Chap. IV. § 4.] . raniganj group. 89 



the proprietors of Kajra, Diguala, Dakhinkhand, &c., to explore their 

 lands by borings. 



III. Rdniganj and its neighborhood. 



The small area embraced in this title, and comprising the mines of 



Gopinathpur, Bhangaband, Sirsol, Raniganj, 

 Richness in coal. , 



Rogonathchuk, Damulia, Harabhanga, Nimcha, 



Jemeri, and Banali, although not covering a larger area than 20 square 



miles, produces half of the whole amount of fuel mined in the Raniganj 



„, ., „ , , . field. But, despite the lights thrown upon its e;eo- 



Obscunty of relations r ° r o 



of seams. logy by these numerous mines, it is so much cut up 



by faults, and so little is seen of the surface, that the relations of some 

 of the most important coal seams to each other, and their position in 

 the general section, are, in the last degree, obscure. 



About half a mile "West of Mangalptir colliery, and close to the Grand 



Quarry near Mangal- Trunk Road > the ou t-crop of a seam, apparently 

 pur - 4 or 5 feet thick, is seen, in which a quarry was 



once worked by the Bengal Coal Company. The spot is an excellent 

 one for fossils, and very beautiful impressions of leaves abound in some 

 soft shales beneath the coal. 



About 1 mile West of Mangalpur, in the village of Gopinathpur 



or Bansra, is the mine known by the first name, 

 Gopinathpur or Bansra. 



the property of the East India Coal Company. It 



has been worked for a few years. The seam dips to the South, so some 

 peculiar faulting must intervene between this mine and that at Man- 

 galpur. The seam is 7 feet thick, and is of unequal, and in parts, of 

 inferior quality ; its out-crop can be. traced for more than a mile to the 



Bengal Coal Company's quarry at Bhangaband, 

 Bhangaband. 



(formerly worked by a native, and then known as 



Kantagaria,) which is upon the same seam. The quality of the coal 



M 



