THE COAL OF ASSAAL 13 



The only- other important section I obtained of these rocks was at 

 the Namcliik. This is, like the Terap, a tribu- 



The Namchik Section. 



tary of the Deehing; it is three days^ journey to 



eastwards, up a constantly diminishing* stream, though scarcely twenty 

 miles in a direct line. The outer hills are here lower and less steep. 

 The best section I obtained was in a small stream flowing- northward, 

 shortly before the ridg-e is interrupted by the g-org-e of the Namchik. 

 Within a length of about 200 feet, including several yards of covered 

 ground, I noted three thick beds of sound, good coal ; one of them, 

 eight feet thick, has the unusual crystalloid structure which seems to 

 characterise the seam now worked on the Terap. Fine shaly carbona- 

 ceous clays are freely associated with the coal beds, the rest of the section 

 being occupied by sandstones of the same kind as accompany the coal 

 at the Terap. Throughout this section the strata have a steady dip of 

 about 65° to south-south-east. At about three miles to westwards the 

 same rocks have a high dip to south-SO^-west ; thus even the strike 

 of the strata is subject to much local variation. 



There cannot, I conceive, be any reasonable doubt that the sec- 

 Inferences, tions of the Terap and the Namchik belong to 

 the same band. Considering the character of the rocks, the steadiness 

 and the uniformity of individual beds, and the strong general uni- 

 formity of the group at two such distant places, it would seem that 

 these deposits offer a nearer approach to the type of regular coal- 

 measures than any yet known in India. If the coal seams noticed by 

 me were the only ones in the field, which, I need hardly say, is ex- 

 tremely improbable, the supply they promise is practically unlimited. 

 But they extend to an unknown distance eastwards ; and to the west- 

 wards they have been traced, and even worked, in several localities. 

 The extension of them is, as I have already observed, to be sought in the 

 hills south of Jaipoor ; here, however, they would for the most pai-t be 

 out of reach of profitable extraction. 



( 399 } 



