On the Geological Structure and Relations of the Talcheer Coal Field, 

 in the District of Cuttack By Messrs. W. T. and H. F. Blanford 

 and Wm. Theobald, Jim., Oeological Survey of India. 



The portion of country examined during the cold season of 1855-56, 

 in the district of Cuttack, Hes between the Kivers Brahmini and Maha- 

 nuddi, extending from the Western boundary of the reported Talcheer 

 Coal Field in East Longitude 8i° 20' to a few miles East of Cuttack. It 

 ■will also be necessary to make a few remarks on the hiUs of the Nil- 

 gherry Range to the South-West of Balasore, and on a small tract of 

 sandstone South of Cuttack and of the Mahanuddi, as being geologically, 

 as well as physically, closely connected with the district which forms the 

 main subject of this Report. 



The chief physical features of this district may be simply and briefly 

 „,.,„. „., described. From the coast a cultivated alluvial 



rnysical features or the 



'^'^*''"^'- plain, varying from 15 to 45 miles in breadth, 



extends to the base of the hills forming the district of Cuttack. 



From this plain small isolated and steep hills rise in a few places to 

 the North of Cuttack and, taken in connection with the bosses and 

 whale-back ridges which stud the surrounding country, present aU the 

 features of an up-raised archipelago, and lead to the belief that, at no very 

 remote geological period, the sea of the Western portion of the Bay of 

 Bengal dashed against many a rugged chff and rolled around clusters of 

 islands which studded over what is now the Province of Cuttack : 

 indeed, a comparatively trifling depression of the country might 

 re-produce the same phenomena. Upon entering the hills, they are seen 

 to consist not of long continuous ranges, but generally of insulated and 

 rugged ridges, seldom more than 10 to 15 mUes in length, and having one 

 uniform direction, nearly due East and West, parallel with the lamination 



