88 
HALL AND SIMPSON: COALFIELDS OF INDIA. 
tlie area, and superintended the execution of an elaborate scheme 
of boring operations. 
Warora. — The Warora basin is situated about 62 miles south of 
Nagpur and in the Chanda district. The coal-bearing rocks are 
overlain by younger deposits, chiefly alluvium. Borings commenced 
in 1870 proved that they occur in a basin to the east of Warora 
at a depth of from G3 to 285 feet from the surface. The area 
actually proved was about three-quarters of a square mile, but 
tlie extension of the basin to the south appeared to be probable. 
There are two seams of coal, the thicknesses ^ of which average 12 
and 15 feet, respectively. The coal is somewhat friable and dis- 
integrates on exposure to the air. It is inferior in quahty to 
Raniganj coal, owing to the excess of moisture and smaller amount 
of fixed carbon which it contains. The following analyses were 
made prior to 1877 : ^ — 
Moisture 
Volatile matter 
Fixed carbon 
Sulphur 
Ash 
Average 
of 2 
samples. 
11-72 
29-33 
43-80 
1-55 
13-60 
Average 
of 2 
samples. 
33-25 
52-50 
? 
14-25 
The coal is very liable to spontaneous combustion, and about 70 
per cent, of the proved coal-bearing area is said ^ to have been 
lost by fire and to be dammed off. 
The quantity of coal in 1877, was estimated by Hughes to be 
20 million tons, and he considered that the probable extension of 
the basin to the south might swell this amount to 60 or 100 million tons. 
Collieries were worked in this field under the direction of the Gov- 
ernment of India from 1873 to 1906, and owing to the excessive 
quantity of water and the frequency of underground fires, consider- 
able expense was incurred. In 1891-93, efforts were made to prove 
by means of borings the extension of the coal seams to tlie dip, 
but they appear to have been unsuccessful. 
In 1906 so considerable a subsidence took place as to necessitate 
the closing down of the collieries. Such a contingency had been 
^ R. W. Clarke : Coaj Mining in India, 'frana. Inst- Alin. En<i., Vol. XXII, p. S7 
(1901-02). 
2 Hughes : loc, cit., pp. 99-100. 
° C'larlte : loc. cit. 
