thin-bedded, pink limestone, with slaty partings, and 
having a dip of 70° or 80° to north 10° east, but exhibiting also frequent sharp foldings on the 
same strike. These beds reach to about half the height of the hill, where the dip is reduced 
to about 60°. On account of the contortions in the lower part of the section, the exact 
thickness cannot be ascertained ; it can hardly be less than 1,200 or 1,500 feet. The thick 
siliceous limest one succeeds, and at the summit it inclines at 40° to north-north-east. There 
must be at least one thousand feet of it. Along the descent to the gap leading to the Dhamun 

Malgi and Dhamun Nag. 

Nag the limestone is found to be overlaid by brown and dark blue slates, and with them is a 
band of slaty limestone. These thin-bedded rocks are, of course, more or less contort- 
ed, but they have a marked general northerly dip. At the gap there is a strong rib of 
quartz along the strike, and immediately north of it, on the rise to Dhamun Nag, schistose 
slates appear, much veined by quartz, and having a lower and steadier dip in the same 
direction as the rocks to the south. Along the ascent they become more metamorphic, 
and at about a third of the height the coarse gneiss shows, its massive beds dipping at 40° to 
north 10° east. 

As it appears in plan, the section suggests the existence, along the gap, of a faulted 

junction. But besides the fact that this more abrupt junction, 

Junction not a simple fault. : i 2 i * 

with a separating vein-rock, is an exceptional appearance along 
this boundary, we have at this place other facts to throw doubt on such a suggestion. 
The feature already described on the south of the Chor, as indicating the general underlying 
position of the less altered rocks, is equally well marked in the similar instance of this 
boundary, and no where better than in the valleys to the east and west of the Dhamun Nag 
mountain. On both sides the junction forms a well marked angle up the valley. Moreover, 
there is much likelihood that the slates, and slaty limestone which, in the Dhamun Nag 
section, certainly rest upon the great limestone and conform to its condition, are the same 
beds as those noticed about Runi in a similar position, but at that place most certainly 
underlying the siliceous schists, and partaking of their condition. 

With slight variations the section along the north of the Sutlej valley to the westward, as 
far as Gairu summit, is similar to that I have described south of Dhamun Nag. ‘The strike 
in that direction becomes more northerly. In some places, as in the great cliffs below 
Odittana, the gneissose rocks reach to within a few dozen yards of the limestone, At the 
southern bend of the Sutlej, at Boh, the thin pink limestone and variegated slates underlie at 
80° to the north-east ; the gap of Butwara is formed in them. Along the western shoulder 

and on the summit of Gairu the massive limestone, with its 

Gairu mountain. ; 3 : $ 9 
associated pink and white quartzite-sandstone is greatly rolled 
about, often dipping east and south-east ; along the ridge to the east dark shaly slates 
with much trap-rock are similarly disturbed, This run of trap-rock is very steady in this 


CuHap. IL] THE HIMALAYAN SERIES. 51 

position for some distance to the east, as far as Bhalana. On the summit west of Judare 
the limestone and sandstone come in again with a dip of 50? to the north-east. A short 
way to the east, south of Kune, the gneissose rocks form the main ridge, having a moderate 
north-easterly dip. Thus Gairu stands at another bend of the boundary and exhibits the 
irregularity of disturbance usualin similar positions elsewhere ; and here, as elsewhere, 
the actual boundary curves round with a regularity that is most remarkable when we consi- 
der the nature of the junction. 

For some distance to the northward from Gairu, I have no knowledge of this boundary 
of the Shali (or Krol) limestone series with the metamorphic rocks. The narrow outlying 

band of the Krol rocks, which towards the Sutlej bounds the 
Outlying ridge of Krol 

ie region of the Subathu group on the west, exhibits the same 

general features of disturbance as have been described to the 
east of this region; the strike of the beds in that outlier corresponds throughout with 
the direction of the ridge, which, being a well defined line on the map, exhibits that feature 
clearly. 

The stratigraphical phenomena which I have attempted to describe 
in the last few paragraphs form a companion puzzle to what we have 
seen on the Chor. There we hada three-sided convergence of dip upon 
what seems to be a point of special elevation ; here we have a three- 
sided divergence of dip in what seems to be a band of special depression. 
I assume in both cases, what I think is most probable, that the lime- 
stones are the representatives of the Krol group. How (keeping in mind 
the magnitude of the section) these limestones of Shali became so deeply 
let into this inverted trough of older strata, is more than I can at present 
explain. If the east end of this trough were an ordinary fault, or a 
rapid elevation and truncation of the calcareous strata, the case were 
comparatively simple; but it is not so; the abnormal superposition of 
the older strata is as regular on the east as on the north. 

It is not easy to account for the features of even a single section of the 
junction, such as that through the Dhamun Nag. It is not a case of 
simple inversion : the contiguity of the extreme types of rock involves 
faulting, or some equivalent supposition ; and the direction of the plane 
of contact necessitates reversion, that is, a slope opposite to that which 
is considered normal in cases of faulting, with reference to the relative 

positions of the younger and older strata. 


Fia. 7. 

SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. 

Duamun Nac. 

SUTLEJ. 

BASANTHPUR. 

SIMLA. 

Trap-rock. 

Crush-rock. 

c. Krol group. 

b. Slates. 

a. Schists. 

Section from Simla northwards, across the valley of the Sutlej. 

[Cnar. IT. 

The most probable explanation, with 
which I am ac- 
Reverse faults. 3 

quainted, of reverse 

faults, of which we meet such frequent 
apparent instances, and on such a grand 
scale, in these Himalayan sections, produc- 
ing the superposition of older upon younger 
strata, 1s that of 

R Prof. Rogers (see 
appendix), in connection with the folded 
flexures of strata. It is a kindred pheno- 
menon to that of fan structure, of which 
so many examples have been observed in 
the Alps, and other regions of disturbance. 
The lateral force, which is obviously re- 
quired for these flexures and inversions 
of strata, seems competent to produce such 
faulting ; but this explanation involves, at 
least in its typical mode of action, the 
inversion of the beds on one side or the 
other. In the case of the Dhamun Nag 
section the low steady dip of the older rock 
would point to a fault along an anticlinal, 
thus entailing the inversion of the upper 
beds on the downthrow side of the fault. 
But, if the identification of the series þe 
correct, this is apparently not the case ; 
the thin-bedded, compact, pinkish lime- 
stone must represent the lower Krol beds, 
and they are, to all appearance, in the 

section north of Malgi and elsewhere along 


CuAP. II.] THE HIMALAYAN SERIES. 53 

the Sutlej, in their normal position with respect to the more massive 
siliceous limestone above. However, the contortion of these upper rocks 

in the Sutlej valley is so great that in a rapid 

Section from Simla 

across valley of Sutle. survey, such as mine has been of the lower 

Himalayan area, one must indulge a little in inference when facts are 
deficient. Fig. 7 represents a conjectural section from Simla northward 
across the valley of the Sutlej. 
There is another mode of explanation which has many times occurred 
to me as plausible. In describing the Sub-Hima- 
M dr layan rocks, we will frequently meet with this 
same appearance of superposition of the older upon the younger strata ; 
in fact, it is the rule im all boundary sections, and under conditions when 
reverse faulting, or in some cases faulting of any kind is inadmissible. 
May not the explanation of those cases be applicable here also? May 
not these upper beds of the unaltered series have been deposited against 
a steep cliff of the older rocks, or even in a deeply cut valley in them? 
Under subsequent lateral compression the newer rocks, and the upper 
strata yield most, and an overhanging junction might result. But 
this involves a very extensive unconformity of the two series of deposits, 
of which, in the present case, we have no direct evidence. If the 
question were only between the limestone group and the gneissose rocks, 
there need be little hesitation in provisionally assuming this utter 
unconformity, but the apparent superposition is often almost as marked 
between the limestone and the Infra-Blini series, and we have already 
seen in the Simla section what we suppose to be the Krol group resting 
upon the slate series with every appearance of true conformity. Whatever 
explanation we can give of the abnormal junction of the Krol group with 
the slates will also apply to that with the gneiss. 
The adoption of the opinion that these limestones of the lower 
Sutlej valley, and those in the Suinj and Neweli to the east of Chor, are 

not the Krol group, but much lower in the series, would only give very 


54 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. [CaaAP. IL 

partial relief; the evidence is equally strong for their infra-position to 
the gneiss and schist series; but such a supposition as this is still repug- 
nant to our well-founded geological ideas. Here again what explains the 

one will explain the other. The subject will come before us again. 

In the case of the great limestone bands to the east of the Chor 
we were able to trace into their vicinity the undoubted continuation 
of the Krol group, and thus to strengthen the independent evidence 
for the identity of the two. In attempting to do the same for the area of 

Limestone ridge north the lower Sutlej we encounter extra difficulty instead 
: D 

orori of support. The Krol group is entirely cut out to the 

west of the Boj; and with it disappears the rugged ridge which is elsewhere 
so general a feature at the outer limits of the Lower Himalayan region. 
Beyond Erki, sixteen miles to the north-north-west of the Boj, a fringing 
ridge of limestone appears again, occupying the same position in the 
section as the ridge of the Krol rocks to the south-east; and this 
limestone is undoubtedly the same as that of the Sutlej valley. 

If the interruption of the limestone ridge between the Krol and Erki 
were more complete than it is, we should have less hesitation in 
supposing the rocks to be identical; for, in the intermediate ground 
. there is an apparent link which only adds to the puzzle. At and 
south-east of the parade ground of Subathu, the nummulitie rocks 

i and their overlying red sandstones form the whole 

E LE ridge. Tothe north-west, grits and slates, some sub- 
schistose, weather out along the point of the ridge. Among these thin- 
bedded rocks a limestone soon makes its appearance, becoming gradually 
more prominent as the ridge decreases, till at the Ghumber there is 
nothing else left but this band of limestone from fifty to one hundred feet 
in thickness. Its lithological peculiarities can be well seen along the road- 
side just north of Kukurhutti. It is remarkable for the very deceptive 

appearance of organic forms that occur so generally in it. They are 


Cmar. IL] THE HIMALAYAN SERIES. 

* 

principally of flat circular shapes. I have pored over this rock for hours 

Or 
Or 

in the hopes of discovering some recognizable and reliable form : repeated 
failure has left little doubt on my mind that the whole are of inorganic 
origin. The strike of these rocks here is about south 30° east, with an 
average prevailing north-easterly underlie. The most unequivocal section 
I have seen, as exhibiting the position of this limestone, is in the gap 
through which the road from Haut passes to the westward. Here the thin 
band of limestone is well seen to rest upon, and to be overlaid by sharply 
bedded grits and slates. Some of the overlying grits expose beautifully 
rippled surfaces. On this section the rocks, as a whole, have a steady dip to 
the east by north, the same being maintained in the section to the east ; 
and on the road leading up to the Sairi hills, about Bil, the Blini limestone 
and conglomerate are several times repeated by contortions, in a precisely 
similar manner as on the spur north of Haripur. I may mention that this 
is the most westerly locality in which I have noticed this important band 
of rocks. 

On the ground of its lithological peculiarities alone one might, I think, 
decide that the Kukurhutti limestone does not 

belong to the Krol group ; at least it is not distin- 

Tts connection with the 
great limestone. 

guishable in the typical sections of that group a short distance off. The 
strata with which it is associated are also of the type of lower rocks; 
its apparent position in the section being far down in the Infra-Blini 
series. It seems too as if the general elevation of the outermost 
belt of hills, to which elevation and its consequences the removal of the 
Krol group at this point may be attributed, had brought up lower beds 
here than elsewhere within this zone. Yet this Kukurhutti lime- 
stone is continuously traceable along a chain of low hills into the great 
limestone range north of Erki, where it seems to be associated with 
the massive limestone ; the rocks, however, are all so very much disturbed 
that it will be difficult to establish their true relative positions. It 

may be worth mentioning that I detected the peculiar quasi-fossiliferous 


56 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. [Cuap. IL 

° 

character of this (the Kukurhutti) limestone in the thin overlying band 
near the boundary, east of Shali, over the village of Runi; and, what 
may be more important, I noticed the same characters in a limestone 
about Oniar in the valley of the Tons. Altogether, a very strong case 
can be made out for considering these limestones of the lower Sutlej 
area distinct from, and much older than the Krol group; yet, in the 
present state of our knowledge of these rocks, I prefer to accept pro- 
visionally the more general argument in favor of their identity. In 
examining this region I was perpetually struck by the great lithological 
resemblance and analogy of arrangement of the strata with those of the 
Krol series. There is the massive, and often siliceous limestone, fre- 
quently sandy, and passing into sandstone, underlaid by thin limestone, 
with variegated shaly slates. The non-appearance of the Blini limestone, 
so constant in the sections to the east, may be accounted for in many 
ways, even if the presence or absence of so subordinate a member were 
of much weight. I can even point to a possible representative of the 
Blini group; north of the Sutlej, on the spur north-west of Bihul, in 
contact with a strong dyke of trap-rock, there is a small thickness of 
coarse quartz conglomerate, overlaid by slate and thin-bedded limestone. 
If then the limestones of the Sutlej valley be Krol rocks, the whole group 
. must be supposed to have undergone less elevation than elsewhere ; the 
underlying rocks are less exposed than in the region to the east. | 
There is another point to be noticed in connection with the sub- 
ject of the last paragraph. It must be recol- 
Pen lected that the fact of no rock appearing above 
the Krol group, where the section of that group is best exposed, gives 
neither evidence nor even presumption that these rocks are really 
(in any strict sense) the top-rocks of our unaltered series. If the lime- 
stone of the Sutlej region be taken to be of the Krol group, it would 
remove some of our difficulties to suppose the limestone at Kukurhutti, 

and its representatives elsewhere, to be a supra-Krol band. 


Omar. II] THE HIMALAYAN SERIES. 57 

In the region of the Beas and its tributaries we have a repetition, on a larger scale, of the 
structure I have described in the valley of the Sutlej,—an irre- 
gular basin of the upper, unaltered rocks. It will be seen from 
the dotted line on the map that the boundary is put in conjecturally. I have only crossed the 
district once; along the road from Simla to Sultanpur, but the section then examined is 
sufficient to show the strong similarity of the features to those seen in the Sutlej valley. In 
the basin of the Beas the boundary rock on all three sides is gneissic. Of the great mass of 
mountains, of which Cheru, Shinaridevi, and, Chigera are the principal summits (all over ten 
thousand fect in elevation), I have no direct observations to record. We have seen that gneiss 
rocks reach far down on their southern and south-western spurs over the limestone area of the 
lower Sutlej. The section from Kotgurh to the Beas, crossing this mountain tract by the 
Jalori pass, will afford a view of the probable condition of the whole. The gneiss rocks of 
this region form by no means so uniform a mass as that described on the Chor. The gneiss 
on the summit of Hatu shows the same conditions as that to the west of the Sutlej. On des- 
cending from Hatu through Kotgurh to the Komarsin bridge, or on going from Narkunda over 
the summits to the west, and down the Shengri spur, to the same point, I noticed no felspathic 
rocks ; crystalline schists of both siliceous and earthy types occupy the whole section ; it is 
even remarkable that the lower beds, under Komarsin, are often more slaty than schistose, 
and, in that state, are generally also carbonaceous or graphitic, decomposing into a sticky 
black clay. ‘The softer varieties of schist often exhibit great local contortions, but a general 
moderate inclination is traceable throughout, varying to between north and east. For about 
eight hundred or one thousand feet over the Sutlej the gorge is cut into massive porphyritie 
gneiss. The bedding is very distinct, showing a low, undulating dip to the northwards. 

On the section from Komarsin bridge to Jalori there are numerous instances of true gneiss, 
interbedded with the schists. There are several such bands through the schists below 
Dularsh. At the stream north of the Kando gap there is some very massive and granitoid 
gneiss with a steady low dip into the ridge to the north-east. Graphitic schist shows near 
Bushlani, A low west by south dip obtains on the spur of Purgot. On the main ridge at 
Jalori siliceous schists dip at 40° to 50° to south-east. On the descent from Jalori to the 
northwards the rocks are greatly concealed by mould, which very commonly, as here, lies deep 
on the forest-covered northern slopes. In several places soft schists are exposed, and are fre- 
quently highly graphitic. Ata few hundred feet over the vailey, some thick-bedded, clear, 
sub-crystalline limestone crops out in the midst of graphitic and soft micaceous schists, The 
dip is here south-westerly. About Gag the same beds underlie to the north-east. About 
Rusali strong bedded quartzite-sandstone dips at 40° to the south-east ; andon the ridge above 
these beds form fine cliffs, with the same dip. Under this band of hard rock there is a great 
thickness of fine, soft, argillaceous, and sub-foliated slates, in which a green variety, and also 
the graphitic variety, are conspicuous. As seen on the base of the spurs, and in the valley 
below Plach, they exhibit much crushing with variation of underlie, yet having a prevailing 
southerly direction on the south of the river, and an easterly direction on the north of it, 
Trappean intrusions are large and frequent, as is well seen about the bridge above Manglour. 
From a short way below Manglour the river passes through a great band of limestone, often 
thick-bedded and sandy, with grits, and dark and pale red slaty shales. In the short gorge 
between the confluence of the Teerthun and the Synj at Largi, and the confluence of 

H 

Area of the Beas, 


58 | SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. [CHar. IL. 

the combined streams with the Beas, there is a good section showing repeated alterna- 
tions cf arenaceous, argillaceous, and calcareous strata, having here a prevailing high 
underlie to the north-east. ‘These limestones and quartzose rocks form the hills on the east 
of the Beas, with an east-north-east dip. At the base of Phugni, north of Sultanpur, siliceous 
mica-schists have a variable underlie to the north and north-west: at about three thousand 
feet up there is a band of porphyritic gneiss ; it is overlaid by graphitic and ferriferous 
schists. On the summit there is a considerable thickness of fine siliceous schists in thin and 
thick beds, and having a steady dip of 45° to north 30° east. This northerly dip seems to 
obtain here on both sides of the Beas. In crossing the ridge on the west of the valley, by 
the road from Bajaora, green slaty schists appear at the lower end of the gorge with a high 
westerly underlie ; but within a very short distance they give place to gniessose rocks. The 
ridge is, in fact, formed by this rock with its associated siliceous and micaceous schists ; 
the dip is inward and northwards on both sides, producing an irregular synelinal with a 
northerly inclination of the axis. 

The same general argument may be applied here, as in the Sutlej area, for supposing the 
limestone, and the beds immediately associated with it, to represent the Krol group. The fine 
green earthy rock, so frequently sub-schistose, is a new introduction or else a modification of 
the dark, shaly slates ; indeed, all the rocks of this area are more altered than those of the 
Sutlej valley. In respect of structure, the rule is as strictly observed here as elsewhere of 
dipping towards the nearest ridge of the older rocks. A first impression of the section, both on 
the ridge of Jalori and on that over Bajaora, would be, that the gneissic rocks were underlaid 
throughout by the limestones and slaty rocks which seem to crop out from beneath them on 
either side. The fact just noticed establishes a contrast, which may be a very significant 

one, between these ridges of gneissic rocks and the granitoid masses of the Chor, and of the 

Dhaoladhar, as presently to be described. In both these latter cases the schistose and slate 

rocks on the north rest upon, and are inclined from the ridge of granitoid gneiss rock ; in the 
former they appear to dip under the similar rocks. 

In the fringing band of upper rocks in this portion of the Lower Himalaya, we find a 
departure from the type of the Krol section, corresponding with what has just been noticed 
in the valley of the Beas. 

From Suket northwards, trap becomes a dominant rock along 
the boundary. 

It shows a general conformity in direction to the strike of the strata, both 
agreeing with the direction of the boundary, which is here often to east of north. The 
continuation westward of the section along the road across the ridge, from Bajaora, will 

exemplify this statement. About Sandoa there is an abrupt change from the gneissose 

schists of the ridge, to very dark, carbonaceous, and ferruginous, shaly rocks, often 
very hard and flinty ; they are nearly vertical, having but a small underlie to east 10° 
north. Without any marked variation of character these rocks continue the whole way to 
the Ool, a distance of about four miles across the strike; the foldings are, so complete 
as to escape detection. This band of rock is just such as might result from a greater 
development of the Infra-Krol shales. In the immediate valley of the Ool, trap-rocks 
are extensively exposed, and of numerous varieties, compact and vesicular. On the 
steep ascent to the west clear quartzite-sandstones, with occasional partings of pink and 
blue slate, show a broken, westerly underlie : but, on the whole, trappean rocks predominate 
in this ridge, the slates and quartzites being rather intercalated in the trap than the trap in 


CHAR. IL] THE HIMALAYAN SERIES. 59 

them. Trappean metamorphism has also operated largely, producing intermediate varieties 
of contact-rocks. Close along the western base of this ridge we come upon our main 
boundary, the inner limit of the Sub-Himalayan rocks. The special features of this junction 
will be described elsewhere ; I may now, however, mention that a limestone almost 
invariably occurs along it among the inner rocks, and still showing features in common with 
the upper Krol rock ; for example, at Badoula, a few miles to the north of our last section, 
about one hundred feet of blue, compact, cherty limestone is underlaid by greenish and pink 
quartzite sandstones, and red shaly slates. 

The next section that I have seen of these outermost rocks is at the 
extreme north-westerly limit of the lower region of the Eastern Himalaya, 
and where we find first established in those rocks the conditions which 
remain constant throughout the whole length of the Dhaoladhar range. 

Western limit of the North of Haurbagh (Hurribagh), about Wyre, the 
Lower Himalayan area. Outer rocks of the section are concealed, The 
first rocks that appear are trappean schists, having an east-north-east 
underlie, often at a moderate angle. At about a third of the height these 
are apparently overlaid by gray quartzites, and these pass transitionally 
by alternation into siliceous mica-schists ; all having a moderate dip into 
the ridge. The schists graduate into the massive porphyritic gneiss that 
forms the crest, where the dip is high to the north-east. Schorl is common 
in the gneiss. The deep gorge of the Ool is here formed in fine, soft mica- 
schists, with a south-south-east strike, and a variable underlie. It seems 
possible that these argillaceous schists may represent the broad band of 
carbonaceous slates noticed below Sandoa: the general analogy of other 
sections would, however, lead me to expect that it is not so,—that the 
boundary remains as distinct as usual, and that the metamorphic rocks of 
the higher ridge to the east of the Ool gradually encroach to the westward 
until, as just described, they occupy the valley and the outer ridge. In 
the Ool at this point trap-rocks are absent, as is almost always the case in 
the crystalline metamorphic rocks. Over the villages of Diot, Darmaun, 
and Milan there is a band of schist, largely charged with magnetic iron 
ore, which is extensively worked. In re-crossing the ridge from Kohad 

to Beer the section is very similar to that above Wyre ; but here the 


60 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. [CHap. IT. 

-crystalline rocks reach much lower down on the south side. "There is 
massive granitoid gneiss at Sulhetur. Here too the trappean schists, 
below a well marked boundary with granitic rocks, are themselves 

n 3€* OO 
felspathic, and even porphyritic. 

In connection with this portion of our area I must notice the well-known salt rocks of 
Mundi. Iapproached these rocks with various expectations. Any 
Salt roeks of Mundi. i . 5 
mention that had been made of them by geological observers in 
India treated these salt rocks of Mundi as beyond question the geological equivalents of the 
salt rocks of the Punjab. It was indeed plain that the opinion was rather taken for granted 
than founded upon evidence, yet the notion was sufficiently plausible to excite hopes of find- 
ing something new, and which mightthrow a light upon the general section. My curiosity 
was increased by the fact, that the same authorities alluded to the Mundi salt as connected 
with the red clay and sandstone deposits, which I have grouped in the Sub-Himalayan series, 
although for many years it has been known, from Dr. Fleming's descriptions, that the salt 
of the Punjab occurs in Paleozoic (Devonian) rocks, The imaginary puzzle was of course 
removed by a single inspection of the ground, but only to make way for a real one. I can state 
that the salt occurs very close to, but well inside, the main boundary, among the limestone, 
sandstone, and slates which I have supposed to be the same as the Krol rocks, and which are 
here much complicated by trappean intrusion : but the natural history of the salt is still very 
obseure. 
There are at present two localities where the salt is extracted ; one just below Drang, and 
pie Eo the other fourteen miles to the Bou at Guma. Both are at 
the base of the steep and regular ridge, formed principally by 
the trappean rocks, along the boundary of this region of the Himalaya. In both cases the 
workings are placed right in the bed of the drainage gullies : whether or not this is a 
necessity entailed by the local distribution of the mineral I have no means of ascertaining ; 
but think it is not. These difficulties, natural or presumed, backed by improvidence and 
want of skill in the native managers, result in the almost total stoppage of the works during 
the rainy season, in the almost total destruction and obliteration each year of the open pits 
and short galleries by which the salt is extracted, thus involving the annual execution of 
these preliminary operations, which are sometimes very difficult. As may be expected from 
these facts, the opportunities for examining the allure of the mineral are very poor. The 
Mundi salt is commonly known in the neighbourhood as black 
Quality of the salt. 6 o : E 
salt; it has a dark purplish hue, is quite opaque, and contains 
a large admixture of earthy impurities. An average sample gave twenty-five per cent. of 
earthy matter. The salt is pure chloride of sodium. Itis only used by the poorer classes, 
who, as a rule, subject it to a purifying process by fire and water. Small nests of pure 
crystalline rock-salt are occasionally found, but so rarely as to be reserved for the special use 
of the Rajah and his household. 
Regarding the origin of this rock, we have to select one of these views,—contemporaneous 
deposition pseudomorphism, or, a totally subsequent introduction ; we will see that the 


Cuar. II] THE HIMALAYAN SERIES.  . "gl 

evidence is very conflicting. First let us consider the lithological evidence. The arrange- 
ment of the earthy matter in the rock bears very strong testimony to a sedimentary origin : 
besides the diffused earthy matter there are always present fine laminse, or very thin conti- 
nuous layers of clay, which exhibit a coincidence in strike and 
dip with those of the associated strata. Another important 
characteristic of this salt rock is the occurrence through it of small angular pebbles ; they 
are irregularly scattered through the mass. Out of a number of these pebbles most were 
recognizable, with much probability, as of the rocks immediately associated with the salt, 
pink quartzite sandstone being the most frequent ; some are of limestone. ‘The evidence of 
these pebbles is however not all on one side of the argument. If they be really fragments 
of the Krol rocks, the salt deposit cannot be cotemporaneous with that formation ; nor yet 
can it be pseudo-morphosed limestone of that formation ; on the other hand, the tolerably 
uniform distribution of these pebbles in the mass, and their uniformly small dimensions are 
opposed to the supposition of the rock being, in any sense, the result of forcible crushing. 

Origin of the salt. 

We may next examine the circumstances of position. Besides the accidental fact already 

noticed in the position of this salt rock,—along a line at a distance, varying from one 
hundred yards to a quarter of a mile, from the boundary of the Sub-Himalayan rocks, there 
is an important constant peculiarity, resulting in a feature of contour too small to be shown 
on the map. From the main ridge short spurs or head-lands project at intervals ; towards 
their extremity, these expand longitudinally, so as to form rather flanking hills than true 
spurs, and are connected with the ridge by a line of gaps. The drainage of course follows 
the physical features,—the several small streams bifurcate into these small longitudinal 
valleys. The rocks of this outer belt are not the same as those of the main ridge ; limestone 
predominates. It is associated with red and brown slaty shales, all greatly contorted along 
a general north and south strike. In the main ridge, as already stated, trappean rocks 
prevail. The salt rock occurs along the contact of the main and minor ridges. It did not 
appear to me that this line was a fault line, at least there is no sharply defined fault : 
highly foliated hornblendie schists and quartzites appear sometimes outside (west of) the 
salt rock, and also remnants of limestone to the east of it. Both these cases occur at Guma. 
Peculiarities of position, such as are pointed out in this paragraph, suggest an adventitious 
origin for the saline element. 

Some peculiar rocks associated with the salt rock give us a third item of evidence. In 
contact with, or near the salt rock, there are always to be found varieties of rotten 
rock, showing different degrees of resemblance to the salt rock itself, often having the 
appearance of being only varieties of that rock from which the salt had been dissolved out,—it 
is a salt-gossun. In connection with this rock, supposed to be a weathered residue of a 
saliferous rock, there occurs an undecomposed rock, which strongly resembles the true 
salt rock. For example, in the Suketi at Mundi, a few hundred yards above its con- 
fluence with the Beas, the massive Sub-Himalayan sandstone is vertical, with a strike 
north 10° east; in contact with it is about fifty feet of sandy limestone; next to this 
follow about one hundred feet of the bright red calcareous, earthy, pebbly rock, the 
representative of the salt rock ; next to it comes massive trap-rock. Again to the north, in 
the river east of Beer, this peculiar rock,—the salt rock, but with the salt represented by 
carbonate of lime:—occurs twice in the same cross section, associated with the usual Harestgne 


69 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. [Cnar. IT. 

and trap-rocks. "The facts here noticed leave scarcely a doubt that there is in this portion of 
the area a stratified rock, possessing peculiar original characteristics : that it is at one place 
saliferous, and at another calcareous, strongly suggests the question whether the saline quality 
be not also one of its original, local peculiarities. So far as trap-rock can be taken as an 
exponent of a metamorphosing agent, its influence should have been as potent at either 
of the two last-mentioned localities as where the rock is saliferous. On the whole, I think 
that the balance of evidence is in favour of the cotemporaneous origin of the salt. 

I have now to notice the region of the Dhaoladhar, in which we find 

Section of Dhaoladhar CONditions in some important respects markedly 

Buy aiasal a: different from anything described among the lower 

region of the Eastern Himalaya. The section already given of the 
ridge west of the upper valley of the Ool is very similar to what 
we shall find along the base of the range, up to the Ravee. North of 
Soonsal, Dewal, and Lonode the narrow band of limestone, a quartzite 
sandstone, and calcareous slates, which are also often carbonaceous and 
with more or less of trappean rocks, appear to underlie the mica schists 
and gneissose rocks of the lofty spurs from the Dhaoladhar. At Bundla 
the trap-rock is again more’ abundant, and with numerous symptoms 
of the saliferous rock. North of Nirwaneh the band of limestone 
and pink shales with trap, outside the great schistose series, is still very 
narrow. At Dhurmsala limestone is well seen, and its relation to the schist 
series is more distinctly defined than usual. At the village of Bagsoo, in the 
gorge north-east of Dhurmsala, thin-bedded, blue, compact limestone has 
a dip of 70° to the south-west, being also crushed and contorted. This is just 
to the north of the sandstone ridge on which the station is built.. There 
is little or no trap. About forty yards north of the limestone the schist 
series is seen, with a broken high dip to north. The dip in these fine, 
greenish, micaceous schists becomes flatter and more steady in ascending 
the spur. On approaching the great buttress of massive granitoid gneiss, 
standing out from the main ridge of the Dhaoladhar, the dip again rises, 
and thus the schists seem to pass under the more highly crystalline rocks. 

There is little change in this rock up to the crest of the Dhaoladhar. 


Cuar. IL] THE HIMALAYAN SERIES. 63 

The foliation, and the changes of texture and of composition, indicate 
throughout a high underlie to north-north-east. From the top of the 
ridge at the Murrumghattee I saw to the east and the west, reaching high 

up on the northern spurs, thin- 

FA 
z bedded, dark-coloured rocks, 
Z & : 
E apparently but little metamor- 
- 6D À E 
B 5 phosed, and resting at a mode- 
5 hd . . Li 
B T rate inclination upon the gra- 
B d nitoid rocks. Fig. 8 represents 
E a the features of this section. 
o 
E To the west of Dhurmsala 
& = the Sub-Himalayan boundary 
o | 
EN 5 3 
Be oS Section by Choari recedes slight 
e s = the area to the south of the 
. Ss 
E 3 E Dhaoladhar, occupied by the 
com : 
4 E Ee outer rocks, being much wider 
< . 
2% 5 than at Dhurmsala. This ex- 
ELE ; du S 
B E pansion occurs principally inthe 
B og 
E zi calcareous, slaty, and trappean 
oe series. The trappean rock here, 
ee) 
a £ as elsewhere, shows a disposition 
E to keep separate rather than to 
a B mix indiscriminately with the 
E 3 sedimentary rocks, but through- 
S an 
E 3 out this area west of Dhurmsala 
Ji E 
di 4 the more trappean band occurs 

outside the calcareous band instead of inside, as we have seen it to the 
east. In the streams south of Choari several excellent contact sec- 
tions are exposed. There is first a great thickness of soft green schist 

with a steady north-north-east dip, and over these comes the limestone, 


64 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. [CHap. IL 

with red and blue shaly slates, and quartzose sandstone. These rocks, here 
as elsewhere, exhibit much local disturbance, though with an average 
underlie to north-north-east ; the passage from them into the siliceous 
schists, alternating with porphyritic gneiss, is badly seen along the path. 
From about three miles north of Choari to where the gorges on the north 
of the ridge open into the valley of the Ravee, near Chumba, there is an 
unbroken section of more or less granitoid and gneissose rocks, in every 
portion of which a north-easterly underlie can be easily distinguished. 
Along the border of the valley of the Ravee there is a narrow skirting 
of fine mica-schist over the gneissose series. The section is then covered 
by the valley deposits, as far as the Ravee, at Chumba, where we find 
dark, and light-gray, thinly-bedded, sub-schistose slates, with courses of 
thin quartzose grits, having a steady dip of 70° to north-east ;—a group of 
rocks much resembling the series already spoken of as the Simla slates or 
Infra-Blini series. I have little doubt that these are the rocks that I noticed 

to the north of the ridge from the Murrumghattee, over Dhurmsala. 

In this section of the Dhaoladhar, by the Choari pass south of Chumba, we have just 
seen a band, about eight miles broad, of granitoid and gneissose rocks, the same as those we 

Termination of granitoid bang Davė traced for many miles from the south-east, and extending 
si Damons to an unknown distance in the same direction; being in about 
the lineal continuation of the great chain of snowy peaks beyond the Sutlej, which, we 
know, have similar geological characters. Yet within ten miles to the west of this Choari 
section the whole mass has disappeared. The station of Dalhousie stands at the very 
extremity of this band of crystalloid rocks, forming the core of the Dhaoladhar. The mode 
of disappearance is important ; it corresponds very exactly with analogous features noticed 
elsewhere. On Dainkhund, the summit, nine thousand feet high, to the east of Dalhousie, the 
granitoid gneiss shows a general easterly underlie. Low down on the northern spur from 
Dainkhund, along the road from Chumba to the plains, the last remnant of the central gneissose 
band is crossed. The slates of the Chumba valley are in contact with it at about the bifurcation 
of the lateral gorge, south of Mila, having maintained a steady average north-easterly dip ; 
the schistose gneiss nearest to the junction shows a dip of 50° to the east-north-east, which is 
continued on the spur about Dhar ; down this spur the band contracts, and to all appearance, 
as seen from this place, it becomes extinct before reaching the Ravee, on the right bank of 
which there seems to be a continuous section of thin-bedded crumbling strata. On the short 
secondary spur over Gurwal the schistose slates come in, on the west of the granitoid band,— 
fine-grained, gritty, sub-schistose, greenish gray slates, having a steady dip of about 60° to the 
east-south-east, towards the centre of the ridge, the strike being parallel to what is here the 


CHAP. IL] THE HIMALAYAN SERIES. 65 

direction of the boundary. The open valley of Rampur is excavated in these slates. In 
Dalhousie the junction occurs at the gap between the Potrain and the Perasana hills ; it is about 
the most westerly point to which the granitoid band reaches. The dip in both rocks at this spot 
is much lower than usual ; both are, moreover, a good deal decomposed, so that their contact 
here is not well seen. I obtained a better section of the contact in the angle of the gorge 
between Dalhousie and the “slate” quarries. For about fifty feet from the granite the schists 
exhibit a very marked increase in induration, acquiring a close-grained, crystalloid texture. 
Near the contact, irregular small veins of the granitoid rock are included in this hard contact- 
rock, yet the junction with the main mass is perfectly sharp, indicating no approach to an 
amalgamation of their ingredients. The inner rock here has its most granite-like aspect, yet 
the foliation and rough stratification show conformability to the schist series, the dip in both. 
being about 50° to east 15° north. In this gorge, and again in that of the Naina, the indications 
of the general super-position of the crystalloid rocks on the schistose series is as plain as in 
any instances already noticed ; the curve of the contact is turned well up the gorges. 

In the Dalhousie sections we find particularly well marked a feature of which indications 

LUN may have been noticed elsewhere ; namely, the occurrence of a 

band of rocks more or less slaty, or more or less schistose 

between the central granitoid mass and the band of limestone and shaly slates. In the 
Choari section this was very obscure ; in the Dhurmsala section it was more defined. In 
the Dalhousie section we have just seen how well marked the inner of the two boundaries 
can be. As an instance of how capricious the metamorphic action has been in this transi- 
tion zone, I may notice a thin band of strata that is seen on the road side near the “ slate” 
quarries, nearly on the strike of the slates, and within fifty yards of the quasi-granite ; 
they are beds of compact, splintery, very earthy limestone, or rather calcareous clay, 
very like some of the lower-Krol beds; yet such a rock is one which, according to 
generally received notions of metamorphie agency, ought to exhibit more change than 
the coarser siliceous rocks among which it occurs; containing, as it does, in itself such 
elements of chemical re-action. In the descending section to the west of Dalhousie the 
schistose characters become again more and more developed ; at Bunketra we find decided 
mica-schists. On Dulog ridge these overlie a thick mass of gneissose schist, having a 
steady dip of 12? to east 109 south. An ore of iron has been largely worked in this gneiss 
rock; it occurs as irregular strings and masses, principally of magnetic oxyde. This 
gneiss band of Dulog is underlaid by more mica-schist, which, in the valley and along the 
gaps, occurs in abrupt junction with the limestone and shaly slates. I have no observation 
to show how this metamorphic zone behaves to the north and west ; whether it also thins out, 
like the central run of granitic rocks, or whether it continues beyond the Ravee into the 
Jummoo territories. The former seems the more likely. 

Continuing, in the same direction, the section from the point of the Dhaoladhar ridge to the 

Eee ln Ravee, we find the uppermost band of the Himalayan rocks as 

well marked as we have seen the others to be. The limestone, 

with shaly slates, both red ‘and blackish, some quartzite-sandstones, and a little trap-rock, is 
three times repeated on the spur beyond Bugrar, an east-south-east dip prevailing. This is 
the last I have seen of the group that I have conjectured to represent the Krol beds. The 
final steep fall of the hill into the gorge of the Rayce, to the contact of the Sub-Himalayan 

I 


66 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. [CHAP. IL 

series, is entirely in trappean rocks. I could have wished to bave devoted a much longer 
time to the study of this most interesting region, but my observations of it were necessarily as 
hasty as any that I could make of these older rocks. It is to be hoped that some of the 
many visitors to the charming sanitarium of Dalhousie will tell us more about the geology of 

the neighbourhood. 

I have still to give a brief notice of the Lower Himalayan rocks 
PAM lying east of the ur In i d south 
from Deobun, along the ridge of Bairat or down the 
valley of the Omlao to the Jumna, the rocks are found very variously 
disturbed, but with a prevailing north-east dip, and on the whole the 
section seems a descending one; there 1s a great variety of slates, grits and 
sandstones, with even some limestones, but no rock that I could 1dentify 
from passing observation. The sections already noticed to the west of the 
Tons lead us to conjecture that this region of the Omlao is one of 
moderate special elevation, involving irregular dislocation and denuda- 
tion, by which the winding courses of the two great rivers may have 
been predetermined to their confluence below Kalsi. Still even here 
we find evidence of a narrow, fringing zone of less upheaval, although 
it too partook of the local transverse elevation: the PBlimi conglo- 
merate-grit is largely developed along the Taru ridge over the Tons, 
west of Kalsi. 
Along the Masuri ridge, from Budraj on the west to Surkunda on the 
qe . east, a distance of about twenty-five miles in a 
: nearly east and west direction, we can, with much 
probability, identify the rocks with those of the Krol. Budraj hill is 
composed of green and purple slates, and grits with some quartzitic 
sandstone. They are traversed at all points by greenstones: the dip is very 
irregular, but is mostly north-eastwards. On the next summit, the extreme 
west end of Masuri station, clear sandy and cherty limestones have a 
high dip to the north-north-east. An anticlinal line traverses the ridge at 

a very small angle of obliquity: on the Abbey hill the same limestones 


Caap. IL] THE HIMALAYAN SERIES. 0T 

have an opposite dip; while on the Camel’s Back hill the northerly 
underlie again prevails. Immediately under this limestone a black 
shale is almost everywhere conspicuous, and here, as in the neighbour- 
hood of Subathu, it has often raised expectatious of the discovery of 
coal. The whole series must be greatly contorted, for we find crushed 
black slate repeatedly on the ascent to Masuri, from the very base at 
Rajpur. Landour summit is composed of a variety of hard fine grits, 
thick micaceous sandstones, and strong sandy limestone, with a general 
dip to the north-north-east. At the gap below the hospital on the east, a 
synclinal bend brings in the same beds, with a south-south-westerly dip: 
Across the spurs to the north the strong bedded clear limestone band 
crops out from under these beds, and strike into the ridge to form Tup- 
pobun summit, with still a south-south-westerly dip. The same strike, 
oblique to the direction of the ridge, brings in the slates again under 
the limestone; there are pinkish and greenish, as well as dark varieties. 
Under these, at the turn up to the Sakunda summit, the Blini limestone 
and its conglomerate are typically seen. Next the limestone the base of 
the conglomerate is shaly, it rapidly becomes gritty, then sandy, and 
so in a manner passes into the coarse clear sandstones on which it rests; 
and which are throughout more or less conglomeritic. These massive 
sandstones form the summit of Sakunda; at the peak itself they seem 
to turn over to the north-north-east. A short way below the road on the 
southern spur from Sakunda, the Blini group again shows, in front of the 
sandstone. Thus, throughout this whole range, the strike is very steady, 
becoming towards the eastward gradually nearer to a north-west, south- 
east one. 

