102 EANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [ChAP. IV. § 4. 



To recapitulate. There are, in the Raniganj area., three principal 

 seams of excellent coal. The highest of these, 17J feet thick, is worked 

 at Sirsol only, and is unknown elsewhere. The second, about 250 

 feet lower in the section, and 13 feet to 16 feet thick, is found and 

 worked at Raniganj and Damulia, and probably underlies a consider- 

 able tract North of Raniganj, including the station, and a third seam 

 15 to 20 feet thick worked at Jemeri, Mangalptir, Harispur, Babusol, 

 and perhaps at Parasia. 



But these conclusions may be fallacious. There can be very little 

 doubt that the Mangalptir, Harispur, and Babusol seams are the same, 

 but their close representation by the Jemeri seam may be accidental. * 



Several quarries are worked in the Jemeri seam, within the village 

 lands, by Babti Gobind Persad, the owner of Sirsol, and a mine has 

 been commenced upon the same seam, in the adjoining village of 

 Nimcha, by the Bengal Coal Company. The coal from the main seam is 

 of excellent quality, and, probably, when mined from a sufficient depth 

 to be beyond the range of the decomposing action of surface waters, 

 will be found equal to that of Sirsol, if not even better. The out-crop 

 cannot be traced for any distance to the West, but it is seen running in 

 a direction of East 10-20° West for nearly a mile, as far as the village of 

 Nimcha. 



The backs in Eaniganj mine are North 25° East and West 20° North, 

 a less marked one being W. S. W. ; in Rogonathchuk they are West 40° 

 North and North 10° East; in Jemeri North 30-35° East and North 

 10° West. 



The rocks associated with these coal seams are, in general, very thick, 



Rocks associated with massive, and rather coarse-grained felspathic 

 sandstones, excessively false-bedded, and occa- 

 sionally with extremely hard, nodular bands, which are calcareous, 



* Should the seams prove as surmised above, the Tapassi or Chokidanga seam may 

 represent that of Bauali. But this is very doubtful. 



