go READER: REPORT ON THE RAMPUR COAL-FIELD. 



The general level of the area is about 750 feet above sea-level. 

 Apart from the Bilpahari range of hills to the north which rise some 

 400 to 500 feet higher and form a boundary to the Barakar rocks, and 

 the hill, called Barakar on sketch-plan, to the south of Kiraruma, 

 which rises about 100 feet above this average level, and perhaps the 

 Luchkura range and Jamwapali hill, there is nO very great depar- 

 ture from this level. Nevertheless the country is by no means of 

 even gradient, for rugged little hills covered with laterite and thick 

 jungle occur at every turn, and make the work of surface exploration 

 a difficult one. 



The symmetry of the sketch-plan attached is remarkable. The 

 Eeb river and Lillari nala form a semi-circular curve having a 

 centre situated somewhere in the Bilpahari range from which their 

 tributaries evenly distributed appear to radiate. The rugged little 

 hills above-mentioned, which form the watersheds for these tribu- 

 taries, also possess a somewhat palmate arrangement striking off 

 from the Bilpahari hills and forming, as it were, the framework of the 

 area. This symmetry is enhanced by the Bengal-Nagpur Railway 

 line which forms a more or less inner concentric curve. 



The area has already been treated on by Dr. Ball, in the 

 Records of the Geological Survey of India, Vol. 



Previous writers. ... _ . 



vin, Part 4, Dr. King, in the Records of the 

 Geological Survey of India, Vols, xvii-3, xviii-4, xix-4, and xx-4, and 

 by Mr. F. H. Smith, Deputy Superintendent of the Geological Survey 

 of India. The former discussed it from a stratigraphical standpoint 

 simply; the latter with a view to discovering its resources as a 

 workable coal area. Dr. King's coal explorations were, how- 

 ever, very general — extending over the whole of the Chhattisgarh 

 coal-fields. The present exploration is confined to a much smaller 

 area and partakes more of the nature of a detailed Geological 

 Survey. 



The proposed construction of the Bengal-Nagpur Railway line 

 through this known Barakar area and the great 



P ie vious history. 



distance to the nearest coal supply, Warora — 

 ( a ) 