After the observation just made, one 1s surprised, on descending into the 

Section in the Hew- Valley of the Hewnulgur, to find a totally different 

nulgur, state of things. Even above Pugali, well up on the 

flanks of the ridge, blue slates are dipping steadily at 50° to the north-west. 

With local exceptions, this north-westerly and westerly dip is steady for a 


68 . SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. [Cuar. IL. 

long way down the valley, in slates, sandstones, and sub-schistose rocks. 
Yet, at a little below Batouin, strong bedded, clear limestones come in with 
the former south-westerly underlie, and it is here in the exact continuation 
of the strike of the rock on Tuppobun peak. These facts point strongly to 
extensive unconformability between these rocks, yet the contortions that all 
have undergone are so great that it will be very difficult to settle this ques- 
tion satisfactorily. South of this limestone the dip is again greatly con- 
fused, being both north and east, in blue glossy slates, red and gray slaty 
micaceous grits, and coarsish pink sandstone. Below the confluence of the 
stream from Thaline with the Hewnulgur, there is an east and west anti- 
clinal line well marked 1n this sandstone ; the valley soon opens out in the 
crumbling blue slates and grits ; at first they show the same strike as the 
sandstone, but before long they dip to the north-east and south-south-east ; 
in fact they present no single order of disturbance. Just above the con- 
fluence of the Hewnulgur and the Ganges, streaked slates underlie to the 
south-west, and on the right bank of the Ganges they are overlaid by 
typical Blini limestone, and its slaty conglomerate. Not far down the 
river strong clear limestone, calcareous sandstone, and black shale are 
crushed together along a steady north-west, south-east strike. At the 
southerly bend of the river above Tuppobun the fine earthy compact beds of 
lower-Krol type are greatly twisted together; but through all a steady, 
general north-west and south-east strike is traceable. 
Of the hills east of the Ganges I have seen very little. The Blini 
conglomerate shows abundantly at the base of 
ye RnB et REN, Wha aoe aedkeno® a ill ave 
pink and greenish slates ; sandstones appear near the top, and the summit 
is of strong-bedded limestone, underlymg to the north-east, but also 
subject to local irregularities of disturbance. About two miles south 
of the summit there is an abrupt depression in the ridge. The 
slope is of decomposing ferruginous slate and sandstone, and in the 

depression, which is about half a mile wide, we find the remnant of the 


Cuap. II] THE HIMALAYAN SERIES. 69 

Subathu group, as already mentioned. On the south, about Kothar 
village, the nummulitie rocks are in contact with schistose slates. Here, 
and down the upper valley of the Tal, these rocks strike north-north-west. 
In the gorge cut by the Tal through the north and south ridge, there is 
found a rock which is for the present unique in a very important respect: 
itis the only fossiliferous rock that I have met with or heard of (well 
^ authenticated) in all these Lower Himalayan 
A rocks. The fossils are indeed very obscure, 
fragmentary impressions of bivalve mollusca, but they are undoubted 
organic remains. The rock is a sandy siliceous limestone, in thick 
eda; but the whole is not more than twenty or thirty feet in thick- 
ness. The band occurs twice in this short gorge, being repeated 
by a sharp anticlinal flexure. The beds associated with this limestone 
are pink, gray, and black shaly slates, the latter being often crush- 
ed, highly carbonaceous, ferruginous, and sulphureous, after the manner 
of the Infra-Krol rock. On the whole, the group suggests this con- 
nection, but in a degree far from conclusive. The same beds form 
the ridge for some way to the south-east, to the villages Kimsar and 
Ambwala. i 
Along the flank of the outermost ridge, north of the Kota dun, I 

have noticed, among the glossy, dark, clay slates, 
Kota dun. 

abundant debris of a slaty conglomerate exactly ` 

like the Blini rock. 
The section through Naini Tal and Almorah presents some analogies 
to the Simla section. The ridge of Naini Tal is 
Naini Tal and Almorah. 

a great synclinal range, with many local fractures 
and contortions, just like its type, the Krol range. I believe, too, that the 
rocks are representative. The great limestone that forms many of the 
summits to the south of Naini Tal is very similar to the Krol limestone ; 
and the pink, greenish, and dark gray shaly slates associated with it 

show affinities to the same group. The Samkhet valley to the north of 


70 . SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. [Cmar. IL. 

Naini Tal corresponds structurally to Kundah Ghat. But here it is a 
line of extensive trappean intrusion. To the north of this line it seems 
probable a great upthrow has taken place, or else the rocks are so altered 
as to be no longer recognizable ; they are thorough metamorphic rocks. 
Along the heights of Sunthala and Ghagur, immediately above the 
Samkhet valley, the schists are gneissose. 

In this schist series we are again met by the fact of a remarkable 
decrease in the disturbance of the strata, as compared with that of the 
outermost belt of rocks. There is a very general inclination to between 
north and east, and at angles averaging between 30° and 50°. From the few 
observations I made on the granitic and gneissose rocks south of Almorah, 
there seems to me to be considerable analogy in their mode of occurrence 
to that of the same class of rocks to the north-west. Here indeed 
the rock is lithologically truly crystallme, a complete granite, but in its 
mode of insertion among the schists there is the same pseudo-conforma- 
bility, as described on the Chor and elsewhere. The rocks to the north 
of it, and apparently resting on it, are even less metamorphic and less 
disturbed than those to the south. 

As far as I can assert upon direct observation, the only igneous rocks 
Teneods rockers Tig within our district occur among the older strata, 
Jes and are thus presumably pre-nummulitic. I am 
inclined, however, to accept general evidence against this supposition. 
The facts of the distribution of the intrusive rocks are peculiar and most 
interesting. The occurrence of trap in the metamorphic rocks seems to 
be rare, yet it is very frequent in what we have presumed to be strata of 
more recent date, in the Krol group and the subjacent slaty rocks. This 
peculiarity suggests that the trap may be cotemporaneous in these depo- 
sits, and may have been derived from some distant source. But we find 
no confirmation of this opinion ; the distribution of the trap in these 

deposits is anything but constant ; it is moreover manifestly intrusive 


CnaP. IL] THE HIMALAYAN SERIES. am 

and connected with the disturbances of the sedimentary rocks. Over a 
large area in the typical region of the Krol rocks I found no trace of trap 
in these strata ; this is one of the many peculiarities for which this main 
watershed region is remarkable, as already pointed out. It will be seen 
in the next chapter that the nummulitic rocks, the Subathu group, 
have only been preserved in this very same region, so that the absence of 
trap in the Krol group here may account for its absence in the Subathu 
beds also. There is another strong argument in favour of the same view. 
I will show reason for conjecturing that the Krol group and the slates had 
not undergone very extensive disturbance prior to the deposition of the 
Subathu beds, and hence an additional probability. that the trappean 
intrusions are also of more recent date. One of the few instances of 
the occurrences of trap in the vicinity of the nummulitie area is seen 
on the road side east of Saihutti, over the village of Tunsata; a 
vein of green-stone occurs there in the dark shaly slates underlying the 
limestone. 

Trap rock 1s found most abundantly in those parts of the district which 

In regions of disturb-  8Te regions of extensive disturbance. In the lime- 

ue. stone region of the Sutlej valley, between Komar- 

sin and Dihur, there 1s a typical instance of this, as compared with the less 
disturbed area of older slaty rocks to the south. The most continuous 
exhibition of trappean action is along the base of the Dhaoladhar, and 
stretching thence down to Suket ; in this region we find also vesicular 
varieties of trap that I have not noticed elsewhere. As a rule, there is 
very little variety in the composition or texture of the intrusive rock ; it 
is a dense basic greenstone, more or less compact or sub-crystalline; some- 
times, in limestone rock, it is changed into a fine grained binary trap ; 
good examples of this are to be seen in the Shali mountain. I have 

nowhere noticed highly felspathic, or siliceous varieties. 


72 . SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. [Cuap. II. 

It is with much diffidence that I approach such a vexed question as 
that of cleavage ; more especially as I have little 

Fade or nothing to say in the matter, for or against any 
of the proposed theories. The fact is, I have failed to observe any general 
phenomenon of the kind. This will surprise many, as it did myself. I 
make the statement, however, under correction, and in direct opposition to 
a recent assertion of the contrary by observers of some repute. In a paper 
already referred to, by the M.M. Schlagintweit, in Volume XXV. of the 
“ Journal of the Asiatic Society, Bengal p. 118, the following passage 
occurs: “It was observed a long time ago, that in the great mass of gray 
schists which must be traversed before reaching the central group of the 
Himalayas, a remarkable uniformity in the dip of apparent stratification 
prevails. Our observations have perfectly convinced us that this is no real 
stratification, but merely cleavage, produced, as is now generally assumed, 
by a great tension in the interior of the highly altered rocks.” If the 
structure described in this passage can be called cleavage, I confess that I 
am utterly ignorant of the meaning of the term, as likewise of the term 
stratification. I could not refer to simpler examples of interstratified 
varieties of metamorphic rocks than occur along the section through Al- 
morah—the one alluded to in the passage just quoted. Cleavage is however 
to be seen in the outer Himalayan rocks. The best mstance I have ob- 
served of itis at Naini Tal: the slates quarried 

ate A on the flanks of Chenur are true cleavage-slates. 
But even here the phenomenon is only partial ; in many sections of slaty 
rocks at Naini Tal I failed to detect anything I could recognize as 
regular cleavage ; and in the several places where it can be traced it does 
not maintain a constant direction. If originally it had a common direc- 
tion, as may perhaps be presumed, subsequent disturbance has quite 
At Simla and Dal- Obliterated it. The slates used at Simla are 
housie, easily recognized to be merely lamination slates. 

Again, the excellent roofing slates of Dhurmsala and Dalhousie, 


es 

CHA». IL] THE HIMALAYAN SERIES. (3 

obtained from the metamorphie zone of the Dhaoladhar, do not exhibit 
the phenomenon of cleavage in an indisputable manner: the rock in 
question, it is true, is perfectly fissile ; but more fine-grained argillaceous 
rocks interstratified with it exhibit no such tendency, as should be 
expected in the case of a true system of cleavage. Moreover, the slate 
itself seems to me to suggest the opmion that it is due to an excep- 
tional form of foliation : it is a very fine siliceous rock, showing a de- 
licate micaceous glaze on the surfaces along which it splits. These 

planes moreover coincide with that of bedding. 

The discussion of the structural features of the Himalayan rocks, 
described in the foregoing pages, cannot be profitably undertaken until 
after we have examined the evidence regarding the Sub-Himalayan rocks. 
It is however already manifest how very limited and hypothetical any 
general argument must be until more is known of these older rocks, until 
some connection be established between them and the rocks of the central 
mountain regions. The Krol group has the strongest claim for interest, 

and offers at the same time the most hopeful pros- 

Probable connection, Bey ero e 
through Chamba, of the pect of discovery. A similarity has more than once 

rocks on the north and 

south of the snowy been noticed between the slates of the Lower 
range. ; : 
Himalaya, and the so-called azoic slates which 
underlie the paleozoie strata on the northern side of the snowy range; 
and the identity of the two has been surmised from this similarity. 
It is something gained, however small, to be able to point out a fair pros- 
pect of settling this question independently of fossil evidence. In the 
hills immediately across the Ravee north of Dalhousie, the limestones and 
slates on the south of the Dhaoladhar must come into contact with the 
rocks of the Chamba valley, and there can scarcely be much difficulty 
in discovering their relation to each other. I think, moreover, there is 
much probability that the Chamba slates can be traced continuously 

into connection with the unmetamorphie rocks of the Thibetan regions. 

K 


74 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. — [CnHar. ITI. 

CHAPTER IIL—Swb-Himaloyan, Series— The Subathu Group. 

IT has been shown in the preceding Chapter that we cannot yet 
affirm, with any degree of certainty, to what age any of the stratified 
rocks of the lower Himalayan region belong,—from lowest Tertiary to 
oldest Paleeozoic. The truly historical portion of the record begins with 
the Subathu Group. A glance at the map will show the limited exten- 
se aug MEUSE NE sion of this group, which is the lowest member 

of the great Sub-Himalayan series. With two 
very local exceptions, to be specially noticed, it is limited to the region 
between the rivers Jumna and Sutlej, that region which we have already 
seen marked by peculiarities in the arrangement of the lower Himalayan 
rocks. I will defer the discussion of this actual limitation to the end 
of this Chapter, as being the result of phenomena subsequent to the 
deposition of the formation. 

The succession of deposits, which I have provisionally ranked under 
one name as the Subathu Group, exhibits a very 

didi DN considerable diversity of mineral characters. In 
the bottom portion we find almost exclusively the finest description of 
sediments ; a yellowish brown silt may be taken as the characteristic 
rock.* In the succeeding portion of the formation, a gritty, lumpy, bright 
red clay is predominant : these clays are slightly gypsiferous. Fine 
grained, massive sandstones greatly preponderate in the upper part of the 
group. The united thickness of all can scarcely be less than 3,000 feet. 

There can be no doubt that this formation represents a very prolonged 
period of deposition, mvolving, as is shown by the 
dp cd ice change of composition, a very considerable alteration 

of conditions. Nevertheless, pending the collection and examination of 

* I fail to recognize in the Subathu section the rocks spoken of by D’Archiac as “ Marnes 
noires" and * psammite.” 


CHAP. IIT.)  SUB-HIMALAYAN SERIES—SUBATHU GROUP. 75 

fossil evidence, I have left them as one group, for the following reasons :— 
jirstly, the threefold characters I have noted in the sediment are 
perfectly transitional by interstratification, the change in the nature of 
the deposition being gradual, from what we may suppose to be tranquil 
deposition in moderately deep water to tranquil deposition in shallow 
water. There is scarcely even a small pebble to be found throughout 
the whole formation, as represented in this area. And, secondly, there is 
much evidence for the supposition that, in one direction at least, the 
limitation of the basin of deposition was the same for the lower as for 
the upper beds. 

Tt will be shown, with much probability, that a period of most exten- 

ee aerate sive denudation, consequent on considerable disturb- 
group. ances in this region of the Himalayan system, 
intervened before the deposition of the rocks which here follow next to 
the Subathu group. Yet I rank this group as the lowest of a series of 
formations, under the same general name Sub-Himalayan, because this 
group seems to have had an original limit of deposition approximately 
comeident with what has been ever since a limit of deposition, with 
what has been throughout a zone of disturbance connected with the 
Himalayan system of elevation, and with a zone of, what may now 
be emphatically called, Sub-Himalayan rocks. Great as the interval in 
time must have been between the deposition of the Subathu group and 
that of the succeeding groups of the series, at least in the eastern part 
of the district, we find in the upper portion of the Subathu rocks the 
very characters most distinctive of this great Tertiary series, as a whole ; 
the massive clays and sandstones of Dugshai and Kasaoli bemg unmis- 
takeable congeners of the rocks of the Nahun and the Siválik Hills. 

The three following statements express the general relations of the 

Relations to Lower Ub-Himalayan rocks to those of the Lower 
Himalayan rocks. Himalaya. First, the Subathu beds, the sub- 

group of undoubted nummulitie age, rest upon a deeply denuded surface 


fer 

(6 ‘SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA [CHaP. TIL 

of the Lower Himalayan rocks. Second, the presemt boundary of the 
Subathu group seems to have been approximately its original limit 
of deposition. Third, the Lower Himalayan rocks had undergone 
comparatively little disturbance before the deposition cf the Subathu 
eroup. In explaining these views I will adopt the supposition made m 
the preceding Chapter regarding the normal order of succession of 
the older strata. 
Phe best evidence for the three statements put forward in the last 
de ae paragraph is found at the very station of Subathu. 
pomtagt In the many outliers of the nummulitic beds on 
the north-east of Subathu (they are too numerous to be all represented 
in a map on so small a scale), and for the most part along the boundary 
of its main area, the Subathu group is found in contact with Infra-Krol 
and Infra-Blini strata. Still, contortion has so complicated the original 
relations of the two sets of rocks, that direct evidence to prove that the 
sequence between the two formations was not regular is very rarely met 
with. A brief consideration, however, even of a single case, leaves very 
Ju qu Me little doubt in the matter. For instance, in the 
SOLON OF GL case of either of the outhers shown on the section 
of the Krol (Fig. 3), had the nummulitic beds been originally deposited 
upon an undenuded surface of the Krol group, the faulting necessary to 
account for their present relative position would be inconceivable,— 
long, narrow trough-faults with a throw of 2 or 3,000 feet on either 
side. The great number of such faults also, and their very close proxi- 
mity, would add to the improbability of this mode of explanation. The 
argument is further borne out by the total absence of any direct evidence, 
such as the occasional appearance of the Krol rocks themselves in these 
troughs: of this appearance I have not discovered a single instance. 
Another strong argument against the idea of such faults would be their 
abrupt termination; thus, within less than half a mile to the east of the 

two bands of nummulitie rocks in the valley of the upper Bini, we find 

a ee 


perce 

Cmar. IIL|] SUB-HIMALAYAN SERIES—SUBATHU GROUP. Ci 

on the Solun watershed no trace of this kind of disturbance. Without 
going beyond the negative evidence, as here pomted out, it seems to me 
there is no alternative but to suppose that, prior to the deposition of the 
nummulitic beds, the escarpments of the Krol and the Boj stood face to 
face pretty much as they do now, though at a much greater distance 
from each other, and that the deposition of the newer strata tool place 
between them, upon a bottom of Infra-Krol rocks. The adoption of 
this supposition at once meets all the exigencies of the case. 

There are scores of sections to be seen in the numerous little ravines 

obscurely supported by Crossing the boundaries of the long, narrow, outly- 
gece! ond ing bands of nummulitie rocks, but their character 
is wonderfully uniform. As an example of their type, I will detail the 
section of the main band near its termination in the Blini valley, at the 
confluence of the head waters, where the stream commences its longitudi- 
nal course. In following downwards the stream from the Boj, the 
carbonaceous slates, and thin grits of the Infra-Krol group, show increas- 
ing intensity of compression, maintaining however a steady north- 
westerly strike. Close to the junction with the nummulitie rocks the 
Blimi limestone appears among these grits and slates: as is usual in 
such cases, and as might be anticipated, where a hard band is associated 
with more pliant beds, the two are greatly jumbled together. Within 
six feet of these contorted rocks, in the bed of the main river course, the 
red and gray marly nummulitic clays are vertical, and with the same 
direction of strike. The slate rocks come in again almost immediately 
on the northern bank, the distance from one junction to the other 
being about 109 feet,—the entire thickness of the nummulitic band 
at this place. At the contact on this side both rocks have a slight 
north-easterly underlie, being conformable, as far as can be seen in 
a low section, and thus, to this small extent, the older rock overlies the 
younger. The Blini limestone appears within about twenty feet of 

the junction; its bedding is not so broken up as on the other side 


78 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. [Cuap. TM. 

of the outlier, but it underlies to the south-west, showing that on 
this side also the beds are sharply folded together. Here we find the 
Blini conglomerate underlying the limestone. I have attempted to 
represent these facts in Fig. 3, page 24. Such sections as this are diffi- 
cult to reconcile with the conditions I have supposed; though on 
so small a scale, and therefore, from my point of view, bringing us 
so close to the base of the younger rocks and to the original surface 
of contact, there is no recognizable bottom-rock of the upper group, 
no contact is seen that can be said to be original, and where one can 
be at all sure the actual juxtaposition is not produced by contortion 
and faulting. If this mode of explanation be once admitted it is 
difficult to fix the limits of its application. 
I know of only one section which promises to give conclusive evidence 
proved by the section Upon this question of junction. On the small 
eat patch of level ground (where barracks formerly 
stood), just north-east of the bazaar at Subathu, we find the red and 
gray, marly, nummulitic clays in more or less vertical bedding along a 
steady north-westerly strike. Sub-schistose slates rise on either side with 
an underlie towards the fossiliferous rocks. The junction is particular- 
ly well seen along the south-west edge. In contact with the slates there 
is a thick bed of a peculiar rock, an exceedingly fine clay, but indurated 
in a peculiar manner like semi-porcelain ; it is 
To also characterised by containing large grains of 
pisolitie iron oxide, which are sometimes present in great abundance. 
Along the steep descent into the gulley on the north-west, above the bifur- 
cation of the stream, this contact can be followed to a considerable depth, 
and there is very approximate conformity throughout: the thin slates are 
occasionally wrinkled, but it seemed to me as if the same beds might be 
in contact all through. Before reaching the north-east branch streamlet 
the nummulitie beds cease ;—the slates soon rise with a reverse dip, 

and at several points along the north-east boundary the same bottom bed 


Cmar. IIL] | SUB-HIMALAYAN SERIES—SUBATHU GROUP. 79 

is found resting upon them, as on the other side. We have here the 
section of a synclinal fold displaying a true bottom rock of the Subathu 
group: it is shown in Fig. 9. The regularity and simplicity of this 
Fie. 9. 
S. W. N. E. 
PU ip ds 6 

do dig iu Wie i 
NV 

G 2 Wy x 
Pina AS NA WY 
AAA * NNN 
"AA Sh 
ONIN 

Section through ridge at Subathu. 6. Slates. d.3 Nummulitie beds. 

little section is in strong contrast with the anomalous conditions that 
prevail elsewhere, as already described. Along the great bands of these 
nummulitic rocks in the valleys to the north-east, I have never observed 
this peculiar bottom-rock of Subathu; it is either concealed, or else 
never existed. This is the more remarkable since I have unmistake- 
ably identified it on the north of the valleys in a somewhat analogous 
position to that at Subathu. High upon the south side of the Sairi 
hills, at the summit of one of the steep slopes where the road changes 
from the east to the west side of the ridge, one cannot fail to notice an 
unusual rock ; it is the ferruginous pisolitic bottom clay of the nummu- 
htic group ; for a few yards below it, on the hill there is a remnant 
seen of the red and gray calcareous clays, the same as occur with it at 
Subathu ; I have found fossils in this locality, but the rocks are greatly 
crushed and obscured. The determination of whether or not this bottom- 
rock is common to the whole intervening area involves some interesting 
considerations of detail regarding the pre-nummulitic condition of the 
surface, and the process of formation of this group, I suggest it to the 
attention of future observers. | 

It wil be recollected that in the second Chapter, page 54, I 
described the region of Subathu as one of more than usual obscurity 

among the Lower Himalayan rocks: in so far, therefore, as the evidence 


80 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. [CHaAp. MI 

bY 

depends upon this section at Subathu, doubt in the same degree must 

rest upon the proposition I am now attempting 
DRM to establish. My impression, however, is that the 
slate rocks here in contact with the nummulitic strata belong to the 
Infra-Blini series. As long as this hesitation remains, sufficient weight 
must be given to the general argument for the pre-nummulitie denuda- 
tion of the Krol group, based upon the evidence of the outlymg bands 
in the valleys to the north-east of Subathu. That argument seems to 
me sufficiently strong to stand by itself. 

The conditions described for the small isolated or semi-isolated bands 
Edu PS of nummulitie strata are applicable on a grand 
outlier. scale to the whole area of the Subathu group; it 
is itself, to some extent, contained in a great trough of depression or of 
folding; it is now almost insulated from all connection with succeeding 
deposits, upon a ledge of the older rocks ;—along the whole of its south- 
west boundary there is scarcely a section in which the older rock does not 
appear beneath the nummulitie beds, thus forming the contact rock with 
the middle Sub-Himalayan group. This state is most evident in the 
north-western portion of the area: from the Sutlej to beyond the Ghumber 
there is a well defined ridge of limestone, underlaid by biack shale, enclos- 
ing the nummulitie rocks on the west. Itis not only along the boundary 
of the group that the underlying rocks appear: in more than one place 
of the eastern part of the region, in the deeply cut valleys, the black shales 
weather out from below the brown nummulitic clays; the best example 
I know of is in the valley of the Guggur, north of Morni. In these posi- 
tions it is often difficult to distinguish between the two rocks; the best 
general test is the thin, sharp bedding, and frequent fine lamination of 
the Infra-Krol strata, as contrasted with the thick amorphous beds of the 
nummulitie clays: The non-appearance of the Krol beds themselves, in 
situations such as this, gives conclusive proof, if any were still needed, of 

the extensive removal of that group prior to the nummulitie period. 


CHaP. IIL] SUB-HIMALAYAN SERIES—SUBATHU GROUP. 81 

Having disposed of the first, I may now take up the second point 
of relation between the Subathu groups and the underlying rocks, 
namely, that the present north-eastern boundary of the group was 
approximately its original limit of deposition. That the nummulitic 
rocks are not now found more extensively covering the Lower Hima- 
A Hortense Bait of layan area gives but little reason for presuming 
Peo on that this condition did not once obtain. There 
is, however, a fact tending to suggest this, viz., that not even a single 
outlier, beyond a certain well-defined line, has been found over so 
large an area of the Lower Himalayas; the contortion to which 
both series have been simultaneously. subjected would assuredly have 
enfolded some of the upper strata, so as to be protected from subse- 
quent denudation. We find better evidence in the variation of the 
nummulitic deposits themselves, that they had an abrupt limit at 
or about what is now their inner boundary. This might have been con- 
jectured from the consideration of the facts already given. In the sec- 

Section at and north of tion described in the upper Blini, in what I pre- 
pou. sumed to be almost the base of the Subathu 
beds, I mentioned red clays as equally prominent with other varie- 
ties. In proceeding from that section westerly along the strike of 
the rocks, down the river, as the band of upper rock expands, we 
soon come upon massive sandstones interstratified with red clays and 
fossiliferous nummulitie clays, conditions strongly indicative of a higher 
part of the series. In the section at Subathu itself, among what are 
positively bottom rocks, the same characters have been noted. The 
comparison of these sections with those to the south-west leads to 
important conclusions. 

In descending from Subathu by the Budi road, towards the south- 

Section south of Su. West into the valley of the Chota Ghumber, 
bathu. a fall of some 1,200 or 1,500 feet, the whole 

section is in what may be called the Subathu beds, that is, in the lowest 
L 


82 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. [Cuap. IID. 

sub-division of the Subathu group, the rocks already so well known as 
the nummulitie rocks of Subathu. "Through this entire section the strata 
are almost exclusively of the character peculiar to the base of the group, 
—dull greenish, yellow, and brown clays, sometimes calcareous, and with 
occasional layers of concretionary earthy limestone ; there are a few beds 
of grit, or even of fine, earthy, brown sandstone. I cannot assert that the 
whole section from Subathu to the Ghumber is a continuous descending 
succession ; it is not unlikely that towards the base some of the beds 
are repeated by contortion, for in the valley we soon come upon transi- 

. tion beds belonging to the middle of the group; 
ere but still there must be a considerable thickness 
of beds, which are but feebly, if at all, represented in the little section 
north of the bazaar at Subathu. At the edge of the ridge, where the 
road begins to descend from the south-west corner of the parade 
ground, there is a very instructive contact-section. At first sight it 
seems quite at variance with the opinions I have adopted regarding the 
original relation of the two series of deposits (vide Fig. 9): the num- 
mulitie clays are inclined at a low angle to north-east, against what 
seems to be a fault-surface of the thin-bedded, gritty, sub-schistose 
slates; to complete the contrast, these latter beds are much broken 
and contorted, and next the junction are inclined at a high angle towards 
the younger rocks. They are the same beds which in the section 
north of the bazaar underlie the nummulitic rocks in local conform- 
ability of dip. A little consideration will enable us to adapt these facts 
to the conditions I conceive to have existed during the deposition 
of the nummulitic strata, namely, that they were deposited against 
cliffs, on ledges, and in deeply cut bays of the old rocks. Indeed, I am 
inclined to assert, that no other supposition will reconcile the two sec- 
tions. This ridge of the old rocks at Subathu formed an eminence on 
the nummulitie sea-bottom ; the area to the north of it was also at 

that time, probably to a greater extent than now, raised above the area 


Cuar. IIL]  SUB-HIMALAYAN SERIES—SUBATHU GROUP. 83 

to the south-west, and on this account we find at Subathu and north 
of it, only a partial representation of the bottom rocks, a step, as it 
were, in the conditions which excluded the whole series from the region 
of the Lower Himalaya. I need hardly point out that lateral com- 
pression might readily produce the result represented in Fig. 9, at 
the edge of the Subathu ridge, between beds that had been approxi- 
mately parallel. I do not pretend to say that no slipping has occurred 
along this junction ; it were improbable to suppose that it had not; 
and we even see positive evidence of it in the slightly streaked and 
polished surface of contact ] but that it was inconsiderable is strongly 
suggested by the fact, that the nummulitie beds here, and in the section 
beyond the bazaar, are about on the same geological horizon as well as 
at the same actual level; both are about the termination of the fine 
silty, calcareous, fossiliferous deposits. 

On the sections at and about Subathu, almost the entire evidence 
relating to the geological history of these nummulitic rocks depends. 
The removal of the Krol group from the area over which we now find 
the nummulitic outliers is peculiar to this locality : 

Exceptional character 
of the boundary at Suba- elsewhere, we find difficulty even in applying the 

x mode of interpretation suggested by those outliers. 
For example, towards its south-east end, the Subathu ridge passes along 
the side of the Boj ; it is in fact so united to the latter as to form but one 
mountain with it, and the peak of the Boj rises but a few hundred feet 
higher than the sandstone ridge, from which it is separated only by a 
very shallow depression. The junction here gives one forcibly the 
impression of its being a great fault-lme. The section is admirably 
exposed in the tunnel through the south-east continuation of the Subathu 
ridge, where it has again separated from the Boj. In Fig.3 the section is 
taken across the summits, but the features are the same as at the tunnel 
and along the ridge: the black shales rise with a high dip from under 

the Krol limestone ; in the depression they form a sharp anticlinal, thus 


co 
E 

SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. — [Cna». III. 

dipping at a high angle towards the sandstone ridge; the junction occurs 
at a short distance below the crest of the ridge on the north-east. All 
along the south-west face of the ridge, from Subathu to its termination 
east of the tunnel, the strong sandstones and red clays have a high dip 
inwards; along the centre there is a synclinal bend producing a fractured . 
upturn of the beds towards the plane of junction. Thus on both sides 
every feature of ‘the case is suggestive of a great fault with an upthrow 
to the north-east, yet if there be any force in the argument based on the 
sections of Subathu, such is not the case to any extent. The relative 
position of the beds in contact on the Boj are about what I suppose 
them to have been originally: on both sides of the junction the beds 
are about 1,500 to 1,800 feet higher im their respective series than their 
representatives at Subathu: and I may notice, though it does not 
materially affect the question, that this is about the difference of level of 
the two localities. Again, to the east, in the connecting ridge at the 
head of the Jalar valley, there is a section of the junction precisely like 
that I have just described, while in the low ground on both sides the 
soft bottom beds form the contact, which is always very obscure m such 
positions. Similarly to the north-west of Subathu the junction occurs 
in low ground, and in the softer beds, so that it 1s greatly concealed. 
There is another step in the same line of argument. All the num- 
mulitie beds about Subathu may be described as 

Contrast of rocks along ; ] 
inner and outer bounda- marginal and mixed when compared with their 

ie equivalents a few miles more to the south-west 
along the outer boundary, at least this seems to me a plausible inference 
from facts. The section seen in the Sursulla, two miles east of Kalka, 
gives a good instance of this contrast. On the north of the boundary of 
the Subathu group with the succeeding band of the Sub-Himalayan 
series, the dark brown nummulitie clay is the only rock exposed for 
more than quarter of a mile. The section is not unbroken, but the 

clay shows at intervals, in some places of several hundred feet in 


CuHap. IIL] | SUB-HIMALAYAN SERIES—SUBATHU GROUP. 85 

thickness ; it is greatly crushed, and has sometimes a quasi-metamorphic 
aspect. The same beds are probably repeated by flexures, but, making 
allowance for this, there is a greater display of the unmixed deposits than 
we find anywhere along the inner boundary. In this section, moreover, 
there is no semblance of transition into the upper members of the groups ; 
the change is abrupt from crushed brown silts to bright red, coarse clay, 
and sandstones. This contact of the brown and the red rocks in the 
Sursulla, though roughly conformable, might easily admit of the sup- 
position of shifting, and so of the concealment of a small band of transi- 
tion ; still we find the same general features prevail all along this outer 
limit of the formation. In the hills and valleys east of Morni the same 

brown, crumbling clay is largely exposed, and there is but little evidence 
` for its transitional interstratification with the red rocks. These facts 
add weight to the inference which we may draw from the general con- 
trast of the upper and lower deposits, as to the partial independence of 
the nummulitie strata proper; but they cannot negative the equally 
distinct facts m evidence of a transition. I do not believe that the 
interstratification along the zone of the inner boundary is due to a 
re-arrangement of the true nummulitic deposits. The contrast of the 
two sections may be explained by the more local character of the upper 
deposits, and by supposing them to have encroached from the north- 
east upon the finer sediments. This decided and important contrast is 
the more remarkable when we recollect that at the outer.edge the whole 
formation is still seen, and that the thickness is not in any decided 
manner increased; there is little to suggest the rapidly deepening 
bottom of an open sea. 

In the topmost beds of the Subathu group we find evidence strongly 

Fossil evidence of corroborative of the view I have been advocating 
a eee as to the original limitation of deposition in this 
vicinity. At. Kasaoli and elsewhere, in the youngest rocks of this area, 

we find abundant remains of land plants,—of trees and shrubs, which 


86 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. [CxHap. III. 

must have grown in the immediate neighbourhood, probably on islands 
of the Krol rocks which had become inliers in the nummulitic deposits, 
and on the slopes of the land which I suppose to have existed to the 
north-east of this area from before the commencement of these deposits, 
and upon which land, in a somewhat remodelled condition, the fauna of 

the Sivalik period lived long subsequently.* 

In each of the foregoing arguments upon the relations of the Subathu 

Pre-mummuliie dis. group to the rocks of the Lower Himalayas, the 

eee: Subathu section has been brought to notice, and 

incidental mention was then made of the relation to which I wish now 
to draw attention, namely, the phenomena of disturbance as affecting 
these contiguous formations. The fact of such extensive denudation , 
having affected the older rocks prior to the nummulitic period, implies 
that these rocks had also undergone disturbance, and it is of importance 
to be able to indicate the nature of that disturbance: it was in mo 
sensible degree the disturbance which produces 
ees contortion or flexure of strata. There is prima 
facie evidence for this statement in the fact, that the Subathu group ex- 
hibits quite as much contortion as do the Krol and subjacent groups, and 
that the manner of flexure is the same in both ; there are the same varia- 
tions in general strike in one as in the other. The only direct corroborative 
evidence I can add to this general observation is, once more, derived from 
our Subathu section,—though small, it is not to be despised. The slate 
rocks at Subathu must have been approximately horizontal when the num- 
mulitic clays were deposited upon them ; both follow the same synclinal fold. 
Tf the views that have now been explained be accepted, they offer some 
Rae ar howee | DEDI of forming an opinion regarding the nature 

dünn dues of pre-nummulitie elevation. By extending to the 

north-west and south-east the fact of the original limitation of the 

* At the end of this Chapter will be found a notice of the plants and the other few fossils 

obtained by me from the Subathu group. 


CHAP. IIL] | SUB-HIMALAYAN SERIES—SUBATHU GROUP. 87 

nummulitic deposits, as seen in the less disturbed section of Subathu, 
we can infer that the elevation of the area to the north-east, by which 
the nummulitie deposits were restricted, corresponded approximately in 
outline to the actual area of the Lower Himalaya, and that, therefore, 
the formation of the mountain zones, as we now see them, is not the 
result of one upheaval of the crust subsequent to the deposition of the 
Sub-Himalayan rocks. The small remnant of the Subathu beds, which 
occurs east of the Ganges, after a blank of sixty miles, is exactly in the 
line of continuation of the main area, on the outskirts of the Lower 
Himalaya, In the other direction, before the Subathu group disappears 
beneath the succeeding formations, beyond the Sutlej, it has bent round 
with the curve of the boundary of the Lower Himalaya. We are thus 
led to conjecture that the pre-nummulitic elevation was effected on 
the same lines, so to speak, as those which now mark the Himalayan 
mountain system. Another fact of some interest, and which supports 
the same view, is this: the range of the Krol rocks to the south-east 
of Solun is well outside the strike of the rocks in the outlying bands 
of the Subathu group; yet I never found a trace of this latter group 
among the rocks of the limestone range. To the north-west, however, 
on the range of limestone, north of Erki, and which, it will be recollect- 
ed, I regard provisionally as the representatives of the Krol rocks, 
the nummuhtie clays are easily detected ; there is a. well-marked band 
of them in the depression of the ridge, by the village of Kularun. 

From what we have seen of the nummulitic group of Subathu, one 

Subathu group east Would not perhaps expect d priori to find its cha- 
pauses: racters persistent over a large area. Its thickness 
no doubt is considerable, but it has been shown with some probability 
that its conditions of formation were rather confined and local This 
expectation is to some extent confirmed ; we do know that these nummu- 
litie deposits differ much from nummulitie strata in an analogous position 

in Eastern Bengal, and that they altogether differ from those of the 


S8 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. — [Cuar. IIT 

Salt-range far to the north-west. Yet we will see that the peculiar 
deposits of Subathu once ranged far beyond the comparatively small area 
with which we have been engaged. This area terminates abruptly some 
miles to the west of the Jumna, but about sixty miles off just east of the 
Ganges a remnant again appears. It differs in no respect from what we 
have seen at Subathu,—pale, greenish brown, and red clays, with concre- 
tionary layers of earthy fossiliferous limestone. The locality is just 
opposite Riki-Kase, in a depression a short way to the south of Merhal 
summit, on the ridge which runs nearly parallel to the Ganges for 
about half the width of the dun. The depression is caused by the more 
easy denudation of the nummulitic band, which is about half a mile wide. 
I have already noticed the position of this outlier as being approxi- 
mately in the continuation of the east end of the main area west of the 
Jumna, and irrespective of the deep re-entering boundary of the newer 
deposits in the valley of Dehra. The nummulitic beds here, as elsewhere, 
exhibit the same features of disturbance as the underlying strata, all being 
greatly contorted. The Blini group occurs about the base of Merhal, and 
the other rocks of the ridge show affinities to the Krol and Infra-Krol 
groups. I cannot say how far this band may continue to the east: this 
is the only locality in which rocks of this age have been observed by me 
within the districts of Kumaon and Ghurwal. I have heard of but one 
other case of their occurrence, and this perhaps requires confirmation. 
- In one of their progress reports to the Government of India (Jour. 
As. Soc., Ben., Vol. XXV., p. 118), the M.M. Schlagintweit announce the 
discovery “ in the clay-slates in the neighbourhood of Naini Tal, of 
numerous foraminifera evidently identical with those which accompany 
the Eocene nummulitic formation.” Accepting the statement, it has 
occurred to me that they may have hit upon some small outlying band 
of the Subathu beds ; it is sometimes very dıfficult indeed to distinguish 
these small bands from the rocks in which they are folded (see, for 

instance, the road section from Bil to the top of the Sairi hills). That 


Cuar. IIL] |SUB-HIMALAYAN SERIES—SUBATHU GROUP. 89 

none of the careful observers who have also searched the rocks at Naini 
Tal should have found similar remains makes such a contingency the 
more likely. It is impossible in the case of such distinguished observers 
as the brothers Schlagintweit to suppose them deceived by the pseudo- 
fossiliferous. appearance so common in the limestone at Naini Tal as 
elsewhere; the word *clay-slate' is ambiguous in the above quota- 
ton; it may only mean the clay-slate series, and thus include the 
limestone. 

