56 .TALCHEER COAL FIELD. 



these shales) is viewed in connection with the occurrence, previously 

 remarked, of a thick boulder bed with a matrix of fine silfc, there seems 

 to arise a confirmation of the view there suggested, and stronger ground 

 for assuming the existence, at that time, of the only other, and only 

 adequate means of transport for pebbles and boulders, in such circum- 

 Action of floating or stances as here observed, viz., the agency of ground 

 ground ice. j^^^ This appears the only theory which can satis- 



factorily explain all the observed phoenomena. 



The absence of organic remains from the beds of this group, so far as 

 examined, complete as regards animal, and partial as regards vegetable, 

 remains, is difficult to comprehend, and seems clearly to indicate different 

 climatal conditions from those now prevailing in a country where every 

 pool teems with life, molluscous, articulate and vertebrate. That fresh- 

 water life was equally prolific in Mesozoic times in colder countries is proved 

 by the Purbeck beds in England and the Staffan shales in Scotland. 



The beds of the middle series, or the Damoodah group, of the sedi- 

 mentary rocks of the Talcheer basin, are easily 



Dajioodah Group. 



distinguished from the underlying beds of shale 



and sandstone, on which they rest unconformably. 

 Xithologioal character. 



They consist of coarse grey and brown grits, fre- 

 quently ferruginous, of carbonaceous shales with coal interstratified, and 

 of red and blue shales and white clays and sandstones. Palaeontologi- 

 ^ , ' , . , , cally, they are characterized by containing plant 



Palseontological cha- j' j •^ o x- 



r^<^^er. remains, chiefly of the genera vertebraria, pecop- 



teris, glossopteris and trizygia. 



They extend over a large area in the Eastern portion of the field, 



where the uppermost or Mahadewa division, which 

 Extent. 



in the "West rises in the form of flat-topped hills, 



has been partially or wholly denuded, leaving a broad tract of gently 



undulating country, extending from the banks of the Brahmini to 



beyond the village of Antigura, a distance of nearly 30 miles. 



