UM AIM A COAL-FIELD. 



From Kalesar to the upper boundary of the Baraka¥S*^tween Urna- 

 ria and Lalpur, only sandstones are seen, at intervals of varying 

 distances. They differ but slightly from those already alluded to ; 

 the highest beds are grey and pinkish coarse-grained felspathic sandstones 

 partly decomposed and with thin lenticular shaly layers. To these succeed 

 the red and other coloured clays of the supra-Barakars, from which the 

 village of Lalpur is probably named. 



Though there are several different courses of coal, I failed to find 



more than one outcrop in addition to that alluded 

 Coal seam. e . 



to near the temple of Devi, and that was of the 



seam exposed in the Umrar at the southern water-ghat of Kalesar 



in which quarries were eventually opened. It can be traced on the left 



bank of the river in a little rivulet, which is shown on the annexed map, 



exhibiting the environs of Umaria-Kalesar, on a scale of four inches 



to the mile. After extending about 200 yards to the westward, it is 



lost to view. 



Many years have elapsed since the original discovery of this coal. 

 The first who drew attention prominently to it was Captain Osborne, 

 the Political Agent of Rewah in 1860, and on his 



Mr. Alexander Grant, 



and Captain H. Hyde, representation, Mr. Alexander Grant, of the East 

 Indian Railway, and Captain H. Hyde, R.E., 

 Consulting Engineer for Railways, visited Umaria and other localities 

 where coal was stated to occur. Their recommendations were opposed 

 to any active steps being taken to explore the field. Mr. Grant, in his 

 report, stated — " The seam shows itself in four different places in the bed 

 " and sides of the Umrar, a little above the village Kalesar. It is in 

 " all about 3 feet 6 inches thick, being made up of thin layers of carbon- 

 " aceous shale of different degrees of consistency and different shades of 

 " colour, some of them being indurated, others earthy, some black and 

 "others bluish. Amid them is one band or layer of some 6 or 7 inches 

 " in thickness of the substance resembling coal evidently in greater 

 " part of vegetable origin, and what we have seen to be combustible." 

 There was some excuse for the low estimate they formed of the value 



( 157 ) 



