tXlchirs. 15 



Section VI. — Talchir. 



Resting upon, but separated by a wide gap in time from the 

 Vindhyans comes the Talchir formation, the lowest group in the 

 Gondwana series, and immediately underlying the coal measures. 



It occupies an area a little over 250 square miles in extent, of which 

 8 square miles lie on the Berar side of the Wardha river, 76 in the 

 Nizam's dominions, and the rest in the Chanda district. 



They are well seen on the banks of the Wardha near Chandur, and the 



Talchirs well seen near strata are ° f the USUal t J? e > the hi ^ est beds bein S 

 Chandur. fi ne Du ff sandstone, often with a greenish tinge, 



and a tendency to weather into rounded forms and to break into poly- 

 gonal fragments. Beneath are the typical greenish-grey silty shales 

 and sandstones, and below them the well-known boulder bed. 



The most extensive and unbroken area of Talchirs lies between the 

 river Wardha and the town of Chanda ; it may be taken roughly as the 

 middle of the field, — a tract devoid of coal, but around which coal occurs. 



On the western side of this central area the contact of the Barakars 

 Kdmthis resting direct- ( coa l measures) is exposed, but on the eastern side, 

 y on a c irs. £ rom ghandak to Chanda, it is not seen, owing to 



the Kamthis overlapping the Barakars and resting directly on the 

 Talchirs. The extent of this overlap has not been determined, but it is 

 probable that a considerable horizontal allowance will have to be made, if 

 search for coal is instituted in that direction, especially as Talchirs appear 

 in the low ground near Walwat, favouring the view that they underlie 

 the zone between that village and the central area at a small depth 

 below the surface. 



At Bhandak the shallowness at which they occur was proved in a 

 boring put down through the Kamthis, which struck green silt-shales at 

 about 30 feet. 



On the Berar side of the Wardha a thin strip of Talchirs occurs, 

 stretching from Karamna, 4 miles north-north-east of Wiin, to Pandar- 



( 15 ) 



