138 GEOLOGY. 



MuNROE, Henky S. Geological Survey of Hokkaido : Yesso Coals. 

 39 pp. 12mo. Tokei. A Eeport. 



Ness, Walter. On the Warora Coal-field [Central Provinces, India]. 

 Coll. Guard, vol. xxviii. p. 745. 



A letter describing the coal-bearing rocks of the district. The sec- 

 tion from above downwards seems to be : — 1. Black cotton-soil, 6-10 

 feet ; 2. Yellowish clay with concretionary nodules, called " kunker ; " 

 3. Soft sandstone, 150 feet; 4. Carbonized shale, a few feet; 5. Coal, 

 varying from 29 to 50 feet ; 6. Soft white sandstone, several hundred 

 feet in thickness. This basin, the writer estimates, will yield 20 million 

 tons of coal. Analyses are given. G. A. L. 



[The same coal, as well as some iron-ore, is mentioned in a communi- 

 cation by Mr. Ness in Journ. Soo. Arts, vol. xxii. p. 780.] 



NoGTJES, A. r. Oscillations of the Nummulitic Sea. See p. 85, 



Oldham, Dr. [T.] CoarrFields of British India. Eep. Rugby-School 

 Nat.-Hist. Soc. for 1873, pp. 45-54. 



The lowest formation in India is gneiss, with trap-dykes of great 

 length. This is succeeded by the schistose and quartzitic " Kuddapa " 

 rocks, above which an unconformity occurs; and the overlying rocks 

 have various local names. Above these comes the Yindhyan series 

 (sandstones with limestones and clays), of great thickness and area, 

 probably of Old Eed age and of freshwater or estuarine origin. There 

 is then another unconformity ; and the succeeding thick series of sand- 

 stones and shales is marked by the occurrence of terrestrial plants. 

 The lowest part of this " plant-bearing series " is the Talcheer beds, 

 consisting of fine silt with large blocks of rocks from distant localities, 

 which have been transported by ice, as some show glacial polishing and 

 scratching. To the Talcheer beds succeed the Damuda beds (10,000 feet 

 thick), which contain all the productive coal, and consist of ironstone- 

 shales, sandstones, and coals, the last varying up to 35 feet in thick- 

 ness. Westward the coal-bearing rocks change in character, some 

 divisions dying out, and the coal being concentrated in a few thick 

 beds. The coal-fields are in basins, largely owing to original limita- 

 tions of deposit, and not merely to denudation. They are in groups 

 related to the great drainage-courses, which seem to have been marked 

 out at the time of the deposit of the coal-bearing beds. All the coals 

 consist of fine layers of vegetable matter and silt, and are less minera- 

 lized than most English coals; their age has been wrongly given as 

 Oolitic and Carboniferous (plants being the only fossils) ; but, from the 

 probable Triassic age of certain overlying beds, they may be partly 

 Permian and partly Carboniferous. W. W. 



Eavenstein, E. G. Formosa. Geogr. Mag., Oct. pp. 292-297, with 



map. 

 It is mentioned that the mountains are probably of volcanic origin ; 

 but sedimentary rocks, including slates, limestone, and sandstone, are 



