VART l.j 
Annual Ruport for 1877. 
7 
Exploralions for coal .—In connexion witli the Gondwana formation, record 
should be made of the coal explorations that have been going on for several 
seasons past in the Satpura basin, ^'hey were undei'taken by Government at my 
recommendation, and have been carried out more or less to the tixteni contem¬ 
plated, bnt have proved un.successful. The obseiwations and chances upon which 
these experiments were based have been from time to time explained in the 
Records, so that a brief recapitulation of the circumstances will now sutfice. The 
only outcrop of the. coal-measures on the north side of the Satpura basin of Gond¬ 
wana rooks is on the Sitariva at ilohpani. It is there that the structural charac¬ 
ters of the outcrop, so close to this obscure main boundary of the basin, should 
have been practically tested and the continuity of the measures proven. The 
mining operations there have, however, been hithert.o on a very paltry scale, and 
the work of exploration most inefficiently carried out. The difficulties of the 
ground are, no doubt, considerable, but not a single trial to the dip of the basin 
has been carried to the depth at which it could have been expiected to touch the 
coal in the position attempted. The whole ground on the Sitariva is in private 
bands, and Government could not interfere to insist upon a more effective method 
of search, so it was reasonably resolved to attemjjt the exploration of the basin 
at other less favourable points, where the measures themselves had to be sought 
for. 
In pursuance of this project three classes of trial were indicated. It was 
shewn that the total cutting olf of the GondAvana rocks to the north, along a 
supposed great fault, was at least not proven; and that therefore it was possible 
that the coal-measures might in certain positions occur beneath the alluvial area 
of the Narbada valley. To test this conjecture two borings were made, one at 
Gadarwara close to the main line of railway, and one at Sukakheri by the .side 
of the branch line, half way to Mohpani. The former was stopped at a. dejith of 
251 feet, as the tubes could not be forced further, and smallei' tube.s, to pass down 
inside the fir.st .set, were not then available. The Sukakheri boring was sunk to 
the depth of 491 feet still in alluvial depo.sits, chiefly clay; and it is highly 
creditable to Mr. Stewart, the brace-head man in charge of the work, that with 
.such labour and appliances as he cordd command he was able to sink so deep. 
This is a far greater thickness than was at all anticipated for the valley deposits ; 
and the trial ha.s practically answered the question proposed, for it would certainly 
not pay at present to seek the coal through such a thickness of soft rocks. 
It is plain, however, that the que.stion whether or not the coal-measures extend 
in this direction (rrjion the possibility of which the experiments were under¬ 
taken), is not affected by the result. 
A second class of trial was based upon the fully proven fact that the thickness 
and distribution of the upper Gondwana groups are exceedingly irregulai*. It 
was thus hoped that the coal-measures might possibly lie at a practicable depth 
within the basin, iu the open valleys of the Dudhi and the Tawa, -where the 
measures, if found, would be free from the many accidents that render the 
working of them so difficult in the disturbed ground near the boundary. Boiings 
were accoidingly put down at Manegaon and at Khappa in the Dudhi valley 
The former was closed at 420 feet, as the depth attained required constant super 
