DETAILED DESCRIPTIONS OF THE RESPECTIVE COALFIELDS 
13 
same coal-bearing rocks is exposed. Mr. Griesbach found 7 separate 
groups of coal-measures, each about 300 feet thick. In one of 
these groups to the north of Sliisha Alang five coal-seams respec- 
tively, 5'4", 6'6", G'O", 12'0" and 30'0" thick were measured. The 
tw^o thick seams contained a few partings of clay and in them the coal 
was rather friable. 
Mr. Griesbach remarks : " If I assume the average thickness 
of the best coal-seam at 6 feet only, which could be worked over 
an area of 9 square miles in the immediate neighbourhood of Hhisha 
Alang, I find that the available quantity of coal would be no less than 
50 million tons. In this estimate I have left out of consideration 
the fact (1) that triassic coal-measures with large seams of coal are 
actually exposed over a large surface in the Chahil valley and the 
north-west slope of the Sabz Kotal, and (2) that permo-carbod 
strata with antliracitic seams appear between Saighan and Ramian 
and that, therefore, the conclusion is evident that the whole Lower 
Trias and Permian strata, i.e., the equivalents of our Lower Gond- 
wana series, must be buried below the upper cretaceous limestone of 
the intervening country. It is consequently almost certain that the 
entire northern Hazarajat is one vast coalfield, which is partially 
hidden by superimposed Cretaceous limestone." 
In a recently published paper on the Geology of Afghanistan 
{Mem., Geol. Surv. India, Vol. XXXIX, pp. 31, 33), Mr. Hayden 
has given reasons for doubting the presence in this area of represen- 
tatives of the fiuviatile Lower Gondwanas, all the true coal-seams being 
probably of Jurassic age. There is no evidence therefore of the 
extension into Afghan Turkistan of the coal-bearing Damuda 
series, or indeed of any part of the Gondwana system, of India. 
In the Jurassic rocks of the Doab valley, Mr. Griesbach records 
the occurrence of an irregular and impure coal-seam of about 2 
inches thickness, near the upper boundary of the alum-shales. 
In recent years certain of the coal outcrops in Afghanistan 
have been examined by Mr. Hayden, and Dr. W. Saise, but no 
published information is available. 
(iv). Andaman and Nicobar Islands. 
Traces of coal probably of youngest Cretaceous or oldest Ter- 
tiary age have been met with in several of the islands, but^as yet 
no regular seam has been discovered. The deposits consist of nests, 
