110 NERBUDDA DISTRICT. 



In 1839(a) Spilsbury brought to notice the seam of shale seen at 

 Lameta ghat near Jubbulpur, greatly exaggerat- 



1839. Spilsbury. . . , .,.. , . ,, „ . _. , 



ing its capabilities, and in the report or the Coal 



Committee for 1845, this bed is spoken of as "a very large bed of coal many 

 yards in thickness and of first rate quality," with a second bed 400 yards 

 down the stream, 6 feet thick. This shale has been the subject of some curi- 

 ous exaggeration which may be given as a specimen of the information 

 current on the subject of the mineral resources of this part of India. 



In Dr. Carter's " Summary" the following passage appears at page 

 667. " Ansted in his Elementary Geology under the head of " Jub- 

 buipur" states, * that, at nine miles from the station, there is a bed 

 " of first rate quality (coal) many yards thick, crossing the bed of 

 " the Sone;' the nearest part of the Sone to Jubbulpore is forty 

 " miles distant, so this would appear to be the largest bed yet dis- 

 " covered." 



A reference to the Coal Committee Report for 1845, page 178, shows 

 at once that Professor Ansted copied these statements, in which Sone had 

 been misprinted for Nerbudda, a mistake not likely to be corrected by 

 a writer in England. But to any one familiar with Indian geography, it 

 would certainly have appeared more probable that some error in the 

 statement had occurred, than that a bed of coal stated to have been 

 observed nine miles from the station of Jubbulpur should, in reality, 

 cross the Sone, the nearest point of which was forty miles distant. But 

 without any inquiry whatever into the grounds of Professor Ansted's 

 statement, and apparently, from the tendency of Indian Geologists to 

 exacmerate everything supposed to be favorable to the existence of valu- 

 able mineral resources, we find the statement accepted at once, and a 

 bed of coal of " first rate quality" and " of many yards thickness" 

 stated to exist over forty miles, and the somewhat amusing remark 

 added, that this is "the largest bed yet discovered." 



(a) Jour. As. Soc. Bengal, Vol. VIII, p. 530, 



