108 KANIGANJ COAL FIELD. [CHAP. IV. § 4. 



From the Sripur quarry scarcely any coal has been extracted, but 

 South of the road some large quarries have been worked by Babu 

 Gobind Parsad. The coal is of fair quality, far superior to that 

 in the upper seam. A mine has been commenced near this by 

 the East India Coal Company, upon the same seam, but no coal has as 

 yet been extracted. 



These two seams, doubtless, underlie all the ground West of the 

 Ntinia at no great depth, and as the new line of railway will pass close 

 to their out-crop, they may probably hereafter be largely worked in the 

 villages of Asansol, Muslia, Gushin, &c. The out-crop of the lower 

 and superior seam probably passes S. S. E. through the villages of 

 Mahantur and Rotibati. 



West of the Ntania, at least 200 or 300 feet above the coal seams 

 last described, there is a run of carbonaceous shales and ironstones, the 

 latter thin, but of fair quality. These may represent a bed to be 

 hereafter described, as having a considerable extension to the West 

 of the basin of Panchet beds, which occupies so large a portion 

 of the area West of the Ntinia, between the Grand Trunk Road 

 and the River Damuda. Above these shales again, and close to the 

 great trap dyke, which runs, bearing North 20° West, through the 

 village of Dhamra, the out-crop of a coal seam is exposed a little 

 South of the small stream which crosses the dyke South of the Grand 

 Trunk Road. 



Below Rotibati, a burnt out-crop of coal is seen in the Ntinia, 



rr , ,, . , opposite the village of Kumardhi, and thence 

 Near Kumardhi at rr ° 5 



Chalwad. f or a considerable distance, the stream runs 



through coarse felspathic sandstones, and mostly along their strike. 

 A coal seam, intersected by trap, crosses the stream about three- 

 quarters of a mile East of the village of Chalwad (or Chalwidi), and has 

 been worked by Babu Gobind Parsad, in Chalbalpur, East of the Ntinia, 

 and by the Bengal Coal Company, to the West of the stream (Beldanga). 



