NERBUDDA DISTRICT. 109 



appears to have entirely overlooked the occurrence of fossil bones 



in the other deposit near Jubbulpore, which is of totally different 



character and age. Mr. Adolphe S. describes the sandstone of Bun- 



delcund and Gwalior as absolutely identical with similar rocks in 



the Nerbudda Valley, at Nagpore, near Trivicar} 7 in South Arcot, &c, 



&c, and thinks the coal strata of Raneegunj also the same. It will be 



seen that the conclusions arrived at by the Geological Survey are 



totally different. 



(Mineral resources.} — Besides the more purely scientific memoirs above 



quoted, there has been much written on the mineral resources of this 



part of India, where coal and iron have long been objects of research and 



observation. Colonel Ouseley seems to have been the earliest as well as 



most successful explorer of coal, of whose labors we have any account 



on record. In 1827(a) he discovered the Sonadi 

 1827. Ouseley. v 



seam as well as that near Murdanpur, and in 

 1832 he found some coal near Futtehpur. In 1835(&) he described 

 the coal in the Sita Rivva river near Mopani, as well as that exposed 

 by the Hurd river above Hutnapur, and although he in every case 

 took a perhaps too favorable view of the -commercial value of these 

 localities, yet with him remains the merit of having first pointed out 

 the places where the mineral was to be found, and of drawing to the sub- 

 ject the attention of Government and of the public. 



With this view, he in 1838 sent 206 bullock loads of the Mopani coal to 

 Bombay, where it was tried in the dock-yards, and after comparison with 

 some of the well-known standard coals of Europe, its value as a fuel was 

 determined and placed on record. We may here add that if the reports 

 and papers given to the public by the many observers who since Col. 

 Ouseley's time have visited the Nerbudda Valley be examined, it will be 

 found that not one of them has added one valuable locality to those which 

 he named, or one useful observation to those contained in his description. 



(a) Jour. As. Soc. Bengal, Vol.^III. p. 395 —(6) Ibid. Vol. IV. p. 648. 



