86 
BALL AND SIMPSON: COALFIELDS OF INDIA. 
adopted by the Government of the Central Provinces for 
convenience, the most important part of the area being in the 
neighbourhood of Rampur,^ a village situated 24 miles north of 
Sambalpur. Between the years 1884 and 1886 systematic boring 
experiments were carried on by King^ in the Lillari, Oira and 
Baisandar valleys, bat although there is a large number of seams 
of considerable thickness the quality of the coal was in every case 
found to be inferior. Some 10 years later interest in the field was 
again aroused by the discovery of a seam of coal in the excavation 
of the foundation of the Eeb bridge on the Bengal-Nagpur Rail- 
way. A number of bore-holes, one of which reached a depth of 
828 feet, and a shaft were put down in the neighbourhood by 
the railway company, but the general results were unsatisfactory, 
the extension of the seam remaining unproved. In 1900 a 
detailed examination of the Eeb river was made by G. F. Reader,^ 
who demonstrated that the seam found in the bridge excava- 
tions is faulted. He considered this to be the only seam of value 
within the area and advised the putting down of a series of shallow 
borings on the outcrop duplicated by the fault. The thickness of 
this seam in the best section obtained is 7 feet 10 inches, including a 
band of bituminous shale 8 inches thick. Samples of this seam 
obtained from shallow pits gave the following analyses : — 
Moistm-e 8-00 9-00 
Volatile matter 20-90 24-30 
Fixed carbon 52-20 .54-90 
Asii 18-90 11-80 
In concluding his account of the Eeb river coal area Mr. Reader 
gave it as his opinion that despite the extensive boring experiments 
which had been carried out the lower 200 feet of the Barakar 
rocks were still unexplored. He advised the putting down of a bore- 
hole to the Talchirs at a point | mile E. S. E. of Kodopali, and 
estimated that the depth would be about 600 feet. Such a bor- 
ing would pass through the Eeb river seam and facilitate the 
determination of its faulted outcrop. 
* Kampur was recently included in the Bengal Presidency, but a portion of the 
coalfield is still in the Central Provinces. 
2 Bee, XVII, 123 (1884) ; XVIII, 169 (!SS5) ; XIX, 210 (1880) ; XX, 200 (1887). 
3 Mail., G. S. L, Vol. XXXII, 89 (1901). 
