i)ETAlLKI) DESCRIPTIONS OK THE RESPECTIVE COALFIELDS. 75 
coal scams outcrop on the iSaungka, a stream joining the Mogaung 
stream 1(5 miles above Mogaung, and from the general geology of 
the neighbourhood he opined that the coal strata are of Tertiary 
age, of limited extent, and much disturbed. Griesbach ^ mentions 
that small quantities of lignite are brought into Myitkyina by the 
natives for sale. From enquiries which he made the mineral is 
said to come from the neighbourhood of Talang, north of the 
Pungin Kha, about IG miles N. N. W. of the confluence of the two 
streams which unite to form the Ivrawadi river. The scam is said to 
be from 2 to 3 feet in thickness. 
(xi). Central India. 
The earliest mention of coal discoveries in these territories is in 
1829, when Captain Franklin ^ found outcrops of good coal at 
a point situated near the junction of the Tipan stream with the 
Son river. This place is on the southern margin of what is now 
known as the Sohagpur coalfield. In 1845, on the authority of the 
Coal Committee,^ coal was said to exist near Sohagpur and also 
on the Keyverji and Johilla rivers and near Cheirdiah. In Bund- 
elkhand also FrankHn reported the occurrence of coal, but H. B. 
MedUcott ^ in 1860 found that the deposit was black shale, 
only very slightly carbonaceous, occurring in the Vindhyans, rocks 
infinitely older than any known coal deposits. Little, however, was 
known of the coal resources of Central India until 1881, when the 
examination of the area was taken up by the Geological Survey of 
India. T. W. H. Hughes was in charge of the investigation, and 
in 1885 the Department published his memoir^ on "The Southern 
Coalfields of the Rewah-Gondwana Basin," in which a detailed 
account is given of the Umaria, Korar, Johilla, Sohagpur, Kurasia, 
Koreagarh and Jhilmilli coalfields. Descriptions of the three last- 
mentioned fields are included under the Central Provinces Section. 
Umaria. — This, the smallest of the rich coalfields of the Rewah- 
Gondwana basin, is situated on the Umrar river, a tributary of the 
Mahanadi, and is 36 miles from Katni on the East Indian Railway. 
1 liec, G. S. I., XXV, J 29 (J802). 
2 Gkaniwjs in Science, II, 217 (1829). 
^ Coal CMnmitlee'' s Firuil Report (1846). 
« Op. oil. 
5 3Iem., G. S. I., II, 91 (1860). 
« Mem., G. S. I., XXI, pt. 3 (1885). 
