Revieivs — Geological Survey of Lidia. 273 



at least receive the attention of the geological world in Europe, and 

 in addition, perhaps, that of some others, now the commercial as 

 well as scientific subject of the development of New Indian Coal- 

 fields has been recently under notice. 



Dr. Oldham first alludes to the decreased number of his assistants 

 during the past year, death, disease, and absence on leave, having 

 reduced the effective staff from some sixteen individuals to only 

 three-fourths, who have nevertheless, as the report shows, energeti- 

 cally carried forward the large and widely extended operations of 

 the Survey. 



The results for the year are not stated in square miles, nor is this 

 desirable, space bearing an indefinite relation to value, where all is 

 more or less difficult of access ; but the great areas shown upon the 

 accompanying map as " in progress," and preparing for publication, 

 give an idea of what the Survey has accomplished in dangerous 

 wilds, which compares favourably with the lighter labours of field 

 geologists in our own highly civilized and more accessible land; 

 while the publications for the year, some of which we have previously 

 noticed, — together with those nearly ready, but unavoidably delayed 

 by the preparation of the maps, — place the Survey in a light in this 

 respect quite as advantageous as that in which British Home and 

 Foreign Geological Memoirs have always been deservedly regarded. 



A sadly large proportion of death vacancies on the small staff of 

 the Indian Survey retards its progress by rendering it difficult to 

 replace the losses, owing to the illiberality of the terms accorded by 

 Government regarding leave and retirement ; the laboriously, and 

 often expensively, educated officers being placed in that, to Europeans, 

 l^ast favourable grade, the uncovenanted service, together with 

 crowds of natives, for whom its rules apparently were framed — ^two 

 years' furlough out of thirty years' service comparing but badly 

 with the six and eight enjoyed by the Civil and Military Services 

 respectively. The difficulty of supplying the vacancies on present 

 terms will hardly be lessened by the Superintendent's observation 

 that Assurance Companies decline to insure the lives of the officers, 

 as no premium lohatever would cover the risJc ! After this, it is not 

 surprising that the last vacancy has not been filled by an English 

 geologist, and Dr. W. Waagen deserves credit for displaying German 

 bravery in accepting the appointment. 



It appears from the body of the report that the Survey has been 

 employed in about a dozen different districts, independently of the 

 coal-regions now attracting general attention, and of which it is 

 satisfactory to learn that the efforts to prove the extent of one field 

 by ineans of borings have been most successful. " The continuance 

 in almost unbroken extension and in thick beds, at no point more 

 than seventy yards from the surface, of coal, easily accessible and 

 abundant, throughout almost the entire length of the Wun district in 

 East Berar, along the valley of the Wurdha, having been established 

 by the Geological Survey in a portion of one season's work." 



It is also satisfactory that these mining operations have passed 

 into the control of local authorities, upon whoui the resj)onsibility 



VOL. Till. NO. LXXXIV. 18 



