26 RAN IG AN J COAL FIELD. [ChAP. II. 



the beds is repeated by a fault, which follows the course of the river. 

 Only a thin band, however, of the rocks can be examined, a consider- 

 able breadth of the Adjai Valley, South of Afzalpiir, and further 

 East, being occupied by alluvium. Another fault, still further North, 

 brings in a second strip of rocks, which, however, appears to 

 be separated throughout from the first by a band of metamorphic 

 rocks. 



The principal drainage of this small area flows into the Damuda, the 

 water-shed between which and the Adjai runs in 



Principal drainage. 



most places only 4 or 5 miles South of the latter 

 river, and consists of a range of high ground, composed, for a consi- 

 derable distance, of a band of carbonaceous shales containing iron- 

 stones, which will presently be described. Within the boundaries of 

 the field the Damuda receives the Barakar, a river but little inferior to 

 itself in size, and two smaller streams, the Ntinia and the Singaran : 

 the course of the former of these two and of the three streams, which, 

 near Asansol, combine to form it, is entirely within the area of the field, 

 and that of the latter only leaves the coal-bearing rocks to pass in the 

 lower part of its course, through a tract of alluvium bordering the Da- 

 mtida. The Barakar, near its confluence with the Damuda, receives the 

 Ktidia, which, with its tributary, the Pasai, drains the West of the field. 

 From the South the Damuda receives several small streams, most of 

 which rise in the metamorphic country to the South of the boundary. 



The surface of the field is undulating, and was formerly covered with 

 jungle, which has now been cleared nearly throughout. It is generally 

 covered with clay, in some parts alluvial, but in others formed from 

 the decomposition of the rocks. This covering is in general much 

 thicker upon the beds hereafter to be described as the " Raniganj 

 series," and upon the upper portion of the " Panchet beds" than upon 

 the Lower Damuda or Talchir rocks, while generally it is wanting 

 upon the carbonaceous shales, containing ironstone bands. In many 



