44 KANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [CliAP. IV. § 1. 



allied to Schizoneura. The two first-named genera are very rare, but 

 the last is so abundant and so generally distributed, that the circum- 

 stance of its not having been discovered in the lower series is very 

 probably due to its absence, while leaves of a similar or closely allied 

 plant ( Zeugophyllites) have been found in the lower, but not in the 

 upper series. Vertebraria, Glossopteris of several species (more in the 

 higher than in the lower beds), Phyllotheca, and other plant remains 

 abound throughout. 



There being thus, both on physical grounds and on fossil evidence, 

 Representations of Da- ;a probability of a division in the Damuda group 



muda rocks elsewhere. of ^ R £ nigan j field? ft re mains to be Seen 



which portion represents the group as described elsewhere, for as yet 



there has, in no other area, been found evidence of a distinction. 



The districts in which Damuda rocks occur, and of which the writer 



can speak from personal experience, are the Raj- 

 Rajmahal Hills. 



mahal Hills and the Talchir basin. In the former 



case, and, probably, in the latter, the representatives of the beds of the 

 Raniganj field are confined to the Lower Damuda group, to which the 

 mineral character of the beds closely approximates. In the case of the 

 Rajmahal Hills this is so marked as to be sufficient evidence, but the 

 Talchir field is too far away for certainty. In the former instance, 

 and to some extent in the latter, no such beds of rather fine felspathic 

 sandstone false-bedded and of great thickness are found as occur in the 

 upper series of Raniganj. Sandy micaceous shales, poor gritty iron- 

 stones, white and grey conglomeritic sandstone, all of which, if abun- 

 dant, characterize the lower division, are abundant, and the coal seams 

 are of inferior quality and irregular thickness. Of the Lower Damudas 



of the Narbadda it is more difficult to speak with 

 Narbadda. . . . . . 



certainty ; the description of their mineral cha- 

 racter would apply equally to either division, and, indeed, at so great 

 a distance, mineral character must be unusually marked and peculiar in 



