S2 BLAKFORD : GEOLOGY OF NAGPUK. 



bedsj on the other hand, are composed of grits, sometimes so hard as 



to be largely quarried for millstones, at other times soft and frequently 



ferruginous. These are often intersected by bands, in which the quartz, 



&c., are cemented together by peroxide of iron. The group also contains 



sandstones of various kinds, amongst which fine grained slightly 



micaceous beds, white in colour, with blotches and irregular streaks of 



red, are abundant; and the fine homogeneous argillaceous rock, which, 



for want of a better name, I have called a compact shale, yellow below 



the surface, but becoming deep red when exposed. The last bed is very 



characteristic. So far as my examination ex- 

 No carbon. 



tended, not a trace of carbon could be found; 



blue and black shales, coal, and clay ironstone are all wanting. 



Such are the rocks around Nagpur, where, however, only a few 

 poor sections are exposed. At Bazargaon there is a considerable thick- 

 ness of conglomerate, the pebbles being mostly of white quartz, and 

 the matrix a grit more or less compact, resting upon beds similar to those 

 of Nagpiii". With this conglomerate fine red argillaceous sandstone is 

 sparingly iuterstratified. There appears good reason to believe that 

 these beds are a higher portion of the Kamthi group. 



The beds of Mangli, which Mr. Hislop, for a long time, considered 

 as identical with those of Kamthi, were by myself* classed as Panchets, 

 chiefly on the evidence of the fossil Estheria found in them. This view 

 was subsequently accepted by Mr. Hislop. After examining the rocks, 

 however, I am compelled to return to Mr. Hislop's original opinion, as 

 I can see no sound reason for separating the Mangli beds from those 

 of Kamthi. The argillaceous sandstone, yellow and red, in which the 

 fossils of Mangli occur, is precisely similar to that of Silewada and other 

 places near Nagpur, and the associated sandstones present no difference 

 of the smallest importance. They are veiy conglomeritic, and resemble 

 closely the beds of Bazargaon, which, as I have just shown, appear to 



* M, G. S, I., vol. iii, p, 134. 



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