70 TALCHEEK COAL FIELD. 



in small patches upon the plains. On the Talcheer field it is very spar- 

 ingly distributed, and never of great thickness, its principal development 

 being on a slightly rising ground West of the town of Talcheer, where it 

 overlies some sandstones of the middle group. Between Bapur and Rasul, 

 on the Cuttack and Ungool road, the laterite forms low hills, having an 

 elevation of probably 150 to 200 feet above the sea level, indicating 

 considerable elevation and depression since its deposition or formation. 

 With regard to the origin of this laterite, the infiltration of iron from 



springs, &c. may serve to explain the greater part 

 Oriscin* 



of its occurrence in the Cuttack district. In aU 



cases it seems to be the result of alteration of the rock below, this 

 alteration consisting essentially of an addition of iron (the peroxide,) It 

 certainly has not arisen simply by the peroxidation of the iron contained 

 because many of the rocks which have been changed into laterite must 

 have been almost entirely devoid of ferruginous matter. This is especi- 

 ally the case with the white clay converted into laterite at and near 

 Midnapur (where the laterite is particularly well seen.) 



A very interesting case is seen North of Cuttack. Around the gneiss 

 hills which have been mentioned as rising suddenly from the alluvial 

 plain, a quantity of water-worn pebbles are always found, evidently the 

 remains of an old beach. Although, owing to weathering, these pebbles 

 have somewhat lost their rounded form and smooth surface, yet their mode 

 of occurrence and the absence of large angular blocks prove that they 

 are of beach origin and not merely rolled from the hills. Around some 

 of the hills, though not all, this pebble bed is cemented by laterite into 

 a conglomerate. In its depressions, this is covered by a rather sandy 

 alluvium, and appears to underlie all the paddy-fields. The gneiss, of 

 which all the pebbles are composed, is slightly ferruginous, but not 

 at all sufficiently so for these pebbles alone to have supplied the iron 

 in the laterite. There has evidently been a supply of the metallic 

 oxide from some extraneous source. Agaiu, near Kunkerai, on the 



