DAMUDA SERIES. 27 



That these rocks are of Barakar age is not only testified by their 

 well-marked lithological characters, but also by the peculiar conformation 

 of the ground which is similar to that which almost invariably accom- 

 panies the occurrence of Barakar conglomerates and grits. 



These beds do not include any workable thickness of useful coal. 



tv T , , , ,, . , There are some indications of old shafts and out- 

 No workable thick- 

 ness of eoal. cr0 p excavations having been formerly made, but 



the labour and expense appears to have been, as, indeed, it could hardly 



have been otherwise expected to be, quite fruitless. The value which coal 



would have so close to the station of Suri and within fifteen miles of the 



Railway Station at Cynthea, perhaps justified some expenditure in the 



first instance. 



Proceeding north and east from this, the first rocks which appear 



_. , , , ... from beneath the alluvium, exposed near Rugo- 



lirst rocks met with ' r & 



in hill area. nathpur and Deocha, are fine sandstones, the whole 



resembling the beds which occur underneath the pebbly grits of Panchet 

 hill in the Ranigunj field. Further north there are a variety of different 

 beds of uncertain affinities, but which are all coloured on the map as 

 belonging to the upper (Dubrajpur) group. The first locality at which 

 rocks of undoubted Barakar age occur is in the vicinity of the village of 

 Ramgarb, inhabited, as are most of the neighbouring villages, by 

 Agurriahs or iron-makers locally known as Kols. The chief part of the 

 ore which they use appears to be obtained from certain highly ferru- 

 ginous bands in the grits. 



In the stream which runs past the village there are two or three 



sections exposing nearly horizontal beds of sand- 

 Carbonaceous shale. 



stones, grits and shales, some of the latter being 



slightly carbonaceous. In the shales of the first section there are a few 



leaves of Glossopteris, together with a number of indistinct fragments of 



stems and leaves of other ferns. Further north there is a carbonaceous 



shale with coaly layers, the thickness of which does not exceed six inches. 



At other points in the stream further on similar rocks are exposed. 



( 181 ) 



