274 Report on the Geological Structure of the Salt Range. [No. 3. 



regular position dips to the north at an angle of 45° under the 

 superior rocks. 



In the vertical bed a gallery has been sunk to the depth of fifty- 

 feet in hopes of discovering a seam of coal, but, as was to be expected, 

 with an unfavourable result. Indeed, the labour expended in digging 

 the gallery has not been rewarded, by obtaining a larger quantity of 

 coal, the masses of which, we were informed by the miners, became 

 less numerous and more difficult to detach from the shale the deeper 

 they dug. As it is most probable that the wood now connected 

 with coal has been drifted from the spot where it grew, it is natural 

 to infer, that the masses of it would accumulate more abundantly in 

 some places than in others, just as drift wood does on the bank of a 

 river. This appears to be the case at Kalibagh, as in some places the 

 shale contains numerous masses of coal, while at others scarcely a 

 fragment is to be detected. 



The coal has a bright glistening appearance, is very hard and light, 

 and exhibits a conchoidal fracture in which its woody structure is 

 most apparent. It is of a jet-black colour, has a brown streak, and 

 often incloses nests of half decomposed wood resembling peat. The 

 surface of the coal often presents small crystals of gypsum, and 

 imbedded masses of iron pyrites are by no means uncommon. 



It burns quickly, without coking, to a light coloured ash and emits 

 a large amount of yellow smoky flame ; on being distilled it yields a 

 light spongy coke of a glistening metallic colour with a large quantity 

 of inflammable gas. On analysis the following results were obtained 

 in 100 parts : 



Carbon (coke), ■ 37.5 



Volatile bituminous inflammable matter, GO.O 



Ashes (Silica), 2.5 



Total, 100.0 

 . The large amount of volatile bituminous matter as compared to 

 that of coke, at once refers this coal to the class of lignites or coals 

 in which the vegetable matter is imperfectly carbonized. In its 

 small amount of ash (which in some specimens we have found as 

 low as 1.66 per cent.) it differs remarkably from most of these, but 

 the solid nature of the wood forming the coal, not admitting of the 

 infiltration of earthy matter may account for this. 



