3 829.] Description of the North West Coal District. 
261 
IV . — Description of the North West Coal District, stretching along the 
Damoda from the neighbourhood of Jeria or Jeriagqrh to below Sa- 
nampur, in the Perganna of Sheargerh, forming a line of about sixty 
five miles. By the late Mr. Jones of Calcutta. 
[From the 17th vol. As. Res. Pt. I.] 
The face of this country is regularly undulated by short broken swells, resem- 
bling a chopping sea : the perpendicular height of many of the hills, which I have 
levelled, averages about sixty feet. The soil is not more than six feet deep, slightly 
calcareous, resting ongrey sandstone that effervesces with acids, and in many places, 
where it is bare, an efflorescence of soda may be scraped off. The sandstone is 
not more than seven feet thick on the table hills, but generally thicker and coarser 
grained in the valleys. The coal and coal metal bassets out in many places, but 
are delusive guides to the miner, as the greater part of them are the saddle strata, 
that cover the hills like a cap, and seldom reach down to their bases others again 
lie like shields or patches on the side of the hills, and extend a considerable depth 
below the bases : beneath all these the proper coal beds will be found. The forma- 
tion appears to me, from the result of many experiments, to be wavy, and wheel- 
ing in a slight degree, carrying its line of bearing to an amazing extent with lit- 
tle variation ; its breadth on the south west side in the direction of Bancora is not 
more than eleven or twelve miles from the river. Further on in that direction the 
protruding rocks are syenite, hornblende, quartz, and masses of mica or talc, cement- 
ed with a small portion of sand. At Bajcol, seven miles above the confluence of the 
Damoda and Baracan rivers, the attendants on coal are lost, and the river is block- 
ed up with gneiss, felspar, and granite. The coal district then turns off crossing 
Jeria in the direction of Bahar : coal bassets appear a considerable way beyond. 
The attendants on coal also appear in the Baracan river, regularly downwards on 
the Birbhthn side, without any interruption, except a large whyn dyketliut appears 
seven miles above Madgeali, running in the direction of Bishenpur. The whole of 
the district affords rich ami valuable iron ore of various kinds ; but no limestone 
has yet been discovered, except tbe calcareous concretions that are found on the 
surface of the ground, and such as are in general use as a substitute for limestone 
all over Bengal. 
1 . Description of the works at Baniganj , with the different occurrences that took 
place during the sinking of tke three shafts . 
Previous to opening the works at the above place, I made small sinkings down to 
the clay slate or coal metal in the valleys, in every direction within three or four 
miles. I found them invariably dip E. by S. which threw the line of bearing to 
the back of the Kajmahal hills considerably inland. There being little chance of 
finding coal long on the line of dip, within reach, (and it soon bassets or crops nut 
on the line of rise,) I thought it proper to begin at this place, as I never saw the coal 
dip any other way but with the regular strata that cover it. The Rajmahal lulls 
are composed of mountain whyn or basalt of an amazing thickness ; at one place at 
Mbti Jliarna, a section or slip may be seen of sixty or seventy feet in height, 
and quite perpendicular : these hills rest on red streaked ferruginous sandstone, of 
a very bard nature, such as is often the floor of coal, but I believe very seldom the 
roof: this circumstance favoured my opinion, that the line of bearing crossed Bir- 
bhfim in that direction, and on the lstDecemberl815, 1 began the first shaft. Having 
mademy arrangements with the workmen, the sinking went on regularly ; but 1 was 
much astonished to find as I went down, that the strata gradually wheeled I rom E. 
by S. towards the N. W. and when tbe coal was found in shaft No. 1, it dipped N. 
W. which continued regular in every season and bed downwards ; the dip of the up- 
per strata forming a spiral line on the side of tbe shaft. The rainy monsoon having 
now commenced, and the workmen not attending regularly I began sinking the 
shaft, No. 3, and cutting platforms round both shafts to the level of high water m 
the river, with open adits to make the approach easy When the coal was found in 
No. 3, it was within two inches of tbe same level as No. 1, and dipping due south. 
I thought this might he caused by a sudden wave or ridge in the strata, or I might 
be working on the edge of a very small basin : this created much perplexity. I again 
tried the country round with the former result ; and was then in hopes, that I had 
got on the pivot or point where the strata wheeled, which would throw the line of 
bearing towards Katwa. To get more information, I opened the shaft No. 2, and 
although this was four hundred and eighty feet from No. 3, on the line of dip, coal 
