308 GEOLOGICAL RELATIONS OF THE ROCK SYSTEMS 



western portion of Beerbhoom district. In describing these, he directed 

 my attention to the peculiar lithological character of the beds which 

 occur there, and to the fact of their remarkable identity with the beds, 

 which occur at the base of the Ranigunj coal-field, along its northern 

 boundary, (as described by Mr. Williams in his report, published 1850). 



The shales which formed the larger portion of the rocks were 

 described (December 1854, manuscript report), as " mudstones, layers 

 of different colours, and- slightly varying coarseness of material giving 

 faint indications of the direction and thickness of the original beds ;" 

 formed in layers of from 6 inches to 10 feet thick ; "divided by at least 

 " three, if not more, planes of jointing, which cut each other at differ- 

 ent angles, and reduce the rock to a mass of little cubes, as polygonal 

 " fragments, &c. &c, giving to the whole a very characteristic appear- 

 " ance difficult to describe ; but, once seen easily recognized." The 

 sandstones also were spoken of as " soft, muddy, micaceous ; " some- 

 times C( fine grained, and, at the same time, muddy and passing insensibly 

 into the mud-flags" and " on the other hand, by various gradations into 

 a very coarse conglomerate, with blocks of from 10 to 20 cubic feet 

 in size, which blocks are all fragments of the crystalline rocks around." 



In this district, no rocks of a newer epoch occur in connection with 

 these, and the whole was then viewed as a part of the great series to 

 which the coal bearing rocks of Bengal belonged. 



In the beginning of 1855, Mr. Henry B. Medlicott, while rapidly 

 examining the Singrowlie coal-field, to the south of Mirzapore in the 

 Rewah country, remarked the peculiar lithological character of the beds 

 at the base of the series seen there (see above page 172) "green mud 

 " which breaks into cubical fragments, and is much traversed by seams 

 "of calcareous matter, principally on the joint surfaces; it often con- 

 " tains pebbles of the old crystalline rocks, and sometimes boulders of 

 e: these of considerable size, occasionally weighing many tons." Again, 

 in the section of a pit, he gives "boulder clay''' "arenaceous lime- 



