SOHAGptflt COAL-FIELD. 



41 



SECTION X. — THE SOHAGPUIt COAL-FIELD. 



From the description of the three small outlying fields, I now pass 



. , cnn „„„„ to the notice of the more extensive main area 

 Main area 1,600 square 



miles. comprising- nearly 1,600 square miles, and to which 



I would give the name of the Sohagpur coal-field. It may hereafter be 

 found convenient to introduce some restricted local designations. The 

 portion within the Korea district appears suggestive of such a course, but 

 I have no doubt that the adjustment of names and titles will be satis- 

 factorily carried out when the necessity arises. 



Roughly speaking, the Sohagpur field stretches through two degrees 

 of longitude, from the river Son to the river Rer. There is no great 

 Coal seams not plenti- richness of coal, nature having apparently exhausted 

 fu1, herself in abortive efforts resulting in carbona- 



ceous or coaly shale, or seams too thin, according to the present standard 

 of working, to be mined profitably. Owing to the horizontality of the 

 strata, however, such seams as occur of available size possess the advan- 

 tage of extreme accessibility, and can be easily won over an extensive 

 area. 1 



Of the rocks constituting the Barakars of the Sohagpur field, quite 



_ , , ... . nine-tenths are sandstones, of which the major 



Sandstones constitute ' J 



^ths of group. portion are the ordinary grey or yellowish-grey 



silicious sandstones, sometimes earthy and sometimes slightly calcareous, 

 with a small percentage of mica. 



I have grouped the whole of the coal measures as Barakars, rather than 

 enter upon the uncertain and equivocal task of separating them under 

 the divisions of Karharbari, Barakar, and Raniganj. Amongst the 

 lower strata there are fossil forms which agree with many of those found 

 in the Karharbari beds of the Karharbari field, and in the higher strata 

 are a few plants which were formerly esteemed as distinctive of the 

 Raniganj horizon. Later researches, however, have shown that the 

 range of many of the supposed characteristic fossil forms is much greater 



1 This remark applies only to the portio of the Sohagpur field in the Rewah territory. 



( 177 ) 



