OP CENTRAL INDIA AND BEiNGAL, 311 



though apparently not separated from them by any great lapse in time, 

 a thick group of sandstones and shales with numerous beds of coal, has 

 been already alluded to. These beds have been long known. They 

 occur largely developed, in the Ranigunj Coal-field, which has for many 

 years been so profitably worked ; they were traced, during the season 

 of 1852-53, extending, with interruption, along the whole western face 

 of the Rajmahal Hills. Dr. McClelland had already described them in 

 the detached Coal-field of Kurhurbari. Mr. Williams in the Ramcmrh 

 Coal-fields, a short distance to the south of Hazareebagh. They were 

 known to exist in the field of Palamow to the south of the Sone river 

 and in Singrowli, still further to the west. Coal was also known to occur 

 in the Nerbudda valley in several places, and the researches of the bro- 

 thers Medlicott in 1855-56 had proved the identity of these beds with 

 those of Bengal, from the identity of the organic remains found in them. 

 That there was therefore one great system, or formation, to which the 

 majority at least of the rocks associated with the coals of Bengal and Cen- 

 tral India belonged, was established. About the same time, as Mr. 

 Medlicott was so zealously working out the Nerbudda district, the bro- 

 thers Blanford and Mr. Theobald were engaged in the Talcheer district 

 in Orissa. And here, quite independently of the labours of others, they 

 also established the fact, that the coal beds occurring there were associat- 

 ed with a group of rocks, peculiar in themselves and separated from those 

 above and below them by a distinct physical break. The same conclusion 

 had been arrived at in the examination of the Rajmahal hills, and in the 

 Nerbudda. And for this great group or series I proposed in May 1856, 

 the name of Damuda or Damooda, from the name of the river alono- 

 the banks of which the most important and the most productive of 

 these Coal-fields, as well as the best known, extends. This field had 

 been very ably examined, and considering the difficulties under which 

 he laboured, very admirably mapped by Mr. Williams in 1848. 



Mr. Williams, in his report, separated the whole series into three 



