294 Capt. Grant on the Geology of Cutch. 



One bed was found of a very good quality, but only 9 inches thick. It con- 

 sisted of masses composed of small cubical pieces, which soiled the fingers 

 very much, had not the slightest appearance of a lignite, and ignited quickly, 

 burning with a bright flame, and leaving a small residuum, but it would not 

 cake. It was found on trial to get up the steam of an engine-boiler very well 

 and quickly, but a much larger quantity was required than of English coal, 

 owing, partly, to its breaking into so small fragments as to fall through the 

 bars of the grate. 



Borings for Coal. — A boring for coal was made near this bed ; and although 270 feet of sand- 

 stone and blue clay were penetrated, no coal was found. A similar attempt was made six miles 

 further to the eastward, and to the depth of 191 feet, but with no better success; and similar 

 researches were made in one or two other places. The second trial passed through a regularly 

 alternating series of sandstone and blue clay. Some of the sandstones were so extremely hard 

 (being composed of quartzose particles cemented by ferruginous matter) as to be almost 

 impenetrable. A jumpev, worked by a lever-bar, making eighteen strokes in a minute, pene- 

 trated, after eight hours' work only, from H to 2 inches. Other specimens of sandstone varied 

 both in hardness and quality; and at a depth of 190 feet, a bed of white, pure quartzose sand was 

 entered, when water immediately rushed to the surface, and continued to flow in such quantities 

 as to stop the work. The shale was of a very dark blue when first brought up, but it lost 

 the greater part of its colour after exposure to the sun. Iron ore and iron pyrites were found. 

 All the banks of the rivers in the neighbourhood present strata of sandstone and slate-cla}', 

 with bands of ironstone, and, in places, thin beds of coal. The general dip is, to the south- 

 west, about one foot in twenty ; but the strata are greatly shattered and dislocated by dykes, 

 slips, and hitches. 



Vegetable Impressions. — The slate-clay, and, in some cases, the sandstone, 

 contained numerous impressions of ferns and reeds*, occasionally of a large 

 size. One specimen, which was flattened, was four inches in breadth, and 

 the outer surface was carbonised, but the interior was filled with sand : this 

 was generally the case, though other specimens were carbonised throughout, 

 and some were mere impressions. In digging wells within the limits in which 

 they occur, coal was frequently found, but always in thin beds; and some 

 of it ought more properly to be called lignite. 



Extent of Coal-field. — The coal-field, if it may so be termed, is bounded 

 to the north by the upper secondary or laminated slate-clay and limestone 

 slate formation ; and to the south it is cut off' abruptly by a low range of vol- 

 canic and trap hills. I could not ascertain whether it had ever been covered 

 by any conformable, stratified deposits. Thin beds of coal have been found in 

 various other parts of the formation. The general structure of this series of 

 strata, the quality of some of the coal, the nature of the sandstone and slate- 



* Plate XXI. 



