Chap. I.] history of geology. 3 



is quite exceptional, a Southerly dip being the prevalent one elsewhere ; 



and it is probable that, in a great measure, he depended upon native 



information for the accounts of the extension of the field. At any thing 



like a description of the coal formation there is no attempt in the paper. 



In May 1831 appeared a short notice of Geological Observations 



made on a Journey from Calcutta to Ghazivur. 

 Rev. R. Everest, 1831. * l ' 



by the Reverend E. Everest * He went across 

 from Bancureh (Bancoorah) to Raniganj, and briefly notices the 

 coal pits. He alludes distinctly to the remarkable facts connected 

 with the burnt out-crop of the Raniganj seam, and describes it as an 

 outburst or eruption, somewhat like a volcanic eruption — " There has 

 " been a small eruption on the side of the hill, probably occasioned by the 

 " spontaneous combustion of the coal strata beneath. Blocks of a porous 

 " lava, with pieces of hard slate imbedded in them, of semi-vitrified slate 

 " sticking together, of burnt shale, red and white, and scoria?, are 

 " mingled in a mass not less than 130 yards across, and in some places 

 " from 12 to 14 feet thick." The whole, or nearly so, appears to have 

 burst forth in a line of rents under the crest of the hill, &c. &c, and he 

 adds; — " Some time ago, in the main bed of coal, 75 feet below the surface, 

 " the workmen had reached to within 30 yards of the Western end of 

 " what I have described as a line of rents, when a quantity of what they 

 " called cinders burst in upon them, and nearly filled the gallery in which 

 " they were, and whichhas beenabandoned in consequence. Cinders they 

 " are not, but merely burnt shale, such as would be produced by heating 

 " shale in the open air." He describes the bed of coal then worked as 

 8 or 10 feet thick, and thinks it probable that it was "the main bed 

 in the formation," — notices the peculiar structure of the coal with " an 

 appearance of woody fibre" on the lamina?, — refers to the vegetable 

 remains, thinking they may be ranked under the same genera as those 

 from the English coal measures, and specially notices the impressions of 



* Gleanings in Science, Vol. III., page 1 29. 



