Preliminary Notice. 



The following Eeport on the Raniganj coal field, by Mr. W. T. 

 Blanford, is the result of an examination of that important district, 

 made during 1858-60. 



When, in 1856, the duties of the Geological Survey in India were 

 systematized and extended, it was determined to confine, so far as 

 possible, the attention of the Geologists attached to the survey to 

 such portions of the country as had been surveyed and mapped, 

 either by the Great Trigonometrical, or by the Revenue, Surveys and 

 of which, consequently, maps existed sufficiently detailed and accurate 

 for the record of the Geological observations. It was hoped, that in 

 this way, the time of those engaged in the Geological examination of 

 the country which had been previously devoted to the preparation of 

 such maps, would be saved. Acting on this principle, this very 

 important and interesting coal field had been passed over, because no 

 maps of it had been published by the Surveys in India. It was well 

 known to myself and to others of the Geological Survey of India, who 

 had, in the progress of their labors, crossed this field, that there were 

 many points of great interest, which called for further elucidation, 

 and several which demanded important corrections, in the Report and 

 Map of Mr. Williams, who had geologically examined this field in 

 1845-47. But these had all been reserved until the completion of a 

 map of the country by the Revenue Survey. Towards the close, 

 however, of the year 1858, the great demand for increased Railway 

 accommodation from the proprietors of collieries, and the desire to 

 open out this valuable mineral district more fully than had already 

 been the case, led to an enquiry from the Geological Survey, on the 

 part of the Government, for information as to the actual sites of the 

 collieries at work on the field, the value of these, and the best direc- 



