GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA. 269 



of India. Dr. King's regular work in the Mils west of the Chattis- 

 garh plains was necessarily interrupted by his having to superintend 

 the coal explorations in the fields far to the east, which, however, 

 did not promise a fair supply of fuel. In the remote hill country, 

 far to the north of Korba, a large new coal field was traced out by 

 Sub-assistant Hira Lai ; it is the western extension of the measures 

 noticed some years ago by Mr. Ball at their eastern extremity as the 

 Lakanpur field. Mr. Hughes' deputation in charge of the Umaria 

 colliery was followed by his examination of the rocks above the coal 

 measures, in which he found some new localities for fossils. 

 Mr. Jones's work during the season of 1886 was the completion of 

 the survey of the southern coal field of the Satpura Gondwana 

 basin. There are altogether 11 separate areas where the coal 

 measures group is exposed, seven of them being in the Chindwara 

 district, while four adjoining areas in the Betul district were mapped 

 and described some years ago.* The quality of the coal, as ascer- 

 tained from outcrop samples, was not very encouraging, and during 

 the two seasons' work no recognisable fossils were found. Mr. 

 Hacket's operations in Rajputana were confined to the older rocks, 

 the Arvalis and the Vindhyans, to the west of which, in the more or less 

 desert country of Jaisalmer, the existence of fossiliferous limestones 

 has been known for many years. Mr. Oldham was deputed to 

 explore in 1886 the northern extension of the Jurassic strata towards 

 Bikanir, for the purpose of seeing whether he could fix upon a 

 Talchir bed, which all over India forms the base of the Gondwana 

 coal measures. Mr. La Touche made good progress with his work in 

 the Garo hills, and his notes appeared in the " Records " (Vol. XX.) ; 

 and Mr. Middlemiss investigated an obscure point presented by the 

 discovery of a long ellipse of crystalline schists surrounded by a 

 narrow fringe of newer strata, immediately east of the Ganges and 

 at the edge of the lower Himalayan region just inside the fringing 

 zone of sub-Himalayan rocks. 



On the 1st November Mr. Griesbach returned to India with the 

 Afghan Boundary Commission not much the worse for his two years' 

 wanderings. His notes appear in the " Records." The geology of the 

 Herat valley is shortly described in Vol. XVIIL, Part 1. Afghan 

 and Persian field notes, dealing with Eastern Khorasan and the 

 Herat province, are contained in Vol. XIX., Part 1, while a very 



* "Records," G. S. I., VIII., 1875. 