I have spoken of the Sutlej as the north-western limit of the special 

Subathu group south Legion of the Subathu group. This is not strictly 
SU RR the case. The nummulitic beds are well seen on 
both banks of the Sutlej at Dihur, and they extend for a short distance 
in the hills to the north, but they disappear long before they reach 
the Beas, in a manner to be presently described, and do not show again 
to the east of the Ravee. ` However, during a short trip I made to 
the Upper Punjab in 1859-60, I had the satisfaction of recognising the 
Subathu group in the hills south of the Kashmir valley, and beyond 
the Jhelum in Huzara.* The brown crumbling clay with earthy lenticu- 
ar limestone abundantly charged with fossils, and surmounted by deep 
purple clays with massive purplish sandstone, are as typical as in the 
valleys south of Subathu. The whole are found too, having the same 
kind of relation to underlying rocks which have a strong similarity to 
the Krol group. At Dundelee, three miles north of Kotlee, on the east 
of the Poonch valley in the Kashmir territory, one of the sections to 
which I allude occurs. A rugged ridge of hard blue limestone protrudes 
through hills of massive red sandstone and clays. ‘The strike in both is 
very steady to east 35° south. The limestone strata are vertical and 
closely contorted; on both flanks of the limestone ridge we find the 
nummulitic clays cropping out from beneath the red rocks; on both 

sides, moreover, we find, beneath the nummulitic clays, thin carbona- 

* Some ye ars ago Dr. Fleming found nummulitic fossils in this district. 

M. 


90 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. [CwHap. III. 

ceous slaty shales. The strings of anthracite which occur in these slaty 
shales at Dundelee were the object of my visit. Both the clays and the 

slates are greatly contorted ; but, as well as one could judge, they 

observe approximate, parallelism in contortion. Fig. 10 represents roughly 
Fic. 10. 

Section at Dundelee, Poonch valley. c. Krol group. c.? Infra-Krol d. Subathu group. 
the section at Dundelee. I was so struck by the analogy of the section 
with what I had seen in the Subathu region, that in spite of appear- 
ances, and, as I had not time to examine the ground more closely, I 
adopted the opinion that the carbonaceous shales were originally over- 
laid by the limestone band, which I took to represent the Krol group ; 
the identification is of the same vague kind as that made for the rocks 
in the valleys of the Sutlej and the Beas (vide Chapter 2); I could find no 
fossils in the clear limestones of the ridge. It should be noticed that the 
steady general strike of the rocks at Dundelee is remarkably constant 
towards the direction of Himalayan elevation. 

The tract of mountains intervening between the Poonch and Murree, 

Subathu group in Which is the great sanitarium of the Upper 

Huzara. 

Punjab, is occupied by the Sub-Himalayan series, 
But in the region of the Jhelum valley a total change takes place in the 
system of disturbance. The well defined ridges about Murree have a 
steady north-east south-west strike, which is also that of the strata. 
So far, however, no new rock is introduced ; Murree is built upon a ridge 
of purple clays and hard sandstones ; the ridge to the north-west of it, 
a continuation of a lofty mountain-mass of Mochipoora, is of clear blue 

hmestone. In the intervening valley, we find brown and variegated 


CHAP. IIL] | SUB-HIMALAYAN SERIES—SUBATHU GROUP. OF 

nummulitic clays, and in the more deeply cut sections below Tret, about 
Shah Durrah, carbonaceous, sulphureous, gypseous, efflorescing shales are 
exposed, I presume, representing the Infra-Krol band. 

The identification of the Subathu group, in its characteristic form, at 

Compared with the Such a distance, adds greatly to its importance, 

Palt Range deposits. and it is of particular interest in this more north- 

erly locality, on account of its comparative proximity to the nummu- 
litic rocks of the Salt-Range, and of the contrasting conditions of the two 
deposits. There is no similarity between them as rock-groups ; and there 
is no frace in the Salt-Range of the great thickness of hard sandstones 
and red clays, which we have seen to be constant companions of, and to 
be connected by interstratification with, the true nummulitic beds of 
Subathu, and which are so largely developed in the Murree district. The 
fact of the two thus disappearing together is an additional link between 
them. In the Salt-Range the massive unconsolidated mammaliferous 
clays and sands of the upper Sub-Himalayan groups rest upon a denuded 
surface of the clear, highly fossiliferous, nummulitie limestone. The sim- 
plest conjecture to form upon these imperfect data is, that the nummulitic 
limestone of the Salt-Range is the open sea contemporary of the Subathu 
group, and that the great clay and sand deposits which at first alternated 
with, and finally covered up, the nummulitic deposits along the Sub- 
Himalayan region, never reached so far as the Salt-Range. The com- 
parison of the few fossils that have been described from the two deposits 
partially bears out the conjecture just made. In the work of MM. 
D’Archiac and Haime there are forty-four species described from the 
Salt-Range, and the same number from the Subathu beds; not one 
is convmon to the two localities, a fact throwing some doubt upon 
the contemporaneity of the groups. In respect however of habitat, 
the species of Subathu are uniformly of shallow water forms as com- 
pared with those of the Salt-Range. The great difference in the 

nature of the sediments in the two localities leaves it possible for 


92 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. [Cmar ME 

the great specific difference of the fossils to be compatible with 
contemporaneity.* 

The subject I wil now bring forward is of great theoretical interest, 

Relation of Nahun and* 28 bearing upon the general problem of the struc- 
uod a ture of the mountain region: it is, the relation 
of the Subathu group to the succeeding member of the Sub-Himalayan 
series. Orographically the area of the Subathu group belongs to the 
Lower Himalayan region, not to the characteristic Sub-Himalayan 
zone. To the east of the Sutlej the inner boundary of the Nahun 

. . & 
Apparently a great group is the most steady and most remarkable 

fault-junction. : ó ; A 
anit Quncaon feature that occurs: it bears in all the sections 

the appearance of a gigantic fault, and it is of the utmost importance 
to obtain a true idea as to its real nature. In looking at the map 
the feature perhaps most readily noticed is the partial extension of 
the Subathu group as compared to that of the others To the 
practised eye a closer inspection will show, that on. the north-west 
this limitation is due to overlap by the younger rocks, while, to 

the south-east, it is produced by a very different cause, namely, 

* In connection with these Punjab sections there is a suggestion to be noticed relating to 
the Krol rocks as much as to the nummulitie group. In the Murree section I noticed one 
new feature. Inthe nummulitic zone there occurs a considerable amount of clear blue limestone 
not distinguishable from that of Mochipoora, and in which nummulites are easily detected. 
The rocks just west of Tret bungalow are of this limestone ; and again at the place called 
Clifden, near Murree, it is well seen. There would be nothing whatever forced in supposing 
this to be only a local development of limestone among the true Subathu beds, for even 
at Subathu we find occasionally bands of pure blue limestone among the clays. But there 
seems to be a remote possibility of this limestone being fully identified with the great mass of 
Mochipoora, and of Dundelee, and hence of the Krol; in which case the deeply denuded 
unconformability, which I have established between the Subathu beds and Krol group, would 
prove to be only a break in the nummulitie period. However improbable such a result may 
seem to be, I am induced to notice the fact in this connection, on account of the suggested 
reference of the Lower Himalayan slates and limestones of Naini Tal to the nummulitic 
period, as mentioned in page 88. Should such prove to be the case, the limestone of the 
Salt-Range probably belongs to this lower nummulitic formation ; and under this arrange 
ment the Salt-Range coal would correspond to the Infra-Krol carbonaceous deposits of the 

Lower Himalaya. 


Cnuar. IIL] SUB-HIMALAYAN SERIES—SUBATHU GROUP. 93 

by the upheaval of the Subathu group, and its consequent removal 
from off the underlying rocks. It is with the time of this upheaval 
that we are now principally concerned. 

In comparing the states of disturbance of the rocks of the Nahun 
Res et and Subathu groups, the same general remark 
turbance of the lower may be made as in the case of the latter and the 
die Himalayan rocks ; no marked contrast can be 
drawn in either case; yet, between the two Sub-Himalayan groups a 
slight difference is, I think, noticeable; it may be said that we nowhere 
find the strata of the Subathu group so little disturbed as we sometimes 
do those of the Nahun, as, for instance, at Nahun itself. It is however 
upon disturbance in kind rather than in degree that I wish to insist. 

No outliers of the Among rocks so essentially alike as are the 
upper group ; several members of the Sub-Himalayan series it is 
particularly hazardous to assert, upon negative evidence, that the newer 
members had never overlaid the older ones at any place; remnants 
might well be present without being noticed, yet, I am inclined to 
think that the Subathu group here has never been so overlaid. The 
Kasaoli beds form a really distinctive capping to the Subathu group, 

and I have never detected any younger rock within the Subathu area,* 

* Those who may have examined the account given by D’Archiac of the section at Subathu, 
will be surprised at the statement in the text, that no younger rocks occur within the area of 
the Subathu group. At page 176 of the * Groupe nummulitique de l'Inde" repeated mention is 
made of sands and conglomerates, with large mammalian remains undistinguishable from those 
of the Sivaliks, resting conformably upon the nummulitic strata at Subathu ; the author remark- 
ing upon the interest of this apparent intimate connection between two groups so distinctly 
characterised. It is fortunate the error is on so large a scale, for few will be disposed to ques- 
tion my assurance that no such rocks occur at Bubathu ; unless indeed, after the similar failure 
to confirm Lieutenant Durand's discoveries at Nahun, as noticed in the first Chapter, p. 15, one 
may be disposed to consider me fossil-blind. In this case, however, I have succeeded in 
obtaining an explanation from the discovererhimself, Finding no allusion to any such deposits 
at Subathu in the original paper by Captain Vicary (Jour. Geol. Soc., London, Vol. IX., 
p. 70, 1853)—the only authority quoted by M. D’Archiac—I wrote to that gentleman and 
received an immediate reply, expressing astonishment at the statement referred to him: “I 
cannot think how D’Archiac’s mistake originated ; I do not understand French, and never 


94 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. [Cuap. M. 

It is of more significance for the point I wish now to establish to mention 

or inliers of the lower 7136 I have never seen any trace of the Kasaoli 
one: beds weathering out from beneath the newer 
rocks to the south, where these have been much disturbed and denuded. 
We do find, among the strata of the middle band, individual rocks undis- 
tinguishable from some in the Subathu group,—such are some hard 
purple sandstones and clays that may be seen south of the nummulitic 
beds at Kalka, or on the road between Kudi and Budi; yet if the 
connected sections be compared this surmise is not confirmed, no one 
would, I think, in the section of the Sursula identify any portion of 
the band of rocks, south of the nummulitic clays, with any to the north 
of them, although individual rocks may be undistinguishable. The 
important question to be settled is,—should we at any depth find the 

E nia Subathu beds beneath those of the Nahun group ? 
i. e., were these latter deposited upon a surface of 
the former, whether denuded or not, their actual relative positions, as 
seen at the surface, being due to a great fault; or, is the actual boundary 
a line carved originally by denudation (along a coast) out of the 
upraised area of the Subathu rocks, and along which the Nahun 
beds were deposited? I am strongly in favour of the latter view; it 
does not preclude the supposition of subsequent shifting along this 
line. 

However or whenever the present relative elevation of the Subathu 

over the Nahun groups was produced, it was unequal,—vanishing to the 

detected it until I got your letter. Isurely never said that Subathu was built upon anything 
bearing the most remote likeness to conglomerates. I never said or wrote anything of the 
kind, and never alluded to conglomerates at all.” He further explains that Allea Bukhan, a 
locality given by D’Archiac as in the neighbourhood of Subathu, is several hundred miles ‘off 
towards the Indus, near Rawul-pindi. It is evident that the whole mistake, like so many 
others of the same kind, is traceable to the incorrigible carelessness of unscientific collectors 
in distinguishing localities when labelling their specimens. Geologists and Paleontologists 
ought by this time to be sufficiently warned on this point to be more cautious in speculating 
upon such data. 


CHAP. IIL] | SUB-HIMALAYAN SERIES—SUBATHU GROUP. 95 

north-west and attaining a maximum to the south-east; this fact, as I 
have said, is apparent from a mere glance at the map. Already to south 
of the Sutlej a change has taken place from the normal state of the 
section in the Subathu area. 'The limestone band, which had for so 

MUN ds long formed the boundary between the nummu- 
the Subathu group on the — litic rocks.and the newer deposits, makes a sharp 
d ond bend inwards. The direction of the boundary 
does not conform to this sudden turn of the inner contact-rock, so that 
beyond this point we find the Subathu group again; the limestone 
ridge has thus become bounded on both sides by the nummulitic beds, 
quite similarly to the ridge at Dundelee (see Fig. 10); it ends abruptly 
at a short distance to north of the river. On the west of this ridge, the 
bottom, fossihferous beds scarcely appear at all, and to north of the 
Sutlej they are not to be found along either boundary, although, as 
before, both these boundaries are lines of denudation. In the central 
part of this Trans-Sutle] area however, north of Dihur, the so bottom- 
beds are well exposed in several places; but in this position also, we 
soon lose sight of any recognizable rock of the Subathu group. The 
sandstones forming the Sid hill may be true representatives of the 
Kasaoli beds, but they have an equal resemblance to beds that cannot 
hold that pretension, and a little further in the same direction, at and 
north of Mundi, rocks come in of so decidedly new a type that 
I prefer describing the whole in connection with the upper groups 
of the Sub-Himalayan series. The fact which I now wish to elu- 
cidate is, however, independent of any strict identification of these 
new rocks; for if they do belong to the Subathu group they are 
very topmost beds; and as to the other part of the evidence there 
can be no doubt,—the whole group is here so depressed, that the 
bottom beds never once show again to east of Ravee, although the 
rocks are everywhere greatly disturbed ; whereas to east of the Sutlej 

the very base of the formation is exposed throughout. 


96 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. X [Cnar. MI. 

On the south-east the mode of disappearance of the Subathu beds is 
the very reverse of what we have just seen to the 

Cutting out of the y 
Subathu group on south- north-west. For along way before the final extinc- 

n tion of the group the bottom beds become more and 
more exposed, and at last none others are seen ; their last appearance 
is at the top of the ridge. The final thinning out of the group is 
however too rapid to be due simply to the general rise I have de- 
scribed. From a little below the confluence of the Jalar and Giri the 
boundary slopes obliquely but rapidly up the ridge to the south ; I 
do not believe it is a fault; the Blini limestone and conglomerate 
are well seen both in the river and on the ridge about Pagad ; and, as I 
have said, the full thickness of the nummulitic beds seems to be exposed 
along the crest of the ridge. To this more rapid elevation of the area 
at this point the abrupt termination of the Subathu group is due. Al- 
though no sign of such a movement be traceable in the Nahun rocks on 
the south of the main boundary, it is quite intelligible that it may have 
occurred subsequently to, or synchronously with, the supposed great fault 
along the boundary, and have stopped out against it. It seems however 

Bome D ts to me much more likely that this easterly eleva- 

Ellas gero tion took place long anterior to the Nahun period, 

and extended far to the south of the present boundary, that the denu- 
dation, which followed or accompanied this elevation, removed every 
vestige of the Subathu group from off the area to the south of the main 
boundary, and thus prepared the ground for the subsequent deposition of 
the Nahun rocks. The state of the small outlier of the nummulitic 
rocks east of the Ganges corresponds with the supposition I have advanced. 
It is well elevated on a base of the Himalayan rocks. 
There is an argument I must not omit, although, being based upon 
Irregular form of this an assumption, its force will depend upon the 
boundary an assumption soif 
against à fault. theoretical convictions of each individual . The 

very irregular form of this boundary is much against its having 


- 

CHAP. HL]  SUB-HIMALAYAN SERIES—SUBATHU GROUP. 97 

originated in a great fissure. There are, as we shall see, true faults 
among these rocks, but they add force to the argument by con- 
firming the opinion to which I appeal ;—they are essentially rectili- 
near. It rémains to be shown that the sharp irregularities in the main 
boundary, such as that just east of Rajpoor, and again that east of the 
Ganges, are not due to cross faults. For this I must refer to the following 
Chapter. 

The fact for which I here contend is but the continuation, or rather 

Analogy with pre-num- the repetition of a process for the action of which 
meee in pre-nummulitic times I have already adduced 
evidence in discussing the relations of the Subathu group to the older 
rocks, namely, a slow upheaval of the area corresponding approximately, 
here at least, to the Lower Himalayan region, and involving the form- 
ation of a succession of coast lines along which the several Sub-Hima- 

layan groups were laid down. 

The following general remarks upon the fossils which I obtained from 
the rocks of the Subathu group are due to my colleague Dr. Kane, who 
very kindly made a careful examination of my small collection. The 
plant remains are exclusively from the Kasaoli beds, and from two 
localities ; one in Kasaoli itself, on the lower mall, about a quarter of a 
mile south of the water-tunnel ; the other locality 1s some miles north 
of Kasaol on the Budi road, near the stream in the chief re-entering 
angle on the east side of the main ridge. The other fossils were 
obtained from the true nummulitic beds at the base of the group, and 

from scattered localities :— 

A number of well-preserved plant remains were found in the rocks of the Kasaoli range. 
They are, probably, of middle tertiary age, and are embedded in an indurated shaly clay, 
bluish, and slightly micaceous. It is evident from the regularity with which these remains 
are disposed,—the leaves being in no case crumpled, or distorted, as well as from the fine 
texture of the rock in which they occur, that they have been deposited from water either 
perfectly still, or only slightly in motion ; and it is also evident, judging from their com- 
paratively perfect state of preservation, and the general evidence of their all being mature 

- N 


98 .SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. — [CHar. IIE. 

and of their consequently having been separated naturally from the trees or plants to which 
they belonged, that they originally flourished in the vicinity of the rocks in which they are 
now fossilized. 

The natural families represented by our specimens are Sapindacee, Ericacee, Lau- 
racee, Moracee, Cycadacee, Conifere, (2) Palmacee, Cyperacee, and Graminee. 

SaAPINDACEA.—Only one leaflet seems referrible to the Sapindacez. It is, however, well- 
marked, and can be identified as belonging to the genus Sapindus. It approaches very 
nearly to the S. dubius of Unger, but it would be rash to refer it to any species without 
a comparison of other specimens from the same locality. 

Living plants of the Soapwort family are essentially tropical, and flourish best in India 
and the tropical parts of South America. 

EnrcAcEG.— Several of the specimens belong to the family Ericacee. A number of them 
seem to belong to the genus Andromeda, and, it not identical with the species vaceinifolia, 
described in the “ Flora Tertiaria Helvetiz,” they very closely resemble it. In another 
specimen the capsular fruit, probably of an Andromeda, and a cast of the fruit, are preserved. 

Living heathworts have no very characteristic habitat. They abound at the Cape of 
Good Hope, but they are also to be met with in Europe, and they are Uistributed over the 
New World, both within and without the tropics. They are rather rare in India and 
Northern Asia, and it is said that, when they occur within the tropics, they are only to be 
found on highlands. 

Lavracem.—The natural family, Lauracee, is well represented in this collection. Some 
of the specimens seem referrible to the genus Persea, and perhaps also to the species 
Braunii ; others are undoubtedly of the genus Zaurus. In one case a well-marked berry 
is preserved. It has an adherent, 6-partite perianth, and must, therefore, be referred to 
the Perses. 

Lauracez have their natural habitat in cool places in the tropics of either hemisphere, 
and flourish well in the northern parts of India, and along the lower zone of the Hima- 
layas. 

MonaAcEx.—Some well-marked specimens of the natural family Moracee occur, all 
belonging to the genus Ficus, and one appears to be identical with the existing F. religiosa. 

It would be indeed surprising, if in any Indian tertiary deposit, where exogenous leaves 
were found fossil, Ficus did not exist in considerable quantities. Lindley says, speaking of 
existing plants of this genus, that *it is one of those which travellers describe as most 
conducing to the peculiarity of a tropical scene.” 

CYcADACEJES.— One specimen seems to belong to this natural family, but is not sufficiently 

- well preserved to admit of satisfactory determination. 

Living plants of the family, Cycadace, are essentially tropical. 

CoxrrER4 ?— There are several acerose, midribbed leaves, and fragments of cone scales 
which probably belong to the extensive family, Conifere ; but they are too badly marked 
to admit of generic identification. 

PALMAGEZE.— A very distinct Flabellaria occurs, closely allied to the F. raphifolia of 
Sternberg. Brogniart considers that Flabellaria should be referred to the Cycadacex, 
but all other authorities agree in classing it with the palms. 

Much of the botanical physiognomy of tropical regions depends on the presence of palms. 


CHAP. IIL] | SUB-HIMALAYAN SERIES—SUBATHU GROUP. 99 

CypErAcex®.—The natural family, Cyperacee, is represented by several specimens of 
Cyperites ; some apparently identical with, or very closely allied to the species Deucalionis 
of Heer, and others to the species T'enuistriatus of the same author. 

The genus Cyperus, the living representative of the fossil Cyperites, is essentially tropical. 
Humboldt remarks that the character of sedges changes as we approach the equator, multi- 
tudes of species of Cyperus usurping the place of arctic and temperate genera of the sedge 
family. The habitat of the members ofthis family is various. Lindley says :—'* They are to 
be found in marshes, ditches, and running streams, in meadows and on heath, in groves and 
forests, on the blowing sands of the sea-shore, on the tops of mountains, from the Arctic to the 
Antarctic Circle, wherever phaenogamous vegetation can exist."  Cyperites is such a genus 
as we should expect to have preserved iua tropical fresh water deposit. Royle (Illust., p. 415) 
says :—“ Cyperus inundatus, probably with other species, helps much to bind and protect the 
banks of the Ganges from the rapidity of the stream, and the force of the tides ; asin Holland 
Carex arenaria is carefully planted on the dykes, where its far-extending roots, by mutually 
interlacing with each other, fix the sand, and give strength to the embankment.” 

Associated with these specimens of Cyperites some fragments of Carices also occur. 

GaawINEZE.— There are a few specimens of grasses in our collection, which might all be 
referred to the genus Poacites. 

It may fairly be deduced from the facts here stated, that the climate and other external 
influences which prevailed during the deposition of these blue shaly clays of the Kasaoli 
range were very much the same as those which obtain now in the locality whence these 
vegetable remains have beea derived. It has already been shown that these remains cannot 
have been conveyed far from the places where they flourished as living organisms ; and we - 
may conclude, if we allow for the elevation which the Kasaoli beds, in common with the 
whole mountain mass, have undergone, that the latitude in which the Kasaoli beds were 
deposited, at the time of their deposition, was, as now, generally favorable to sub-tropical 
forms of vegetable life. And that the relative disposition of sea and land in the Subathu 
period was essentially the same as now, or at least that the lower zone of the Himalayas 
was then, as now, open to the sea on the south, may, with much probability, be inferred from 
the fact that the fossil plants which we have been noticing are such as, when alive, would 
require constant accessions of moisture from sea-breezes. Judging from the great number 
of genera which we have represented in this small collection, it is likely that the vegetation 
of the Kasaoli period was rank and various. The presence of Cyperites and Curex suggests 
that they flourished in the vicinity of a lake or river, and the special function which 
Cyperus inundatus,—to which some of our specimens (Deucalionis) are allied,—at present 
performs, in preserving the banks of the Ganges, countenances the hypothesis that these 
Cyperites grew on the banks of the river, or a branch of it, which deposited the beds in 

which they are now preserved. 

PROTOZOA. 
Nummulites. Several species and numerous individuals ......... Subathu. 
Cristellaria! (2) «neues TUN nde e Dd QI near nT EE ea Dundelee. 
18S (EROSION WIE con sence octdigaon o deg tia ono UID OOo pb poo Dc A BoBognUbU OO OCOOU Ditto. 

CaLENTERATA. 

do nre UU Verse ohean aves A E eb Meses ed PR NE ACERO .. Bubathu. 


100 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. [Cuap. HE 

CONCHIFERA. 
Ostrea Flemiugi. IDM AUREIN: (695 uesduagan ónocspbgocouasg DODODUdoS Subathu. 
multicos tatas DATEC | SSaeococagonooddpuun odo oucona oto coaosas Giri Valley. 
Lima (CP): edasasoosoceccdccdoaccuoodes eno ob ogabasgecobaodc Subathu. 
Pecten —— (5). 'aoooeaooccoo c boubdo. ODOseaob GO coscoOsacuoonco Ditto. 
Lucina —— C&P). 'aaeoscscocasanaengsooeGogtioenaniconosegeo. ucoonc Ditto. 
Cyprina Subathuensis. D'Arch. ............ ener Ditto 
Astarte ————————— (2) ... eene nm Hmm Ditto. 
Cyprieardia Vicaryi (var. @.). D? Arch. ....... ee eene nenne Ditto. 
Crassatella (2): eee eee te DO DP A a OEA Ditto. 
JU DE YER) | saodseado- = coanob, e E soooocono Giri Valley. 
Cardita Duirenoyii DEAT Che " Geoodo accen E a $caoooodo Subathu. 
Venus pseudonitidula. D?Arch. ............-—.- eee eese. Sooo Ditto. 
sub- Gumberensis DAT E E E Giri Valley. 
Panopæa (P) E Ditto.. 
GASTEROPODA. 
Natica epiglottina. Lamck. s..e.ss.esesereeeeereereesoseereoereeneereseee Subathu. 
Cerithium Stracheyi. D’Arch. s..sereseeoseouenenresreeoererecarnees Ditto. 
Turritella Subathuensis. .D'Arceh. ...5.........-. oooodppaoGCbgode dido Ditto. 
PISCES. 

In two of the specimens from Dundelee remains of fish are preserved, but unfortu- 
nately not in a fit state for identification. One of the specimens shows little conical teeth 
which evidently belonged to some fish, and perhaps scales, while the other displays almost 
an entire body. The tail of the latter is wanting, and all that can be said to be well preserved 
of it are portions of the dorsal and left pectoral fins, both of which are spinose. The bones of 
the head are probably all present, but very much displaced. There are no distinct scales 
observable in this specimen, and the jaws show no trace of teeth. Thick-set and strong 
spinous processes, at right angles to the body of the vertebre, give the abdominal part of 
the fish, where they are exposed, a peculiar annulated appearance. Judging from general 
appearances the statement may perhaps be hazarded that our specimen belongs to the order 
Ganoidei. 


Crap. IV.] NAHUN AND SIVALIK GROUPS. 101 

CHAPTER 1V.—Sub-Himalayan Series: Nahun and Siválik 

Groups. 

THE rocks of the region, orographically denominated Sub-Himalayan, 

Nahun and Sivalik Present great similarity in primary characters, with 
spes much complexity of structural relations. We can 
trace one tolerably well defined division im these deposits, based upon a 
general unconformable contact, and hence the distinction of a middle 
and an upper group, under the names of Nahun and Sivdlik. In many 
sections we shall find evidence of the same kind, suggestive of further 
sub-division at least locally ; we cannot, however, notice this further than 
admitting its testimony as to the cotemporaneous action of disturbing 
and of formative causes. 

Were our notice to be limited to the region east of the Sutlej, it 

Eastern and western Might be most convenient to separate the descrip- 
vogigns. tion of the two upper members of the Sub-Hima- 
layan series. Throughout this region it is possible, in almost every 
section, to draw an exact boundary between the Siválik and the Nahun 
groups. Beyond the Sutlej, however, the relation of the two is much 
obscured: we find, along very definite lines, rocks which we can with 
certainty pronounce to be the continuation of the Middle rocks; but inti- 
mately associated with these, up to the very base of the inner mountains, 
there occur strata which, as far as I can prove, may be represented 
among the undoubted Sivalik rocks of the outermost hills. This diffi- 
culty will be fully illustrated in the sections and the descriptive text ; 
in the map, however, I prefer adopting the purely arbitrary measure of 
colouring all the outer rocks west of the Sutlej as Siválik, to the ambi- 
guous one of mapping an uncertain and possibly unreal boundary; the 
innermost band alone is here coloured as belonging to the middle group. 

ltis in narrow bands along the lines of disturbance that the lower rocks 


102 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. [CHaP. IV. 

appear in every case, and these lines are carefully mapped. The con- 
trast I have just indicated between the relations of the two groups in 
the east and in the west of our district suggests a difference in conditions 
of disturbance as affecting these two regions. For the reasons above 
stated, I will separate the description of these two regions, adopting 
the east end of the Pinjore Dun as the line of demarcation. In each 
I will, to some extent, combine the description of the two groups: they 
are mutually illustrative. ; 

The relation S the Nahun group to the older siti has been already 
ud: eae. noticed in the third Chapter. I have there stated 
HOR my opinion, that the junction is primarily a line 
of original contact, possibly modified by subsequent faulting. This view 
of the case will be exemplified by the facts to be discussed as to the 
relation between the Nahun and Sivalik groups; and it will be again 
examined with reference to the structural conditions of the whole region. 

The opinions that have been published regarding these Sivalik and 

Nahun rocks are various and contradictory, hav- 

General relations of , . 
Nahun and Siválik rocks. ing been in most cases formed from unconnected 

pov ar observations, and without reference to previous 
notices, Thus, Herbert in 1826 (his memoir, however, was not pub- 
lished till 1842, in Vol. XL, Jour. As. Soc., Ben.) 

RA Ll remarked the resemblance of the massive sandstones 
of the Siválik hills to the similar rocks (of the Nahun group) at the base of 
the Naini Tal hills, and conjectured their identity, colouring them as one 
bandon his map. He assumed them to be of Saliferous age, and having, ` 
by an equally groundless assumption, supposed the sandstone of Delhi to be 
Old Red, he actually made a number of borings in the Doab in search of coal. 
Cautley in 1836, (Trans. Geol. Soc, London, 2nd Ser, Vol. V.) from 
fossil evidence (vide p. 15), identified some of the 

Cautley, 1836. : 
iud | higher beds of the section at Nahun with the 

bottom beds ofthe Sivalik range. From the uniformity of the northerly 


CHar. IV.] NAHUN AND SIVALIK GROUPS. 103 

dip, he further conjectures that the highly fossiliferous rocks of the 
lower hills, south of Nahun, are lower members of the same series ; and, 
consistently with this view, accounts for their non-appearance east of 
the Jumna, by the lesser upheaval in that region. In the same paper 
he calls attention to the fact, that in the Nahun region the Sivalik hills 
are united to the greater hills, as affording an opportunity of discovering 
the relations of the two series of rocks; thus, we must presume, he was 
not aware that the Nahun rocks are uninterruptedly connected with 
rocks that are largely exposed along the foot of the hills to the north of 
the Dehra dun, where they are equally in contact with the older rocks. 

R. Strachey in 1851, (Quar. Jour. Geol Soc, London, Vol. VIL) 

describing the section south of Naini Tal, where 

vor rwr the Sivaliks are exceedingly ill developed, only the 
topmost conglomerate beds appearing, and where the Nahun group is 
remarkably well developed, falls back upon the extreme view regarding 
the latter; adopting the same opinion as Herbert, that they are of “the 
Saliferous age, and the extension of the strata containing rock-salt which 
we find on the same general-line further to the west in the Pun- 
jab” (? the Mundi salt rock—vide p. 60). We will see that the Naini Tal 
sandstone also is almost uninterruptedly connected with its equivalent 
at Nahun. 

Vicary in 1853, (Quar. Jour. Geol. Soc., London, Vol. IX.,) describing 

the section of the Pinjore dun, remarks, that on 

ean the north of it there occurs sandstone not unlike 
that of the Sivaliks, but that he had never found fossils in it. In his 
section, however, he represents it as normally underlying all the rocks 
of the Kasaoli range. 

In Greenough's general geological map of India there is but one 
colour given to the whole series of rocks from 
the Subathu to the Siválik group. But I con- 

Greenough. 

jecture, from the fact of a separating line being engraved, that the author 


104 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. — [Cnar. IV. 

intended to distinguish between the Sivaliks on the one hand and the 
Naliun and Subathu group on the other. The map was published after 
his death. 
Cautley was, no doubt, correct in pointing to the Nahun region as the 
most likely ground in which to establish. the con- 
Nohon beds im Sivillk nection of the Sivahk rocks with those to the 
iiis north of the duns, not knowing that in identi- 
fying the Nahun rocks with those at the outer base of the Sivalik hills 
he had himself welded the first link of the chain. Whether or not this 
idea be confirmed (I have already (page 15) given my reasons for doubt- - 
ing it) there can be no question that the rest of his section at Nahun 
is erroneous ; the highly fossiliferous, conglomeritie, soft rocks about 
Deoni and Jabri, in the valley of the Markunda, south of Nahun, are 
unquestionably more recent than the Nahun rock, from the debris of 
which they were principally formed, and against the denuded edge of 
which they were deposited. So that, should the disputed identification 
be ultimately established, it will involve the division of the section in 
the Siválik hills, and not the union of all these rocks with those at 
Nahun. The supposition we shall then have to make regarding the 
process of formation will be but a slight modification of that which must 
be independently adopted,—2 slow and partial upheaval of the Nahun 
rocks along the edge of the area of deposition, involving their partial | 
denudation and erosion, and the deposition of the upper group in very 
approximate parallelism of stratification, such as it might be difficult, if 
not impossible, to detect, when the two became subsequently contorted 
together. I have given an imaginary section of such a state of things 

in Fig. 11. Were the strata there represented to become contorted, it 

Fie. 11. 
St == —== n m e 
€ |o mE = - = = Ea ——— 
= ne 

Possible original relation of Nahun and Sivalik groups. 


Cumar. IV.] NAHUN AND SIVALIK GROUPS. 105 

might be possible, only by fossil evidence, to disconnect the bed é from 
the overlying series and to connect it with those at e. 

The only view that can be taken of the section differs in no essential 
partieular from the case I have just supposed in explanation of the 
doubtful identification. There is no evidence, such as I have been able to 
show in the case of the Subathu group, that the Nahun rocks were entirely 
removed from the present area of the next younger group; on the contrary, 
we see some cases of distinct, though limited, overlap along the boundary 

-of the two, and there is no kind of improbability in the appearance of 
the underlying rocks at any point of the disturbed area to the south of 
this general boundary. Thus, then, the confirmation of Colonel Cautley's 
identification would in no way affect the establishment of a younger 
group, distinct from that of Nahun, typically developed in the Siválik 
hills, and the chief depository of the Siváhk fossils ; it would only be 
the detection of a reappearance of the older group, due to upheaval and 
denudation, beneath the newer one at the south base of the Siválik hills. 
Should the fact be established, it will afford an admirable illustration of 
the great assistance of palzeontological evidence in the elucidation of strati- 
graphieal phenomena ; and, on the other hand, the stratigraphical facts 
would warrant the expectation of some distinction between the fossils of 
the two groups; no such disünction has as yet been suspected by the 
authors of the ** Fauna Sivalensis." 

There is one more suggestion I would offer for the benefit of any 
future explorer, who may be fortunate enough to re-discover the fossil- 
iferous deposit north of Nahun :—to examine whether it may not be 
local an outlying remnant of some swamp-deposit on the shore of the 
ancient Sivalik estuary, lake, or sea. 

This moot point of identification is of much importance, as bearing 

E Uu clone tier upon the most interestimg problem in physical 
of disturbance, geology,—the manner of upheaval and disturbance, 

We will see that the rocks of the Nahun group exhibit a greater gene- 
o 


106 

SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. — [CHa». IV. 

rality, and a higher degree, of disturbance and of upheaval than is found 

Fie, 12. 

NAHUN. 

e. Nahun group. f. Siválik group. 

c. Krol group. d. Subathu group. 

Section at Nahun. 

in the Sivalik strata. These latter are found 
at many points resting undisturbed against the . 
highly inclined beds of the Nahun group, and 
where, moreover, the supposition of a fault is 
inadmissible. If, notwithstanding this, we are 
to find at so short a distance as the outer base 
of the Sivalik hills the upper group resting in 
apparent conformity upon the lower one, à very 
important limitation would be put to our spe- 
culations upon the nature of the disturbing 
causes. On the other hand, I must mention 
that we find in the sections of the Sivalik rocks 
themselves examples that may be applied 
retrospectively to sanction such a supposed 
anomaly. At many places, from a condition of 
original repose, they are found within a short 
space turned up to the vertical, or even inverted ; 
thus we are at liberty to suppose a state of 
disturbanee in the Nahun group, prior to the 
deposition of the Siválik rocks, similar to that 
now displayed by this latter group. 

We may now examine how far an original re- 

AUS duin a lation of these two groups, 
Nahun, such as shown in Fig. 11, 
or supposing, as we must, the disturbance and 
erosion of the lower strata to have been greater 
than is there represented, is compatible with the 
actual sections. The actual section north and 
south through Nahun is seen in Fig. 12. The 

generally contrasting stratigraphical features of 


Guar. IV.] NAHUN AND SIVALIK GROUPS. 107 

the two groups are by no means well exemplified in this section, the 
Nahun rocks being far less disturbed than usual, but the immediate 
contact is typical at least for this region between the duns. In the 
valley north of the town thick brownish gray sandstone and nodular 
clays are nearly horizontal near the contact with black slates and the 
nummulitie rocks. On Nahun hill these sandstones and clays have a 
moderate dip to north. The Markunda flows for some distance through 
the Nahun rocks, obliquely to the strike before reaching the outer junc- 
tion, along which it takes a bend for a few hundred feet. The view 
here is a very striking one to the geologist, especially if he be to any 
extent acquainted with the two groups here seen m contact ; it is 
represented in Plate J. looking westerly, down the river, to the bend, 
where it again turns southerly ; there is a vertical north and south 
cliff of the outer rocks, running into a steep, east and west cliff of the 
Nahun beds at about half the height. Everything conspires to increase 
the contrast; the Sivalik beds are thick, soft conglomerates, sands, and 
clays of a dull earthy brown colour, and have a remarkably steady dip 
of 25° to north, thus going apparently under bright brown, purplish 
red clays, and gray soft sandstones of the higher part of the hill. Indeed 
the superposition is more than apparent ; however abnormal, it is to a 
small extent actual; a vertical plane, starting from the younger rock 
upward, would certainly cut off on the south some of the older ones above. 
The dip in these is higher in the same direction, and considerably 
crushed, suggesting, if nothing else did, that all are not in order ; the 
appearance, however, is so deceptive that previous observers, who cannot 
have failed to notice so conspicuous a section, have interpreted it as a 
case of normal sequence. All the large boulders in the conglomerates 
are of a rock undistinguishable from that of Nahun. 

In this junction we have a very fresh instance of a structure that has 
often attracted notice, and is still a puzzle in the sections of Alpine 

regions ; a more complete case could not be found. In highly contorted 


108 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. — [CnHaP. IV. 

districts this abnormal order of superposition is a feature of what some 
authors understand by the fan structure, in which case inversion is 
involved. In less disturbed regions, and generally as here, in the fring- 
ing zone of mountains, such sections are usually supposed to necessitate 
prodigious faulting ; for the younger beds at the contact are the topmost 
of a series many hundreds (perhaps thousands) of feet in thickness, as 
ordinarily measured, and the older ones are the bottom beds of a series 
equally thick. This mode of explanation by faulting is à most con“ 
venient one, and seems to harmonize well with, or even to be suggested 
by, the general facts of the case, especially that most prominent one, the 
upheaval of the mountain area on the upthrow side of the supposed 
fault. The idea of the very recent upheaval of great mountains has 
been largely based upon analogous sections to these; yet in the case 
before us it will, I think, be evident from the following sections that no 
fault at all has occurred. 

On both sides of the Markunda valley, along the junction, where the 
conglomerate band runs close up to the Nahun beds, in the narrow and 
steep gullies draining to the south, the contact is better seen than im the 
RASC o as main river. In this position, on the path leading 
original contact. from Tib village to Kairwala, a section of the 

contact occurs as represented in Fig. 13, and it must, I think, be taken 

Geass 

Section of contact south of Tib. e. Nahun group. f. Siválik group. 
as a type and a clue for the rest. The beds f are the actual con- 
tinuation of those we have just seen in the Markunda; and so are the 
beds e. Here, however, it is palpable that they are nearly in their 

original relations, and that the beds / were deposited against a steep 


Crap. IV.] NAHUN AND SIVALIK GROUPS. 109 

denuded bank of the beds e, which probably were also miore or less tilted 
at the time of formation of the younger deposits. The difference between 
the two sections, at Tib and in the Markunda, may be explained by 
supposing that the bank or cliff was less steep at Tib, but chiefly, and 
more generally, by the admissible assumption that the lateral compress- 
ing force, to which we may attribute the reverse underlie of the contact in 
the Markunda, and elsewhere, met with different conditions of resistance 
in the Tib section. The contact exhibited in this little section 
precludes the possibility of a fault, and, if there be none here, it were 
gratuitous and against probability to suppose any in the Markunda section. 
T believe, therefore, that the overhanging contact in the Markunda section 
is entirely an effect of a contorting force upon a very steep edge of 
deposition. 

The interest attaching to this explanation is very great, for the pheno- 

Iis modification by ™menon to which it is applied is one of very exten- 
lateral compression. sive occurrence, and the usual modes of accounting 
for it, by mversion or by reverse faulting, involve the conception of causes 
and conditions from which it is a relief to find even a partial escape.* But 
there are, of course, corresponding difficulties introduced : the amount of 
lateral yielding must be inversely as the steepness of the original junction, 
and directly as the depth of the contact which has toe accounted for. 

Thus, I can conceive an original contact, like that in Fig. 14, resulting, 

Fre. 14. 

