2 HUGHES : SOTJTIIEKN COAL-FIEI.DS OE liEWAII GONDWANA. BASIN. 



sanction could be obtained for practically testing the area by borings, the 

 previous conceptions as to the poverty and worthlessness of the coal 

 might possibly have to be modified. 



So long as the Umaria coal was supposed to be of upper-Gondwana 

 age, and that was the opinion entertained of it up to the time of our 

 examination/ it would have been running counter to our experience to 

 have recommended a special scheme of exploration ; but so soon as the coal 

 was shown to be of Damuda age, there was sufficient presumptive evidence 

 to warrant an appeal for assistance to determine its positive value. 



An agreeable surprise awaited me in the responsive readiness with 

 Captain Barr, ready which Captain Barr, the Political Agent of Baghel- 

 rrsponse to suggestions. khand a ud Superintendent of Rewah, met my sug- 

 gestions, and having arranged that I should superintend and direct 

 operations, he furnished all the necessary sinews of war. 



The expenditure up to the present amounts to something over 

 , , . „ E34,000, of which E25,000 have been absorbed 



Amount expended on ' 3 ' 



explorations K34,000. ] } y sa ] ar i es ant l l a bour in nearly equal portions. 2 

 Of those associated with me during the exploration, Mr. T. G. 



Stewart has the credit of having put down the 

 Mr. T. G. Stewart. „ . „, . , , ... ,* 



first series of borings, by which preliminary know- 



1 The statement in the text is not complete; the history is as follows: This ground 

 was first examined geologically by the late Mr. J. G. Medlicott, at a time when we knew 

 very little indeed regarding the groups of the Gondwana rock-system. On the map then 

 published (1859), Umaria (Omria) is on the lower Dauiuda, i.e., the true coal-ireasure rocks 

 (Memoirs, II, part 2, p. 171); but so also were placed the undoubted top Gondwana beds 

 (Jabalpur) on the Malmnadi. In 18G8-69 I made a traverse of all these rocks between 

 Hazaribagh and Jabalpur, and then detected the Talchirs along the gneissic promontory 

 north of Umaria. In 1871-72 Mr. Hacket undertook the detailed survey of that ground 

 with the new large-scale maps. His work was so manifestly incomplete and faulty, all the 

 rocks from the Mahanadi to Pali on the Jdhilla being coloured as Jabalpur, that it was con- 

 demned as useless. Thus, the age of the Umaria coal was very much an open question 

 when Mr. Hughes took up the work which he has completed in so thorough a manner. 

 It is very good of Mr. Hughes to distribute to others the professional credit that is vir- 

 tually all his own ; to find fossils when one is told to look for tbein, is a very small contri- 

 bution towards the final result.— H. B. M. 



2 Extract: Financial report, Rewah Coal Explorations, from 1st January 1882 to 30tli 

 June 1884— 



Salaries ' • R13.829 13 9 



Labour » 12,670 1 6 



( 138 ) 



