GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA. 277 



Baluchistan to explore for coal and oil. At the close of the working 

 season, and just, as the S.W. monsoon was bursting on the coast, 

 Mr. Lake was deputed to Alleppi to study the action of the famous 

 mud banks there.* 



The question of utilising the clays and coals occurring in the 

 neighbourhood of Jabalpur for pottery works has claimed attention 

 for years past, and Mr. Mallet made an exhaustive examination 

 which led to the satisfactory result of works being started at 

 Jabalpur by Messrs. Burn and Co. of Calcutta.f Mr. Mallet also 

 made an interesting series of experiments on steatite from various 

 parts of India. This was in response to a demand preferred by the 

 Secretary of State, and the tests applied proved that the product of 

 the Karnul district of Madras was the most likely to compete 

 successfully with the costly material now imported from Germany. 

 Dr. King considers that if steps were taken to work quarries the 

 prospect of this new industry would be very hopeful. 



The development of the gold industry in Madras has led to 

 attention being turned to Chota Nagpur, which from time immemorial 

 has been known for its native gold washings and occasional: finds of 

 decided fragments of gold, and a syndicate has been formed to work 

 the neighbourhood of Sonapet. Geological reports on the subject 

 already exist from the pen of Mr. V. Ball, but Dr. Noetling has 

 submitted a report J containing some further information. 



Tn Extra-peninsular India Mr. E. J. Jones took up a further 

 examination of the outcrops of coal in the Sharigh valley, and came 

 to the conclusion that the Khost seam is still the one which can be 

 relied upon for fuel for that section of the frontier railway. 

 Mr. B. D. Oldham has been investigating the coal and oil condition 

 of the tract traversed by the railway, a task which has for the 

 present delayed the publication of his work in the Dehra and Simla 

 portion of the Lower Himalayas. Mr. La Touche was engaged on 

 more detailed reports on the coal fields of the Khasia and Jaintia 

 hills, and at the conclusion of the working season he was attached 

 to the Lushai column of the Chin-Lushai expedition, which investi- 

 gated the wild and obscure intermediate country between Chittagong 

 and Upper Burma. 



* A full account of these banks and of the literature of the subject lias been written 

 by Dr. King, and will be found in the " Records of the Geological Survey of India," 

 Vol. XVII., pp. 14-27. 



j Mr. Mallet's report appeared in the " Records" for May 1889. 



% See l: Records " for 1890, Part II. 