Original junction of succeeding deposits. 

* Itis evident that the explanation given of the reversion of this natural junction is 
applicable also to reverse faults ; a fault that was originally normal might, by a very moderate 
amount of unequal lateral movement, become reversed. 


110 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. . |CBHAaP. IV. 

through slow lateral compression, in such a section as that in Fig. 15, 

Fia. 15. 

e NET 
GQ 
Possible effects of compression in producing folded flexure and apparent reverse faulting. 
which is very like that seen in the Markunda. The younger strata being 
softer, and also probably less weighted, would yield most, thus inducing 
the reversion of the line of contact. There can be no hesitation as to the 
existence of the cause to which I have appealed; for, the prodigious 
contortions of the strata in these disturbed regions admit of no doubt 
that boundless tangential forces have acted upon the earth’s crust, one 
vera causa for which forces we find in the more or less local depression 
of that crust. 
The section at Tib is illustrative from another point of view,—it exhi- 
sane Mf bits the initial stage of dun formation. It is, in 
fact, the geological limit of the Kyarda and 
Dehra duns, these two forming but one geographical feature. A few 
score yards to the east of Tib the boundary retreats rapidly northwards, 
and at several places, as on the bank of the Markunda, near Kujurna, 
the slightly inclined conglomerates are found resting on the Nahun 
beds. At Simbuwala, a mile and a half to the 
Se ea east, the feature 1s more completely developed, 
here the Markunda runs along a miniature dun; the conglomerate 
beds of the contact-section in the lower Markunda continue steadily 
along the same strike, and with about the same dip beyond the 
deflection of the boundary near Tib, and from this point they form, 
more or less continuously, the crest of the Siválik range of hills. In 
the ridge just south of Simbuwala, these thick clay and sand conglo- 
merates dip at 40° to north 30° east; in the banks of the river, about 

100 yards to the north, the dip is reduced to 20° and 15°; and further 


CHAP. IV.] NAHUN AND SIVALIK GROUPS. 111 

still in the same direction, m the precipitous bank of the immediate 
xiver-valley, the same beds are quite undisturbed; Fig. 16 represents 

Fig. 16. 

DUSQUEXS S a! Sr Sipe re ane UN ea UR e de 

SIVALIK RANGE. , NAHUN RANGE. 
Section at Simbuwala. 

the section here.  Examined independently in this locality, or, as 
better exposed in the banks of the Batta, these conglomerates would 
inevitably be looked upon as recent valley deposits. I cannot, however, 
but consider them as of true Sivalik age,—as partly deposited prior to, 
and partly cotemporaneous with, the disturbance now so extensively 
exhibited m the rocks to the south; the identity of the two deposits is 
complete, as 1s also the gradation of disturbance. 

If the interpretation I have given of this last section be correct, it 
enables us, in conjunction with that of the Tib section, to exhibit an 
important poit,—the commencement, and even the extensive progress, of 

i di peces. of the contorting action prior to the Siválik period : 
unum for it must be supposed that the inner band of rocks 
north of Simbuwala had been greatly tilted before the conglomerates 
were laid against them. We will find evidence in other sections (as in 
the Sutlej and Sursulla) that the same forces were in action subse- 
quent to the deposition of the same conglomerates. We are thus com- 
pelled to distribute the resultant effects over an extended period. Such 
in fact is the general impression made by the study of the Sub-Hima- 
layan zone, namely, the continued action of a general disturbing force, 
the effects of which were varied in time and place by local conditions. 

I have taken the earliest opportunity to notice the junction about 

Luce of die Ti Tib, because I believe it to afford a key to many 

section, others: it is in the nature of the case that this 

clue should be found in the relations of the most recent rocks. The 


112 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. — [CHAPF. IV. 

confirmation it affords to the explanation I gave of the relations of the 
Subathu group to the Krol and Infra-Krol strata is very strong; the 
primá facie evidence there being strongly in favour of faulted junctions. 
We must be cautious, however, not to force this new precedent too far, 
the more so, as there would seem to be an antecedent probabihty of the 
two phenomena appearing together; an original junction, such as I 
have shewn to have existed in some of these sections, would surely be 
influential in pre-determining the position of subsequent vertical dis- 
placement. There seems especial need to introduce the partial influ- 
ence of faulting in the case of the main junction of the Nahun group 
with the Subathu group and with the rocks of the Lower Himalayan 
series, because the strata in contact are so contrasting, and there is so 
often the appearance of a quasi-fault rock at the junction; I think, 
notwithstanding, that we are called upon to explain such cases as far as 

possible by the mode of action so clearly indieated in the Tib section. 

Having now explained the grounds upon which the Nahun and Sivalik 
The middle group STOUPS are separable, I will rapidly notice the pecu- 
of eastern region. liarities of each. A glance at the view either from 
the heights on the north or from the duns on the south is enough to sug- 
gest that the band of rocks which at Nahun forms so well-marked a step . 
between the Siválik hills and the outer ridge of the Lower Himalaya is 
continued along the north side of the duns. Such a view, taken from a 
moderate elevation on the flanks of Budraj, near the village of Mundresu, 
and looking westward across the Jumna to the contraction of the Kyarda 
dun, is represented in Plate II. In some few places there is no distinct - 
flanking ridge, but it 1s rarely that there is no sec- 

DS tion seen to establish the constant presence of this 
band of rocks at the base of the Lower Himalaya. The Nahun range 
itself continues undiminished up to the Giri, the narrow transverse gorge 

of the Batta being only a momentary interruption to it. -Between the 


“eqmoye) 


es, 
eben 

nv 
eye 
ae 

2 


Geol: Surv: of India. I. P* 2 

S 

HL. Frazer Lith: 

VIEW, LOOKING W.S.W. FROM BUDRAJ, OF THE JUMNA, THE DHEBA 
AND KEARDA DUNS,AND THE SIVALIK MILLS. 

Calcutta. 


Delroy 
Ps 

ORSAY 

QUNM 

hand 
Wee 
ny Pa 

Um 


Ouar IV] - NAHUN AND SIVALIK GROUPS. 113 

Gir and Jumna there is no ridge, its place being occupied by an 
immense talus of debris. In the Tonse, the Omlao, and the Jumna 
there is à uinum band of Nahun sandstone well seen, in contact with the 
slate rocks. Immediately east of the Jumna the low hills again appear. 
They are very typically developed immediately under Masuri. Tt is in 
the eastern portion of the Dehra dun that the greatest blank oceurs in 
the band of Nahun rocks ; between the Ruspunna and the Ganges I did 
not find it once exposed ; here, as to the west of the Jumna, a very 
deep talus of detritus covers the base of the mountains. The Nahun 
sandstone shows, however, in the Ganges opposite Riki Kase, in the very 
angle of the sharp bend which there occurs in the boundary, so it 
is highly probable that it is continuous beneath the bank of detritus 
to the west. From Riki Kase southwards the section is again 
covered and obscured; a trace of the sandstone is seen in the Tal, and 
there appears to be a narrow remnant of it left between the Siválik con- 
glomerates and the slates at the angle north-east of Moondhal, where 
the boundary turns eastwards. This north and south line from Riki 
Kase is the termination of the great dun, and it marks a great change in 
the development of the Nahun band; from the Ganges eastward, as far 
as the*frontier of Nepal, this band forms uninterruptedly a much wider 
and more lofty belt of hills than anything we have as, yet seen to the 
west. 

It may be noticed that the south boundary of the Nahun group 
Dificuli boundary in throughout the duns is uou conjecturally, its 
the duns. vaguely curved form in this position contrasting 
with its sharply irregular outline in the Nahun region. The uncertainty 
in mapping this boundary depends upon the difficulty in ‘deciding 
between superficial and true Sivalik deposits,—a difficulty that may 
have been anticipated from the Simbuwala section. In the region of 
continuous hill, about Nahun, the boundary can be traced with consi- 

derable exactness, and it is seen to be most capriciously irregular ; at 
P 


114 .:SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. [CHAp. IV. 

one spot, in the Roon, there is a complete interruption to the Nahun 

band, the upper Sivalik clays being in contact with the Subathu group. 
Regarding the lithological characters of the Nahun group here, there 

is little to be said. Throughout the entire distance 

Lithological character 

of the Nahum band: from Nepal to the Pinjore dun the fine sharp, 

gray, soft sandstone, which, in its essential characters, is so characteristic 
of the whole Sub-Himalayan series, almost exclusively prevails. It - 
occurs in massive beds often fifty and a hundred feet thick, and showing 
little or no trace of lamination. It is in this rock that lumps of 
lignite are very frequently found. The clays, occasionally interstratified 
with this sandstone, are generally gritty, nodular, and ferruginous, and are 
most abundant in the lower part of the group, on which account they are 
best exposed along the outer boundary. The iron-ore worked at Dechouri 
and Kaladoongi, at the foot of the Naini Tal hills, is one of these ferrifer- 
ous clays; and beds of analogous character can be traced far to the 
westwards, as, for instance, 1n a gully opposite Kolur, on the north bank 
of the Batta. 

The most remarkable exception, within this district, to the general 

deas PEE a uniformity in composition, is to be seen in the 
rate. section of the Sorna glen, under Masuri. There is 
a massive band, 400 feet thick, of coarse boulder conglomerate ; in 
composition it most closely resembles the very uppermost beds of the 
Sivalik conglomerate, such as are seen in Nagsidh and Motichur hills, or 
the still more recent deposits, in the gorge of the Ganges. "The boulders 
are thoroughly water-worn, and almost exclusively made of the hardest 
subschistose quartzite, such as are only found in streams coming from the 
heart of the mountains. This feature is, no doubt, significant, as it 
contrasts most markedly with the composition of the conglomerates in 
an apparently analogous position in the sections about the Sutlej in 
which the debris is chiefly local. This mass is equally strange in its 

mode of occurrence; it appears, with little or no transition of characters 


Cuar. IV.] NAHUN AND SIVALIK GROUPS. 115 

over the fine lignite sandstone, near the inner boundary, the dip 
of the whole section bemg 80° to north-north-west. Notwithstanding its 
considerable thickness, I could not find a trace of 1t 1n the similar gorges, 
to east or west. 

The lignite sandstone shows prominently for some way beyond Nahun 
to the west; about the Morni lakes it is very well exposed. In this 
neighbourhood we find one of the few instances in which this rock comes 
in contact with the similar rock of the Subathu group. The contrast in 
the texture is most striking: on the gap just south of Morni one steps 
at once from the hard angular debris of older rock to the rounded sandy 
surface of the newer. 

In the Figures 12 and 16, the general condition of the Nahun rocks is 

Disturbance ofthe Na- SUfficiently indicated ; the strata are usually more 
pen band. inclined than in the sections there represented, 
being often vertical throughout nearly the whole thickness of the band. 
The dip is, with few and only local exceptions, towards the older rocks. 
The underlie of the plane of contact can be well seen in some of the 
narrow gorges below Masuri, pointing steadily northwards, thus producing 
abnormal superposition. There is a very peculiar feature in the horizon- 
tal outline of this boundary, as exposed in the eastern portion of the 
Dehra dun, namely, its sharp bends. I have already appealed to this fact 
as almost precluding the supposition of this boundary being one continuous 
Boer bou: fault of enormous throw, but there is a supple- 
dary not cross faults. mentary supposition by which that view might still 
be maintained ;—the sharp step-like form of these irregularities suggests 
the existence of cross-faults. We do not, however, find a single fact of 
detail to corroborate such a view. In that marked example of the 
Kalunga ridge, east of Rajpur and Dehra, the boundary runs directly for 
five miles to north-by-east, at right angles to the direction of the Masuri 

ridge, at about its middle, the angle of the boundary being only four 


i16 .SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. [Oman LV; 

miles distant from the crest; yet on that ridge we find not a trace of such 
a transverse break. It is fortunate this example exists, for one might be 

tempted in the greater case, just east of the Ganges, to take as evidence 
of this kind the distinct termination of the Masuri range about this 
meridian. A more immediate argument against this notion of cross-faults 
is the general fact that in every case of these bends the strike in both 
rocks approximates more or less exactly to the direction of the boundary. 
This fact, if not quite unaccountable on the supposition of cross-faulting, 
certainly lends it no support. The entire result is however in keeping with 
the view I have been advocating: namely, that it is a natural boundary. 
The position of strata exercises a great influence upon their mode of 
yielding to all kinds of denuding forces. We have seen in the section 
of the Hewnulgur that the Infra-Blini rocks of this region exhibit great 
irregularities of disturbance; hence, then, the irregularity of this boundary, 
which I regard to be, quam proxime, an original one; hence also the 
coincidence of the strike of the inner rocks with the direction of the 
boundary. The coincidence of strike of the Nahun beds would equally 
follow from the mode in which I would account for their contortion by a 
slow compressing force, throwing off masses of unequal elasticity at right 
angles to their original surface of contact. 

The step in the boundary at the Ganges is coincident with an important 
change in the relations of the younger rocks. The Nahun rocks are far 
more prominently displayed to the east of this line than to the west, 
and the Siváliks undergo a kind of reciprocal extinction. At Riki 
Kase the sandstone beds are vertical, with a northerly strike. In a 
line nearly due south of this, at the opening of the Mitiwali sote (torrent) 
the same rocks are in contact with the Sivalik conglomerates, and both 
are vertical, with a strike to north-by-east ; up the sote, however, after-a 
space of uncertainty, the dip becomes steady to north-east, the strike 

thus conforming to the new direction of the boundary. 


CHAP. IV.] NAHUN AND SIVALIK GROUPS. 117 

Having indicated the extent of the Nahun band in this region, that 
E onp OPI of the Sivaliks is also fixed. The same doubt 
Sate ME applies to both along their boundary in the duns, 
owing to the great difficulty of assigning a limit between the Sivaliks 
and more recent deposits; the section in the river Noon will illustrate 
this point. On the score of composition there is much more to be said 
of the younger group ; both vertically and horizontally its strata exhibit 
some remarkable variations, It were a deliberate 
pp evene error to seek for general regularity or definiteness 
in deposits that were so palpably accumulated under local influences, but, 
roughly estimated, there may be four divisions made in the Siválik 
series where it is most developed,—in the range 

CET CE sever une the Dehra Dun from the plains, to which 
the name, Siválik, was originally exclusively applied. The lowest of these 
sub-groups of strata is the least marked, as it is also the least exposed, 
its base being unknown. Its only peculiarity is a greater prevalence of 
clays than in the portion of the series immediately overlying it; still, 
even here the thick-bedded sandstones predominate. Above this comes 
a thick band of massive sandstone with scarcely a parting of clay, or 
on the other hand, with only an occasional small pebble. Passing 
upwards, strings and beds of pebbles make their appearance, increasing 
into massive banks of conglomerate, but still with a clear sand matrix. 
The change is rather abrupt into the fourth stage of deposits, consisting 
of thick-bedded stiff clays and coarse clay-conglomerates. The crests of 
the passes and of the inner portion of the range are of this top band ; 
it also occupies the area of the dun. It is important, however, to know 
that it is in no degree a dun-formation: this point is strongly suggested 
by the fact, just mentioned, of its forming the inner slopes and crests of 
the Sivalik hills, and with the same steady dip as the rest of the group; 
but it is put beyond a question by the fact of the re-appearance of these 
same beds at the most south-westerly point of the whole range, to the 


118 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. [Cuap. IV. 

right of the Ganges, where the rocks on the south of the great longitu- 
dinal anticlinal are preserved ; at the top of the reverse section, three 
miles east of Myapoor (Hurdwar), the clay conglomerates are seen dip- 
ping at 80? to south-west; we may then conclude that they once existed 
over areas where they do not now appear. ! 
It is the two lower sub-divisions of the series which are liable to be iden- 
tified with the Nahun band. The thickness of these 
ULL accumulations 1s so very great and variable, that one 
must be content to indicate some standard examples; at the locality last 
mentioned there is a very steady section; starting from the Bheemgoda 
fault, the end of the main anticlinal axis, north of Hurdwar, at about 
the base of the second sub-division, with a steady dip of about 25* to 
the south-west, there is a continuous section for more than four miles 
across the strike ending in the clays and conglomerates, the dip having 
gradually increased to 80°. Taking 45° as even below the mean dip, 
we thus have a thickness of only a portion of the group amounting to 
15,000 feet. That this enormous thickness of one series of strata was 
once regularly super-imposed in vertical succession, is almost incredible, 
yet I see no satisfactory solution of the difficulty, the youngest clay beds 
exhibit in the southern section the maximum of disturbance, and we 
are, therefore, scarcely at liberty to suppose the top beds added on 
each side during the process of disturbance. 
No two sections, that I have seen, of these rocks are exactly alike, 
even in passes not more than three or four miles 
Horizontal variations. e, 
apart, but this is only what we should expect in 
such strata. "There are, however, general changes of much interest. 
From some little way to west of the Jumna there is a very marked 
increase in the proportion of clays throughout the group. The same 
is to some extent noticeable in the Nahun group; there are certainly 
more clays in the section of the upper Batta than in the gorges of the 
Sorna or the Noon. The well marked changes in the quantity and 


Cuap. IV.] NAHUN AND SIVALIK GROUPS. 119 

quality of the boulder deposits are very suggestive as regards the physical 
conditions during the Sivalik period; at least they leave no doubt upon 
some important points. The greater accumulation of boulder deposits in 
the immediate regions of the great rivers is very noticeable. This fact 
happens to be most conspicuously seen in the case of the Jumna; the 
thickness of sandstone-conglomerate in the cliffs of Amsot is remarkable. 
Throughout the Sivalik hills proper the general description of the mate- 
rials of these deposits is the same; with a greater or less amount of the 
debris of limestones and of other rocks that may be derived from the 
Masuri ridge, there is a large admixture of the same boulders as are now 
only to be seen in the beds of the great mountain torrents, a schistose 
quartzite being the prevailing variety. The rapid suppression of the 
Sivalik rocks to the east of the Ganges prevents our carrying the com- 
parison in that direction, but west of the Jumna there is most complete 
evidence of the changes. In the hills south of Kyarda, we still see the 
same description of debris as on the east of the Jumna: this is not 
merely the case in the northern portion of the range, it also holds good 
at. Simulbari in the southern ridge, formed by conglomerates evidently 
im continuation with, and the representatives of those just south of Kolur. 
At this latter place, however, the conglomerates are as prominently made 
up of hard purple sandstone identifiable with the rocks of the Subathu 
group, such as now abound in the bed of the Batta. It is only in the 
small pebble-conglomerates at the base of the sub-group, that the 
detritus of the older rocks is still traceable; and in this position in the 
section it is constant throughout the whole district. Within a very few 
miles to the west another change is effected. It has already been brought 
to notice that all the larger debris in the conglomerates of the Markunda 
section is of Nahun rocks. The fact, that in the form of debris this 
distinction is clearly marked, is strongly confirmative of the separation 
that has been made between the Subathu and Nahun groups, and of the 

very decided separation from both of the strata now containing this debris, 


120 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. [Cmar. IV. 

It seems not unlikely that the changes we have noticed in the distri- 
bution of clay in the lower part of the group may be an early result of 
the same cause that produced the different distribution of boulders in the 
upper beds, namely, the influence of the great rivers; yet, in opposition 
to this view, it may be asked, owing to what change in these conditions 
at a subsequent period could clays accumulate so freely in the topmost 
strata, and cotemporaneously with coarse boulders, over the whole area. 
The mode of formation of these latter deposits is to me a very puzzling 
question, and seems to require the hypothesis of some diluvial agenoy. 
The theory of glacial action is hardly admissible ; the thoroughly 
rounded condition of the boulders and the regularity of the stratification 
require some other explanation of the formative conditions of these beds. 

The state of disturbance of the Sivalik group exhibits considerable 

ou Ue M of Siva. Local irregularities. This is even the case in the 
lik group detached ranges where there is no very evident 
cause for such breaches of symmetry. In these cases we may, I think, 
fairly attribute them to the internal conditions of the strata themselves. 
The very unequal accumulation of great banks of conglomerate cannot 
but result in the confusion of stratification in the more regular deposits 
with which they are associated, when all come to be compressed together. 
In the region between the Kyarda and Pinjore duns, we can generally 
trace these variations of dip to the irregularity of the boundary with the . 
older rocks. The rule already noticed in the case of the Nahun group 

in hills south of Na. @0ng the main boundary is equally well observed 
hun ; in the Sivalik strata at their contact with the 
Nahun group. There is a remarkable example of this just to the west 
of the Markunda section: the boundary takes a sharp turn to the north- 
north-west, and along it the boulder-conglomerates dip steadily at 80° to 
east-north-east along the Shilani valley, nearly to Myndar hill, where the 
strike bends round to north-west. There are of course cases in which 

it would be vain to assign the immediate cause of the state of upheaval : 


CHAP. IV.] NAHUN AND SIVALIK GROUPS. 121 

Laika hill, over Shilani on the west, offers a striking instance of this. 
On the south of this hill, in a tributary of the Markunda, near the village 
of Meintappel, there is an excellent section: the finer conglomerates 
with sand and clays have a steady dip of 10* to north ; from this they are 
seen to turn up without a break, and within a radius of ten yards, to a 
- dip of 80° to south, and this dip obtains throughout the whole hill-mass, 
through an enormous thickness of strata in a descending section. On 
the north of Laika, the descending section from the Shilani conglomerates 
passes right across the base of the hill, the northerly strike going nearly 
at right angles to that of the strata on Laika; on the east and west the 
dips are almost as transverse as on the north. In such cases as these one 
must introduce faults, and be content with very vague conjectures as to 
the immediate causes of them. West of the Roon the dip of the Sivalik 
strata is much more regular, at a low angle to north-north-east, up to 
the very contact. Here, in every section that I examined, the abnormal 
superposition of the older rocks is as well marked as in the Markunda. 
The Sivalik range, south of the Dehra dun, is for the most part formed , 
on the northern side of a great irregular anticlinal 
peer flexure. The local dip varies very considerably, 
but there is à line along the south base of the chain, inside which the 
dip is invariably to some point between east and north; near the axis 
, the dip often amounts to 40° and 50°, but in all the sections it lowers 
gradually to where it passes into the more or less horizontal strata of 
the dun, in a manner quite similar to the type section of Simbuwala. 
At almost every point along the southern base, we find the beginning 
of the reverse southerly dip, and in two places, one on the right bank of 
the Jumna, and the other on the right bank of the Ganges, the section of 
the rocks on the south of the anticlinal is nearly complete ; and in both 
we observe the very opposite tendency to that described on the north, 
namely, in a direction from the axis the dip increases rapidly almost 
to the vertical. Thus we have a well characterised example of what 
Q 


122 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. [CHaAp. IV. 

Mr. Rogers has called the normal flecure (Geology of Pensylvania, 
Vol. IL, p. 889.) 

At each of the great transverse river gorges there is a complete break 
EE in the continuity of the anticlinal flexure, no 
a MIB OTE ES: doubt, involving transverse faulting. The stereo- 
typed form of explanation for such coincidences is, that the pent up 
waters made a natural selection of these transverse fissures along which 
to carve out their course to the lower level. It seems to me to be open 
to discussion in this instance whether we should not thus be “putting the 
cart before the horse," whether the rivers, for the existence of which in 
this position during the Sivàlik period, we have such good evidence, may 
not have been the predetermining cause of these transverse fissures. In 
the case of the Ganges there is little to induce us to adopt an hypothesis 
so apparently extravagant as that just proposed, since we have at hand so 
plausible an explanation in the great abrupt bend of the boundary of 
the main mountain range,—an explanation which is also in accordance 
with the general hypothesis adopted for the mode of contortion of these 
rocks, for it might well be supposed that so great an irregularity in the line 
of resistance to the compressing force would be sufficient to produce such 
a transverse break as that in the gorge of the Ganges. We must indeed 
allow some influence to this cause. As, however, in our argument against 
the supposition of cross-faulting of the main boundary, the bend at Kalunga 
served as a check upon that east of the Ganges, so, in the present case, 
we must modify our interpretation of the Ganges section by that of the 
Jumna; the features of contortion in the two are strangely similar, and 
in the case of the Jumna there is no trace of a projection of the mountain 
area ; on the contrary, the gorge faces a wide recess of the main boundary. 

In approaching Hurdwar from the south the structural conditions of the 

The bed of Hura. TOCKS are discernible from a distance. As far as 
FEE the eye can reach to the west, the face of the 

Sivalik range presents a very broken series of bare cliffs, formed by the 


CHAP. IV.] NAHUN AND SIVALIK GROUPS. 123 

scarped edges of the massive.strata of clear gray sandstones which he on 
the north of the anticlinal, and all of which dip to the north. For some 
miles, near the Ganges valley, the hills rise less abruptly, and are covered 
with jungle. The strata here dip south wards, on the south of the anticlinal, 
which strikes the Ganges near Bheemgoda, to the north of the main 
mass of the range. Hastwards, across the Ganges, the usual structure of 
the range is restored : in the grey cliffs of Chandi Devi we see the scarped 
edges of strata dipping northwards, This contrast is most observable in 
the gorge at Hurdwar: the strata on the two sides of the river are seen 
dipping in opposite directions. This phenomenon attracted the notice of 
Herbert and all subsequent observers. 

The alteration noticed in the features of the range to the west. of 
the Ganges is not caused by any sudden turn in the direction of the 
anticlinal line of flexure ; the curving is in the range itself: nor, 
on the other hand, is the change purely a caprice of denudation, 
for, together with the passage of the range to the south of the 
line of flexure, the strata on the north of the line are let down 
by a fault along the axis; hence at Bheemgoda we find the top- 
most beds of clays and gravels in contact with the base of the cliffs of 
sandstone, and inclining gently northwards. About the Motichoor rao 
(torrent) there is a flat synclinal, the Motichoor ridge being formed of 
-about the same beds of clay, gravel and boulders inclined to the 
south-west. These contrary slopes merge into the uniform northerly 
inclination west of Kansrao. 

At present I see no reasonable escape from the conclusion, that this 

| Bheemgoda fault must have a throw of many 
E eae thousand feet, estimated by the thickness of the 
continuous section of the strata to the south; these clays and gravel beds 
on the north of the fault are probably even higher in the series than 
any beds in the section to the south. If we were at liberty to consider 

them altogether of subsequent date, we might substitute intervening 


124 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. [Cuar. IV. 

deaudation for much of the faulting, but I find no sanction for such a 
supposition ; these northern contact beds are certainly associated with 
those of Motichoor ridge, which are certainly upper Sivalik, and, though 
here so little disturbed, have been in fact subject to the full effects 
of the disturbing forces. In proof of this assertion we fmd a very 
rare and important section in the precipitous bank of the Ganges 
at Raeewala: through the greater part of the cliff the stiff clays and the 
gravels have a steady south-westerly inclination, evidently the continua- 
tion of the arrangement in the Motichoor hill, but at the north end of 
the cliff the same beds are seen to curve rapidly over to a high north- 
easterly underlie. As bearing upon the theory of flexures there are two 
points to be noticed here :—in this Raeewala section we have a normal 
frexwre, apparently part. of a feature of some magnitude, but its fold is 
in the opposite direction to that of the main flexure ; and the Bheemgoda 
fault, along the axis of the main flexure, does not seem to conform to the 
axis-plane of that flexure according to the rule laid down by Prof. Rogers 
(op. cit., p. 897). I obtained but one short section of the actual contact ; 
the beds on the north were turned up sharply against it, and those on 
the south were also a good deal crushed, but the underlie of the junction 
plane was certainly slightly to southwards, or opposite to that of the 
axis-plane of the Sivalik flexure. The general rule which would apply to 
this, as well as to other similar cases in these formations, is that the under- 
lie is towards the harder rock on the upthrow side, and this would seem 
to be a possible consequence of the greater yieiding of the younger and 
softer strata, which, moreover, at the time of contortion, were probably 
subjected to a smaller superincumbent weight. This explanation involves 
the continuance of the compressing action after the production of the fault. 

On the east of the Ganges we again find the mode of arrangement that 

The Chandi Devi sec. USually obtains in the Sivalik range; the lower beds 
tion. on the south have a moderately high dip, and pass 

into the slightly disturbed upper beds on the north or dun side. Along 


CHAP. IV.] NAHUN AND SIVALIK GROUPS. 125 

the south base an anticlinal is readily detected continuously from the 
Ganges to Paili Purao. The Bheemgoda fault makes no appearance on 

the east side of the river, the upper conglomerates being quite unbroken 

in front of it. 
The interruption of direct continuity, within so short a space, of so 
great a fault as that at Bheemgoda, necessitates the 
IM existence of some oblique fracture along which the 
upheaval may die out. The abrupt change of dip on the two river 
banks points to this as the position of such a fracture. From the 
resemblance of the general sections on each side one is inclined a£ 
first to suppose the features to have been once continuous, namely, 
the Chandi Devi anticlinal with that at Bheemgoda, and to have been 
so separated by a subsequent cross fault. This is not, on the whole, 
the most satisfactory view: unless it keep strictly in the bed of the 
river there can be no such fracture, and general appearances are 
against it. 'The strata of the Motichoor synclinal seem to correspond 
with those facing them to the east of the Ganges. The Chandi anti- 
clinal is certainly representative of that in the main Süválik range, 
` and I suppose all these features of disturbance to have been contem- 
poraneously produced. 
In the gorge of the Jumna, we find again a northerly dip on the east 
ic MS ue the side confronted by a southerly dip on the west, 
Tomu, and on the same strike. The dislocation does not 
appear to be so great as in the Ganges, and, the river course being more 
winding, the opportunities for studying the details of structure are 
better. The anticlinal axis is easily traced along the base of the Siválik 
range. North of it, near the Jumna, the north-easterly dip of the sand- 
stones and conglomerates is very steady, but along a narrow north and 
south band close to the river the beds curve rapidly round to a north- 
westerly dip; against this narrow transition dip the strata strike steadily 

from the north-west and with a high south-westerly underlie, About 


126 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA.  [CHap. IV. 

half-way through the gorge the river takes a sweep to westwards, leaving 
on its left bank a terrace of these western rocks. Along this terrace the 
contrasting dips can be seen almost in contact. Towards the dun this 
line of fracture bends off, and seems to identify itself with an anticlinal 
line traceable along the southern edge of the Kyarda dun, as far as 
Kolur. The section on the right bank of the Jumna is a good deal 
more complicated than the Hurdwar section. The anticlinal of the 
Kyarda dun, which we have doubtfully traced into connection with the 
main Sivalik anticlinal, is obscurely seen in the Batta just at its con- 
fluence with the Jumna; there appears to be more or less of faulting 
too; yellow boulder clays on the north are in crushed contact with 
sandstone and sandstone conglomerate on the south. A south-westerly 
dip soon becomes steady in these latter rocks, and continues so for four 
miles to Kalesur, in the coarser conglomerates. In the ridge south of 
Kalesur these same beds rise by a sharp uniclinal curve to a high north- 
easterly dip, thus forming the most prominent ridge of the range ; it is 
this ridge which bends round in continuation with the crest of the range 
south of Kolur, thus cutting off the wedge-shaped area of the south- 
westerly dip. Orographically, and to some extent structurally, this area 
occupies a very analogous position to that of the Motichoor rao at the 
Ganges. At the south-east angle of these hills, next the Jumna, we 
have another change in the section; for a mile or more the conglome- 
rates and sandstones dip at 80° to the southwards, the strike thus con- 
verging to that of the ridge. A culmination of this convergence seems 
to be reached before we lose sight of the rocks ; since in the river bank, 
below Fyspoor, the same beds dip at 80° to the south-east. Here also, 
as at the Ganges, we observe a maximum of disturbance in the external 
portions of the range. 

In the case of the Jumna there is nothing to interfere with the 
suggestion, that the irregularities in the actual state of disturbance in 
the region of the gorge may be, in a great measure, owing to the unequal 

v 


CHAP. IV.] NAHUN AND SIVALIK GROUPS. 127 

accumulation of deposits at the former river’s mouth; and it may at 
least be asked if the river may not have had a more direct influence, 
if in the early stages of upheavment and contortion, the special erosion 
in the river course may not have had some influence in determining 
the position of these irregularities. Whatever view is adopted for the 
Jumna must be allowed its full force in the case of the gorge at 
Hurdwar. 
I will conclude my description of the eastern region with the section 
in the river Noon, just below Masuri ; it exemplifies 
pied ooo fully the principal difficulties of the geology of 
these Sub-Himalayan rocks,—both those relating to the separation of 
the Sivaliks from the more recent deposits, and also the doubtfulness of 
separating all the rocks of the Sivàlik group, as provisionally laid down, 
from those of the Nahun band. The upper Noon, after it crosses the 
main boundary, flows obliquely through the hills of the Nahun band ; 
near the junction there are a few hundred feet of thinner bedded sand- 
stones, and a few clay beds, vertical and greatly crushed; then the 
gorge contracts in the massive sandstone, having a dip of about 60? to 
north-north-east; the high dip lasts throughout, showing a great thick- 
ness of this rock, to where the river turns eastwards for a short distance, 
along the outer edge of the flanking hills under Suntour Gurh. Of the 
many streams flowing from the Masuri ridge into the dun, this is the 
only one in which the underlying rocks are exposed south of this limit, 
and the succession is certainly different from what the sections of the 
Nahun region would lead one to expect. Along this east and west reach 
of the Noon, as in a corresponding position in the other streams, clay 
beds are more frequent, and show an increased dip with much crushing ; 
below them in unbroken succession, and having the same high north- 
north-easterly underlie, we find several hundred feet more of thick- 
bedded sandstones; among them bands of conglomerates are then intro- 

duced, and these gradually increase in frequency, in thickness, and in 


128 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. [CHAp, IV. 

eoarseness, and at last even clays and clay-conglomerates appear in 
perfectly conformable sequence. 

This section, south of Suntour Gurh, must be at least from 2 to 

MU. ie feet, T its RR is so identical 
Nahun and lower Siva- with a portion of the Sivalik section that I 
eed cannot hesitate to look upon them as one and 
the same; and the order of succession in the Noon section shows: as 
conclusively that the series is inverted. The question then follows, 
where are we to draw the line separating our Sivalik from our Nahun 
groups, between these southernmost inverted clay-conglomerates and the 
main boundary with the slate rocks. For the map a choice had to be 
made, and I adopted the Nahun sections as a standard, drawing the line 
at the base of the hills at Suntour Gurh. To a certain extent, I believe, 
this to be correct. I do not think it can be doubted, that the rocks 
north of that line represent those north of the Markunda junction at 
Nahun, but I have serious doubts, whether the inverted strata in the 
lower reach of the Noon can be justly separated from those to the north 
of them. Without suggestions from other sections no one would ever 
think of domg so; and, moreover, any one who had come through one 
of the passes south of Dehra and gone on to the section of the Noon 
would infallibly look upon the rocks in both as the same. Some reason 
for a division of the section might be made out on the strength of the 
more vertical and crushed condition of the rocks about Suntour Gurh, I 
have availed myself of this pretence, but, on the other hand, this crush- 
ing is no more than generally occurs in every section of contorted rocks 
where the beds are thinner and more earthy. What, then, 1s to be the 
compromise as regards this boundary? I believe it will ultimately prove 
to be that no line drawn upon the evidence of even extreme unconfor- 
mability among this great sequence of Sub-Himalayan rocks will even 
‘approximately, and in neighbouring localities, indicate corresponding 

deposits 


CnaP. IV.] NAHUN AND SIVALIK GROUPS. 129 

There are other features in the section of the Noon which more 

Doubtfal distinction of Strongly illustrate the remarks just made. We 

Fay c . . : : 
SDAIN deposits have seen in the section at Simbuwala, which 

1s but a type of that to be found all along the range south of the dun, 
that the strata conformably capping the Sivalik series are continuous 
with those found quite undisturbed in the dun, even up to the contact 
with the inner band of lignite sandstone. This fact shows the difficulty 
that must arise in attempting to separate Sivàlik strata from superficial 
deposits. In the Noon section, however, we find, at least, two distinct 
deposits, resting upon the edges of the inverted strata which I have just 
now identified as upper members of the Sivalik series. The east and 
west reach of the Noon flows along the steeply scarped edge of a terrace 
which slopes off southwards into the general surface of the dun. The 
upper part of this terrace is composed of coarse and fine, more or less 
angular, debris of limestone and slates,—the debris of the mountain to 
the north. This deposit is often cemented by tufa; it attains in many 
places a thickness of several hundred feet, and along the flanks of the 
main hills reaches an elevation greater than the actual summits of the 
Sivalik hills. It forms, in fact, the talus which at several places conceals 
all outside the older rocks. Even for this deposit I hesitate to conjec- 
ture that it has not its representative among the disturbed. rocks of the 
Sivahk range; for example, some of the beds on the north of the 
Bheemgoda fault are very similar to it in composition. Under it, in the 
terrace of the Noon, we find a highly contrasting deposit,—a coarse 
boulder-conglomerate of a light ochreous colour: the blocks are all 
of the harder rocks, and must for the most part belong to distant 
rocks. It does not exactly resemble any of the Siválik conglomerates 
that I have seen, and it has some resemblance to the mass already noticed 
not far from this, in the Sorna, associated with the vertical rocks of the 
Nahun band, near the main boundary ; in this latter, however, the 
pebbles and blocks are, I think, more exclusively of the harder schistose 

R 


130 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. [Cuap. IV. 

rocks, and are more thoroughly water-worn. On the left bank of the 
Noon this conglomerate caps the hill of Kungora Daen at a higher level 
than the top of the terrace. Seams of brown and of ochreous clay occur 
sparingly with this conglomerate. There is, of course, a greater proba- 
bility in the case of this lower or Kungora conglomerate that it may 
belong to the uppermost Sivalik deposits. i 

I need scarcely say how important are the bearings of the interpre- 

. tation we put upon the Noon section. For a 
General remarks upon 

concen portion of it I consider there is no option but to 

look upon it as an inversion of Sivalik rocks; and it may fairly be asked 
why should we not adopt it as the type section, instead of those in the 
region about Nahun, where we have independent evidence for thinking 
that peculiar conditions obtained. The general section (Fig. 2, p. 18) 
sufficiently illustrates the interpretation provisionally adopted for the 
outer portion of the Noon section, —the supposition that there 1s a geolo- 
gical boundary at Suntour Gurh, as shown in the map. Even this view 
is a very considerable modification of the Nahun sections, and there 
is at least equal reason for adopting it as a type. We might 
indeed apply this explanation to the Nahun sections themselves. 
We might suppose lower members of the Sivalik series, conformable 
in the general section of the Sivalik hills, turned up on edge near 
the Nahun junction, and there overlaid transversely by the top conglo- 
merates, which in turn underwent contortion. The section in the 
Sutlej at Bubhor will fully illustrate the possibility of the case I here 
suppose. If, however, we are to look upon the whole section in the Noon 
as an inversion of the Sivalik series, we can scarcely avoid adopting this 
supposition for the whole Sub-Himalayan zone, at least of the eastern: 
region, and we must modify our views accordingly of the main boundary ; 
it would then become a more defined locus of contortion than I have 
supposed it to be. The general argument I have advanced against this 

boundary being a great master-fault seems to me valid against the 

oo C» 


CHAP. IV.] NAHUN AND SIVALIK GROUPS. 131 

supposition of its being a great line of uniform contortion, and thus to be 
the strongest argument I can make against the prim facie opinion, 
that the Noon section is a continuous sequence of conformable strata. 
We shall elsewhere find analogies to strengthen this argument. `I 
imagine the main boundary to be in kind quite like the inner Sivahk 
boundary, as various as we know.this to be, but in this latter case it is 
more easy to detect where the strata are inverted, or where in their 

normal order. 

In the eastern region the difficulty was the indication of any precise 
division in a series of very similar deposits, appa- 
The western region. io é 

rently conformable and transitional in one zone 
and irregularly but strongly unconformable in another. The same puz- 
zle will occasionally occur in the western region; but here the chief 
difficulty is to indicate any defined break in a great series, the extreme 
members of which are very dissimilar in many important respects. The 
top rocks have a newer aspect, and the bottom ones a more ancient, than 
in the sections to the east. In the Guggur on the east, and in the Ravee 
on the west, there are seen two belts of rock which no one could hesitate 
in separating; yet in examining the intermediate area one would 
include the greater portion of it with one or with the other of these 
belts, according to the direction in which one proceeded. If examined 
from the south-east most would be classed as a lower group, and from 
the north-west the outer band seems to spread over well nigh all. When 
the boundary comes to be traced, if indeed it ever can be,—if any conti- 
nuous physical break in the newer Sub-Himalayan period exists in the | 
greater part of this western area,—the middle group will appear as strips 
occupying the long narrow ridges which traverse the region more or less 
continuously in a north-west, south-east direction. In several cases these 
ridges disappear to the north-west, the lower rocks thus becoming 

enveloped in the upper. 


132 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. [Cuap. IV. 

