86 BALL ; GEOLOGY OF AURUNGA AND HUTAE COAL FIELDS. 



' ; Section 4.-r—pANCHET Group. 



In the previous section the indication of the limits of the Raniganj 

 group has involved frequent allusion to these rocks, the distribution of 

 the two being very similar and co-terminous. The generality of the 

 Conformity to Eani- ^^ctions tend to shew that the two groups are 

 S^^i^^' conformable in most cases, but there are several 



which make it doubtful that this conformity is universal, notably the two 

 sections just described in the Sukri west of Jugguldugga; and if the soft 

 greenish beds, which at Deobar underliq the eastern end of the Mabadeva 

 outlier beyond the Aurunga, are Panchets, there is evidence of very com- 

 plete overlap, as there is no trace of the Raniganjes in that section. 

 There are several leading lithological types among the rocks which 



go to make this group. Of these, the highest are 

 Lithological types. 



the purple and green clays and associated shales. 



These are somewhat local in their distribution, being only found in the, 



Sukri section near Kaima in the Bagh Digwa, west of Hoohloo, and in 



the Aurunga north of Kaima. 



The next types are grits, of which there are several varieties, some 

 loose and ferruginous, others soft, greenish and friable, and still others 

 which are white and felspathic, and are not easily distinguishable from 

 Barakar rocks. At first I thought that the generally undecomposed 

 condition of the felspar furnished a means for distinguishing these from 

 Barakars, in which the felspar is usually in a decomposed condition and 

 more generally disseminated. This does not always hold good,,as 

 Barakar grits, including angular fragments of undecomposed felspar, were 

 subsequently met with. Rocks of either of the above types are not 

 likely to be mistaken for Raniganj beds, but there is still another type, 

 or rather class, exemplified by greenish micaceous sandstones, occasionally 

 calcareous. To distinguish these from very similar beds in the Raniganj 

 group is by no means easy, and this the more especially as they occur at 

 the base. To this cause is to be attributed much of the doubt which 

 must always attach to the determination of the precise position of the 

 Raniganj-Panchet boundary. 

 { 86 ) 



