TALCHEER COAL FIELD'. 83 



newer beds (excepting recent fresh-water deposits) overlying them 



renders their precise age indeterminate. 

 In concluding this Report, it will be well briefly to mention a few of 

 Resumfe. General con- ^^8 most important general facts regarding the 



^ "^'°°^' district which have been arrived at : — 



1st. The oldest rocks of the Cuttack district are gneiss and the 



Oldest rocks of dis- accompanying largely crystalline granite ; the 



lie . neias, c. metamorphism of the former being probably coeval 



with the intrusion of the latter. 



2nd. The sedimentary rocks of the district are composed of 

 Three groups of the ^^^^^ groups, each resting unconformably on that 



sedimentary rocks. beneath it, and these are evidently paraUel with 



groups observed elsewhere, viz., in Nagpur and Damoodah. 



Srd. The Talcheer basin, and most probably that of Atgurh also, 



Not origmal basins of ^^'^ °°* original basins of deposition, but are the 



eposition. remnants of a large area of sedimentary deposits 



subsequently denuded, and leaving these isolated patches in some measure 



preserved by being let down by faults among the harder crystalline 



rocks. Most of the fields examined are found to be bounded by faults 



along a great portion of their peripheries. 



ML The trap dykes, &c., so conspicuous a feature in the coal fields 

 of the Rajmahal, Damoodah, and Nerbudda 



No trap dj'kes, &c. . , , . . . , 



districts, and playing so important a part m the 



Geology of Central and Western India, are entirely absent in the 



Cuttack district ; not even any trap pebbles or boulders having been 



found in the alluvial deposits. Hence it is inferred that the district was 



beyond the area of volcanic action at the time of these intrusions. 



5th. Considerable marine denudation, in recent as well as more 



ancient periods, is evidenced by the rounded form 

 Denudation. 



of the hills, while a recent very gradual elevation 



is indicated by the gradually decreasing height of the hills towards the 



Coast, and the broad plain stretching to the base of the hills. 