The composition of the middle group from the Guggur westwards is 

Gaieral egupouiaon V different from what we have seen in the Nahun 

ROTO en S rocks, and far less simple. We scarcely even find 

a lithological representative of the lignite sandstone, unless it be among 
the doubtful rocks of the region of the Beas. The rocks which, north of 
the Pinjore valley, form an intermediate band between the Sivaliks and 
the Subathu group, have a closer resemblance to the latter than to the 
former; the thick-bedded sandstones are of a dark colour, often coarse, 
and are well hardened; beds of clay are very frequent. The most not- 
able difference, however, is that in the Sutlej we find the middle group 
surmounted by a great thickness of conglomerates that cannot be con- 
founded with those capping the younger group to the south. The outer 
rocks of this great series of deposits, and which we 
and of Siválik group. dae j 
can, within general limits, continue to distinguish 
as Sivalik, consist as before of massive conglomerates, coarse and fine, 
alternating with, and overlying, thick beds of sand and clay. 
In the Mungrud the whole middle band is about a quarter of a mile 
Middle etoup of Bello) broad; and, the strata being nearly vertical, this 
cu ; also represents their thickness on this section. 
In the Sursulla, near Kalka, the belt is nearly two miles wide ; for the 
TALE greater portion of it there is a broken section 
of coarse gritty clays, and red and purple, hard, 
earthy sandstone, coarse and fine ; the dip is not very steady, varying 
from east 15° north to 50° north ; it is high throughout. For a few 
hundred feet next the outer boundary, a massive, 
? a fourth group. : . 
clear gray sandstone shows itself, having an oppo- 
site underlie to the rest of the section, being also greatly crushed ; this 
rock is not exposed in every section, there is none of it in the Mun- 
grud, but it is noteworthy as being possibly the only true representa- 
tive of Nahun rocks here, the rest belonging to a distinct period of 

formation, and which a more minute study may separate as a fourth 


Cuar. IV.] NAHUN AND SIVALIK GROUPS. 133 

division of the series, intervening between the Nahun group (bottom 
Sivàlik) and the Subathu group. | 

Between Kalka, where the group consists of but a narrow band 
forming a low, flanking ridge, and the Sutlej, where it is sixteen 
miles wide and forms several ridges separated by well-defined fissures, 

ME chen et herera complicated knot of hills east and 
alguno north-east of Nalagurh, in which the flexures and 
fissures of the region to the north-west take their rise. The irregularities 
of strike in this area can only be reduced to some order by tracing back 
into 1t the leading flexures as developed to the north-west, the complexity 
being apparently due to the mingled effects of the general disturbing 
force, and the influence upon it of the oblique surface of resistance of 
the Lower Himalayan mountain-mass : the lines, which in the open area 
between the Sutlej and the Beas have a remarkably regular general run to 
south 35° to 40° east, become deflected more to the south in the vicinity 
of the higher hills. A short way to the east of the Sutlej, along 
the road from Roopur to Belaspur, there are but two distinct ridges of 
hills. The outer one is formed of a principal anticlinal bend, occupying 

Kundulu and Belas- tne crest of the ridge, but there are several minor 

poon section: features which are more distinguished elsewhere. 

There is a well-marked longitudinal synclinal fold at the lower 
end of the Kundulu lake; it curves round into the projection of 
the range over Nalagurh on the east, where it flattens and 
vanishes. Between the lake and the crest there is a wave in the 
general west-south-west dip, indicating an anticlinal and synclinal fold ; 
these are the beginnings of the deep flexures to the north-west. The 
rocks here are of the harder, lower type, and clays are abundant. 
. Along the crest the dip turns over abruptly at the main anticlinal, and the 
great unbroken sheets of rock, standing up nearly vertically, give a very 
rugged aspect to the north side of the ridge ; this is a very common feature 

in these hills, The rocks here are very thick, coarsish, softish sandstones. 


134 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA.  [Ca#ap. IV. 

The dip remains steady to the same direction, lowering to 50? at the 
Gumber, the upper portion of the section being of alternating conglo- 
merates, sands, and clays. The valley of the Gumber is cut along the 
strike of these rocks. In the ridge, rising abruptly on the north of the 
Gumber, we come again suddenly on the oldest type of rock,—hard 
purple sandstones, and red clays. "Throughout the ridge they are more 
or less vertical, underlying now to one side, now to the other, but becom- 
ing steady to a north-easterly underlie in the valley of the Gumrola, 
where we again pass, without discernible demarcation, into the same 
series of softish sandstones, clays, and conglomerates. The coarsest 
varieties of the latter are in contact with the limestones and slates along 
the main boundary, where they dip as usual at a high angle towards 

the contact. 
There can scarcely be any question as to the existence of a great fault 
along the Gumber: this feature is traceable, with 

The Gumber fault. $ TNT 

but httle variation of character, past Jualamuki 
to the Ravee, near Bussowlee Ghat. In a south-easterly direction it is 
very distinctly defined as far as the bifurcation of the river; here the 
feature in most direct continuation with it is a synclinal axis, along 
which a ridge is soon developed, striking into the main boundary at the 
village of Chandi, but orographically and structurally the lower Gum- 
ber feature is represented in a parallel direction, slightly shifted 
to the south-west, by the valleys of the Koaj and the Ballud. At 
the low gap separating these two streams, the thick, coarse, soft sand- 
stones of the outer ridge—the same rocks as noted on the ridge south of 
the Gumber—underlie at a high angle to east-north-east, and thus seem 
to pass beneath the thin, hard sandstones and red clays of the inner 
ridge, the dip being about the same in both. The coarse sandstones - 
ean be traced close up to the main boundary south of Khudi; and thus 
the well-defined belt of rocks north-east of the Gumber, at the Sutlej, 

gradually dies out against the maim lower Himalayan boundary. 


Cap. IV.] NAHUN AND SIVALIK GROUPS. 135 

Nothing that I have seen in these hills has more impressed upon me 
the grand scale of these natural operations than the regularity of the 
great flexures and fissures of the Sub-Himalayan strata, and especially 
their general independence of the neighbouring mountain contour, unless | 
when brought within its immediate passive influence. 

Although the general structural features are so continuous from the 

ine dipoor codibo: Sutlej to the south-eastwards, there are very impor- 

merates 3 tant lithological changes in the sections. Between 

Budiand Khudi there are only the few beds of coarsish, softish sandstone 
already mentioned, near the latter place, to represent the bands which 
near the Sutlej must be 6 or 8,000 feet thick. In the intermediate 
section, crossed between Nalagurh and Erki, the same beds are more 
fully represented north of Ramgurh, and again about Saihutti, but still - 
only feebly, and there are yet no conglomerates among the topmost beds ; 
next the main boundary north of Saihutti there are just a few strings 
of pebbles. There can, I think, be no doubt in considering the bands of 
the Gumrola and the Gumber as one and the' same formation ; and the 
conglomerates seem to belong to the soft coarse sandstones with 
which they are so closely associated. I cannot but think that both 
these rocks will yet be separated from the more ancient looking beds 
which protrude from beneath them; still Iam unable to make the dis- 
tinction on the grounds of contrasting degrees of disturbance; we will 
see that these very bands of the Gumber and Gumrola expand into the 
duns and plateaus of the Kangra district, and there flatten out into a 
more or less horizontal position, but there, as here, they are- found 
turned on end, and inverted, with the older rocks, in the vicinity of the 
lines of flexure. 

In the composition of these conglomerates about Belaspur there are 

Mn aii dome SOME Very interesting peculiarities ; recollecting 
position. the intimate relation between the composition of 

the Sivalik conglomerates of the eastern region, and the position of 

I 


136 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. [CHAP. IV. 

the great rivers, one is surprised to find no such relation here, the Sutlej 
being at present the mightiest of these mountain torrents. Where 
the conglomerate beds intersect the Sutlej, about four miles north of 
Belaspur, all the large boulders are of the hard purple sandstones 
of the Subathu group, and even the softer, fossiliferous, nummulitic 
strata are represented among the debris. We find on the spot 
the most complete means of comparison ; over the whole valley of 
Belaspur, and capping hills to a height of 2 to 300 feet, there is a 
coarse diluvial boulder conglomerate, evidently the work of the Sutlej 
at some remote period, the boulders being thoroughly water-worn, 
and composed of siliceous, metamorphic rocks. The first idea that 
suggests itself in explanation of the difficulty is that these deposits are of 
much older date, and that denudation had not at that time carved out 
the actual drainage system so deeply that the more distant debris could 
reach so far. This notion is strengthened when we see that the influence 
of the great rivers as described to the east is not peculiar to that region : 
the Sivàlik conglomerates at Bubhor are most distinctly traceable 
to the Sutlej in its actual position. The contrasting composition remains, 
no doubt, in proof of the different, and of course, greater age of the 
Belaspur conglomerates as compared with those at Bubhor, but a further 
comparison compels us to modify the generality of the mference, and 
to attach all the interest of the peculiarity to the special history of the 
Sutlej The conglomeritic bands of the Gumber and the Gumrola 
are continuously traceable to the Beas, but we do not find there the 
same peculiarities. About Likwanu, at the head of the Sher Khud, 
even south of the present watershed between the Sutlej and the Beas, 
the crushed and highly inclined conglomerates, which there is no shadow 
of reason for thinking of different age to those at Belaspur, contain only 
debris of metamorphic and granitic rocks. This fact explains the some- 
what paradoxical assertion, previously made, that the classification 

of these rocks would depend upon the direction in which the observer 


Cuar. IV.] NAHUN AND SIVALIK GROUPS. 137 

proceeded: in the section of the Sutlej the necessarily great difference 
in age between the conglomerates of Belaspur and of Bubhor is at once 
apparent, and would fairly be extended to the representative beds to the 
north-west, irrespective of the failure of the original distinguishing 
characters; whereas, in coming from the north-west one would consider 
all the rocks of the Kangra duns as Sivàlik, till brought to a check 
by the section of the Sutlej. Ido not see any way out of the dilemma, 
but I am aware that my study of this large area has been after all 
superficial, and inadequate to niceties of classification. 

There are some very interesting questions connected with the portion 
of middle Sub-Himalayan rocks we have just examined between Kalka 
and the Sutlej. Is the fact of the greater proportion of the lower 
beds in this area, and the gradual disappearance of the upper beds to 
the ‘south-east, due entirely to the greater contortion and consequent 
elevation and denudation of the upper beds, or does it involve elevation 
independent of contortion, and if so, was this prior to or subsequent 
to the deposition of .the Belaspur beds? The result is one of the same 
kind as I have, in the case of the Subathu group, taken to prove a 
general easterly upheaval of the area. A close examination of the mode 
of thinning out of the top beds in the valleys of the Gumber and 
Gumrola would help to solve the problem ; but the full solution of it must 
await the discovery of fossils by which the relative ages of these doubtful 
middle bands may be fixed. It has occurred to me as possible that the 
bottom beds of the Sutlej area may be the records of at least a part of 
the long period of denudation which I suppose to have intervened 
between the Subathu and the Nahun groups of the eastern region, —they 
may be the very debris of that denudation. Or once more I will ask 
the question, may these bottom rocks of the Sutlej area not belong to the 
Subathu group,—may not the difference of composition, which is after all 
not very great, be accounted for by local conditions of the time? May 

not the ridge of limestone, now separating the two areas, which I 

S 


138 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. . [CHAaP. IV. 

believe to have existed more or less as such upon the sea-bottom of the 
Subathu period, have produced the difference we observe in the rocks? 
The gravest objection to such a supposition is the persistent absence of 
any sign of the easily recognized bottom nummulitic beds, no matter 
how great the upheaval or of any of the subjacent black slates, no 
matter how great the faulting or crushing. 
The commencement of the Pinjore dun is structurally very analogous 
E Er Enoe md to what we have seen that of the Kyarda dun to 
Una : be. Massive bands of boulder conglomerate are 
introduced at the top of the Sivàlik group capping the range in the 
Basgati summits, where they have the same moderate dip as the under- 
lying strata. The boundary of the Nahun group takes a sudden bend 
towards the debouchure of the Guggur, and the conglomerate slopes down 
along it into the dun, forming on the right bank of the river a perfectly 
undisturbed valley-deposit resting against the steep hill of the middle 
rocks. These Basgati conglomerates are composed 
ad ER ANA of debris of the Subathu sandstones, and have 
probably been deposited by the Guggur in an early stage of its exist- 
ence, This river passes through the low outer range by a wide open 
gorge south of Kalka ; on both sides the conglomerates have a dip of 
30? to north-east, and, as before, the same beds appear in the dun at a 
short distance, and quite undisturbed, at the confluence of the Sursulla 
and Guggur. The contrast is more striking than in any examples I could 
A neuen en give in the Dehra dun, and it requires the most 
the Sursulla ; distinct evidence to make any one believe that 
these , undisturbed beds are not simply a dun deposit, the fact of litholo- 
gical resemblance being manifestly of very little weight. This evidence, 
however, is at hand, and; as if to suit the occasion, it is the most satis- 
factory of any that I have seen. In continuing up the Sursulla, these 
boulder beds last undisturbed for some miles ; but within half a mile of 

the inner boundary they have an equally steady dip of 15° towards 


Cnar. IV.] NAHUN AND SIVALIK GROUPS. 159 

the junction, where they are in vertical and crushed contact with the 
sandstones of the older group. 

The outermost range of hills is in this western. region much flatter than 
to the east. This is the more apparent in the eastern portion of the 

pne uar "n Pinjore dun, on account of the immediate proxi- 

Jus Irene Enable Nes mity of the Lower Himalaya, and it 1s interesting 

to observe that this proximity seems to have exercised no influence upon 
the state of disturbance of the youngest rocks, which is if anything less 
here than elsewhere: I am not prepared to offer any positive explan- 
ation of the coincidence. The diminished prominence of the Sivalik 
range seems to be in some measure due to change in composition: the 
sandstones are more earthy, and much softer than to the east of the 
Markunda, and the alternations of clay continue to ‘be more frequent. It 
is only of the Sivaliks of this region that we can say that their strata 
are undistinguishable from those of the plains. The passage of the 
Sutlej through the range at Roopur is a wide alluvial valley. In two 
sections that I made of the range beyond,—one outside Una, and the 
other near Hoshiarpur—the flat anticlinal flexure is well defined, and 
still of the normal type, with the lesser slope towards the dun. This 
ridge, which is more or less continuous with the Sivalik range of Dehra, 
does not extend beyond the Beas; the second zone there becomes the 
outermost. . 
There is a well-raised plateau of what appear to be upper Sivàhk 
E x conglomerates in the dun between Nalagurh and 
won Kirithpur, against which the Sutlej turns south- 
ward ; these deposits reach well up to the foot of the hills under Kun- 
dulu. Immediately to the west of this, we find a great change in the 
arrangement of the rocks, reminding one of the Noon section as com- 
pared with that at Simbuwala. Near Nandpur, 
ae just north of Nanowal, the very strata of the 

dun,—kunkury, calcareous clays, and sands, with irregular patches 


140 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. ([CHaAp. IV. 

hardened by tufa, and occasional strings of small boulders,—turn 
up within a space of 100 feet, from being horizontal to a dip of 
over 80° to south-30°-west; these beds pass into and overlie a great 
thickness of massive gray soft sandstone, with here and there a 
good sized pebble occurring in it. The section continues most steady 
to near Kot, giving at least 5,000 feet of the upper rocks. Here, 
at the base of Naina Devi the strata being all but vertical, there 
is a sudden change to dirty red clays, and yellowish brown sandstones, 
like the rocks north-east of Nalagurh. In these the opposite underlie 
soon declares itself, and decreases up the ridge. Passing on to Bubhor 

we find the same section, but the upper beds here 
"E consist of massive conglomerates, with an increased 
thickness of fully 42,000 feet. To complete the analogy with the 
Noon we find here other boulder conglomerates lying on the edges of 
these at a considerable height above the Sutlej. Further on still, near 
Una, we again find the yellow, marly clays of the dun turned up with 
a south-westerly dip, at first so low as 40°, but rapidly increasing nearly 
to the vertical: conglomerates are here again 
subordinate, and the passage into the pebbly gray 
sandstones is rapid, but alternating and quite conformable ; here, 
moreover, there appears to be a transition between these and the brown 
earthy sandstones and red clays of which the Naina Devi ridge is formed. 
The mode of occurrence of the Bubhor conglomerates leaves very little 
doubt that they are not a remnant of a widespread boulder-deposit, but 
that it was formed by the Sutlej, having its embouchure at or about its 
present position, and this rock, with its associated beds, seems to.be 
transitional into the gray pebbly sandstones. Yet this latter rock is, I 
believe, the same as occurs most extensively to the north of these sec- 
tions, occupying the duns of the Kangra district, being there, as has 
already been stated, apparently transitional with the Belaspur conglo- 

merates ; it is well seen in the valley of the Sutlej, on the north of this 

Una. 

= 
paar = 
es 


Cuap. IV.] NAHUN AND SIVALIK GROUPS. 141 

narrow ridge of Naina Devi as far up as Fung- 

wanu, but from Belaspur to Koseree I found no 

Budsur fault. 

remnant of the Bubhor conglomerate. 
However regular the ridges of this region 

may be in direction, their details of structure 

SoLA-SINGHEE RIDGE. 

are exceedingly complicated. . The section from 
Una to Budsur (Fig. 17) affords complete 
exemplification of these intricacies, which are 

of the same kind else- 

The Una section, j j 
where. The two ridges 

Koseree fault. 
e. Brown and red sandstones and clays. 

of Naina Devi and Sola-Simghee seem to have 
grown out of the broader and less defined ridge 

over Kundulu. 'They are both formed along 

Naina DEVI RIDGE. 

synclinal axes, the dip being inwards on each 

flank, and the rocks of both are certainly the 

Kot anticlinal. 

J? Gray pebbly sandstone. 

lowest of the section, the softer, newer rocks 

Fig. 17. 

appearing in the valleys and plains. In the 
former position, as in the Sutlej valley about 
Koseree, the phenomenon reminds one strongly 
of the case of the nummulitie outliers between 
the Krol and the Boj, yet the parallel does 
not seem complete enough to admit of our 

adopting the same mode of explanation, namely, 

the pre-existence of the ridges of older rocks, 
or at least not to nearly the same extent; 

the evidence here is strongly in favour of fault- 

Una Dux. 

ing, and of folded flexures. In the sections of 

the south flank of the first ridge, under Naina 

‘Section at Una. |.f:! Conglomeritic Siváliks, 

Devi and in the Sutlej, we have seen a sharp an- 
ticlinal bend, with apparently some faulting ; in 

the Una section to the west, this anticlinal axis 

S. W. 
SX RR 
SIVALIK HILts. 


142 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA.  [CHAp. IV. 

encroaches upon the ridge ; from where it reaches the crest the ridge dies 
out rapidly, the dip decreasing, and the upper rocks, or at least a portion 
of them (the gray sandstones), spread round the sloping end of the ridge. 
On the north-east side of the ridge, from near the head of the valley 
at Fungwanu, there is a well-marked fault; the 

Koseree fault. i 
gray sandstone is found dipping against, and appa- 
rently under the synclinal ridge. This main fault does not extend 
to the end of the Naina Devi ridge; it curves slightly to the north, 
and along it a new ridge rises, having at first a simple south-westerly 
dip, but it too bends off to the west, and terminates north of Chouki, 
like the Naina Devi ridge, in a semi-circle of diverging dips of the 
upper rocks. North-east of the Koseree fault, in the ridge of Sola- 
Singhee*, we have a modified repetition of the Naina Devi ridge. Close 
to the fault the upper rocks are sometimes nearly flat, but generally 
inclined at a high angle towards it, and sometimes again at a high angle 
from it: the fault occurs, I believe, approximately along a synclinal 
flexure, and thus these conditions of dip depend upon the amount of 
throw at any point. The south-westerly dip gradually increases to the 
vertical, and so passes to an opposite underlie (the ridge generally com- 
mences about this point of the section), and so to 
Me ce ae the erest of the ridge; the section throughout has 
been geologically a descending one, or at least the lowest rocks occur on 
the ridge, though not perhapsat the top. There is no way of explaining 
such a section but by inversion,—a folded flexure of which, the axis- 
plane, underlies to the north-east. Along the north-east base of this ridge 
also there is a well marked fault, passing close to Budsur. I obtained no 

satisfactory observation of the underlie of these 
Koseree and Budsur 
faults. two faults of Koseree and of Budsur ; if anything 

out of the vertical position it seemed to me to be towards the ridges. 

* As these ridges are for the most part without names, Ihave, asa rule, given them the 

names of temples or forts built on their crests. 


CHAP. IV.] NAHUN AND SIVALIK GROUPS. 143 

There can be no doubt however that the downthrow is on the north-east, 
4. e, with, not against, the direction of the axis-plane of the flexures. 
It were premature at present to insist upon the amount of throw 
of these faults; if we are to conclude that all these deposits once 
covered the whole area to an equal depth, the throw must be enor- 
mous, but it seems possible that these flexures may have been more 
or less formed prior to the completion of the series, and hence the irre- 
gularities of present position may have been to some extent ab origine. 
The fact, however, already mentioned in the Hurdwar section, is equally 
applicable here,——the newest rocks, that are disturbed at all, seem to have 
undergone as much disturbance as the others. In the mode of termina- 
tion of the Naina Devi ridge we have examples, though somewhat irre- 
gular, of the passage of the same contortion from being folded to being 
normal and symmetrical flexures. 

Before passing on to the north-east I will rapidly notice the extension 

Extension to the Ravee Of this second zone up to the Ravee. The con- 

SCING Nerte Deni Meeris tinuation of the Koseree fault seems to coincide 

with a sharp synclinal fold passing obliquely along the north-east point 
of the Purwain or Gungot ridge; and further to the north-west it - 
may correspond with the synclinal or the uniclinal curve of the strata in 
the dun beyond the Beas. 'The Purwain ridge is the representative, 
and, in a manner, the continuation of the Naina Devi ridge, but the 
features are altogether changed; it is a broad flat ridge of the ordinary 
Sivalik type. A low north-easterly dip prevails throughout, and thick 
boulder conglomerates reach up to the crest, sandstones and clays crop- 
ping out along the south-western slopes to the Una dun. There is pro- 
bably a sharp double curve concealed beneath the dun, for conglomerates, 
" though less coarse than those on Purwain, come in again on the inner 
slopes of the outermost range. In the gorge of the Beas, through the 
Purwain ridge, there are excellent sections, showing rather complicated 

disturbance, which we may reasonably infer to be local; the rocks are the 


144 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. — [Cna»r. IV. 

gray pebbly sandstones, and the bottom beds of the conglomerates. 
West of the Beas this range becomes the outermost zone of hills. It too 
flattens out into a low expanse of hills, east of Puthankot, and so comes 
to an end before reaching the Ravee. At Tangoo hill, two miles south 
of Puthankot, and the most westerly point of the Purwain ridge, a 
deep cut has been made through the ridge to divert the course of 
the Chukkee stream, showing an excellent section of brown clays, and 
gray gravel with small boulders, having a very steady dip of 30° to west. 
In the low hills all round very similar strata are found, showing little or 
no disturbance, and probably belonging to the recent plains’ deposits, over- 
lapping a denuded surface of Siválik strata; the many instances, however, 
we have seen in the Sivalik rocks of sudden change from original hori- 
zontal position to one of extreme displacement should make us cautious 
in interpreting observations of this kind. 

From the Sutlej nearly to the Beas the whole compression of the band 

Extension of the Sola Petween the Gumber fault and the Koseree fault is 
n concentrated in the complicated, faulted flexure of 

the Sola-Singhee ridge. Beyond this ridge, in both directions, the Budsur 

fault passes into an anticlinal axis. On the south-east it is in continua-- 

tion with the axis of the ridge north of Kundulu ; and to the north-west 
it passes into the anticlinal axis, which is first distinctly seen in the 
ridges between Jualamuki and Deihreh, whence it can be followed 
without interruption to the Ravee, where it appears along the north base 
of the Dulla ridge ; at almost every point there is more or less of faulting, 
with a northerly down-throw; and on the south there is a general 
tendency to a recurrence of high opposing dips, thus retaining a consi- 
derable resemblance to the section at Budsur. At Nurpur there is a 
strange variation in this feature, appearing on the map as a regular 
southerly sweep of the line. The beds on the north of the axis become 
extended, curving over so as to complete half the arch of the anticlinal. 

It is on the flat back of this arch that the town and fort of Nurpur are 


Cuar. IV.] NAHUN AND SIVALIK GROUPS. 145 

built. In the steeply scarped slopes on the south the reverse dip appears 
nearly vertical One cannot but feel astonishment at the close proximity 
of such gentle unbroken curving to such intense crushing; a closer 
examination of the locality might discover evidence of unconformability. 
In this neighbourhood I noticed a fact that may turn to some 
account. In the sections of the Chukkee, of the Nurpur stream near 
Mudunpur, and of the stream south of Kotleh, in about the same position 
in each, and thus forming a.continuous lie in the zone, there 
may be seen an abrupt change in the amount of dip from 20° or 30° 
in younger rocks to 60° or 70° in those below them. There is no 
break or strain, and the sections were not deep enough to show dis- 
tinet unconformability. It appears to me as if the lower beds may 
bave been considerably tilted before the others were laid over them. 
At, and west of, the Ravee this zone of Sola-Singhee forms the outer- 
most range. 
The Nadaon dun, the undulating plateau between the Budsur fault 
and the Jualamuki ridge, is occupied by gray 
The Nadaon dun. 
pebbly sandstone and the lower beds of the con- 
glomerates, dipping at a low angle, and apparently without any very 
definite order. In its north-west portion there are two subsidiary flex- 
ures that are well defined for some distance. North of Deihreh the 
main anticlinal bifureates, apparently where the Budsur fault begins to 
be decided; a flat anticlinal bends off towards Jualamuki, and conti- 
nues for many miles close along the base of this ridge. Beginning close 
to the angle of the bifurcation a sharp synclinal fold continues, not far 
from the Budsur fault, to as far as Sola-Singhee. 
The Gumber fault is traceable continuously to the Ravee, but it is no 
cb te where so well marked as in the Gumber valley. 
There can always be discerned a ridge of the 
older rocks, passing by gentle slopes into the higher rocks on the 

north-east, always more or less scarped on the south-east, and 
n 


146 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. [Cna». IV. 

with younger rocks generally dipping towards it. At some places 
to the north-west, as at Kotleh, the fault is very well seen. Sometimes 
the whole feature is very obscure. The most puzzling section of it is in 
the Bangunga, south of Kangra; the older strata, with the appearance of 
perfect conformabihty, overlie the younger, the dip not being more than 
40°. There is some collateral evidence to support the opinion that there 
is a deep line of disturbance in this position. At the famous shrine of 
Jualamuki an inflammable gas perpetually issues from the rock (unless 
indeed it be cooked by the priests below ground); and at Lunsu, below 
Dalhousie, there is a hot medicinal spring on this same line of disturb- 
ance, There is at least one marked difference between this line of 
fissure and those we have noticed to the south-west; here the up-throw 
is on the north-east side, and the underlie of the contact is, as usual in 
these faults, towards the older rock, The many cases of doubtful 
superposition and other complications along this line are not explicable 
by a simple fault ; there must be a folded flexure with the fissure chiefly 
in the synclinal. 

The area to the north-east of the Gumber line of flexure is for the 
comici most part a rugged plateau, or rather a maze of 

ravines cut out of soft gray sandstone and over- 
lying conglomerates, which lie in a more or less horizontal position ; the 
general surface of the irregular ridges ranges between 2,500 and 3,000 
feet in elevation. Along the base of the Dhaoladhar the sandstone is 
more or less eroded and covered by superficial deposits, thus forming 
the disconnected areas known under the general name of the 
Kangra dun. 

The more marked lines of disturbance inside the Gumber line of 
flexure conform to the curved boundary of the high mountain district, 
but in all structural details they resemble the more regular flexures of 
the outer zones. The most important of these lines is the junction of 

the gray sandstones and the conglomerates with the inner zone of lower 


Cuar. IV.] NAHUN AND SIVALIK GROUPS. 147 | 

or middle Sub-Himalayan rocks —the continuation, in fact, of the 

line which, to the east of the Sutlej, forms the 
de de: main lower Himalayan boundary. It is not a 
continuous line in the region of the Beas, and it is interesting to see 
how the newer rocks lap across it in a manner exactly similar to that 
in which the gray sandstones of the Bubhor section laps round the 
point of the ridge north of Una. Towards the upper end of the 
Sher khud soft gray conglomeritic sandstones have a low inclination 
to eastwards on the west bank of the river; and on the east side 
we find deep red clays and hard purple sandstones, with a high dip 
in the same direction. Further up, about Dubrog, the contact is 
obscurely seen, and it is rather puzzling; conglomerates of the coarsest 
description, containing well rounded boulders of quartzite and of 
granitic rocks two feet in diameter, and which are shivered to splinters 
in place by the crushing action, are found jumbled together with the 
red rocks, and not exclusively along a definite vertical band,—I found 
the conglomerate im situ 100 yards due east of a section of the 
red rocks. Crossing the watershed to the next stream on the north, the 
younger rocks rapidly assume a high westerly underlie, and then curve 
hihi in a most regular manner round the point of the 

ridge separating the Sher from the Suin, forming a 
semi-circular diverging dip, and a sloping anticlinal axis on the ridge, 
but they do not extend far either in the valley or on the ridge, older 
looking rocks cropping up from beneath them. East of the Suin 
another fissure separates them from the main area of the mner zone. 
Thus terminates the line of boundary which has so often been noticed 
already. It may perhaps be questioned whether the feature (in its faulted 
character) really dies out here, or whether it be only covered up, but 
there seems very little presumption in favour of the latter supposition,— 
the structure displayed by the younger rocks corresponds very exactly 

with the production of a fissure or slip of some extent in that position, 


148 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. [CHap. IV. 

and there is no warrant for going beyond this, unless indeed to satisfy 
a theory. 

It is curious to notice, about thirty miles off, on the other side of this 
e po ronan wide bay of the newer rocks, a very similar ter- 
ory: mination to the corresponding boundary below the 
Dhaoladhar. The ridge of Puthiar is formed of the lower beds. On its 
south-west side, between it and the Jarait hills, the conglomerates are 
vertical, and even inverted along the junction, both rocks having a south- 
easterly strike. Round the point, towards Burwarneh, the conglomerates 
are continuous, and stretch on the north-east side nearly to the inner 
Sub-Himalayan boundary, having a high dip from the Puthiar ridge. I 
noticed that the conglomerates in this position are remarkable for the 
local character of their pebbles, sub-angular fragments of the pink 
limestone of the range close by, with larger blocks of the brownish 
gray sandstone that intervenes, being the chief ingredients. In the 
conglomerate on the outside of the ridge the blocks are larger and more 
rounded ; there is too a considerable admixture of the hard inner rocks. 
These peculiarities suggest the existence of the Puthiar ridge as a pro- 
montory in the area of deposition of the younger rocks, and consequently 
that the feature, as we now see it, is not solely the result of disturbance 
subsequent to that period. The same inference may be extended to the 
corresponding feature towards the Sutlej ; it is but a confirmation of the 
opinion we had to come to in examining the eastern region—that the 
outer rocks were formed upon an eroded surface of preceding deposits. 

West of Dhurmsala the upper portion of this Kangra zone is not so 

denuded and covered over as along the duns, and we 
AGREE TFT MA find grand sections showing an enormous develop- 
ment of the conglomerates. The circumstance is manifestly connected 
with the presence of conditions very similar to those now existing, these 
conglomerates containing the debris of all the rocks now exposed in the 

lofty range that rises immediately to the north,—of the trap, of the lime- 


Cuap. IV] - NAHUN AND SIVALIK GROUPS. 149 

stone, and even of the brownish gray sandstone of the narrow band of 
older Sub-Himalayan rocks. Yet we find these same conglomerates 
conforming most regularly to a structure that seems to be coeval with the 
formation of the range, it being as distinctly marked in the youngest as in 
the oldest rocks; for several miles up the gorge of the Ravee, the con- 
glomerates underlie at a high angle to east 15° south. We here only 
find the bottom pebbly beds, along the edge of the river, the upper 
coarser beds having no doubt been removed by denudation; at a short 
distance off at least, across the river, the same rocks have a moderate 
dip to the north-north-east, and the conglomerates are well developed. 
There still remain some observations of much interest to be noticed 
regarding the innermost zone. In the ridge at 
"The innermost zone ; 
Sid the rocks resemble those ofthe section south of 
Khudi as much as they do anything in the Subathu group ; but the 
newest rocks are here, as in the other zones, to be found along the inner 
boundary. At Mundi there are some thick softish light gray sandstones, 
undistinguishable from the Sivalik rock. It is only however at the very 
head of this wide recess of the Sub-Himalayan area that the highest 
beds of this zone are preserved. From a short way north of Drang to 
about Haurbaug conglomerates and clays are the top rocks of the section. 
pes onene e In the hill at Sih we find the best sections of the 
he bansi uppermost beds ; they are very massive banks of 
coarse breccia rather than conglomerate, being composed of large and 
small angular debris of the cherty limestone and of the pink sandstone 
occurring at the contact close by, in the outermost band of the Lower 
Himalayan rocks. These beds dip at 40° to eastwards, and they overlie 
thick strata of clay and of fine sandstone-conglomerate, in which the 
debris is chiefly of the hard, inner rocks, and well rounded, but contain- 
ing in the upper beds a mixture of sub-angular pebbles of the limestone, 
thus in a manner graduating into the breccias at top. The peculiarly 

local character of these beds is very remarkable, and even requires some 


150 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. [CHap. IV. 

special mode of formation. There is one strange fact common to all the 
coarser deposits here; they contain no trappean debris, or at least so 
rarely that I happened to observe none, although trap rocks at present 
largely predominate 1n the ridge immediately above, and coarse trappean 
debris so prevails in the actual talus overlying these conglomerates as | 
to be mistakeable for trap in situ. In the conglomerates of the succeed- 
ing zone of Sub-Himalayan rocks, described in the last few paragraphs, 
debris of this same band of trappean rock is common. We must at 
least suppose that at the time of formation of these innermost conglo- 
merates the fringing belt of limestone, sandstone, and slaty shales was 
much more developed than now; but we are scarcely yet prepared to 
admit that the introduction of the trap was subsequent to the deposition 
of these conglomerates at Sih. It may be well to mention too that I 
noticed no debris of pre-existing Sub-Himalayan rocks. The well round- 
ed pebbles of the lower beds must have come from the inner rocks of the 
Himalayan series, and, we may perhaps infer, were brought down the 
gorge of the Beas, but there is no connection at present very manifest 
between these beds and that river; the upper beds have been denuded 
from the position of the actual gorge. These Sih conglomerates are quite 
cut off from any similar deposits in the other Sub-Himalayan zones; 
thus in the Beijnath section we again find only the harder and deeply 
coloured underlying beds. The position and the peculiarities we have 
noticed in this isolated patch of rocks render them specially interesting ; 
the special facts seem to point to their being totally distinct from all the 
similar deposits to the west and south, yet in general aspect these strata 
form as great a contrast with the other rocks of this zone as do those 
outer conglomerates which are so often seen to contain their debris. 

At Dhurmsala the rocks of this zone are well exposed, exhibiting an 

dude Dm Nntenmediate and doubtful type as described in the 
s areas east of the Sutlej. To the west, however, 

the zone is very subordinate, being scarcely recognizable at places, as in 


Cuar. IV.] NAHUN AND SIVALIK GROUPS. ~ 151 

the sections of the several feeders of the Chukkee and of the Dairhh. 
In fact, though I have represented the zone as continuous on the map, 
I think that the soft, reddish-brown sandstones and ‘clays, with some 
bands of conglomerates (contaming Sub-Himalayan debris), forming the 
narrow band separating the massive conglomerates from the trappean 
rocks, between Sihunta and Choari, belong to the same group as the 
massive conglomerates themselves. On Buklo ridge we have again a 
fuller section of this inner band of lower’ rocks, but it might well be 
asserted that they are only the same beds as are found regularly under- 
lying the conglomerates in the sections to the south. The case here is in 
fact completely analogous to that already discussed between the Nahun 
and the Sivalik zones of the eastern regions. 

The point of most evident importance in this western district is the 
determination of the degree of equivalence of the similar beds in the 
uppermost portion of the successive zones. ‘The relation of the top beds 
to the underlying strata, is a question common to the whole Sub-Hima- 
layan area. The successive disappearance of the two outermost ranges 
to the north-west is of considerable interest. It is not quite apparent, 
moreover, whether denudation may not be the chief cause of this; there 
is certainly no decrease of disturbing energy in the section at Hoshi- 
yarpur as compared with that at Pinjore. Such a decrease is very 
marked indeed in the second zone, between the sections at Una and 
at Gungot, but until the precise relations of the upper Sub-Himalayan 
groups in this region be more closely made out this comparison is not 

admissible, 


152 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS, OF N. W. INDIA. [Cnua». V. 

CHAPTER V.—Post-Sivdlik Deposits. 

I HAVE already had to notice undisturbed deposits covering vertical 
strata to an inconsiderable thickness, yet (doubtfully) connected with the 
ee ae upper Sivalik period. The great formation of 
m and Gan- later date with which one might seek to co-ordi- 
nate such deposits chronologically is the Gangetic 
formation. Between the Sivalik strata and those of the Gangetic plains 
there is the most decided separation ; there is no approach toa shading 
off of disturbance, merging the one into the other. We have seen this to 
be very marked in the eastern regions, in the sections of the Ganges and 
the Jumna, where the most southern Sivalik rocks have a nearly vertical 
dip. In the western district the general contrast between the forma- 
tions is not quite so striking at the contact, but the argument is con- 
firmed by the fact that the state of disturbance of the outermost range 
is as great as that of the range inside it: for instance, in the section 
between Deihreh and Hoshiyarpur, the Purwain ridge is composed of | 
probably the same strata as those of the outer ridge ; be this, however, 
as it may, the highest underlie found in the whole section is along the 
edge of the plains, where it is 70° to southwards. Although little evi- 
dence exists in the narrow band of Sivalik rocks now exposed along the 
outer fringe of the mountain-region of a diminishing intensity of disturb- 
ance in a south-westerly direction, we may, I suppose, presume that such 
actually occurs in the extension of these strata beneath the Gangetic 
formation. 
The great accumulation of boulder gravel which everywhere covers 
LG anes the south base of the Sivaliks, can scarcely be 
SSNS looked upon as belonging to the group of depo- 

sits I here speak of as the Gangetic formation. These conglomerate 


CHaP. V.] POST-SIVALIK DEPOSITS. 153 

banks are annually being enlarged by the torrents from the Siváliks, 
whereas the regular plains’-deposits are deeply eroded by these same tor- 
rents in the lower part of their course, and by the greatrivers. Whether 
these more regular strata were laid down in water, in a basin of deposi- 
tion, after the manner usually supposed, or only by water, by the unaided 
operation of river action, as has lately been maintained by Mr. Ferguson 
(Quar. Jour. Geol. Soc., London, Vol. XIX., p. 321), it is evident that long 
since a period of erosion had set in in these higher regions of the Gan- 
getic plains. Such being the case, it would be interesting to find out 
what limits the deposit may have formerly attained. Does that flat talus 
of coarse debris that is still in process of formation along the base of the 
Sivalik range rest upon and pass continuously into the topmost beds of 
the Gangetie formation, or can it overlie a denuded surface of these 
strata ? I strongly incline to the former supposition. Evidence on the 
other side is altogether wanting. Had the Gangetic formation ever been 
much thicker, and thus necessarily extended more or less over the 
Sivalik hills, the denudation which reduced the level of the main area 
could scarcely have spared any outlying remnants. Along the south front 
of the Sivaliks I have not detected any elevated patch of superficial 
deposits that might not be due to some petty local cause, such as the 
temporary formation of a lake. About the openings of the great river 
gorges we sometimes find, close to the Sivalik hills, strata that do not 
belong to the talus-deposits of these hills. The low flat mounds near 
Hurdwar are formed by a stratum of stiff clay covering one of coarse 
boulders, resting on a basis of the highly inclined Sivalik conglomerates, 
this basis being fully ten feet higher than the present full-flood level of 
the river. 

