978 MANGANESE DEPOSITS OF INDIA : DESCRIPTIVE. [PaRT IV : 
fragments of quartzite, set in a black matrix, which is in some places 
soft like wad, and in others is hard grey psilomelane, the wad and 
psilomelane bciag usually mixed together. In places the rock is cal- 
careous. Although the amoimt of this manganiferous rock must be con- 
siderable, yet it is improbable that it is of any economic value. As 
regards its origin I suggest that it is a surface replacement form of one 
of the siliceous breccias so common in the Bijawar rocks of this area 
(17-324 and 17 325). 
Further down the nala, about § mile from its mouth, there is a small 
patch of calcareous grit of I;ameta age, v/ith basalt of Deccan Trap 
age resting upon it with a curved surface. Between the two there are 
some laminated shaly beds about 2 feet thick containing a hard layer 
about 1 inch thick, of a calcareous rock containing a manganese-garnet. 
This remarkable occurrence has not yet been carefully investigated and 
no explanation is offered here (17'562 and 17'601). 
3. Bunkuta. 
About half a mile higher up stream than the manganiferous breccia 
mentioned above, a small nala joins the right bank of the Jamdihi 
Naia at a point where it is running N. E. A little way up this nala to the 
south of the deserted site of Bunkuta, marked on the 1-inch Revenue 
Survey map Nos. 10 & 1 1 E. of this area, there is an outcrop of Vindhvan 
shales that have been secondarily rendered manganiferous, and now 
show little patches of pyrolusite, and mammillations of psilomelane, 
and are blackened in many places (17 '353), 
The Seoni District. 
A reference to Plate 43 will show that intervening between the 
manganese area of Chhindwara and that of western Balughat lies the 
southern end of the Seoni district, which, like the manganese areas 
just mentioned, is occupied by thp metamorphic and crystalline complex. 
Hence it seems probable that manganese-ores or the associated 
manganese-sihcate.rocks of the gondite series occur also in the Seoni 
district. That this is probably the case is indicated by the fact that 
during 1907 Mr. T. B. Kantharia found a piece of manganese-ore in a 
nala near Kurai, 20 miles south of Seoni town and 10 miles north 
of the Nagpur district boundary. The specimen consisted of 
psilomelane with hollandite. and a bronze-tinted mineral, probably 
sitaparite. During 1907 many prospecting licenses for manganese 
have been taken out in the Seoni district. As early as 1869 
