SOHAGPUR COAL-FIELD. 



57 



detailed and more special enquiry is instituted. I deemed it a sufficient 

 reason, so far as this country is at present concerned, for abridging my 

 examination of a seam when its apparent thickness did not exceed 3 

 feet; at the same time I am aware that beds of less thickness than this 

 are sometimes successfully worked in Europe. 



Kewai River. — The next observations on coal fall withi n the drainage 

 system of the Kewai river, and there is some satisfaction in being able to 

 state that two or three of the outcrops met with rise above the yard 

 limit. 



The Kewai and the Son meet about 2| miles below the border of the 

 Pendra subdivision of the Bilaspur District. Of the two rivers the 

 Kewai is the larger, and its name should either have been substituted 

 for that of the Son, or the course of the latter should have been along 

 that of its affluent. The scenery of the Kewai is 



Scenery. 



in many places very bold and impressive, there 

 being repeated stretches of rocky channels and cliffs of coal- 

 measure sandstones. The eroding action of water is remarkably illus- 

 trated in the form of pot-holes ; and I have never 



Gambhirua : pot-holes. ■ 



met with more stinking displays in any of the 

 fields that have fallen to my lot to survey, than those which are to be 

 seen in this river. I have selected for this memoir a view near Gam- 

 bbirua of an area of erosion just within the boundary of the Barakars, 

 where there are some cave temples, reaches of clear deep water, a succession 

 of small falls, and a lining of forest trees, in fact where circumstances 

 combine to make a varied and an attractive picture. 



Proceeding up the Kewai northwards, two thin bands of coal are ex- 

 posed between Pasan and Gambbirua, but the first fair-sized seam occurs 



west of Belha Paiari. There are several exposures 

 Belha-Paiari:seam8'2". . . 



of it, but the most open one is where there is a 

 warm spring in the left bank of the river, and the section is — 



ft. in. 



Coal 3 0 



Carbonaceous shale ....... 12 



Coal, not all shown ....... 40 



( 193 ) 



