206 GEOLOGICAL RELATIONS OF THE ROCK SYSTEMS 



In the district at present under description we have no definite group 

 of beds above the Panchet division. I put aside the doubtful sub- 

 group of the " Upper Panchet," which occurs only in detached localities, 

 where the physical evidence of its position is more than obscure ; and 

 which, containing no recognizable fossils, can afford no evidence of 

 trustworthy character one way or the other. It is very probable that 

 Mr. Blanford is correct in supposing that these so-called Upper Pan- 

 chet beds represent the coarse grits and sandstones which occur in the 

 Rajmahal Hills at the base of the Rajmahal group ; but this is 

 by no means established. 



Below the strata of the Panchet group, we come immediately upon the 

 upper beds of the great Damuda system, the group to which Mr. Blanford 

 has applied the name ' Rdniganj.'' Between this Raniganj group, 

 including at its base the Ironstone shales, and the " Lower Damuda" 

 group of Mr. Blanford's report, there is evidence of a slight unconfor- 

 mity and change of both area and condition of deposit. But, indepen- 

 dently of this, there are many links of connection, both in the general 

 lithological character of the rocks, in the continuance almost through- 

 out the entire system of large deposits and growth of vegetable matter, 

 now existing in the mineralized condition of coal ; and in general 

 stratigraphical relations tending to bind all these groups of beds (having 

 a total thickness of nearly ten thousand feet) into one system, the 

 Damuda of my classification^ 



But, coincident with this general connection there are most im- 

 portant and most marked proofs of separation into distinct groups. 

 "We have spoken of the physical evidence ; the palasontological is 

 equally, if not more, definite. Immediately on passing down into the 

 Damuda series, we find abundant representatives of the genus Glossop- 

 teris, of which no trace whatever has been seen in the " Rajmahal" 

 group, and only one small drifted and broken fragment of a frond in 



* Jour. As. Soc, Bengal, vol. 1856, p. 249. 



