On the Coal Fields and Coal Production of India, 515 
but, although containing good coal, these are often largely made 
up of carboniferous shale, which is incapable of supporting com- 
bustion. 
In one locality, the Samarsota River, the coal seams have been 
greatly disturbed, being bent into an anticlinal at the crest, of 
which the lowest rocks of the area are exposed. 
Should a direct line ever be made, connecting Calcutta with the 
Central Provinces, this field will doubtless be opened up, and may, 
in that contingency, become of great importance. 
ORISSA. 
XXIII. Taucuir.* 
The Talchir coal field is situated in the valley of the Brahmini, 
which may be regarded as a tributary of the Mahanadi, since it 
anastomoses with it in the conjoined deltas. The field is really 
the south-eastern extension of the last-mentioned area, the sepa- 
ration being inconsiderable. 
The area is about 700 square miles in extent. 
The groups represented are similar to those found in the last 
area, and have the following estimated thicknesses :— 
Mahad 
ahadeva, \ 1,500 to 2,000 feet. 
Kamthi, 
Barakar, : c - : : about 1,800 ,, 
Talchir, 5 . ; : : 500 ,, 
The Talchir group received its name from this locality, where it 
was first discriminated. 
The coal is of inferior quality, one large seam being similar in 
character, being largely made up of carbonaceous shale, to that 
described above in Hingir. 
The demand for coal in Orissa is too limited to render it pro- 
bable that under present conditions of communication the field 
will ever be of much value. 
Further to the south-east, near the town of Cuttack, there is an 
area of sandstones and conglomerates in which fossil plants of the 
Rajmahal type occur. 
* Blanford and Theobald “Mem. Geol. Survey of India,” Vol. I., pp. 83, 38. Ball 
“Records,” Vol. X., pp. 170, 173, and ‘¢ Manual,” Vol. I., p. 210. 
Scien. Proc. R.D.S. Vou. 0, Pr. vi. 2m 2 
