i46 



KHASI HILLS. 



■white and reddish in colour ; irregularly bedded ,but firm, and would 

 form an excellent mining roof; under this from twelve to fifteen inches 

 of good coal ; then about twelve inches of hard black micaceous shale, 

 difficult to work ; then about three feet of good coal, mixed here and 

 there with sandy masses, similar to those which occur in the lower por- 

 tion of the Cherra coal and at Bairung. 



West of this (at b on plan) there is a deep pit-like hollow, overgrown 

 with jungle, whence some coal has been extracted. The bed where 

 thickest (to the North) is about three feet, not bad coal, though frag- 

 mentary, but it rapidly and within fifteen to twenty feet thins out to one 

 foot, and then dies away altogether. There is no appearance of any 

 fault or break, a very slight " trouble" which heads East and West being 

 all that is visible. A deep hole here pierces to the beds below, and ap- 

 pears to me to have principally resulted from the falling-in of the rock 

 in all probability into a large cavity or open space in the limestone 

 beneath. 



The roof of the coal is here, as before, sandstone, but it appears some- 

 what softer and less coherent. The accompanying sketch (Fig. 14) will 

 give an idea of the irregular manner in which the coal is developed. 



. 3 i SandeiimC- 

 Fig, 14.. 



JuJ. 



The dip here is N. 10° E. at about 5*. 



To the North of this (at c) another working has been opened in the 

 face of a deep glen or croom, where the coal is of considerable thick- 



