TALCHEEE COAL FIELD. 43 



additional simulation of glacial action might be expected ; but nothing of 

 the kind here occurs, there is no scratching whatever apparent, and the 

 causes of the smooth rounded siurfaces appear too evident to be mistaken. 



The great variations in the mineral composition of the metamorphic 

 rocks appear nearly, if not exactly, to follow or to run parallel with 

 their planes of foliation, which throughout the district have a general 

 direction about W. N. "W. to E. S. E., dipping at a very high 

 angle, generally almost vertical Thus we have the hornblendic 

 gneiss, stretching along the Northern' boundary of the Talcheer field 

 in this direction ; and although not continuous, it has been traced for 25 

 miles and again re-appears ; while the highly granitoid gneiss of 

 Santapara extends similarly along the Southern boundary. The same 

 cause would appear also to have given a direction to the great faults 

 of the district, and doubtless affected the general lie of the short hill- 

 ridges throughout. It is not improbable, that many of these hills 

 were produced by large faults, since most of those on the immediate 

 borders of the coal measure beds can be traced to this cause, and the 

 abrupt character of the hills would seem to point to the same conclusion. 

 It wiU be very interesting to follow up similar observations along the 

 great lines of metamorphic rocks in Bengal. 



The only sedimentary rocks occurring in this District, (with the 



exception of "laterite" and some other super- 

 Sedimentaey Rocks. ^ . , i . . 



ncial deposits), are sandstones, conglomerates, and 



shales in part carbonaceous. These occur, as before mentioned, in two 



basins,* which may be called the Talcheer and the Atgurh basins, of 



which the former is the larger, and forms more particularly the subject 



of the present Report. 



* Doubtless, when the country shall be more fully examined, many more will be disco- 

 vered ; a large one, as annoimced by Captain Saxton, certainly exists North-west of Sumbul- 

 pur, and others in Nagpur. 



