THE COAL OF ASSAM. 17 



possible to raarcli along through the hills ; and the Seehsaugor authovi- 

 tiesj to whom these hills naturally belong, had disclaimed the right or 

 the power to aid the undertaking. When I was at Jaipoor I had 

 no elephants to attempt the route along the base of the hills; I 

 wasj moreover, told that it was almost impracticable, — my trip to 

 the Namchik and through the Singphoo District was effected entirely 

 by canoe in company with Captain Comber. I consoled myself with 

 the prospect of taking up the Seebsaugor hills again in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Nazeerah. This I did ; but circumstances proved unfavor- 

 able, so that my observations were far less satisfactory than could be 

 desired. There can be little doubt that for some distance beyond the 

 Desang to the south-west, the same conditions obtain as I have 

 noticed between that river and the Dehing ; and it is not unlikely 

 that local circumstances may be found more favorable than any in the 

 Jaipoor neighbourhood; the outcrop may reach higher on the range, 

 affording a good section of the band. A similar inference may be made 

 regarding the continuation to the north-east along the Tippum range ; 

 but very little is to be expected here. I visited the pung^ near Bazalani, 

 eight miles beyond the Dehing ; I believe it to be on the outcrop of the 



each being in its original vertical order. Besides this general argument there are some 

 local facts to favor inversion. On the Makoom Eiver, about 10 miles west of the Terap 

 Sub-Himalayan sandstone occurs to the south of the coal, dipping from it, and thus appa- 

 rently overlying it. Supposing the coal the same (it is very badly seen), both these sec- 

 tions cannot be normal. This locality is, as I have said, at some distance from the ridge, 

 I suppose it to be on the north of the axis of flexure. The other observation to which 

 I allude is the position of the gas and petroleum springs at the Namchik. There are 

 several of these pungs ; the most numerous and copious occur, in their natural position, 

 about the outcrop of the coal band ; those, however, that have been stockaded for ele- 

 phant-catching rise through the clays and sandstones of the Sub- Himalayan rocks suo-- 

 gesting that under these too the coal occurs. The chief difficulty to the supposition . of 

 inversion — I may say the only one, for such phenomena are by no means very rare — is the 

 seemingly little disturbed state of the rocks in the Terap section; there is even a small 

 flat anticlinal close to where I want to introduce a main synclinal flexure. 

 * See below. 



c ( 403 ) 