In connection with this subject, and especially with reference to the 
discussion raised by Mr. Ferguson, Dr. Hooker's observations at the base 
of the Sikkim Himalaya are of great interest. The conditions there are 
very different from what we have seen to the north-west. In speaking 

U 


154 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. [CHap. V. 

of the Terai, at p. 378, Vol L, of his * Himalayan Journals," Dr. Hooker 
says: “The gravel beds extend uninterruptedly upon the plains for 
fully twenty miles south of the Sikkim mountains, the gravel becoming 
smaller as the distance increases.” “ Throughout its breadth this forma- 
tion 1s conspicuously cut into flat-topped terraces, flanking the spurs of 
the mountains, at elevations varying from 250 to 1,000 feet above the 
` sea" “In many places, especially along the banks of the great streams, 
the gravel is smaller, obscurely interstratified with sand, and the flat- 
tened pebbles overlap rudely, in a manner characteristic of the effects 
of running water; but such is not the case with the main body of the © 
deposit, which is unstratified and much coarser. The alluvium of the 
Gangetic valley is both interstratified with the gravel, and passes into 
it, and was no doubt deposited in deep water, whilst the coarser matter 
was accumulating at the foot of the mountains.” 
If the opinion be adopted that the strata of the plains have not been 
much reduced by denudation, our previous infer- 
Me c rum ence regarding the superficial deposits of the duns 
RE eon is strengthened, that they, for the most part, 
belong to a more remote period of formation than the deposits of the 
plains, and are more closely connected with the Sivalik period. The 
boulder-conglomerate, and the other undisturbed deposits about Kungora, 
in the Noon section, are more raised above the plains than the highest 
point of these is above the sea-level, and I have seen no evidence for 
supposing that their relative position has ever sensibly changed. We 
must then suppose the dun-deposits to have been laid down about the 
close of the Sivalik period, and probably more or less under local condi- 
tions produced by the contortion of the Sivalik rocks. This last condition 
is more apparent in the case of the inner duns of the western region: it 
is only in the outer line of duns,—those of Dehra, Pinjore, and Una,— 
that any difficulty is encountered in separating the superficial deposits 

from the underlying disturbed strata. In the Nadaon dun, and in many 


Cmar. V.] POST-SIVALIK DEPOSITS.  - 155 

parts of the Kangra plateau, there are superficial clays and conglomerates 
lying thickly on an eroded surface of the gray, conglomeritic sandstone, 
which is there the youngest of the subjacent rocks. All these deposits 
must have been laid down before the excavation of the present great river 
gorges to anything like their actual depth, or else during the temporary 
obstruction of these gorges ; in many cases indeed the latter alternative 
seems to be involved, for, the surface of deposition is but little different 
from that of the actual valley, and in some cases is nearly as low as the 
actual valley; as a cause for such interruptions I can only think of 
upheavals along the external zone of hills, the last effects produced 
during the period of disturbance. These considerations would seem to 
throw back the period of deposition of the dun-deposits. 

The most interesting of these deposits is that in which large erratic 
Glacial debris of Dhao- locks occur so abundantly along the base of the 
ia. Dhaoladhar. It first shows itself on the east, 
about Haurbaug, and is nowhere more strikingly seen than along the 
steep inner slopes of the duns east of Dhurmsala, where the huge 
blocks are thickly scattered over the surface. In viewing this deposit as 
the result of glacial action, I base my opinion chiefly upon the size of 
the blocks (I measured one twenty-five feet by eighteen, by ten), and 
upon some peculiarities of distribution. An eye more practised than 
mine in glacial phenomena might detect more direct evidence, but it 
certainly is not well-marked, and it is easy to account for the subsequent 
removal of all such traces of glacial action in such a position as this. 
The blocks occur at a present elevation so low as 3,000 feet above 
the sea-level, and they are found through fully a thousand feet in 
height. They are almost exclusively composed of the granitoid gneiss 
of the central mass of the Dhaoladhar, from which their area of distribu- 
tion is separated by a lofty ridge of schists, through deep gorges in which 
they have evidently been conveyed, a huge block being occasionally 

found perched on the sides of these gorges, some hundred feet above the 


156 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. | Grego Ve 

present level of the stream ; yet in such places I failed to observe any 
groovings or roundings of the rocky sides. ‘The absence of evidence of 
this kind may, perhaps, be attributed to the rapidly disintegrating action 
of the heavy rains. I was many times puzzled to account for the posi- 
tions in which these erratic blocks occur. They are frequently found on 
the slopes of the range, out of the way of any of these main gorges, 
and even up the little receding valleys of streams, which only drain the 
outer hills, and down which the blocks could not have come. Must we 
superadd the agency of floating ice? The total absence of erratic blocks 
in other positions is often equally puzzling. The position of this glacial 
deposit more to the west, in the confined and elevated longitudinal 
valleys between Sihunta and Choari impresses one more forcibly with 
the antiquity of its origin; it there les in gaps and on ledges a full 
thousand feet over the deep drainage gullies close by. 

In attempting to account for the presence of glacial phenomena at so 
Tie “poeta epus inconsiderable an elevation as 3,000 feet in a 
tion, . sub-tropical latitude, it were easy to appeal to 

that mysterious ‘glacial period which Mr. T. F. Jamieson has lately 

(Quar. Jour. Geol. Soc., London, Vol. XIX., p. 257,) suggested in explana- 

tion of some geological features of the Thibetan regions. I do not at 
all reject Mr. Jamieson's idea, but I hold that it is only to be called 
in when all other explanations are found untenable. I would suggest 
the following. Lofty as the Himalayas now are, I know of no physical 
hypothesis by which we are, à priori, forbidden to suppose them to 
have formerly been very much higher, not only by the amount removed 
by denudation, but as a mass ; and for such a supposition I see some 
reasonable grounds. Towards the close of the Sivalik period of deposi- 
tion the Dhaoladhar may have been very much more lofty than now, and 
its valleys filled with glaciers : in sinking to its present level these would 
disappear, and the Sivalik strata may have undergone their final foldings, 

I can find no explanation of the extensive folding of the Sub-Himalayan 

vo On NEUTER 


Cuap. V.] POST-SIVALIK DEPOSITS. 157 

rocks, except in the extensive sinking of the central mountain region ; 
there is reason to think the action has been long continued and even 
intermittent. 

Though, on the whole, these local surface-deposits of the duns seem 
to be more ancient than the Gangetic formation, 
de we may find among them links of connection with 
modern deposits; there are still left some small lakes, now basins of 
deposition, which, I believe, owe their origin to the same causes as may 
have spread deposits over some of the inner duns. The lakes of Kun- 
dulu and of Morni are both situated just inside the boundary of the 
middle and upper Sub-Himalayan groups. The Kundulu lake is 
evidently only a deep mountain gorge, stopped up towards its lower 
extremity ; and just here we find an axis of contortion. This lake has 
been much deeper than now ; there is about half a mile of sloping delta 
at its upper extremity, which probably contains older beds than any now 
to be found at the surface of the Gangetic plains. It must not be 
forgotten that we have already proved the existence of the actual 
drainage lines or valleys, in the rocks of the older groups, prior to the 
Siválik period. There are at many places remnants of such detached 
lake-deposits; one of the most interesting I could mention is that among 
the slate rocks of the Lower Himalayas, about Haut, a few miles north- 
north-west of Subathu ; it forms several square miles of level ground. 
The ravines of this area are cut through about 200 feet of clay 
and sub-angular gravel without reaching the rock. The sacred lake of 
Rurka, north-east of Nahun, lies in an abandoned portion of the bed 
of the Giri; this river having effected a new confluence with the Jalar, 
and adopted the course of the latter. 

In connection with the subjects se briefly touched upon in the 

preceding paragraphs some mention should be 
made of rivers. It is only of late .years that 

Rivers. 

rivers have met with the attention they deserve as indicators of changes 


158 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. [Cuar. V. 

at the earth's surface. One phase of their geological function has 
lately been ably treated in a paper, already mentioned, on the Ganges 
delta, by Mr. Ferguson ; the author chiefly illustrates the action of rivers 
as agents of rock-formation, and, as contingent upon that process, he 
exhibits the mutability of rivers themselves. The antiquity of rivers, 
and their powers as agents of destruction might form the subject of an 
essay as instructive as Mr. Ferguson's, based upon a study of the Ganges 
and its great associates in the Himalayan mountains. It has hitherto 
been the fashion* to attribute the deep valleys, or rather gorges of the 
Himalayas, in a great measure to marine denudation, likening them to 
the deep fiords of the Norway coast. The simile reversed may be just 
as much to the point,—the Norway coast or any other such (I too speak 
without reference to details,) may be likened to a submerged mountain 
range. I feel assured that these valleys can all be more justly accounted 
for by river-action and atmospheric denudation generally, operating 
through the untold ages of the Sub-Himalayan epoch. Every reader 
of this memoir will be familiar with descriptions more graphic than I 
could give, and with sketches of the deep gorges of the Himalayas I 
only add one view to the number already published. Plate II. exhibits 
a view of the gorge of the Tonse where crossed by the Simla and Masuri 
road, at the Tiuni bridge, a rude suspension bridge of native con- 
trivance ; at a considerable elevation over the stream glacial blocks 
are seen on the steep slopes. 

The Ravee in its bend round the termination of the Dhaoladhar gives 
a good instance of a river course adapting itself to the conditions of rock- 
structure. At innumerable places on every river and stream we may 
find instances of the deliberate contravention of this apparently necessary 
law of natural selection as applied to river courses, and which breaches 

of law may safely lead us to infer very remote conditions of the surface, 

* Dr. Thomson, * Western Himalaya and Tibet,’ p. 27 ; Dr. Hooker, “ Himalayan Jour- 
nals,” Vol. I., p. 380 ; and R. Strachey, Quar. Jour. Geol. Soc., London, Vol. VII., p. 309. 


‘Geol: Sur v: of India, II. Pt 2. z TU: HI. 


s 
` 
a 
awe 
"RC 

We 


CHAP. V.| POST-SIVALIK DEPOSITS. 159 

very different from what is now apparent. As examples of this I may 
mention the case of the Blini, where its course turns out of the band of 
soft nummulitic strata to cut a narrow gorge across the strike of the hard 
Infra-Krol rocks, to fall again, after two more bends, into the course of 
the same valley of soft rocks. The Sutlej at Bubhor gives another 
instance of the same kind. It cuts a narrow defile across the Naina Devi 
ridge, which is composed of comparatively hard rocks, in which no sign 
of crack or bend is traceable, whereas it might apparently, with much 
less trouble, have made its way round the point of the ridge, continuing 
throughout in the softer upper rocks.* | 

excellent paper by Mr. Jukes “on the mode of formation of some of the river valleys in 
the south of Ireland" (Quar. Jour. Geol. Soc., London, Vol. XVIII., p. 378). 


160 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. [CHAP. VI. 

CHAPTER VIL.— General discussion of the structure of the 

hill ranges. 

THE Himalayas, from several points of view, have formed the subject 
of many scientific speculations. The only general discussion of them, 
UU CUT however, based upon geological observations, with 
on the structure and his- which I am acquainted, is that by Colonel R. 
tory of the Himalayas. 
Strachey, published in two papers in the Quar. 
Jour. Geol. Soc., Lond., Vols. VII. and X., 1851 and 1854. Itis deeply to be 
regretted that this accomplished observer has not leisure or opportunity 
fully to work out the abundant materials he has accumulated; he could, 
no doubt, give a much more complete account than is contained in his 
brief papers to which alone I can refer. Colonel Strachey boldly at- 
tempts a general sketch of the physical history of the Himalayas, fully 
aware, no doubt, of how precarious and speculative such an attempt 
must be upon data so incommensurable with the magnitude of the 
problem. In this case, however, it is somewhat justifiable on the grounds 
that except this attempt were made, the large mass of facts, which was 
growing so unwieldy with the accumulated observations of many years, 
would remain as so much dry detail, unprofitable to the interests of 
general physical science. Premising the well-established fact that great 
areas of the earth’s crust have undergone actual upheaval, Colonel 
Strachey states his conviction that the Himalayan mountain mass was 
so upheaved. He then calls attention to a series of facts, from which 
he draws conclusions as to the extent, amount, direction, and duration of 
that upheaval. Most of the observations upon which his views are based 
were made outside the region described in the foregoing Chapters ; it 
will be necessary briefly to notice them. The region to which Colonel 
Strachey’s observations more particularly refer is that of Naini Tal and 

Niti, in Kumaon. He describes the double fringing zone of younger 


CHap. VI] GENERAL STRUCTURE OF HILLS. 161 

rocks, which he supposes to be separated from those inside them by a 
series of great faults, and then passes to the description of the argilla- 
ceous schists and limestones associated with trappean rocks, which form 
a continuous belt along the outer limits of the Lower Himalaya. His: 
description next embraces a broad tract of mica-schists, in which occurs 
a run of granite, showing intrusive- action along the lines of its contact 
with the schists. In the northern part of this band of sub-metamorphic 
rocks, he notices three changes of dip with dislocation of the strata, and 
in one case trappean intrusion ; in this part of the zone also limestone 
is common. The zone of partial metamorphism, his description goes on 
to say, is succeeded on the north by the band of thoroughly crystalline 
schists, in which occurs the line of peaks. Along this line there are 
invariably seen, for a breadth of several miles, veins of granite in great 
abundance, penetrating the schists, often cutting through them, but most 
frequently following the bedding, in which the same general dip, as else- 
where, to the north-north-east, is pretty constantly observed. In some. 
places, he states, the granite forms whole mountains. In this region also. 
beds of limestone are of frequent occurrence, always highly crystalline. 
Along the north side of the line of peaks the schists are overlaid by 
slaty rocks, about 9,000 feet thick, the bottom beds of these are 
coarsely conglomeritic, and are also to some extent penetrated by granite. 
veins, but on the whole the contrast with the gneissose rocks is well 
marked. The slates are followed, he says, in regular succession by about 
6,000 feet of paleeozoic rocks, consisting of limestones, slates, and 
grits, capped by quartzites, which form the peaks of a second line of 
ridges. Still further to the north we are brought to the lower and 
middle secondary rocks, principally limestones, 5 or 6,000 feet in 
thickness, showing parallelism of dip and strike with the rest of the- 
section. In the upper part of this section the frequent occurrence of 
eruptive greenstones is noticed, and that the rocks begin to be covered. 

by the deep superficial deposits which form the great plateaux of Thibet 
WwW 


162 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. [CHar. VI. 

These deposits are very thick in some places, nearly 3,000 feet, 
and cover an immense area, being probably the same as have been 
described far to the west and to the east of this region. It is principally 
on this circumstance of uniformity and extent that Colonel Strachey 
bases his opinion, that the deposits are of marine origin. No marine 
remains have been found in them, but, on the contrary, they contain 
bones of large mammalia of extinct varieties. 

Besides the more special observations that have just been enumerated, 
there are general features upon which Colonel Strachey's hypothesis 
more immediately rests. The area to which he extends his generaliza- 
tions reaches from the plains of India to those of Central Asia, and 
longitudinally, in a north-west and south-east direction to the supposed 
limits of the chain. On the transverse outline of this mass the Hima- 
laya and the Kuenlun occupy the line of demarcation of the southern 
and northern slopes, and the table land of Thibet occupies the summit 
of the protuberance,—an arrangement with which is connected the great 
central longitudinal, and the deep lateral, systems of drainage. "Through. 
out the whole area we may notice the mutual parallelism of the great 
ridges and of the outer limits of the area, of the strike of the strata, 
of the lines of igneous action, and of the distribution of the rock 
groups. Attention is further drawn to the fact of the constancy main- 
tained for great distances longitudinally both in geological structure and 
in the elevation of the mountains. 

At this point of the argument the author's. opinion regarding the 
marine origin of the plains of Thibet leads him into what I cannot 
but consider inextricable difficulties. The elevation of the Himalayan 
mass, as we know it, and through at least 17,000 feet, is thus 
brought within a very late period of the earth's history; it is this 
last great movement of Himalayan elevation that forms the principal 
subject of Colonel Strachey's second paper. It is not the question 

of time, against which we can raise no @ priori objection, which 

a 


Cuar. VI] GENERAL STRUCTURE OF HILLS. 163 

makes the problem a difficult one ; the difficulties are principally physical 
and mechanical, for, these deposits, be it remembered, rest undisturbed 
in the great valleys of Thibet. Nor again can we assign limits to 
the powers of continental elevation, —elevation without rupture or 
disturbance. But this is not the agency to which Colonel Strachey 
appeals ; his theory (which is that of Mr. Hopkins) is essentially 
one of local (as opposed to cosmical), special upheaval. | This being the 
problem, it is evident that a great part, we might almost say, all the 
positive part, of the evidence already stated, becomes irrelevant, namely, 
the parallelism and constancy of the granitic axis, of the observed 
dislocations, and of the attendant trappean intrusions, of the strike of 
the strata, and of the groups of strata, these being demonstrably 
anterior to the upheaval under discussion only prove the coinci- 
dence in direction of distinct acts of upheaval and leave the supposed 
case entirely dependent upon its own independent evidence. The 
author was perhaps aware of this irrelevancy, but he does not state it 
with quite sufficient distinctness, nor does he keep his independent 
evidence sufficiently separated from that of the other phenomena. He 
gives his opinion that the granitic axis is of pre-Silurian origin, and that 
none of the igneous rocks were “specially related to the last great 
movement.’ Hence, having nothing tangible to point to, he infers that 
the agent of elevation was probably a development of elastic vapours at 
a great depth. In this, as in every other feature, Colonel Strachey 
assimilates the Himalayan elevation to the theory of Mr. Hopkins, in 
Which the form of the area affected and the relations of the fissures 
produced by upheaval were the main elements of discussion. 

Thus, finally, Colonel Strachey has to rest his theory upon a few 
“observed facts" of very doubtful validity. These are: 

Ist. The existence of longitudinal and transverse fisswres.—But 
any longitudinal fissures of which observations have been published, 

even by the author himself, can be referred with very great probability 


164 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. [Cnar. VI. 

to periods anterior to the movement in question. And, as far as I have 
been able to examine any of the great river gorges, ——of the Ganges, the 
Jumma, the Tonse, the Sutlej, the Beas, or the Ravee,—there is little or 
no evidence for referring them to transverse fissures, and certainly there 
is none since the beginning of the Sub-Himalayan period. 

2nd. The more open character and greater importance of the 
longitudinal fisswres in the centre of the area, as evinced by the 
direction of rivers on the Thibetan table-land.—The very existence of 
these longitudinal fissures in Thibet rests upon no evidence whatever 
that I have ever heard of beyond the fact of there being great longitu- 
dinal river valleys: and the inference from such evidence is by no means 
necessary. It is inconceivable to me what could be the nature of 
fissures so great as those supposed, yet. which could be produced without 
disturbing in any degree the great valley deposits, to explain the 
elevation of which these imaginary fissures are brought in as evidence. 
But this is not the only case in which this difficulty is introduced. 
The author explains the separation of a patch of superficial deposits, 
observed south of the Niti pass, from the main mass of those deposits, 
in Thibet, by the dislocations which accompanied the upheaval. 

3rd. The existence of an important line of fissure along the outer 
margin of the Himalayan slope.— The conditions of the rocks along 
the south base of the Himalaya might easily be interpreted to suit this 
theory. But the most. considerable movements of upheaval (that of 
the Subathu group,) in this zone can be shown to be anterior to the 
time of the supposed great elevation ; I have also shown, that there 
is no great uninterrupted line of fissure. However, by the admissible 
assumption, that the Thibetan tertiaries are of Sivalik age, or at least 
anterior to the disturbance of the Sivalik strata, and by setting aside 
some plain probabilities, the evidence of this disturbance might be 

interpreted to fix the limits and amount of this last Himalayan 
* 

elevation. 


CHAE VI.| GENERAL STRUCTURE OF HILLS. 165 

4th, The occurrence of two lines of least rupture, parallel to the 
margin of the area, and intermediate between it and the axis.—It is 
only regarding the southernmost of these, the area, I have spoken of 
as the Lower Himalaya, that we have any information whatever. The 
contortions and dislocations of the strata of this area, bemg demon- 
strably connected with the more ancient phenomena of disturbance, 
it can, of course, be assumed that none of them are connected with the 
elevation in question.* . 

These are the facts, or supposed facts, upon which Colonel Strachey 
bases his account of Himalayan upheaval. But the primd facie 
evidence against the supposition upon which the necessity for such 
an hypothesis of upheaval rests, seems to me very strong. As far as one 
can judge from written descriptions, (and the opinion has been advanc- 
ed by some observers,) those Thibetan tertiaries are deposits of great 
valley-lakes. If the presence of large mammalian remains (of the rhi- 
noceros and his associates) should be thought an objection to the 
supposition lately made by Mr. Jamieson, (Quar. Jour. Geol. Soc., Lon- 
don, Vol. XIX., 1863,) that these lakes were caused by the damming up 
of the valleys by glaciers, it may be possible to find a suitable and 
admissible explanation in the moderate dislocations and changes of level, 
for which independent evidence can be found. The explanation I have 
given of the disturbance of the Sivalik rocks involves conditions pre- 
cisely such as would produce great lakes in the central mountain region. 

Before indicating the few conclusions I am able to arrive at regard- 
ing the structure of the Himalaya, I will here just mention some iso- 
lated observations of much interest. We have already (page 88 and 

Nummulitie rocks in Rote, page 92) discussed some surmises as to the 
DG hichen Himalaya. existence of nummulitic strata among the rocks 

of the Himalayan series, along its southern limits, in what I have 

* Colonel Strachey gives a fifth article of evidence, which however does not appear to bear 
on the question of upheaval now under discussion. | 


166 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. ([Cuap. VI. 

described as the Krol group. Other cases occur in the inner regions. 
i Vigne, in his * Travels in Kashmir," 1842, Vol. i 
ali page 276, mentions the occurrence, on the eastern 
side of Manasu Bul lake, in the Kashmir valley, of a limestone, full of 
nummulites. In a letter lately received from Mr. Drew, who is engaged 
in a geological investigation of these interesting regions, he tells me 
that he could not find the nummulites or any other fossil in or about 
the locality ; he says, “ I fully believe Vigne was misled by an appear- 
ance, certainly very like nummulites, on the weathered surface of the 
limestone, where it is made crystalline by bemg near trap.’ There 
is another statement of the occurrence of these nummulitic rocks, which 
I cannot presume to callin question. Dr. Thom- 

son, in his “ Western Himalaya and Tibet,” 1852, 

p. 381, describing the Singhi La pass,—a locality a short way south 

Thomson. 

of the Indus, in the central mountains of Thibet, in about the 
same longitude as Mundi, and the same latitude as Srmagar in Kash- 
mir, at an elevation of over 16,000 feet,—says :—“ Quartz rock, slate, 
and limestone alternated during the ascent ; and near the summit of 
the pass the limestone evidently contained organic remains, perhaps 
coralline, though their traces were not sufficiently distinct to enable 
me to decide the point.” This, however, has been done : M. d’Archiac 
describes these fossils (Groupe Nummulitique de l'Inde, p. 176) as 
Alveolina Melo, and, doubtfully, Nummulites Raymondi. The con- 
jecture again presents itself that these rocks may be the same as the 
Krol group, described in Chapter II. 
In Vol IL, p. 156 of his * Himalayan Journals," Dr. Hooker records 
a geological observation made at about the most 
rd northerly limit of his travels, within the frontier 
of Thibet, on the northern flanks of Kinchinjow ; at this place con- 
glomerates, slates, and earthy red clays overlie the gneiss, all having a 

north-east dip; further on a dark limestone ‘occurs, “full of encrinitic 


CHAP. VL] . GENERAL STRUCTURE OF HILLS. 167 

fossils, and probably nummulites.” Independently of the doubtful fossils, 
this observation shows the wonderful constancy of the stratigraphical 
arrangement. At the southern limit of this Himalayan area, explored 
by Dr. Hooker, this distinguished’ naturalist made a discovery of great 
interest. In Vol. L, p. 403, he describes having found in the Baisarbatti, 
below Punkabaree, carbonaceous shales containing Trizygia and Verte- 
braria,—fossils characteristic of the Indian coal-bearing series. These 
shales dip at 70° to the north, and are overlaid abnormally by the 
metamorphic clay slate of the mountains. Thus this rock bears just 
the same stratigraphical relations to the older rocks of the Himalayas 
as do the Sub-Himalayan strata,—a fact which complicates our spe- 
culations not a little, when we reflect that, as far as we can at present 
conjecture, these plant-rocks belong to some period, possibly a low one, 
of the secondary epoch. From some other observations, recorded by 
Dr. Hooker in the same locality, it would seem that the Siválik series 

is also represented in the same section. 

Generalizations on general structure and history from the observa- 

tions I have recorded. 

The uniformity of the characters of disturbance stamped upon the 
whole series of Himalayan rocks is certainly very striking. With the 
exception of instances in which a local cause can be assigned, there is 
scarcely an exception to the prevalence of a north-west-by-west direction 
in the features of disturbance, gradually changing to an east and west 
direction towards the eastern end of the chain. When we first attempt to 
generalize from the broad facts of the case, this appearance of uniformity 

almost grows into a conviction of unity, which can only be dispelled or modi- 
fied by a closer examination of details. The area shown on our map is a very 
partial one ; the«first inspection of it indeed suggests diversity rather than 

uniformity We have here, I believe, the beginning of the end; many 


168 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCES OF N. W. INDIA. [Cuar. VI. 

of the features appearing as patches on the map are but the termination 
of those which we know to be more or less continuously represented for 
several hundred miles to the eastward. In this respect the position is 

The region of our map favourable ; we can here add the coincidence of the 

eculiarly fitted to war- : : ges 
pear al conelusons simultaneous partial extinction of the several 
5 

the disturb: f Nn : huis 
tbe UR AT features to the coincidence of their continuity 

"i elsewhere. The agreement seems wonderfully 
complete. In the Dhaoladhar at Dalhousie we seem to have the termi- 
nation of the great line of the Eastern Himalaya, at least in its character 
of an axis of crystalline intrusive rocks. The minor characters ‘are in 
keeping with this supposition: what we have seen to the eastward 
described as a broad band of thorough granite, distinctly intruded, is 
here represented by granitoid gneiss showing quasi-intrusive characters. 
At what we might consider a due distance from the end of the main line 
of elevation the whole area of the Lower Himalaya disappears, and the 
stratigraphical conditions show that this is connected with the structure : 
the strike of the rocks bends round with the boundary, the cross-section of 
which throughout the bend is quite the same as elsewhere. Throughout 
all these changes each zone of rocks is represented. The peculiarities 
we have noticed on the Chor correspond with those of the Dhaoladhar ; 
it is a gneissose, quasi-intrusive mass, and may here represent the more 
truly granitic rock of the middle zone in the sections further to the east. 
Even in the Sub-Himalayan series the same facts are observed; the 
Subathu group becomes covered up west of the Sutlej, the middle 
group disappears in the same manner, and we have seen that the 
successive ridges of the upper group are cut off em echelom in the 
region of the Beas. It will be remembered that in Chap. II. (p. 19) 
it was stated that in Huzara, west of the Jhelum, a different system 
of disturbance prevails, running nearly at right angles to that of the 

Himalaya, and deeply inserted into the prolongation of*the Himalayan 
area west of Kashmir. 


CHAP. VL] . GENERAL STRUCTURE OF HILLS. 169 

The prima facie interpretation of all this superficial symmetry would 
Is the theory of the be that it had been produced by one great act of 
features of disturbance upheaval, subsequent to the formation of all these 

being due to one great 
act of upheaval, after rocks, having its axes of maximum effect, one 

the formation of all the 
rocks, tenable ? at, or north of the line of peaks, and the other 
well to the west of the Ganges. The difficulty, as it now presents itself, 
secun is to reconcile so much symmetry with the great 
difference, both in time and in mode of produc- 
tion, which can be almost demonstrably established. The problem is 
brought within small compass in the section of the Dhaoladhar (p. 63). 
The structural features of that section would accord well with the sup- 
position that the granitoid mass forming the ridge had been introduced 
by faulted intrusion subsequent to the formation of the Sub-Hima- 
layan strata. It has, however, been shown that when these rocks 
were formed the ridge existed pretty much as it does now, and that 
the boundary between them and the older rocks is to a great extent 
an original one, their relative positions having never much altered. 
In the case of the upper Sub-Himalayan group, which is often much 
more disturbed “than it is represented in this particular section, it 
was shown to be contemporary with the existing river gorges of the 
mountains. It is in the region of the Lower Himalaya that this dis- 
tinction can be best studied. We there find a zone of maximum contortion 
along the line of contact of the Sub-Himalayan with the Himalayan rocks, 
and separated from the great range of the Eastern Himalaya by a wide 
area of comparatively little contortion and of somewhat different character. 
These remarks seem to me to lead to the conclusion that the features 

Features of disturb- Of disturbance in these youngest rocks have no 

ance in younger rocks 
probably not connected 
with the formation of the 
mountains, but indica- 
tions of their subsidence. 

direct connection with the formation of the 
mountains. But connection there most decidedly 
is. I believe the disturbance of these rocks to be 

entirely a reflex effect. As the composition of the Sivalik strata and 
X 


170 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. [CHaAr. VL 

their enormous accumulation give evidence of the vast denudation 
to which the older Himalayan rocks have been subjected, so the 
disturbance of these strata gives more positive evidence of a period 
of decadence of the Himalaya. I can see no explanation of these 
contortions but im the thrust from the mountain mass consequent on 
the sinking of that mass. Should this conjecture be well founded, we 
have an example in the straight lines of flexure and of fracture of the 
Sub-Himalayan rocks between the Sutlej and the Beas of how accurately 
such testimony can be in accordance with the primary features of a 
mountain range and those which appear to be necessarily connected with 
its growth. It would be in agreement with the same opinion to suppose 
some or all of the general upheaval which this outer zone has under- 
gone (independent of that due to contortion), to be an effect of the same 
cause—the tendency to establish an equilibrium of pressure. 

Tf once these views have been admitted, it is manifestly difficult to 
pene ee ae draw the line between the secondary and the 

line between the rocks primary contortions. All contortions are neces- 
affected by the two 

pets disturbance sarily tier result oN lateral force. In the case 

we have just described, the force is altogether 
external, and the contortions might be called secondary. When the 
force is exerted within the mass acted on, as in a mass compressed by 
its own gravitating tendency, the resulting contortions might be called 
primary; they would perhaps be more regular than in the other case. 
The flexures in the old Himalayan rocks may be of this kind. From 
this point of view there are many reasons for associating the calcareo- 
shaly band, which I have described as the Krol-group, with the younger 

rather than with the older strata. Its contact 

To which system à 2 
should the Krol-group with the latter is almost always abrupt, and, in 

of rocks belong. j ; 
many cases, as that described in the valley of the 
Sutlej, the junction is more easily explained by supposing it to be, 

as in the case of the sub-Himalayan rocks, an original boundary only 


Cmar. VI] GENERAL STRUCTURE OF HILLS. 171 

modified by disturbing action rather than altogether due to this latter 
cause. In their position as the fringing band of the higher mountains, 
these limestones and shaly slates exhibit the sharply crushed type of 
contortion rather than the large waving of the older rocks. Various 
arguments, as already detailed, have referred these Krol rocks to two 
very different periods, the older palieozoic and the older nummulitic. The 
general argument here stated can scarcely be assumed in favour of either 
view, though we are predisposed to give it in favour of the latter ; its only 
direct and independent bearing is upon the question of the mountain struc- 
ture. The age of this group, and the identification of it at different points of 
the chain, seem to me the most pressing questions in Himalayan geology. 

We next come to consider the state of the older rocks. In them we 

Older system of dis- find the same grand rule obtains as in the newest 

ehane; Sivalik strata, namely, a prevailing north-easterly 

dip —folded or normal flexures directed from the north-east. In 
accordance with the strictly elevatory theory he 
Colonel Strachey's 

views on the prevailing adopted, Colonel Strachey (Quar. Jour. Geol. Soc., 
north-east dip. X 
; London, Vol. X., p. 252) explains the feature in 
both cases alike, by a repetition of the same phenomenon of upheaval. 
The most difficult part of the question is assumed, namely, the initial 
stage of the phenomenon, which seems to me could never result, indeed 
would be the very contrary of what one must expect, from the conditions 
| of Mr. Hopkins theory. The appropriate inclination, however, having 
been once imparted to the great blocks of the earth's crust between the 
fissures, the recurrence and constant increase of the inclination is account- 
ed for by the fact that the resultant of upward pressure would not pass 
through the centre of gravity of the inclined block ; the Siválik strata 
having been deposited upon the denuded edge of these tilted blocks, 
acquired the dip due to the subsequent tendency 

Objections. : 
to revolve when the block is pressed from below. 

The detailed features we have observed in the Sub-Himalayan rocks 


172 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. — [Cnar. VI. 

are incompatible with such an explanation. They are connected with 
flexure, not sheer faulting, and in the best established instances of faults 
the down-throw is oftenest on the north-east side. I attribute all to the 
pressure of the mountain-mass. | 

In the older rocks we must, I think, look nearer home for the im- 
mediate cause of this prevalent mode of disturb- 

Conclusions on ‘the : i 3 
disturbance of the older ance, and there seem to be inevitable reasons 

Pen) for connecting it with the elevation of the rocks. 
We thus, through what I will venture to call the impossibility of account- 
ing for this dip as the result of any independent direct source of eleva- 
tory action, such ES the development of elastic vapours, are able to 
eliminate such a cause from our speculations regarding the elevation of 
the Himalaya. The Chor and the Dhaoladhar, especially if we can look 
upon them as the representatives of the true granitic intrusions of the 
eastern regions, give us important suggestions: they connect the mode of 
contortion with the introduction of the hypogene* intrusive rocks,—a 
definite direction of lateral force immediately associated with a product 
of a known source of mechanical force. If this coincidence be not for- 
tuitous, if both phenomena be not the result of a general cause, we 
are led to infer, with Colonel Strachey, but on different grounds, that 
the line of peaks, which is the line of granitic intrusion, is to the 
south of the centre of energy ; but the same facts would lead us 
to conjecture, differently from the same author, that the granitic intru- 
sion is connected with the principal act of formation of the mountain 
mass, by which the palzozoic and secondary rocks of Thibetan regions 
were brought into their present positions. This question of the granitic 
axis is a very interesting one; Colonel Strachey, although he mentions 
the occurrence of granite veins in the bottom beds of the Trans-Hima- 

layan unmetamorphic rocks, shows good reasons for supposing the 

* I use the word hypogene simply as conveying the opinion, I believe universally accepted, 
that granite, as such, cannot be a superficially-formed rock. 


Cuap. VL] GENERAL STRUCTUKE OF HILLS. 178 

pre-existence here of granitoid rocks. This, however, does not interfere 
with a later intrusion of granite. The altogether lateral position of this 
ridge in the mountain system precludes the idea of its being in any 
sense a central axis of Himalayan elevation ; yet its structure seems 
to require its close connection with that system, and to preclude the 
idea of its being a partially independent ridge of early origin, such as 
the eastern ridge of the Andes is represented to be. 

On the whole, the interpretation that seems to accord best with the 
little information we possess regarding the central mountain region 
is an adaptation of the Babbage and Herschell theory, assimilating 
the case to that of the Appalachians as explained by Mr. Hall; it 
will serve at least to fix our ideas. A great area of subsidence to the 
north of the crystalline axis, connected with, if not caused by, great 
deposition, and entailing compression by which flexures of contortion 
were produced from the northwards: a line of weakness, perhaps in- 
duced by denudation, along the present granitic axis, which would 
thus have become a line of relative upheaval accompanied by intru- 
sion. The granitic character of this intrusion may be largely due 
to the nature of the rocks passed through, the same material may have 
turned into trappean rocks among the highly basic strata to the north. 
The subsequent general upheaval of the area would, under the same 
theory, be explained by the slow thorough heating of the newly made 
crust and of the mass beneath it. 

It is, however, difficult to reconcile the mode of explanation I have 
just applied to the elevation and contortion of the older rocks with the 
view I have taken of the similar phenomena in the Sub-Himalayan 
regions. Elevation by heating is a mere swelling (not involving an 
increased accumulation of matter) and the only provision the theory 
makes for its reduction is loss of volume by loss of temperature conse- 
quent upon denudation. Subsidence of this kind could hardly produce 

the lateral pressure, of the occurrence of which, subsequent to the 


174 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. [CHar. VI. 

formation of the mountain chain, we have seen such good evidence in 
the Sub-Himalayan rocks. That pressure seems to involve the removal 
of some positive sustaining force, such as M. de Beaumont's bosselle- 

ment, or something still more vague and unknown. 

I wil conclude by briefly enumerating the principal conclusions to 
which we have been led by the study of the area, to the description of 
which this memoir is specially devoted. 

The Himalayan mountain area was defined before the deposition of 
the Subathu nummulitic rocks. 

Throughout all the succeeding Sub-Himalayan period, the same limit 
of deposition has obtained. 

During the deposition of the upper group of this Sub-Himalayan 
period, the very mountain streams were the same as now exist. 

The Krol-group—the youngest of the older rocks—though greatly 
denuded, had undergone little or no contortion along the outer zone of 
the mountain area, prior to the formation of the Subathu nummulitic 
rocks. 

The special elevation of the Subathu group indicates that an upheaval, 
coinciding in direction with that of the Himalayan area, took place (east 
of the Sutlej,) before the deposition of the next succeeding group. 

That a phenomenon of a similar kind determined the separation of 
the succeeding groups. 

That the contortion and fracture of the Sub-Himalayan rocks is a 
reflex effect produced by the subsidence of the mountain-mass, the 
upheavals of the same zone being probably an effect of the same 

Cause. 


CHAP. VIL] ECONOMIC GEOLOGY, 175 

CHAPTER VIL— Economie Geology. 

So much has been said, and is believed, about the boundless mineral 

d resources of the Himalayas, that I feel it is at great 
Supposed mineral E S 

wealth. 

disadvantage that I am obliged to take up the 
opposite side of the argument. It would, I believe, be difficult to find 
elsewhere an equal area of mountain country so barren of mineral 
wealth. For those who are sceptical about geological opinions on such 
matters, there is an argument which seems to me of much weight ; it is, 
that the natives know nothing of these treasures. "There are not very 
many useful materials with which they are not more or less acquainted. 
In their miserable way they can work ores at a profit which could 
never remunerate the European manufacturer. Those whose trade and 
caste it is to deal in minerals are very expert in recognizing and de- 
tecting signs of mineral deposit. I have seen a native set to work to 
grub for ore in a place where no one, who had not made a special 
study of the district, would have suspected its existence; yet the dis- 
coveries they have made in these mountains are very far from promis- 
ing. There is, however, a consideration which may reconcile us in some 
measure to this scarcity. These mountains are so difficult of access, 
that, except their mineral products were of the most valuable quality 
and occurred 1n the richest abundance, they would still remain profitless. 
The case of iron illustrates this statement: at many places in the Lower 
Himalayas iron ore of the richest quality occurs, but is now, and pro- 
bably must long remain, useless to the country at large on account of the 
difficulty of bringing it to market. 

Building Stones.—Those stations, as Dugshai, Kasaoli, Subathu, 
Dhurmsala, which are built upon the lower groups of the Sub-Hima- 

layan series, have an unfailing supply of good building material in the 


176 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. ([CHap. VII. 

massive sandstone rocks. Among the older rocks there is no stone 
fit for anything but that for which rough rubble may be used. There 
are several examples of native architecture along the border of the 
plains, for which an excellent building stone was obtained from rocks 
of the Sivahk group, but it must have been found in detached blocks 
and discontinuous bands, the mass of the rock being quite unfit for 
the purpose. Stone fit for ornamental or monumental purposes might 
be found among the thick-bedded, hard limestones of the Krol group. 

Slates—-The absence of building stone among the rocks of the 
Himalayan series is in some places atoned for by the existence of a 
good roofing material Mention has already been made of this substance 
atop. (2, 1m connection with the subject of cleavage. The variety of 
slate procured along the flanks of the Dhaoladhar, and used at 
Dalhousie and Dhurmsala, has proved of first rate quality for roofing 
purposes. Its fissility is all that need be desired ; it dresses easily, 
and can be procured of ample size. It is a nearly pure siliceous rock, 
of pale gray colour, and is not so fine in its minute texture as ordinary 
slate, and is therefore not applicable to some purposes for which the 
latter is used. The slate so extensively used at Simla is in every way 
inferior to that of the Dhaoladhar ; it is distinctly a lamination-slate. 
A material as good as this could, I imagine, be found among the Infra 
Blini strata almost at any point, unless of course where crushing action 
had been excessive. 

Lime and Cement Stones.—Here, as in all parts of India, the stone 
most in favour with the natives for burning into lime is porous tufa. 
The climatal conditions are peculiarly favourable to its production. It 
is to be found everywhere along the flanks of the limestone ridges, 
and in many places, where its existence is not so easily accounted for, 
on ledges, and in little basins of the Siválik rocks. In many cases 
these basins are evidently small dried-up lakes; they may all have 

such an origin. Lime is in many places obtained by burning boulders 


Cmar. VIL] ECONOMIC GEOLOGY. 177 

picked out of the beds of torrents; the quality of lime thus obtained 
is necessarily very uncertain. There are some fine-grained, earthy 
limestones of the lower Krol band, which would be well worth expe- 
rimenting upon to obtain a cement stone of certain quality. The 
want of such a material is greatly felt in the extensive irrigation 
works all over upper India. 

Gypsum.—Gypsum is found in moderate quantities at many parts 
of our district. It occurs in lumps through the ferruginous clays of the _ 
Subathu group. At Sahansadhara, below Masuri, it occurs in small 
irregular veins through limestone, in the neighbourhood of the sul- 
phurous springs. From both these sources a small supply is brought 
to market, the demand being very limited. 

