DETAILJOl) DESCRIPTIONS OF THE RESPECTIVE COALFIELDS. 
Saipum Basin} — The Sat[)ura Basin, so called from a range of 
hills incliuled within it, is situated soutli of the Narbada valley. 
It is difiicult to speal< of this area as a single expanse of coal 
measures, since, as a matter of fact, they only appear at intervals 
under the margins of younger groups, covering a wide extent 
of country which stretches for a distance of about 170 miles. 
Accordingly, the estimated dimensions of the basin vary much 
according to different authorities. About 2,000 square miles appears 
to be a safe minimum, but besides this it should be remembered 
that there is a considerable tract in which the underlying formations 
are concealed by the Deccan trap, and a large area towards Jabal- 
pur, in which no coal measures have been proved to exist under 
the younger formations which prevail there. 
The principal localities where coal measures occur are near 
Mohpani and in the valleys of the Tawa (Shahpur or Betul field) 
and Pench (Chhindwara field) rivers. Under the orders of the 
Chief Commissioner of the Central Provinces, advised by the Geo- 
logical Survey, borings ^ have been made both in the alluvium 
of the Narbada valley on the margin of the rocky area and in 
valleys to the south of it within the area occupied by the younger 
rocks but, though these borings were carried to considerable depths, 
the coal measures were not reached ; these depths were, Gadawara, 
251 feet ; and Sukakheri, 491 feet. Neither of these when stopped 
had proved the rocks underlying the recent alluvial deposits. In 
the Dudhi valley borings, at Manegaon to the depth of 420 feet 
and at Khapa to the depth of nearly 720 feet, established the fact 
that the younger formations still persisted, the coal measures, if 
they exist below, not having been reached. As the progress of 
boring by hand at 720 feet was slow and costly the work was 
abandoned. 
Borings at Tundni, 10 miles west of the Mohpani field, which 
it was hoped might prove a similar area of coal measures on the 
margin of the basin, were unsuccessful. Two of them at depths 
of 328 and 172 feet, respectively, struck contact and trappean rocks, 
and another further south, at 243 feet, had to be abandoned owing 
to the tools sticking, and as the dip of the beds was high there 
was no inducement to renew the attempt. 
1 J. G. Medlicott : 3Iem., G. S. I., II, pp. 97, 268 (I860) ; H. B. Medlicott : idem, X 
p. 133 (1873) ; Mcc, G. .S. Ill, p. 63 (1870) and VIII, p. 65 (1875). 
2 Annual Report, G. S. I., 1877 ; Bee, G. S. I., XI, p. 7 (1878). 
