38 
BALL AND SIMPSON: COALFIELDS OF INDIA. 
Malianadi, since it anastomoses with it in the conjoined deltas. 
The area is about 700 square miles in extent. The groups re- 
presented have the following estimated thicknesses : Mahadeva, 1,500 
to 2,000 feet ; Kamthi and Barakar about 1,800 feet ; Talchir, 
500 feet. The Talchir stage received its name from this locality, 
a native state where it was first discriminated. 
The coal is of inferior quality ; one large seam at Gopalpersad 
is largely made up of carbonaceous shale, being similar to that 
to be described as occurring in Hingir. In assays which have 
been made of fair samples of the coal from the two principal seams 
at Patrapara, the fixed carbon did not exceed thirty per cent., 
while the proportion of ash ranged from 30 to over 40 per cent. 
In a practical trial at Cuttack of some of the Gopalpersad coal there 
was a residue of 34 per cent, of ash and clinker. The demand for 
coal in Orissa is too limited to render it probable that under present 
conditions of communication the field will ever be of much value. 
Further to the south-east, partly in the Athgarh State and 
crossing the river not far from the town of Cuttack there is an 
area of sandstones and conglomerates in which fossil plants of the 
Rajmahal stage occur. It was at one time thought that these 
might overlie coal measures, but there is no sign of the characteristic 
coal measures anywhere on the margin of the deposits. Some black 
shales seen near Naraj encouraged the idea that coal would be 
found, but these really belong to the non-coal-bearing Kajmahal 
stage. 
Rajmahal hills. — In this locality coal measures of Barakar age 
are exposed over 70 square miles ; they doubtless extend, however, 
over a vastly greater area underneath younger formations. Separated 
by these overlying rocks five distinct areas or fields may be 
enumerated ; 1. Hura ; 2. Chaparbhita ; 3. Pachwara ; 4. Mhowa- 
gurhi ; 5. Brahmini. These are all on the western margin of the 
hills. There is no continuity between the seams of these areas, 
and it will be an interesting and economically important point to 
decide whether the coal measures extend underneath the traps, etc., 
to the east. If so the total area of the deposits must be con- 
siderable and they would be close to the water carriage of the Ganges. 
A boring which was made in about 1885 with the object of finding 
out whether any coal occurred with some Barakar sandstones near 
Akbarnagar, north-west of Rajmahal, did not prove successful. 