Salt.—At page 60 I have given an account of the salt rock of Mundi, 
in the strata of the Krol group. I there stated probable reasons for 
its local occurrence in that group. The very profitable nature of this 
mineral as an article of commerce, has naturally excited the attention 
of speculators, both scientific and practical Shafts have been sunk 
in the Nahun sandstone below Masuri, about the Noon river, and small 
works erected for the preparation of the salt. This speculation had 
a two-fold foundation,—a small amount of fact, and a great deal of 
supposition, The former consists in the occurrence of a saline spring. 
I never could get exact information as to the position of this spring, its 
yield of water, or the precise composition of its saline produce; the 
locality indicated to me by the natives is at the outer edge of 
the Nahun band, at the foot of the slopes of the lignite sand- 
stone. It seemed to me that briny water in such a locality might 
possibly be derived from the concentrated exudations of the rock 
above, which here, as elsewhere, effloresces copiously under the 
influence of the sun and rain. Practical men, of course, were 
influenced by the assumption that the rock was the same as that 
in which salt is found to the north-west. The fact of there being a 

Y: 


178 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. [CHAp. VII. 

spring, or at least saline water, must remain for what it is worth ; but it 
can be asserted with much certainty, that salt m this position can have 
no connection with that at Mundi, or in the Salt- Range, nor yet with the 
saliferous system of England. The name given to the river by the 
natives, Noon or Loon, the word 1n the hill vernacular for salt, has I am 
satisfied had much to say to confirming a belief in the presence of the 
mineral. 

Ivrom.—At very many places throughout the hills, iron ore occurs in 
sufficient quantity to be worked by natives for local demand. But at 
several places excellent ore occurs in profusion; I may mention the 
vicinity of Ramgur in Kumaon, Shele east of Simla, and Kohad in 
Chota Bhagul The ores are magnetic, and micaceous iron; they 
appeared to me to be metamorphie deposits, and are probably more or 
less strictly representative of each other throughout the middle zone 
of the Lower Himalaya. The ores which attract the most notice as 
likely to give a return to manufacturing enterprise on a large scale, 
are those occurring at or near the base of the mountains. The only 
well-known deposit of this kind is at the foot of the Naini Tal hills, 
in the clays at the base of the lignite sandstone. The ore is an 
irregularly segregated red hematite, with in some places a con- 
siderable proportion of brown hematite. The whole stratum, ten to 
twenty feet thick, is sometimes workable ; elsewhere it is no more 
than a ferruginous clay. There have been extensive preparations made 
to work this ore at Kalidoongi and Dechourie; the only apparent 
obstacle to complete success is want of communications,—means of com- 
manding a market. The question has been very fully discussed in several 
reports to the Government of India. Whether this ore can be found 
at other places along the same line of hills is a matter of much interest. 
Very strong statements have been made in favour of its occurrence. 
There is no doubt that it is: represented uninterruptedly along this 

zone as far as the true Nahun band extends. I have mentioned 


Cuap. VIL] ECONOMIC GEOLOGY. 179 

the existence of highly ferruginous clay at the very base of the hills, 
north of the Kyarda dun, opposite Kolur, and more or less ferruginous 
clays are to be found at many intermediate points, but I have not seen a 
single locality where I could, with any confidence, affirm the presence 
a workable deposit ; however, I grant the probability that such may be 
found. The case is a very simple one; there is no concealment about it; 
the ore is very much harder than any of the rocks with which it is 
associated, and must be freely exposed at the surface ; at Dechourie and 
Kalidoongi immense blocks of it reveal the outcrop to every passer by. 

Copper.—Copper is prepared to some extent in the provinces of 
Kumaon and Gurhwal. Mr. Henwood, whose opinion should stand very 
high reported unfavourably on the deposits of ore, from the point of 
view of the European miner. i 

Lead—On the banks of the Tonse, about twenty-five miles above 
Kalsi, there is a small district, partly in Sirmoor and partly in Jaonsar, 
from which lead has been procured to a considerable extent. The rocks 
in which it occurs are the limestones and slates of the Krol and Infra- 
Krol groups, greatly disturbed. There was but one mine open at the 
time of my visit. At the only place where the work was being carried 
on, the lode was very well-defined, underlying at 70° to east-north-east, 
about two feet wide. The galena occurred in a thick steady string, prin- 
cipally next the under-wall. Associated with the galena, though keeping 
rather distinct from it, is a string of mixed ore, principally zine-blende, 
with some galena, iron pyrites, and quartz. The galena contains only 
a small per-centage of silver. At the gap between Geruani and Guma, 
there are old mines in the same rocks, and which, I was told, had been 
lead mines. 

Gold.—There are gold-washings carried on yearly in the beds of the 
Himalayan rivers, and most extensively, even in streams which only drain 
the Sub-Himalayan rocks. The fact is rather interesting; since in 

these streams the gold must have a doubly derivative origin. 


180 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA.  [CnHar. VIL 

Graphite—Graphite has been procured from several places im the 
Lower Himalaya. Colonel Drummond, who has done so much to 
develop the mineral resources of the province of Kumaon, obtained 
some very fair samples of graphite in the neighbourhood of Almorah. 
The circumstances of its occurrence there are interesting, and very 
analogous to what I have described in the carbonaceous, slaty shales 
of the Infra-Krol band. There seemed to be a band of graphitic 
schists, regularly associated with the other metamorphic strata of the 
district, and promising to be of great service in tracing out the 
details of the stratigraphy. The best lumps of graphite have been 
found where this schist has been crushed along a fault or lme of 
strain, and the graphitic matter has somehow become concentrated in 
lumps of various size. 

Coal.—Fhe question of the discovery of coal in these hills has so 
often attracted local public attention, that it may be well to make a few 
remarks on the subject. I would not by any means deter any explorer 
from keeping his attention upon so important an object, but it is right 
to make known the results of experience. There are two groups of 
rocks in which supposed coal discoveries have been repeatedly made, in 
the sandstone rocks of the lower hills, and in the black, shaly rocks 
occurring beneath the limestones of the fringing zone of the higher hills. 
I have seen a great deal of both these rocks, and I think that the 
prospect of a useful deposit of coal being found in either is very unpro- 
mising. The nests and strings of lisitite that occur, sometimes close 
together, in the sandstones, are manifestly the remains of isolated trunks 
or roots of trees, which were rolled or floated into these positions and 
became buried in the sand. There is, of course, the chance of a great 
local accumulation of such matter; but such has not been the 
mode of origin of useful coal-seams. The carbonaceous shales of the 
Infra-Krol band offer at first sight a more promising field of research 

(vide p. 29). Without an extensive exploration of these shales, I should 


CHAP) VIL] ECONOMIC GEOLOGY. 181 

not have relinquished all probability of success. In the many scores 
of sections I have examined in these beds, within the region from the 
Ravee to Naini Tal, I have never found a single grain of true coaly 
matter. The case seems to be somewhat different far to the north-west, 
if my conjecture be correct that the shales of Dundelee are the repre- 
sentatives of the Infra-Krol beds. At that place there are strings of 
anthracite-coal in the slaty shales, but the condition of the rocks is very 
discouraging to a prosecution of the enquiry. 

Water.—The question of water-supply is one of great importance at 
all the hill stations. The expense of carrying water up several hundred 
feet of steep hill, on the backs of men or of mules, for the supply of a 
large military depót, is enormous. The stations are always perched on 
the crests of a ridge, and, of course, all the springs are at a greater or 
less depth below, aecording to the nature of the stratigraphy. Some 
years ago, in cutting a tunnel for the new road to Simla through a ridge 
near Dugshai, the continuation of that on which Subathu is built, it was 
found that after piercing the hill to the distance of a few yards, water issued 
abundantly from the cutting, and continued to do so. The intelligent and 
enterprising officer in charge of the works took up the idea that the same 
result might be attained anywhere, and at once drew up a scheme for 
applying his discovery to Simla and Kasaol. An experiment was 
sanctioned for the latter place, and the work was carried on vigor- 
ously; several hundred feet of tunnel were cut, but without drawing 
the expected supply of water. The scheme was, of course, abandoned. 
A. comparison of the two sections at once explains the different 
results. It would be difficult to imagine conditions more favourable 
than those in the ridge of the road tunnel near Dugshai This ridge 
is formed by the extension, along the strike of the rocks, of the southern 
half of the Boj mountain, as represented in Fig. 3, p. 24. The valley on 
the north of the ridge is formed along the anticlinal bend of the Infra- 
Krol group (c.?) ; thus on both sides of the ridge the strata dip inwards, 


182 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA.  [Cuar. VIL 

and the water necessarily soaks in the same direction ; the crushed rocks 
along the junction of the formations, running nearly along the centre of 
the ridge, act as a conduit and receptacle for this water. The case of 
the Kasaoli ridge may be seen in Fig. 2, p. 18; the unbroken strata of 
sandstone dip at a high angle in one direction; the side of the ridge along 
which these beds crop out is almost a sheer cliff Failure in such a 
place might have been anticipated. It was shown, however, that the 
conditions of the rocks at Simla are more favourable. Jako is a broad 
massive hill, rising more than 500 feet over the point where the water 
is most needed; it is well wooded and deeply covered with soil; the 
rocks are soft, decomposing schists, and are a good deal crushed and 
waved. The authorities were persuaded to give the experiment a trial 
here, and they have been rewarded with success. A tunnel was made 
to the depth of 800 feet, when a sufficient supply was obtained. 
It has now stood the test of two dry seasons. Under proper direc- 
tion, the system might be extended with more or less of advantage to 
most of the hill stations. I know none of them so unfavourably circum- 
stanced as Kasaoli. 

Pure water, and plenty of it, is such a desideratum in the plains, as 
well as in the hills of India, and especially at the great military stations, 
that the attainment of it might, I think, be made an object of experi- 
ment, even if costly and at considerable risk of failure. With this in 
view, it has often occurred to me that these plains, at all events the 
portions of them within a moderate distance of the hills, are, or at least 
may be (for the unseen chances are numerous), favourably circumstanced 
for artesian wells. There is not indeed the basin-shaped arrangement of 
the strata as in the typical examples of the London and Paris basins, 
but there is something equivalent. The slope of the plains is steady and 
considerable from the foot of the hills southwards. The arrangement of 
the strata, according to the best received views upon the plains’ deposits, 

is also favourable; they probably have a gentle slope of deposition, some- 

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Cumar. VIL] ECONOMIC GEOLOGY. 183 

what greater than the slope of the plains, and in the same direction. . 
There are probably coarse and more porous beds overlapped by finer and 
retentive deposits; a large portion of the water that is known to be 
absorbed along the gravel deposits, which everywhere occur along the 
base of the Siváliks, may be, I think must be, carried down to saturate 
these lower beds. It is certainly difficult to take account of what 
complications in stratigraphical arrangements may occur in the Siválik 
rocks below the plains' deposits, or to say how these might affect the 
scheme we are considering. It is probable that the contortions which 
affect these rocks so powerfully where we last see them, continue for a 
considerable distance to the south. They may rise into underground 
ridges, which would considerably interfere with the regularity of the 
succeeding deposits, and so dam up the underground circulation. For 
instance, there might be a steady ridge of this kind a short way to the 
north of Meerut, nicely capped by stiff clay beds of the overlying series, 
and thus effectually cutting off the source of supply. It seems likely, 
however, from the complete disappearance of these rocks beyond a well- 
defined line, that they are deeply buried beneath the deposits of the 
plains. As regards the plains’ deposits themselves, there are also some 
important points upon which our information is vague. Even granting 
the general prevalence of coarser and more porous strata at the base, it 
may be asserted that the stratification is so irregular, and the interlap- 
ping of porous and non-porous beds so complete, as to render impossible 
the existence of an artesian water basin, and that therefore the actual 
water level is the highest that can be obtained. I know of but one 
observation bearmg upon this question, and it even is not entirely in 
favour of either side ; it shows, at least, that partial artesian water-basins 
do exist—water-bearing strata, in which the water has some ascentional 
power. I have been told by an engineer, that in sinking a well sixty 
or seventy feet deep (I regret that I have mislaid my memorandum of 

the exact conditions), after passing through a bed yielding impure water, 


184 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA.  [CHar. VIL 

and one below it of retentive rock, a lower bed was reached, from which 
pure water rose freely for some feet. The locality was somewhere 
between Allighur and Agra.* It may be that from a still lower bed the 

water might rise higher, or even to the surface,—such facts are common 

in artesian borings. 
The fullest details as regards surface levels may be obtained in 

Colonel Cautley's great work on the Ganges Canal. I will quote a 
few figures in illustration of our argument. The upper level of the 
gravel slopes along the base of the Sivalik hills, between the Ganges 
and the Jumna, ranges between 300 and 400 feet above the floor 
of the regulator at the head of the canal, which may be spoken of 
generally as the Ganges level at, Hurdwar. It may then be laid 
down that no head of water could arise from those gravel beds 
standing at a higher level than the canal floor at Myapur; or, to be 

well within bounds, let us say 100 feet below that level Meerut 

* I have re-discovered my informant, A. G. Murray, Esq., c. E., of the East Indian Railway, 
and am glad to be able to add the interesting facts he communicates upon the subject of 
well water in the Doab. I give an abstract of his letter, dated 5th January 1864 :—The 
general section of the Doab is—loam, thirty-five feet ; blue silt, thirty feet ; strong clay, twenty 
feet; water-bed of reddish sand. All kutcha wells get their water from the blue silt ; it is 
always more or less saltish, in some places so much so as to prevent agriculture. "This blue 
silt appears to underlie the whole Doab ; it is exactly the same stuff as that found in the bed 
of the Jumna. The pucka wells are sunk down to the clay, and rest upon it. The upper 
water-stratum is shut off by short piling puddled ; the water is then drawn off and a-bore- 
hole, eighteen inches in diameter, is made through the clay, when the water rises very fast 
and willrest at thirty feet in the well. 'The clay bed is not horizontal; it slopes from 
north to south at about two feet per mile, that of the surface being about eighteen inches 
per mile. At Toondlah the clay is eighty feet from the surface, and forty miles north of 
Toondlah it is only sixty feet. The Jumna seems to run in a depression of the clay bed, 
and this may explain why good wells are scarce near the river, people are afraid of the 
expense. For instance, at Agra as good water is to be had as anywhere else by sinking to 
the proper depth. Just south of Allyghur the water bed takes a rapid rise, that I cannot 
explain : at Allyghur it is but fifteen feet from the surface, while nine miles to the south it 
stands at thirty feet. The supply of water in these pucka wells is apparently unlimited. 
For six months thousands of these wells are worked all over the country, yet without 
affecting the supply. I do not see where it can come from except from the hills, and I 
still believe that an artesian well is quite possible in the Doab ; if the Government would 
make the experiment it might prove a great public benefit— Jan. 15, 1864. 


Cmar. VIL] ECONOMIC GEOLOGY. 185 

is 200 feet lower than the Ganges at Hurdwar, thus we have still 100 
feet to depend upon. The Ganges at Gurmuktesur, the nearest point to 
Meerut, is 300 feet below the same point; but. here, and for long above 
it, the Kddur valley is cut in the upper strata of the plains’ deposits, 
which we have presumed to be retentive in comparison with those below.* 
Meerut is about seventy miles in a direct line from Hurdwar. 

The question might be greatly elucidated by special observation of 
the many features bearing upon it; but, even supposing the result not to 
be altogether favourable, the limits of unavoidable doubt are wide enough 
to sanction a trial. It would be difficult to over-estimate the value of a 
free supply of good water at the great military stations. At present I 
consider the chance a fair one, and I would recommend Meerut as a 
suitable position for the experiment. 

I know of but one attempt of this kind in the plains of India, that 
made about twenty years ago in Fort William, at Calcutta. A boring 
was sunk to about 500 feet, but without success. Coarse gravel was 
reached at a depth of little over 100 feet. This of course was an 
unfavourable circumstance, and one very little to be expected—illustrat- 
ing how uncertain our prognostications must be. I do not think, however, 
that this case of failure should deter from a trial in a place where many 

of the conditions are so different. 

* Kddur is the local name for the actual river-valley ; this is often several miles wide, 
is annually flooded by the river, and within its limits the deep water channel frequently 
shifts its position. Bhangur is the name given to the land rising immediately from the 
kádur, generally in a vertical cliff from thirty to fifty feet in height, and rising to more 
than 100 feet in the centre of the Doab—the area between two rivers. Upon this land 
the aetion of the river has long been, and must continue to be, erosive. 


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AVE PE END EX 

On theories of mountain formation. 

Iw every country the first object of geological investigation is the chronological co-ordinz- 
tion of the rock-formations, Next to this the question of greatest interest in the region to which 
the foregoing memoir refers is that of mountain-structure. Had my personal knowledge of 
the Himalayan rocks been much more extensive than it is, or could I have obtained from 
other sources a corresponding knowledge of a large portion of the Himalayan region, I might 
have made an attempt to solve the problem of the general structure of the system. As it is, 
any such attempt must have been premature. I have done little more than to group some 
ofthe data and to point out the bearing of my observation upon existing theories of moun- 
tain-structure. The necessary incompleteness of my work must be my excuse for appending 
to my observations a sketch of what I understand these theories to be. I shall moreover 
thus fulfil a special objeet in a treatise intended primarily for India, namely, to afford as much 
as possible collateral and preliminary information for the assistance of those who may be 
willing to aid in the extension of a scientific knowledge of the country : forlaex of some such 
suggestions many an intelligent observer has expended his labours almost to no purpose. 
And even to the general student of geology an abstract of the prevailing opinions upon moun- 

tain formation may not be amiss; for, that our knowledge on 
EY d ES this important subject is in a very scattered and unsettled state, 
is clearly enough indicated by the scanty notices which our 

latest and most approved manuals of geology take of it,—we find high authorities still advo- 
cating incompatible explanations,—the mode of origin of the mountain areas that have been 
nost carefully studied is still doubtful. The doubt and obscurity to which I here refer is 
however readily explained by the consideration that the phenomenon in question is a result 
of underground agencies, of which the conditions are so difficult of investigation. 
Besides the intrinsic difficulty to which I have just alluded, there is another, and an 
extrinsic impediment to our knowledge of mountain-formation, 
eo with physical geo- ^ £o which I must briefly allude. It is, the habit that prevails 
of confounding two very distinet aspects of nature, the actual 
and the retrospective—the habit of not distinguishing between facis regurded as elements in 
the existing harmonies of nature, organic and inorganic, and facts regarded as the productions 
of past activities. The former view is that belonging to physical geography, the latter to 
physical geology. Both sciences have suffered from the mistake,—physical geography has been 
thereby encumbered with difficulties that do not belong to it, and physical geology has become 
infused with a looseness that is most prejudicial to its progress. Observations that may 
be valuable contributions to the former science may have a very insignificant bearing upon 
the latter. For example, hypsometrical details (the exact determination of elevations) form 


188 APPENDIX. 

a prominent object in simple orography (delineation of contour), yet are of but very subordi- 
nate consequence in the discussion of mountain-structure. From one of the many partial 
points of view in physical geography we find even elevation made little of. We find Dr. Hooker 
in his ‘Himalayan Journals’, Vol. IL, p. 387, speaking of the “true Himalayan axis" as a 
question of watershed, making “mere elevation of secondary importance." The approxi- 
mate determination of a line of elevated country is in itself of much interest in physical 
geography, but has little or no independent meaning in pitysical geology, and if so applied 
such facts are almost sure to lead to error. It were easy to adduce instances of geological 
speculations founded upon no other basis than these subordinate facts. The example of Von 
Humboldt, at a time when geology was in its infancy, has given much encouragement to what 
must now be considered an unscientifie confusion of ideas. 

We must then at once draw a clear dictinction between these two essentially different 
aspects of mountain phenomena. As simple conditions of the earth's surface, affecting the 
actual life of the planet in the distribution of climates and of living creatures, the form and 
the position of mountains are the only features that we need consider; and the appropriate 
grouping of mountains for this purpose should rest largely on the single fact of continuity. 
Such is the aspect that belongs to physieal geography. 

Physical geology assumes a very different point of view. Its objectis to investigate the mode 
of origin of mountains. The facts which may throw light on this question are very numerous 
and yet obscure, and an appropriate detinition of a mountain system in this sense might be—all 
elevations, whether continuous or not, which are the result of a single act of nature. For 
example, from considerations of climatology and natural history, as facts of physical geography, 
the Alps or the Pyrenees form a simple and independent group, having no natural affinity to 
the Himalayas, or the mountains of Northern Africa; but from the geological point of view, 
affinities have been asserted between these chains, and may, for aught we can yet say, exist ; 
aud further, from the same point of view, several quite distinct systems of upheaval have been 
supposed to be represented in the single orographieal area of the Alps. 

It is to be regretted that our best writers on physical geography, still following in the track 
made by the great founder of the science, Von Humboldt, confound distinct branches of scientific 
investigation. The result is an incongruity in their productions, viz., a general predominance 
of a purely geographical arrangement with frequent vague reference to geological systems. 
What is simple is obscured by them, and a most objectionable looseness is introduced into an 
investigation that demands the utmost clearness and patience. Even supposing our knowledge 
of mountain-formation to be complete, the distinction I point out would still obtain. The 
confusion is the more objectionable when we know it to be based upon a theory that is very 
far from being established, and that is opposed by views leading to diametrically opposite results. 
We will presently see that this contradietory relation exists between the views of disturbing 
agencies adopted by such high authorities as De Beaumont on one side, and Babbage and 
Herschell on the other: the theory of the former aims at universal symmetry, that of the 
latter legalizes disorder. 

In approaching the question of mountain-strueture,—how it is produced—the first ques- 
tion that presents itself is to what extent the causes of geologi- 

General and local causes. D 

cal disturbances are general or local. By general causes are 
meant, agencies that affect the whole earth, such as the slow refrigeration of the mass, or, 
tidal phenomena in a fluid internal mass; local causes are such as proceed from the local 


APPENDIX. 189 

development of force, such as the supposed generation of heat by chemical means, or such a 
natural cause as the removal of materials from one part of the surface to another. The 
theories I have to notice are more or less dependent upon one or other kind of cause. 

The question of mountain-formation seems but a special case of the general problem of the 

inequalities of the solid surface of the globe. A first glance at 

Unsymmetrical form of the 

ean these inequalities brings to notice their very unsymmetrical dis- 

tribution. In connection with this fact Sir John Herschell 
states in his Physical Geography (p. 15) that the centre of gravity of the earth is slightly 
excentric to that of the external figure, and in the di:ection from the hemisphere of greatest 
elevation ; he further points out the necessary inference, that the force which sustains 
our continents is one of tumefaction, such as would be produced by an increased 
temperature beneath their area. Symmetry being the necessary result of force acting 
under homogeneous conditions, we have to seek the secondary or partial causes which 
have resulted in the very unsymmetrical arrangement of the earth’s surface as we now 
find it, In such speculations we are of course limited to kuown causes ; for instance, it 
would not be admissible in explanation of the earth’s unsymmetrical form gratuitously to 
suppose the presence of a larger volume of some peculiar light substance beneath the area of 
most extensive elevation. The phenomenon in question is so extensive relatively to the whole 
mass concerned that any cause which could by one operation produce such a result must 
be considered general as regards our globe. We know of no such cause. We can conjecture 
no agency by a single operation of which this unsymmetrical tumefaction of the earth’s mass 
can be produced. We are thus driven back to look upon the tumefaction as cumulative, and 
upon its cause as local. In this way a case of general elevation seems to be brought back to 
a special one. Even in those theories which introduce general causes for the production of 
the special elevation of mountain chains the modifying influence of cumulative local causes 
has to be recognized. For example, M. de Beaumont in the elaboration of his grand scheme 
of ultimate symmetry allows that the actual tuberances (dossellements) of the surface cannot 
be the simple result of any actual state of tension.* 

In noting various theories of mountain-formation, I give precedence to that of M. de 
Beaumont, as detailed in his “ Notice sur les systèmes de mont- 
De Beaumont’s theory. VOE is z ; E 3 

agnes” ; it is beyond comparison the most elaborate in design and 
execution, and it treats the subject from the point of view of general cosmical action. It was 
observed that mountain chains are rectilinear, or made up of rectilinear elements. By 
comparing these chains or elements of chains it was found that they could be arranged in 
groups, having a common direction, under certain conditions of parallelism. This result 
formed one premise of M. de Beaumont’s theory. The other was found as follows :—By 
examining the rocks composing, and contiguous to, a mountain chain, the relative date of the 

disturbance can be approximately ascertained ; mountains, and disturbances of every degree, 

* Ihave introduced this paragraph to place some limitation to the phrase so freely and so vaguely used by 
geologists, and so likely to lead to misconception, namely, the expression continental elevation. Very large areas 
have no doubt undergone changes of level at one and the same time, but the formation of continents is probably 
the result of very broken and disconnected chains of eausation. In the present vague state of our knowledge 
of the causes of elevation, and of our very limited acquaintance with facts, itis impossible to give an exact 
meaning to the expression. The sense attached to it by the best authorities is, I think, as opposed to spasmodic, 
linealelevation, In its simple orographieal application there ean be no ambiguity. 


190 APPENDIX. 

can in this way be roughly arranged in groups having a kind of order of date. From these 
considerations the final induction was made by the comparison of the two series of groups ; there 
were thus discovered some remarkable cases of apparent coincidence, the same individual 
chains forming groups in the two categories. This striking fact was enunciated in the 
theory that parallel mountain chains are of synchronous origin, and vice versé. Such a group 

of parallel lines of elevation or of disturbance is what M. de Beaumont means by a system of 

mountains ; members of the same groups, according to his view, occurring often far apart, and 
quite unconnected by any visible feature. 

The adoption of such views as those just indicated involves that of a world-wide force 
affecting the whole earth simultaneously, and to the complete subordination of local or super- 
ficial influences. The author accepted this necessity in the boldest manner, and framed a 
theory of action commensurate with its demands. Upon the basis of a very generally received 
opinion—the great internal heat of the carth—he states the conditions that might fulfil the 
supposed results. These conditions were, a fluid internal mass covered by a comparatively 
thin solid crust. The gradual loss of temperature which the total mass would undergo must 
be almost exclusively at the expense of the highly heated interior, and the consequent con- 
traction would also be confined to the fluid matter in the interior. In order to adapt its 
capacity to the diminished volume of its contents the spheroidal shell would become distorted, 
producing tuberances (bossellements) of the surface. The tension thus produced would at 
last result in rupture, and a new equilibrium would be established by the crushing of the 
shell along the lines of fracture. He adduces mechanical laws to show that these tuberances 
and lines of fracture would occur within a fuseau.* 

Not content with giving a complete account of one single convulsion of the earth's crust 
resulting in the formation of one system of mountains, M. de Beaumont goes on to show, and 
he illustrates the idea by an appeal to facts, that successive convulsions must so occur that 
these characteristic directions should group themselves in pentagonal symmetry. For this 
complete generalization he again appeals to geometrical and mechanical principles. He states 
that in such a splitting up of the sphere the pentagonal form gives a maximum of result 
with least effort. Consistent with the postulates on which he starts, our author adopts in their 
fullest seuse the doctrines of the supporters of geological catastrophes. 

In reading M. de Beaumont's work it is impossible not to be captivated by the beautiful 
order he establishes out of an apparent chaos. Even with a full knowledge of how inexact 
the facts must be upon which he proceeded, and of how erroneous many of his assumptions 
have been proved to be, one cannot help giving way to an unscientific feeling of hope that 
in the main he may be right. As the author himself admits (p. 1259), allthat is essential in 
the theory seems to be compatible with other conditions thau those adopted by him, such as 
with a solid sphere and comparatively cool interior, or with a gradual action instead of a 
sudden catastrophe, the one unalterable feature being permanent surface temperature and 
reduction of internal heat. Our study ofthe Himalayas may have added fresh evidence against 

* A segment ofa sphere contained between two great, conterminous semi-circles of the Sphere. He vives 
(p. 1955) a probable limit of 209 for the width of the fuseau within whieh the same &ystem of disturbance ean occur. 
The author further insists (p. 674) uyon the probable irregularity in direction of fissures occurring near the points 
of the fuseau, and hence he infers the probable difference in age of ranges situated at the antipodes one of the 
other and parallel to the same great circle cf reference, (tlie circle bisecting the fuseau longitudinally): such ranges 

probably belong to ditferent overlapping fuseaux. 

ee ee REN PEE 


APPENDIX. 191 

the non-essential features of De Beaumont's grand scheme, but on the theory-itself very little 
light can be thrown by the examination of so limited an area. He only deals with mountain 
systems and with the great elements of direction, and time of production as a whole. In fact 
M. de Beaumont's speculations go so far beyond our actual knowledge of geology, both 
descriptive and physical, that the full verification of them must be left to future generations. 
The character I have just expressed of De Beaumont’s theory is borne out by the inattention 
he shows to the minor facts of the case under examination, to the secondary effects of the 
general phenomenon, the stratigraphical features of contortion and displacement that must 
attend these great efforts of nature. At least in his special work on mountain systems there is 
only an allusion to these features, and that allusion is to disclaim any decided views on the 
subject ; he states (p. 1344) that his general theory is independent of any special mode of 
action, such as crushing (écrasement d'un fuseau), or sinking, (affaissement), or direct eleva- 
tion, all of which he leaves open to discussion. It may be that, according to circumstances, 
any one of these modes may dominate, but we must, I think, believe that a proper discussion 
of the facts of structure will enable us to say what that mode was in any case ; yet it may 
often also occur that the result is so complicated as to be impossible of explanation. It thus 
remains evident that direction and the time of production are the only elements essentially 
involved in M. de Beaumont's theozy, and by which he has left it open to verification.* 
In the sober views propounded by Mr. Hopkins (Trans. Geol. Soc., 2nd Series, Vol. VII., 1841) 
we find a salutary check upon the too ambitious theories of 
MO Hopkin discussion of M, de Beaumont. Mr. Hopkins limits his discussion to a single 
area of elevation, his object being to elucidate the proximate 
mechanical conditions by which such a feature may be produced ; he subsequently submits 
his theoretical considerations to rigorous comparison with actual example. His views 
originated, like those of M. de Beaumont, in the perception of symmetry in features of 
disturbance,—in the long-recognized fact of the approximate parallelism of lines of dislo- 
cation in the districts in which systems of such lines are found to exist. The hypotheses he 
adopts, for the theoretical consideration of the question, respecting the constitution of the 
mass acted upon, and the action of the elevatory force, are very simple. He assumes the 
mass to be uniformly cohesive, at the same time indicating the effects of variations in this 
respect within known limits, For the force, he assumes it to be vertical, to be simultaneous, 
and to be approximately uniform over the area affected, such, in fact, as would be the result 
of fluid pressure. With reference to the form of the area affected, Mr. Hopkins lays down 
two theoretical limits. In a circular area a uniform force would tend to produce concentric 
fissures ; or, if acting with greater intensity at the centre, it would produce fissures diverging 
from the centre. In an area of limited breadth but of indefinite length longitudinal fissures 
alone could be formed, corresponding to the concentric fissures of the circular area. Actual 
cases will be compounded of these two. It is not necessary that the lines of longitudinal 
fissure should be continuous, but they must observe a parallelism to the geometrical axis of the 
area. The transverse fissures must be at each point perpendicular to the longitudinal ones. 

* Mr. Hopkins in his Presidential address to the Geological Society of London (Quar. Jour., Vol. 1X., 1853) gave 
an elaborate analysis of M. de Beaumont’s theory, showing many objections and difficulties in the way of its 
acceptance, but it seems to me that he fails to give a perfectly correct interpretation of some of De Beaumont’s 
views, such as those regarding the limitation of the fuseau, and again those regarding the mode of production 
the fuseau and its fissures. 


193 APPENDIX. 

Fig. 18 represents a combination of fissures more or less like what must result from 
Big. 18. 

An area of special elevation with its longitudinal and transverse fissures, according to Mr. Hopkins’ hypothesis. 

conditions such as I have described: the curved boundary shows a partial area of greater 
elevation, the broad lines which are not continuous represent fissures, longitudinal and transverse. 

In the memoir from which this abstract is made Mr. Hopkins deseribes the area of the 
Wealden formation in the south-east of England, in which the features of disturbance cor- 
respond in a most remarkable manner with the lines in this figure, —hence the legitimate 
conclusion that their mode of formation corresponded with the assumed conditions, and that 
these conditions are natural. As aa actual cause Mr. Hopkins adopts the supposition of 
extensive cavities within the solid crust of the earth, in which the expansion of fluid or gaseous 
matters produces elevations. The phenomenon of faults necessitates (he conceives) the 
existence of plastic matter below. For the production of such a result as that described in 
the district of the Weald, Mr. Hopkins considers that one dominant effort of elevation must 
have oceurred by which all the lines were simultaneously struck out ; for the presence of 
one fracture would interfere with the subsequent production of others. Should subsequent 
research in any important degree alter the observations made by Mr. Hopkins in the district 
of the Weald, his paper will retain its value as a discussion of one set of conditions. 

Besides the beautiful system of structure exhibited in this example of the Wealden area, 
the most important inference to be drawn from it is the unity and completeness of the whole 
phenomenon ; each feature lends itself to that next it ; there i nothing to suggest that this 
elevation is but a partial product of a world-embracing tension. In connection with this 
view the form of this area is most important, proving asit does the very considerable devia- 
tion from rectilinear parallelism that can obtain among the main fissures of the same area 
of elevation. ‘This is so marked in the case of the Wealden elevation that M. de Beaumont, 
in support of his theory, had to deny the principal result of Mr. Hopkins’ investigation—the 
unity of the phenomenon—and to place the different parts of this area in different systems of 
elevation, formed at different times. 

From the point of view taken by Mr. Hopkins, the first object in examining any district is 
to define the area affected by the same limited system of disturbance, and then the general 
lines of dislocation,—the fissures which are the primary results of elevation. As for the 

| 


APPENDIX. l 193 

secondary results, such as faults, anticlinals, lines of curvature, &c., Mr. Hopkins only states 
that, as immediate consequences of the fissuring of the crust, they follow laws of distribution 
corresponding to the fissures. Fig. 19 represents a transverse section of an area of elevation at — 
the instant of rupture, Fig. 20 an imaginary subsequent condition.* However secondary they 

Fic, 19. 

€ Ó € i 
Diagram cross-section of an area of special elevation, at the moment of fracture.—( Hopkins.) 

Fig. 90. 

Section showing subsequent condition of same area.—( Hopkins.) : 
may be, these features are all important in practice, and it is to be regretted that Mr. Hopkins 
does not say more about them. But the term fissure is vague, and, as a fact, a simple fissure 
is rare to meet with, and difficult to detect. Indeed, in the area of elevation described by 
Mr. Hopkins, the features identified by him as corresponding to the theoretical lines of longi- 
tudinal fissure are, almost without exception, lines of fault or of contortion, i. e., something 

more than mere fissures. In the case of the transverse fissures, this term is more strictly 
applieable. Some explanation of the phenomena of flexure is especially called for in an 
identification of natural conditions, for those features are rarely if ever absent, and it 
often seems impossible to account for them upon the sole condition of elevation, and 
without some influence of lateral force more than is primá facie derivable from the 
supposition of a simple elevatory force. The inspection of the actual sections of the 
Wealden district given by Mr. Hopkins will indicate what I mean. I take one as an example 
(Fig. 21). When from the consideration of such a simple case as the elevation of the Weald, 

Fig. 21. 

A cross-section of the Wealden area.—( Hopkins.) 

* These figures are taken from a paper by Mr. Darwin, as quoted from Mr, Hopkins’ paper in the Cambridge 
Phil, Trans., to which work I could not procure access, 

Al 


194 APPENDIX. 

we pass to that of a great mountain chain, the want of some guiding principle in the inter- 
pretation of complicated contortions becomes greatly felt. It is to men such as De Beaumont, 
Hopkins, and Haughton that we must look for the fit discussion of this subject. Mr. Hopkins 
gives very little encouragement to the attempt. In order to study the comparison of actual 
with theoretical results, he tells us that he chose the area of the Weald * on account of the 
regularity of its boundary and the apparent absence of the effects of that more violent, 
local, or irregular action of elevating force, which it must ever be impossible to reduce to 
calculation” (p. 1). 

Professor H. D. Rogers (“ Geology of Pennsylvania," 1858) has paid more attention to 
detail of stratigraphy than did either De Beaumont or Hopkins, 
His opinions are principally based upon the study of the Appala- 
chian mountains of America ; but, both from observation and 

H.D. Rogers' theory of dis- 
turbance. 

from written description, he attempts to affiliate other regions to the same laws of structure. 
The Appalachians are described as one chain, demonstrably elevated at one epoch. The 
range is 1,500 miles long by 150 broad, but is divisible longitudinally into eleven sections, 
five of which have a curved axis, and six are straight ; three of the latter have an approxi- 
mate north-south direction, and three run nearly east-west or almost at right angles to the 
others. Mr. Rogers points to these facts as incompatible with M. de Beaumont’s theory of paral- 
lelism and synchronism. Throughout the Appalachians the strata are waved, the undulations 
observing aparallelism among themselves, and with the igneous axis of the district in which 
they occur. In most parts of the chain waves of two magnitudes are to be found; the larger 
of these attain great dimensions, being from 50 to 120 miles long, by several miles 
wide ; the subordinate or secondary waves are seldom more than ten miles long, by 
half a mile wide. These latter are regarded as only local corrugations of the superficial rocks, 
not true undulations of the crust. Parallelism does not necessarily obtain between these 
systems. 

In the from of waves Mr. Rogers distinguishes three essential types. The first is symmetri- 
cal flexure, a curve of which both slopes are equal. This variety is generally restricted to 
the gentler undulations. The second kind is the normal flexure. It displays a greater steep- 
ness on one side than on the other. This form prevails where the forces of disturbance were 
neither intense, nor yet feeble ; and it is found to occupy an intermediate position geogra- 
phically between the two other varieties. As a general rule,in any one region the steeper 
slopes are all in the same direction. The normal flexure attains its limits when the steeper . 
side becomes vertical. Beyond this limit we have the third class, called folded flexure, in 
which the strata on one side of the axis of the curve have been displaced beyond a vertical 
position, so as to approach in parallelism to the strata on the other side of the axis. As 
in the case of normal flexures the more incurved sides of the folded waves iu any district 
generally slope in the same direction. 

Regarded- longitudinally, each wave has its maximum height in the middle of its length. 
The form also may change: from being of the folded variety in its middle portion a wave 
may become normal and symmetrical towards its terminations. Starting, in any group of 
flexures, from the side of maximum disturbance, which is also invariably the quarter of 
greatest igneous action, the waves exhibit a similar gradation, and at the same time an 
expansion in the width of the wave. The generalised section of the Appalachians 


W. 

General section of the Appalachian Mountains.—( Rogers.) 

APPENDIX. j 195 

(Fig. 22) given by Mr. Rogers exhibits the facts last mentioned. In the 
matter of fractures and faults, i. e., in respect of the tension in which 
these cracks originate, each anticlinal belt may to some extent be looked 
upon as a distinet area of elevation ; each wave has its own system of 
fissures. In this way Mr. Rogers subordinates the fissures, at least the 
lateral fissures of a great system, to the flexure ; he says, “these great 
fractures are only flexures of the more compressed type which have 
given way in the act of bending." In the great majority of instances 
these fissures coincide neither with the antielinal nor the synclinal 
axis planes,* but with the steep or inverted sides of the flexures. 
He describes such a fault eighty miles long, and haying a throw of 
8,000 feet. Faults such as are here described generally underlie in 
the same direction as the axis-plane of the flexure, and it very 
commonly happens that the upthrow takes place on the side of the 
underlie, producing, as normal results, what are commonly called reverse 
faults. Fie, 23. 

Fig. 23 represents an anticlinal 
flexure so faulted. Faults of this 
kind are, as their name indicates, 
generally supposed to occur very 
rarely, and only on a small scale. 
Mr. Rogers, however, describes them 
as acommon feature in mountain 
structure. ‘They produce the ano- 
malous appearance of older strata 
overlying newer. The folded flexure 

itself produces this effect, but in a 
less marked manner than when 
faulted. E flexure.—( Rogers.) 

It was only the absence of any ascertained order in the phenomena of 
contortions that has hitherto excluded them from their due position 
in speeulations upon the nature of the causes of disturbance of the 
earth's crust. In the comparatively regular structure of the Alleghany 
mountains, Mr. Rogers conceives that he has discovered this order. He 
asserts that undulation is the prevailing law of all displaced deposits, 
and that waves of translation are the archetypes of these undulations, 
He consequently declares that any theory upon this subject, henceforth 
admissible into physical geology, must explain the general facts of 

Reverse fault along a folded anticlinal 

the regular wave-like structure of the earth’s disturbed zones. He 
points out that no simple upward pressure could have this effect. He 
affirms that simple lateral pressure could not result in such regularity. 
He conceives this structure to have originated in a true wave 

* The axis-plane of a flexure is a plane bisecting the angle of incurvation. 


