38 RANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [ChAP. III. 



of the places where they occur. But a few are occasionally met 

 with, composed of an altered and hardened sandstone, very distinct 

 from any bed now occurring in the immediate vicinity, and apparently 

 even less altered than the sandstones of the Karakptir Hills, near Mon- 

 ghyr. In one instance, near Chargora, a boulder of clay slate, contain- 

 ing pyrites, was met with. Greenstone pebbles are also found. But 

 the largest pebbles are always composed of gneis'sic rocks, and those of 

 sandstone, &c, are always rare. 



The surface of the metamorphic rocks, upon which the base of the 

 Talchir group rests, is extremely uneven. Its great irregularity is well 

 seen along the North boundary, West of the Barakar, where small hills 

 of it, in some places, as at Madanpur, stand up through the Talchirs 

 surrounding them. Another instance is seen at Kenjia, North-east of 

 Samdi. In one of the preceding sections, page 37, a hard, green, 

 calcareous conglomerate or boulder bed is mentioned. This appears 

 to plaster over the hollows of the metamorphic rocks in places, 

 and may be the remains of a formation of older age than the 

 Talchirs. 



Within the Damuda area, the only fossils obtained from the Talchir 



group have been a few seed vessels and indistinct 



Fossils in Talchirs. l 



carbonaceous markings, probably of stems. These 

 occurred at a spot in the West branch of the Nunia, close to the 

 villages of Gopalpur and Alkusa. In one of the small patches of 

 Talchir beds which dot the country North of the Raniganj field, 

 that on which the village of Karaon stands, a few ferns were found 

 in a calcareous concretion. The best marked was a form interme- 

 diate between Glossopteris and Cyclopteris. Only one or two impres- 

 sions were found altogether. 



In many places, about the middle of the Talchirs, the flags and 

 shales, which are frequently rippled, are covered with irregular pitted 

 impressions, so much resembling foot-prints, that it is difficult to avoid 



