PREVIOUS OBSERVERS. 13 



supposed younger coal-measures can have been influenced by the elder 

 trap. The explanation of this confusion is probably to be found in the 

 fact that Dr. McClelland regarded a portion of the inter-trappeans and 

 coal-bearing rocks as being of identical age, and, having found some of the 

 former resting on trap, concluded that the coal rocks did so likewise. 

 We now know that it is not to disturbance or to any cause other than 

 denudation of the overlying trap that the coal-measure rocks are exposed 

 at the present day in the bottom of the valleys. 



Dr. McClelland's sections of the Eajmehal area at the end of his 

 report represent the coal-measures in horizontal undisturbed strata 

 resting in denuded basins of his secondary trap ; and not only are they 

 represented as resting on the trap, but the Dubrajpur rocks (which he 

 calls < old red sandstones' on account of their being, as he supposed, older 

 than the coal-measures) are also indicated as being younger than the 

 'secondary' trap. The ^ter-trappeans are also represented as being 

 a^ra-trappean, and are referred to the oolitic period. 



In a paper entitled "Notes upon a tour through the Rajmehal 



„ .„ noK , "hills,"* Captain Walter S. Sherwill gives a most 



Sherwill, 1851. . ° 



interesting account of the people and ffeoloo-v of 



the Daman-i-Koh. ~ 



It is to the remarks under the latter head alone that we can refer 

 here. It would be scant justice to them merely to say that they are of 

 greater value than any that had preceded them. As being the first 

 conclusions drawn regarding the structure of these hills which have re- 

 mained unassailed up to the present day, and which have been substantiated 

 by all subsequent examinations of the area, they are entitled to no 

 ordinary praise. 



Captain Sherwill does not make any special allusion to the inter- 

 trappean rocks ; but he clearly points out the true position of the sand- 

 stones as regards the trap. 



* Journal, Asiatic Society, Bengal, VII, 1851. 



( 167 ) 