196 APPENDIX. 

motion on the surface of the molten matter upon which the earth’s crust is supported. 
In the first instance he supposes the strata of the region affected to have been sub- 
jected to excessive tension, arising from the expansion of solid matter and of vapours ; this 
tension is relieved by linear fissures, and the sudden release of pressure adjacent to 
these lines of fracture produces violent pulsations on the surface of the liquid below. 
A tangential force would take advantage of these regular undulations to produce folds 
and reverse faults such as Mr. Rogers describes. The generalized section of the Alps (Fig. 
24), as conceived by Mr. Rogers, exemplifies well this authov’s views of the flexures of strata, 

Pre. 24. 

Generalised section of the Alps.—( Rogers.) $ 
and their relations to mountain formation. In this figure there are four belts of closely folded 
waves, each belt having its axis planes dipping towards the centres of their own high mountain 
system, 

In Mr. Rogers' application of his theory to the Appalachian mountains he has omitted to 
discuss & question of considerable importance. Each of the theories we have examined sup- 
poses a zone of maximum intensity of action (geological effect). Indeed it seems to me a 
necessary condition of every theory of elevation. As aconsequence, and with any thing like 
homogeneous conditions of resistance, we should expect some approach to a bilateral symme- 
try in the resulting disturbance of the rocks. In the sections of the Wealden and of the Alps we 
see examples of such a symmetry. The more a theory adopts the supposition of intense inter- 
nal action and a consequent subordination of superficial influences of resistance, the more 
does it involve this symmetry. Mr. Rogers’ theory is eminently of this nature. But it is his 
facts and noi his theory of which we are to seek an explanation. In his section of the Alle- 
ghanies there is a steadily increasing intensity of disturbance in the strata towards the east and 
south-east border, even to beyond the limits of the chain itself. Both the form and the gradation 
of intensity of the flexures point to.a region external to the chain as the axis of disturbance. 
The Appalachian chain is therefore wanting in symmetry as a mountain chain, it is 
essentially one-sided. If we are to accept Mr. Rogers’ theory in its full development, 
we must, I think, to be consistent with it and the facts, look upon the actual Appalachian 
chain as but a shred of a once far more mighty mountain system, of which the central 
region of maximum disturbance and elevation stood over what is now the Atlantic slope 
of the North American continent, the eastern declivities of that chain having been long 
since removed and depressed beneath the present ocean area. Any one, who had only read 
Mr. Rogers’ reasoning upon the undulation and elevation of strata, would look upon the 
gneissic and intrusive rocks to the south-east of his Appalachian section as the physical 
equivalent or analogue of the similar rocks in the middle region of the Alps,—as the result of 
the great central upheaval, fracture, and protrusion upon which his theory so strongly 
insists, and of which the undulations of the Appalachian strata are, according to it, but a 


APPENDIX. 187 

secondary effect, and one would expect to find in the region east of the Appalachians, sup- 
posing the section visible, a system of disturbance equivalent to that on the west, The only 
other alternative seems to me to involve a great modification of Mr. Rovers’ theory of elevation, 
and to imply a far greater influence of superficial, modifying causes than he makes any 
allowancefor. Accepting the features of contortion described by him we must still believe the 
centre of disturbance to be external to the present chain, but we can greatly modify the 
nature of that disturbance ; we can eliminate the idea of great central upheaval and suppose 
that zone to have been one of weakness.and of fracture, and hence a locus of disturbance. 
The very great difference of conditions which we can reasonably suppose to have obtained on 
different sides of this central line of intensity removes the necessity for similar effects of 
disturbance on these two sides. In this way we are led to reject the supposition of symmetry 
being the necessary type within regions of disturbance, so distinctly implied in Mr. Rogers' 
statement of his theory. Mr. Rogers makes no allusion to the difficulty I have just attempted 
to explain as involved inhis theory, but by the facts adduced in the descriptive part of his 
work he leaves little doubt as to the relation of the Appalachian rocks to those of the region 
to the south-east. We are led to believe that those gneissic rocks were in about their present 
position from the earliest ages. From the first of the Primal strata to the topmost bed 
of the coal-bearing group the area of deposition of the great Palzozoic series is represented 
to have been restricted pretty much as we now find it: and much of the material of these 
deposits is represented to be derived from gneissic rocks in the approximate position of those 
now existing. 

The grand result of Mr. Rogers’ labours, the suggestion of a seeds arrangement in the 
contortions of strata, as a statement of observation, remains unaffected by the modifications 
we are compelled to put upon his theory. If his views prove to be generally applicable, they 
will be of incalculable service in the interpretation of geological sections. 

Neither Mr. Hopkins nor Mr. Rogers offers any conjectures upon the prime cause of the 

expansive forces to which they appeal as agents of disturbance. 

MM. Babbage and Her- 

&chell. The omission of such speculations cannot be said to detract from 

the value of their researches ; the independent analysis of facts is 

the first and the safest method of discovery, yet, as the knowledge of natural causes is the 
ultimate aim of scientific investigation, our interest in a theory must be influenced by the 
light it can throw upon these prime sources of activity. This is the secret of the fascination 
we find in M. de Beaumont’s work. For the same reason there is even a greater fascination in 
a theory which I have now to notice. It is that proposed both by Mr. Babbage and Sir J 
Herschell from à priori considerations of the general condition of the earth, and it was 
suggested to these philosophers by tbe want of a prime mover in the explanations 
usually given of the phenomena of disturbance. We know from observation that the 
temperature of the ground is distributed with reference to the form of the surface, and 
that underground isothermal surfaces correspond locally in contour with that of 
the external surface. The laws of conduction and radiation of heat show us that it 
must be so. If therefore the form of the surface were to be altered, if any elevated 
mass of land were to be lowered, or if any depression were to be filled up, the law 
just stated would after a time prevail over the area thus altered. If we consider the 
consequences entailed by this change it will be seen what great results may be produced. 


198 APPENDIX. 

The new surface of the area that had been denuded will no longer have the same tempera- 
ture as when it was covered by a considerable thickness of rock, and the underground 
isothermal surfaces, down to the focus of heat will be similarly affected ; the whole mass will 
have undergone a reduction of temperature proportional to the depth to which the original 
surface had been eut down, and will have undergone a corresponding contraction of volume. 
A similar process will come into operation, but in the opposite direction, in the case of 
the area upon which additional matter had been laid down. What was before an exposed 
surface becomes an underground surface, and, in the newly established distribution of 
heat, its temperature will be raised in proportion to the depth to which it has been 
covered. 

If the reasoning indicated in the foregoing paragraph be applied to the familiar facts of 
geology, we get a natural cause almost unlimited in mechanical power. The thickness of 
successive deposits is known to be very great, and a deposit in one place involves the 
removal of the same matter from some other area, generally contiguous. In addition to the 
influence of these fluctuations of heat in producing depressions and elevations of areas, respec- 
tively of denudation and of deposition, Herschell in his development of the subject, lays great 
stress upon the effects of the changes of pressure produced by the same precess. Whatever we 
believe the constitution of the earth’s crust to be, we must grant some influence to changes of 
pressure ; the action would be more immediate than that of the changing temperature, and in the 
opposite direction, tending to depress areas of deposition, and both directly and by re-action, 
to elevate areas of denudation. By the legitimate application of these two prominent elements 
of the theory—depression by weight, and expansion by heat—it is possible to give a satisfac- 
tory, or at least a plausible explanation of most phenomena of disturbance. One of the 
most important inferences of this theory, bearing upon the formation of mountains, is the 
indication it gives of a position of weakness and of strain between the area of deposition 
and that of denudation, culminating in fracture, shock, and possibly intrusion or ejection of 
igneous matter. 

Judged upon à priori grounds alone this theory is even more complete than that of M. de 
Beaumont ; both start from this simple fact of a high internal temperature, and the necessary 
process of slow refrigeration. M. de Beaumont makes this process, and all the results which 
it entails, self-regulating ; whereas Babbage and Herschell propose to maintain the equili- 
brium by the aid of an equally constant fact—the shifting of materials at the earth’s surface, 
of which phenomenon M. de Beaumont takes no account. ‘The whole earth is sensitive, as 
one organism, to any modification of its conditions of temperature. There must be 
an initial tendency to the production of the world-wide tensions of tbe crust to which 
M. de Beaumont attributes the production of mountains; it is also evident that such 
tensions may be guided and ultimately satisfied by the process to which the other theory 
appeals. 

The only instance I am acquainted with in which the theory sketched in the preceding 
paragraphs is applied to explain contortion and elevation of 
strata isin Mr. J. Halls account of the Alleghanies or Appala- 
chians, published in the introduction to Part IV., Vol 3 of Natural History of New York 
(1859). The author commences with a review of the distribution of the great paleozoic 

Mr.J Hall. 

series. in eastern North America. He shows an aggregate thickness of these formations in 

NIU a IRIPRER 

[ 


APPENDIX. 199. 

the region of the Alleghanies, amounting to no less than 40,000 feet, while in the 
country to the west, where the same series is comparatively undisturbed, the total thick- 
ness is not more than 4,000 feet. He gives reasons for supposing that this enormous 
accumulation of deposits was mainly derived from sources which lay to the eastward and 
northward. The region of greatest deposition has been also that of chief disturbance. This 
last fact, which may be only a coincidence, is aecepted by Mr. Hall, without discussion, as 
affording a final explanation ; he says, “ The line of the greatest accumulation is the line of the 
mountain chain ; in other words,the great Appalachian barrier is due to original deposition 
of materials and not to any subsequent action or influence, breaking up and dislocating the 
strata of which it is composed." The existence of ripplemark, of marine plants, &c., shows 
that the deposition throughout the series took place in moderate depth; continuance of 
accumulation produced continued subsidence ; this prolonged subsidence resulted in the 
production of a great synclinal depression which is still a feature of the Appalachian 
structure. During depression the bottom strata suffered distension and fracture, and the 
upper underwent compression and folding. Mr. Hall attributes the entire elevation of the 
Appalachian range to this indirect agency, namely, the bulging of the upper crust produced 
by the plieation during general subsidence. In this he seems somewhat inconsistent with 
the general theory he adopts— that of Babbage and Herschell. He seems to admit no direct 
local elevation of the rocks composing the Appalachian chain. But such local elevations 
form a prominent and a necessary feature of the general theory, and an ultimate rising 
by the general increase of temperature of the earth's crust beneath an area of deposition 
is as certain, or more so, than is the prior depression of that area, owing to continued 
accumulation of rock-matter. Mr. Hall appeals vaguely to continental elevation without 
any allusion to the cause of a phenomenon so opposed to the general tenor of his 
views. In alluding to the great allied question of metamorphism he is equally vague 
and inconsistent. He says,—“ We must therefore look to some other agency than heat 
for the production of the phenomena witnessed, and it seems that the prime cause must 
have existed within the material itself, and that the entire change is due to motion, or 
fermentation and pressure aided by a moderate increase of temperature, producing chemical 
change." In extending his views of superficial agencies, Mr. Hall states it as his opinion that 
overflows of trappean matter are always coincident with the rapid accumulation of sedimentary 
materials. Without special allusion to the structure of other mountain areas, Mr. Hall 
asserts the universality of these principles of formation for all mountains, and he attempts to 
establish a relation, founded on this principle, between the height of a chain and the range of 
geological formations, involved in its production, and exhibited inits structure. For example, 
he says, “if the fundamental rocks of the Alps are of paleeozoic age, and the sequence has been 
continued, even with some interruptions, to the end of the Jurassic period or later, it is no 
wonder that there are high summits, for the accumulation must have been enormous, and if to 
the Liassie and Jurassic we add the Cretaceous and Tertiary, we may get mountains of the 
elevation of the Himalaya." 

Regarding that most interesting question of the form of the plications of the strata in the 
Alleghanies, Mr. Hall leaves us in great doubt. He gives no sections in the work from which 
I quote, but he seems to adopt the facts as stated by Mr. Rogers, simply asserting that his 
theory of subsidence gives a sufficient explanation of those facts. As I understand the case, 


200 : APPENDIX. 

this is evidently not correct. Mr. Hall explains the plication of the strata as the result of the 
synclinal subsidence of the whole area, causing a crumpling of the beds in the upper portion cf 
the mass. Such a mode of production would necessarily entail a line of maximum depression 
within the area of subsidence, and from which the plieations would take their origin in a 
manner approximately symmetrical on either side. The facts, as given by Mr Rogers, seem 
quite independent of any such area of subsidence. 

In the theory we have last considered, and, indeed, in every discussion involving depression 
or subsidence of strata, there is a very important element which is commonly lost sight of, 
namely, the earth's curvature. We are very naturally accustomed to look upon the bottoms 
of seas, and, in general, any area of deposition as hollows, or actual concavities of the surface. 
Mr. Hall, for instance, speaks of the lower strata of the Appalachian area during depression as 
subjected to tension, resulting in fissures, and the consequent intrusion of igneous rock. A more 
correct representation of the conditions would have greatly strengthened the main conclusion for 
which he argues. In point of fact, the depression would have probably involved the corrugation 
of the whole thickness of the deposit and thereby magnified the bulging by which he considers 
the chain to have been produced. The following table, taken from De Beaumont’s work 
already quoted (p. 1260), exemplifies this fact :— 

Distance | Maximum | Helehbofsur- Height of bed 
(arc) depth ies 210078 above chord 
| ' chord. am 
Kilom. | Met. Met. Met. 
The Channel, from Dieppe to Hastings 111 59 242 183 
Lake Superior, from Kurewaye Point 
OPNA MPI COLOMA «o seed eue ee | 139 24l pop M 
Caspian Sea, from Nizabad to Coast 
UAE d IN UN UY em } ace 208 1123 923 
Baltic, from Memel to Oland  ......... 290 100 1651 1551 
North Sea, from Whitby to Jutland ... 600 100 6900 6800 
Mediterranean, from Toulon to Phi- 3 
operie d cd E T j (ES) ce 50 dese 7934 

From this it appears that the Mediterranean, supposing for illustration's sake, that the 
deepest point is about the centre, might be filled up with a deposit to a depth of 7,000 


APPENDIX. 201 

feet, and that this deposit might subside through 24,000 feet, and the bottom beds be still 

25e 

Fia. 

8. W. 

N. E. 

Generalized section of the Rocky mountains.—( Dr. Hector. ) 

a, Mesozoic strata ; b, Carboniferous ; c, Devonian ; d, Silurian ; e, Schists ; J, Granite, 

subject to compression. Supposing accumulation 
to have kept pace with the subsidence the result- 
ing thickness would about correspond" with that of 
the Alleghany formations. 

I wil add a few examples of less known 

mountain ranges. In 
epee eon we. rosky. | | the section: civent by, 

Dr. Hector (Quar. 
Jour. Geol. Soc, Lond. Vol. XVII., 1861,) 
ofthe Rocky Mountains east of British Colum- 
bia, and from which Fig. 25 is taken, we 
find some exceptional features of structure. 
The central and highest region is also, rela- 
tively to the north-east flanks, a region of up- 
heaval, the lowest rocks appearing there at a 
greater elevation. Moreover, relatively to this 
central mass, we find well exhibited in the 
rocks of the flanking ridges on the north-east 
repeated folded flexures, of which, as in other 
instances given, the axis-planes underlie towards 
the centre of the chain. The central mass 
itself is, however, neither comparatively nor 
absolutely a region of contortion, fracture, or 
intrusion ; the strata are but little disturbed, 
and have a flat synclinal arrangement. On 
the south-western flanks we find the lowest rocks 
of all; they are much folded, but in no de- 
finite order, and at the base in the same 
direction granite appears. This section has 
several points of analogy with that of the 
Alleghanies, the peculiar feature of the cen- 
tral region being the chief discrepancy. The 
author does not enter upon the discussion 
of the order of formation of the features he 
describes. 

The latest geological description of the Andes 
with which I am 
acquainted is that 
of Mr. D. Forbes, 
‘on the Andes of Peru,’ (Quar. Jour. Geol. 
Soc., Lond., Vol. XVII., 1861); it is given as 
an emendation of that of D’Orbigny and Pissis. 
In the section of the Andes, as given by 

B 1 

D. Forbes on the Andes of 
Peru. 


APPENDIX. 

Mr. Forbes (Fig. 26), we have a form of mountain structure different from the foregoing 

Fre. 26. 

Generalized séction of the Andes of Peru.—( D. Forbes.) 
a, Diorite ; b, Volcanic ; c, Oolitic ; d, Permian or Trias ; e, Devonian ; f, Silurian ; g, Granite. 

examples. The section is indeed truncated, the 
eastern flanks of the chain not having been explored, 
yet even this incomplete view seems to suggest a 
very complicated origin for the whole. The eastern 
and most lofty range is formed of the older sedi- 
mentary formations with granitie rocks, while to the 
west of it, and connected with it by lofty plateaux, 
there rises an apparently independent mountain 
range, in which volcanic phenomena are enormously 
developed. 
From his observations of the Andes in Chili, and 
from his study of the 
NEED on the Andes of ^ volcanic phenomena in 
the same regions, Mr. 
Darwin has made some very instructive remarks upon 
the phenomena of elevation and of mountain forma- 
tion (Trans. Geol. Soc., Lond., 1838, Second Series, 
Vol. VI.) He first establishes the fact of a comcidence, 
and hence infers a common cause for earthquakes, 
volcanic eruptions, and the permanent elevation of 
large areas (continental elevation). He even asserts 
that no theory of the cause of volcanoes which is 
not applicable to such elevations can be considered 
as well-grounded. From the proved recurrence of 
these phenomena, resulting in an upheaval of several | 
hundred feet within the recent geologie period, he 
asserts the adequacy of the cause to produce, and 
explain continental elevation. Observation thus leads 
him to the same conclusion as Mr. Hopkins, that 
the fracture of strata and the formation of mountain 
chains are only subsidiary phenomena attendant on 
continental elevation. Mr. Darwin makes some very 
reasonable suppositions to remove Mr. Hopkins' 
objeetions to the successive formation of parallel 
fissures ; the process is such aslow one that a long- 
established fissure might well become clogged up by 
solidified intruded rock ; and thus lead to the pro- 
duction of a new line of fracture, He believes that 
such successive formation can be proved in-the case 
of the several axes of the Andes, of which he dis- 
tinguishes eight or more. He states his opinion that 
a chain of which the axis is voleanie only differs 
from one in which the axis is formed of plutonic 


APPENDIX. 203 

(granitic) rocks, because in the former case a complete rupture to the surface took place 
in the incipient stage of mountain formation, while in the latter, which he calls one of 
subterranean volcanic action, the successive elevatory impulses were satisfied by intrusions 
below the surface. 

Tn speculating upon the actual conditions of these phenomena Mr. Darwin gives strong: 
evidence,—such as the co-instantaneous ejection of lava from distant orifices, and the rapid eleva- 
tion of extensive areas,—for the supposition that the interior of the earth is in a molten condi- 
tion. But he rejects as inadequate any hypothesis that has been formed of the prime mover in 
these operations, concluding “ that the configuration of the fluid surface of the earth's nucleus 
is subject to some change, its cause completely unknown, its action slow and intermittent, but 
irresistible. 

The great dissimilarity of structure exhibited in the foregoing examples of mountains, even 

btt : making liberal allowance for incorrect observations, will suffice to 

Great dissimilarity of struc- 
ture. show how comprehensive a complete theory of mountain formation 

must be, and how very various the primary and secondary causes 
must be to produce results so unlike. It is obvious that in many cases it may be necessary to 
look beyond the actual mountain tract to obtain complete evidence of the original phenomena 
of disturbance. In commenting on the Appalachian section I gave an illustration of this : I 
showed the possibility of those mountains being but a remnant of a greater range long since 
obliterated. Mr. Rogers’ sections suggest such an idea. Mr. Hall, however, makes these 
mountains independent, and, as it were, self-created. 

The dissimilarity in the structure of mountain ranges might have been made much more 
Hxc QM striking. We have deem taking a somewhat one-sided view 

only, attending to such cases as are the result of the fracture and 
contortion of strata, but there are very large and considerably elevated areas, constantly 
spoken of as mountain ranges, to which we must attach a different interest to that given to 
what some geologists call true mountains, such as those we have been considering. There 
are, for instance, the Western Ghats of Hindustan, more lofty and precipitous than the 
Alleghanies, but they are for the most part made up of undisturbed strata, and offer little 
or no illustration of the special question under discussion. ‘The difference between the so 
called true and other mountains is only one of degree. The object of interest is more or 
less common to all, namely, the internal condition of the earth and the manner in which 
it affects the crust; thus every elevated area may be said to involve the supposition of a 
crust movement, and may in some manner be a record of it, but it is only through the fissur- 
ing and disturbance of strata that we can obtain amy satisfactory information as to the 
amount and direction of these crust movements, and hence the special importance of true 
mountains. It is the necessary tendency of every elevatory action to produce fissuring, and to 
result in distortion, but under certain conditions, such as those conceived by M. de Beaumont, 
in which the whole earth is supposed to take part, or even by a less general cause, very exten- 
sive elevation may occur without any such result. All fissuring and tilting of strata belong 
to the same special branch of study as true mountains, which study has for its object the 
fixation of the extent, amount, form, and duration of the disturbances of the earth’s crust. 

If we endeavour to extract the elements of observation from the foregoing theories, it is dis- 
appointing how little we obtain, The word fissure represents a large proportion of the data. 


204 APPENDIX. 

But a simple fissure gives us a minimum of information. My. Hopkins tells us that his 
whole system of fissures would result equally well from a deficiency as from an excess of 
sustaining force, from depression as well as from elevation. M. de Beaumont also says for 
his fissures that their immediate cause may be of several kinds, although the general cause 
from which they are derived is uniform. Thus it would be altogether begging the question 
to interpret fissures as evidence of elevation. What then are the geological (structural) evi- 
dences of special elevation? The difficulty seems to increase when we come to consider 
the phenomena of disturbance and contortion. It seems of prima facie evidence that a 
simple elevatory force, a force acting more or less vertically upward, can only produce ten- 
sion of strata at or near the surface ; unless indeed it be an expansive force within the crust 
itself, in which case it will of course exercise a direct compressing action upon strata ata 
distance, yet such a force would all the more readily find relief in vertical elevation. It 
may then perhaps be assumed that the tangential forces, by which contortion of strata is 
effected, must in almost every case be components of gravitation diverted through the arch 
of the earth’s crust. We still have the simpler cases of disturbance to consider. Here the 
à priori answer seems inevitable, that a simple elevatory force would produce some form of 
regular anticlinal—a tilting of the strata along a line of maximum effort. Mr. Hopkins 
recognizes this necessity, and both in his theoretical diagram and in his section of the 
Wealden area he represents an effect of this kind. This question has received much atten- 
tion under the partial form of craters of elevation. It was then mainly discussed on the 
ground of evidence, and the general verdict of opinion was against the existence of such 
phenomena. The same decision may, I think, be arrived at against the greater case of aces 
of elevation—lines of upheaval from which the strata are tilted on either side. The Hima- 
laya, as far as we have seen of them, give no support whatever to this mode of upheaval. 
It is much to be regretted that so eminent an authority as Mr. Hopkins, in putting forward 
this theory of action as one exemplified in nature, did not suggest some explanation of the 
general absence of this simple, and initially necessary effect, the only one from which we 
could draw an inference in favour of this mode of upheaval. The instance of the Weald is 
an insufficient basis for so important a conclusion. 

Thus it would seem that it is rather taken for granted, than proved, that true mountains, 
elevated areas of special disturbance, are also areas of special elevation. The coincidence 
is not so striking when we reflect that there are extensive areas of great elevation which are 
in no degree areas of disturbance, and also, there are extensive areas of great and special 
disturbance which are (at least at present) but little elevated. Of the former I have already 
given the Western Ghats as an example; of the latter there is a good instance in the grani- 
toid, schistose, and slaty rocks of South Behar, which only here and there form hills of incon- 
siderable elevation. We cannot however get over the fact that regions of greatest elevation 
are true mountains, and we must believe that the study of their structure will reveal the 
secret of their formation. Mr. Rogers’ classification of flexures forms an important contri- 
bution to this study. The instances I have described of normal and of folded flexures in the 
Sivalik strata must, I think, set at rest Mr. Rogers’ difficulty as to the formation of such 
flexures without great crust undulations. Itis to be hoped that mathematical physicists 
will not treat this all important subject with the disregard of which we have had to 
complain in the theories of M. de Beaumont and Mr. Hopkins, but will come to the 


APPENDIX, 205 

aid of observers with the discussion of some simple hypothetical conditions of contorting 
action. 
There is an important agent in the formation of the earth’s orography, which has 
not yet been mentioned, but of which it is most important to 
Di ropa indicate the action to the general observer. Denudation is a 
directly antagonistic power to elevatory forces, its ultimate action tending to remove all 
inequalities of surface, but in doing so its immediate result is the production of the most 
intricate irregularities. A study of the existing state of any portion of the earth’s surface 
wil show that denudation is in fact more a hill-maker than a hill-destroyer ; by far the 
greater number of what we call hills are its immediate production. In what I say here, I, 
of course, allude to sub-aerial, pluvial denudation, by rain and rivers. Oceanic denudation 
may perform a greater amount of work in abrading and transporting matter ; it may 
remove many a thick covering from a slowly rising area ; it may cut out coast-lines, more 
or less indented, which subsequently become inland hills ; it, no doubt, too, leaves shallow 
lines of hollow by which subsequent drainage lines are initially determined ; but, as a rule, 
aud as compared with pluvial denudation, it is purely a levelling agent; it carries away 
wholesale where the other agency would work out mountain systems on its own principles. 
The normal results, such as would be produced under homogeneous conditions, of these 

two agencies of hill-formation are very different. 'The tendency of 
Its results compared with 

iced br elevation: subterranean forces is to produce lines or zones of elevation, more 

or less longitudinal or concentric. The result of pluvial action 
upon a level homogeneous mass would be to produce a symmetrical system of hills having a 
central longitudinal axis with regular primary offshoots, and from these again minor spurs. 
In this mode of formation the secondary or minor resultant ridges are as characteristically 
transverse as in the other they are longitudinal. It has indeed been advanced as a canon 
in geological dynamics that all drainage is originally transverse; the longitudinal valleys 
being completed by the gradual encroachment upon each other, and the ultimate union, of 
what were at first but longitudinal (with reference to the mountain axis) feeders of the 
primary transverse streams: each primary stream so absorbed becomes an affluent of the 
united longitudinal feeders which have now become the main line of drainage. Thus the 
degree in which either form is stamped upon any system of ridges, or on parts of that 
system, may serve as an indication of the influencethat either agency has exerted in modelling 
the actual orography. 
In all discussions upon mountain ranges and their directions, in every attempt to define 
ridges and lines of elevation as an element of terrestrial 
queens of distinguishing physics, it is only in so far as these ranges or ridges belong to 
the first (the subterranean) order of phenomena that any interest 
attaches to them. On any other ground there would be really little or nothing of primary 
interest to discuss, beyond the mere topographical or physico-geographical feature. It 
becomes then of essential importance to distinguish the effects of these two agencies ; it is 
utterly confounding the subject to set down as a ridge or a system of ridges, and without 
special mention, a mere series of contiguous elevations forming an irregular watershed, and 
such as, it is easy to understand, must result under certain conditions from pluvial action 
alone. For example, unless geologists are forewarned that their ideas are not taken into 


ZA 

206 APPENDIX. 

account, it is altogether unwarrantable to speak of the “ Kasaoli ridge as a branch of the 
great Himalayan range,” which range is described as “bending round to terminate in the 
plains at Nahun.” Or again, to apply the same term to the Himalayan range, and the Simla 
range, when by the latter is meant the exceedingly tortuous watershed from Kasaoli to the 
snowy peaks of Kunawur, right across the strike of the whole series of Himalayan and Sub- 
Himalayan series of rocks, is also unwarrantable, the intrinsic significance of the two being 
as different as it could well be.* 
I have still to notice the influences by which the uniform action of the two active agents 
Lo of hill-formation are modified. In any actual case the mass 
Modifying influences. k à 
acted on will be very far from homogeneous, or even symmetri- 
cally heterogeneous. Any considerable area and thickness of the earth’s crust is sure to 
present rocks in many different conditions of induration, and presenting various degrees of 
resistance. We know too that different systems of disturbance have, at different times, 
affected the same area, so that the ultimate position of any rocks that have undergone a 
number of such vicissitudes, will be the resultant of all these separate movements. It is 
certain that the minor phenomena of any great operation of elevation must be largely modi- 
fied by these passive influences. In the results of denuding forces, however, these influences 
become of still greater, indeed of chief, importance. A hard band of rock, into whatever 
position it may have been pushed by repeated elevation and crushing, will inevitably weather 
into a ridge. It is easy to conceive these conditions so accumulated that in any great system 
of elevation large areas, not immediately contiguous to the lines of maximum effect, may 
show but little regularity im the arrangement of the rock masses. In such a case the 
heterogeneousness of texture and of structure may be so exaggerated that it practically 
becomes on a large scale homogeneous again, and the drainage system, resulting from the 
denudation of such a mass, assimilates more to the transverse or denudation type of origin 
than to the elevatory, in which longitudinal lines are well marked. 

* he errors of the map-maker are even more important to the geologist than those of the tourist, for with 
the work of the former he cannot dispense. I have often endeayoured to impress upon surveyors the impor- 
tance of their knowing something of the structure of what they attempt to represent. The reply that one 
can do no more than copy correctly, or one cannot know everything, can scarcely be accepted as satisfactory. 
Under the impossiblity of making one anything like a perfect machine, the only safe plan is to make him less 
amachine. We all know in what a loose sense the word copying must be applied to much of the process of 
the best map-making ; but, surely, knowledge would be a safer guide than preconceived ideas in this the 
artistic element, which is supplementary to the purely mechanical part of the surveyor’s work. The little errors 
that are occasionally found in the admirable map with which I worked in the north-western Himalaya are 
such as could not have occurred, had the surveyor possessed even a general knowledge of mountain formation 
from the observations that he could not then have failed to make in the prosecution of his work. 

Jaleutta, January, 1864. | 


CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER lI.— General description of area and rocks. 

Stratigraphy the principal object of investigation, 1. Area described, 3. Eastern 
and Western Himalaya, Lower Himalaya, Sub-Himalaya, 4, True significance of 
the distinction of Eastern and Western Himalaya, 7. One very marked geological 
horizon, 9.  Subathu group, 11. , Nahun group, 13. Sivalik group; doubtful rela- 
tion ofthe two latter, 14. Table of formations, 17. Relations of past and present 
conditions, 17. 

CuarrrzR Il.—776 Himalayan Series. 

Lithologieal characters the only guide in observation, 21. Explanation of some 
ambiguous terms, 22. Relative positions of altered and unaltered ; the latter appa- 
rently underlying, 23. Top rocks best seen about the Krol; description of this sec- 
tion, 93. Krol group, 25. Synclinal ridges, 27. Puzzling distribution of carbona- 
ceous matter, 28. Infra-Krol beds, 29. Blini group, 29. Infra-Blini group, 33. 
Peculiar metamorphic conditions at Simla, 33. Krol rocks at Simla, 34. Section 
south of Simla, 36. Section north-east of Simla, 38. General remarks on the Simla 
section, 39. "The Chor mountain, 40. Identification of the Tons-valley limestones, 
43. Structure of the Chor, 45. The Simla synclinal, 47. Depressed position of the 
Upper rocks in the Sutlej valley, 48. Conjectural explanation, 51. Identification of 
the Sutlej valley limestone; the Kukurhutti band, 54. Area of the Beas, 57. The 
salt-rock of Mundi, 60. Section of the Dhaoladhar, 62. Termination of the granit- 
oid axis at Dalhousie, 64. Masuri ridge, 66. Fossiliferous limestone in the Tal 
river, 69. Naini Tal and Almorah, 69. Distribution and age of igneous rocks, 70. 
Cleavage, 72. Possible connection with rocks on the north of the snowy range, 73. 

CuarrER IIL— The Subathu Group. 

Its position, extension, composition, 74, Considered as one group; as a Sub- 
Himalayan group, 75. Denuded surface of contact with the Himalayan rocks, 76. 
Bottom bed, 78. Original limitation of deposition, 81. Fossil evidence, 83. Krol 
group not contorted prior to the deposition of the Subathu group, 86. Himalayan 
elevation anterior to the Subathu group, 87. Subathu group east of the Ganges, 87. 
Subathu group south of Kashmir, 89. Compared with the deposits of the Salt- 
Range, 91. Subathu group upraised and denuded before the commencement of the 
Nahun deposits; boundary not primarily a faulted one, 92. Notice of fossils, 97. 


CONTENTS. 

Cuaprer IV.— The Nahun and Siválik Groups. 

Two groups easily distinguished east of the Sutlej, 101. Previous notices; Her- 
bert, Cautley, Strachey, Vicary, Greenough, 102. A possible explanation of Caut- 
ley's section, 104. Necessary separation of an upper group, 105. Section at Nahun 
106. Key-section at Tib, 108. Explanation, 109. Dún formation, 110. Middle 
group in eastern region, 112. The north-south steps of main boundary not cross- 
faults, 115, Siválik group in eastern region, 117. Changes of composition corres- 
pond with the present conditions of the surface, 118. Disturbance of Sivalik group, 
120. Transverse contortion at the great river gorges, 122. Section in the Noon, 
illustrative of the difficulty in grouping these deposits, 127. Difficulty of classifica- 
tion in the western region, 131. Peculiar condition of the hills between Kalka and 
Belaspur, 133. Belaspur conglomerates different from those of the outer hills, 135. 
Conjectures upon the Sutlej section, 137. Western continuation of the Siválik hills, 
138. Inner ranges west of the Sutlej, 141. ; 

Cuarter V.—Post-Sivalik Deposits. 

Distinct separation of the plains-deposits, 152. Their relationship to the super- 
ficial deposits of the Duns, 154. Glacial deposits, 155. Lakes, 157. 

Cuarrer VI.— General discussion of the structure of the hill ranges. 

Colonel R. Strachey’s views on the structure and history of the Himalaya, 160. 
Observations by Vigne, Thomson, and Hooker, 166. Generalizations now suggested. 
167. Special conclusions arrived at, 174. 

CuarteR VII.—Economic Geology. 

Building-stones. Slates. Lime and cement stones. Gypsum, Salt. Iron. Cop, 
per. Lead. Gold. Coal. Water. 

AppENDIx.—On theories of Mountain-formation. 


WAP 



Vol ML P! 2. 

GEOLOGICAL MAP 

of 

TAR SUB-ECOMALAVAIN OGOONTTURY 

between the rivers 

GANGES ann RAVEE. 

SCALE IINCH = 8 MILES. 

TE i if fe mes 

hj examined and mopped by HENRY.B. MEDLICOTT A.B, F.G.S. 
Geological Survey of India. 

e NUWASHUHUR 

SD RAHOON 

| 
| 
— of 
$ 

INDEX 

COLORS ano SIGNS. 

Sivabk 

A 
E 
É 
|% 

SUB HIMALAYAN 

—— —— 

Subathoo. 

Caleareous and Slaty 

HIMALAYAN 

dibus; when low, below 29° lees from 25 

| above 50 L> ; the longer line bei 

the direction of the strike. Local dips are 

Anticlinals syndina l; contortion 

Faults are represented by the underlie being indicated as 
P à E 

ÜKHURR 

Booracl * 

Chath , 

one 

[Ï BUNNOOR Bhurwala * k^ Su f Jos 
Xoga D» m 
ptu 
Aura i af 
| Li 
i Ab dpe 
— | 'Shazadp'a* P9 "o 

A 

Bilaspoor 4^ 

e Kullawur 

| Chhuchrowlee 

eMoostufabad. 

rg 

© SIRSAWUR 

V RAMPUR 

of ünidighat, St 

31 

30. 

in the case of dips. 

approximate , doubtful or 

Fixed Geological 

z of the Nahun Group at the Sutlej is arbitrary. 

Æ The termin: 

REDUCED FROM THE ORIGINAL MAPS IN THE SURVEYOR GENERAL'S OFFICE, CALCUTTA, JULY, 1863. 

EO 
“id 

med Azeem, Sobhan Bukhsh, and Mohesh (hunder Sh 

LITH: BY H M. SMITH, SURV: GENL'S OFFICE, CALCUTTA, JANUARY, 1864. 



207 
Note relating to Sivalik Fauna.—By H. B. Mxzprrcorr. 
(Read to Asiatic Society of Bengal, September 7, 1864.) 

The notice I have to bring before the Society may be considered a 
continuation of a series of brief but important communications, com- 
menced more than thirty years ago, and continued during some twenty. 
years, as recorded in the volumes of the Journal of the Asiatic Society 
for that bond. Those communieations formed a eurrent chronicle of 
the discovery of the Fauna Sivalensis. Had the account of those 
discoveries ever assumed a more connected and complete form, the 
correglion I have now to make, would never have been needed, as itis 
but the statement of a fact, of which the evidence was in hand and in 
mind, although never expressed. Indeed, for the same reason, this 
— fact ean now be only indicated, its value being still unknown. This fact 
is—the existence of two vertebrate faunæ, possibly quite distinct, 
among the fossils hitherto collected from the so-called Sivalik rocks. 

In a recently published number of the * Memoirs of the Geological 
Survey of India’, Vol. III. Part 2, I have given a somewhat detailed 
account of the geology of the Sub-Himalayan region in North-West 
India. I therein established a threefold division of the great series of 
deposits coming under the general title of Sub-Himalayan. Concerning 
the lowest of these groups (Subathu, etc.) little or no conflict- 
ing evidence presented itself. The two upper groups I described 
as in all respects more akin to each other, although still most 
clearly separable along a well marked boundary, at which the younger 
strata overlap the steeply denuded edges of the older, besides being 
largely made up of their debris. Such evidence is so immutable to the 
geologist, and, when on so grand a scale, entails such grave consider- 
ations of time, that I presumed to call in question the one published 
statement (in Vol. III. p. 527 of the J. A. S. B. for 1834) of vertebrate 

Sivalik fossils having been found within the area of the older groups, 


208 

not having myself sueceeded in re-discovering fossils at the locality 
indicated. My scepticism was of course based upon the a priori con- 
sideration of geological time; and because, as I state at p. 105 of my 
Memoir, no corresponding distinction has as yet been suspected by 
the authors of the Fauna Sivalensis. I made due attempts to authenti- 
eate the observation which I had called in question by referring to 
the original. diseoverers ; as, however, in every reply I received, there 
was some trace of ambiguity, not wishing to give further. trouble to 
my correspondents, I published the whole case in its unsettled form, 
giving full directions for the application of the verdict on either side 
(see pp. 15, 16, 104—6, of my Memoir). I have now the pleasure to 
announce this verdict, and, notwithstanding the precaution I took to 
provide for its application, the fact cannot well be stated without a few 

words of explanation. 

In a letter dated the 16th July 1864, Sir Proby Cautley tells me that 
he has himself collected fossils on the north side of Nahun, 7. e., in the 
rocks of my middle group, the same in every respect as those he 
had found more abundantly at the south base of the Sivalik hills, east 
of the Jumna. The peculiar mode of occurrence of these fossils in 
the nodular clays (‘clay-conglomerate’ of Cautley), as compared. with 
those found in the coarse gravel deposits, could not escape observation. 
The former were all small and fragmentary. Large masses of the clay 
had to be carted from the hills and broken up at leisure in search of 
the fossil remains. I need scarcely, however, state that the Sivalik 
fossils have hitherto been given and received as one undivided fauna. 
Every one interested in these subjects will join in the regret expressed 
by Sir Proby Cautley that it is now impossible to work the question out, 
unless upon fresh materials. He informs me that the large collection 

of these smaller fossils, sent by him with the others to the British 
Museum, is now not to be found. 


209 

To paleontologists then, we may now announce that a most interest- 
ing ease awaits their investigation, namely, the comparison of well 
represented vertebrate  fauns, occurring in a series of beds, closely 
related in point of geological conditions of deposit, etc., and yet 

distinctly separated (broken) in time. 

"The application of the fact to stratigraphieal geology may now 
take shape. The strata at the base of the sections visible in parts of 
the Sivalik hills are representatives of the Nahun group—the middle 
group of the Sub-Himalayan series. The expression of this ona map 
must still be arbitrary: for the true Sivalik strata (though so strongly 
unconformable with the * Nahun’ strata along their junction with the 
inner zone of these Nahun rocks,) appear to pass conformably and 
even by gradation into the representatives of the Nahun strata in the 
outer zone. It is of course to be expected that a very close study 
will reveal traces of this unconformability in the sections of the 
Sivalik hills also; butin such massive, banked strata, from twenty to 
two hundred feet thick, the determination of such a feature will be 
very dubious. 

In physical geology this feature will be only another example, on a 
larger scale than those given in my Memoir, of the supposition I have 
offered in explanation of the mode of disturbance of all these Sub- 
Himalayan rocks—slow contortion and upheaval along narrow zones, 
synchronously with more or less uninterrupted deposition in the ad- 

joining exterior area. 



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