274 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA. 



or no clinker, and containing only the average amount of ash, while 

 the entire series of the measures is within the easy reach of the 

 surface. 



Mr. Lake was deputed to work out the geology of the west coast 

 in the long strip of country between Cochin and Karwar. One 

 noteworthy discovery made was that of an oil shale among the 

 strata underlying Calicut, indicating a possible relation with the oil 

 traced in the Alleppi mud bank and the smooth waters adjacent. 

 Mr. Bose was commissioned to make a thorough examination of the 

 Gosalpur manganese ores in the Central Provinces. He estimated 

 the total quantity of pyrolusite (manganese ores) at about 50,000 

 tons in addition to about 20,000 tons from neighbouring deposits, a 

 supply which may be described as practically inexhaustible. Mr. 

 Bose subsequently resumed work in Balaghat among the transition 

 and Vindhyan rocks, while Babu Kishen Singh investigated the 

 limits of the Deccan trap in the Chindwara district, after which he 

 joined Mr. Bose in the study of the more intricate but economically 

 important rocks of Balaghat. Mr. Hacket was unfortunately unable 

 to extend his observations sufficiently to the westward of Jodhpur 

 to touch on the Gondwanas. His work lay west of Mount Abu and 

 the Arvalis, but partly from the increasingly complicated associa- 

 tion of the very altered rocks in that region, and partly from failing 

 health which necessitated his retirement from the service, but little 

 progress was made towards a solution of the geology of the region. 

 Mr, Oldham procured specimens of flexible sandstone, a very peculiar 

 decomposition-form of certain quartzites belonging to the transition 

 series occurring at Kaliana in the Jhind State, for which frequent 

 inquiry had been made both from Europe and America. 



Renewed search for materials required for the development of 

 the iron industry at the Barakar (Bengal) works was prosecuted by 

 Mr. Jones, and further progress was made by Babu Hira Lai in 

 mapping the extensive coal tracts of the western portion of Chota 

 Nagpur. Portions of the Rampur, Sirgujah, and Lakhanpur coal 

 fields and of the adjacent area were described; all the coal outcrops 

 were examined and recorded, and assays were made of such seams 

 as were thought worth trying, some of them giving very fair 

 results. Attempts were also made to test the capabilities of two 

 of the coal fields of the Rajmahal hills, but the results were not 

 thoroughly conclusive. On this point Dr. King remarks that 

 skilled and experienced miners are rare in India, while boring plant 



