68 Address. [Feb. 



more promising evidence as to tlie coal possibilities in tliat region. Nor 

 does his report on the long- known bitumenous occurrence at Tijara in 

 Ulwar do more than confirm the conclusion formerly arrived at that 

 the substance is merely a superj&cial deposit of sandy clay, containing 

 vegetable organic matter, formed on the site of a deserted village. The 

 substance burns, but, owing to the small amount, is of no use except 

 locally for fuel. Mr. La Touche while employed by the Kashmir Darbar 

 in examining the sapphire deposits in the Zanskar district, the survey 

 of which has not yet been completed, has also explored the coal outcrops 

 at Jammu, originally brought to notice by Mr. Medlicott. He is inclined 

 to look hopefully on the occurrence, provided some method can be devised 

 for compressing the very crushed and powdery fuel procurable into 

 bricks. The one coal-field (Singareni) in the Madras Presidency is at 

 last being worked under the direction of Mr. Hughes, and we may now 

 hope for extended and definite information regarding its capabilities ; 

 and, by comparison, the possibilities of the other areas of coal-measures 

 known to occur further to the west in the Godavari Valley. The Singa- 

 reni field has always laboured under the disadvantage of being known 

 only to the Geological Survey by its one outcrop and its area. The 

 borings made, though on the sites marked out by Dr. King, were not 

 put down under the direction of the Survey and consequently nothing 

 is known by it of the character or quality of the samples of coal, or of 

 carbonaceous shale (as it is feared some of them were) brought up from 

 the borings. Though Upper Burmah has not yet come under the sys- 

 tematic work of the Survey, Mr. E. J. Jones has been able to send in 

 some useful reports on the principal coal fields, and on the metalliferous 

 mines in the Shan Hills. 



Scientific. — Much and interesting information has been obtained on 

 matters bearing strictly on scientific geology. The discussion on the 

 geology of the Salt Range, arising out of Dr. Warth's find of concre- 

 tions, and pebbly concretions containing Gonularia, in the boulder bed at 

 the base of the "speckled sandstones" and the " olive shales," audits 

 bearing on the original observations of Wynne and Waagen, and the 

 later ones of Oldham, has ceased for the present ; and the old term ' olive 

 shales ' (presumed cretaceous) will now be discarded as a formational 

 group, it being really identical with the " speckled sandstones " of the 

 western portion of the range, of which the palsDozoic (or ' upper car- 

 boniferous,' according to Dr. Waagen's latest conclusions) age was 

 already inferred or known. So much being settled, the term ' speckled , 

 sandstone ' will stand in the Salt Range nomenclature and classification. 



Mr. Oldham has also visited Ladak and Kashmir with a view to 

 determining how far the discrepancies between the sequence of beds 



