PART 1.] 
Annual Rejiort for 1878. 
5 
The Gwalior rocks hare boon indepondentlj^ ranked as in the upper transition 
series of Peninsular India, as pi’obably equivalent to the Kadapah series of 
Southern India; and thus the Arvali series, in great part metamorphic, would bo 
brought into a more defined position in the general scale of Indian foiunations. 
Qondwdna la'ls: Palamotv .—On page 198 of the Manual inere mention could 
be made of the ‘ imsurveyed basins of Palamow.’ A description of these coal-fields 
by Mr. Ball, with maps, has since been jmblished (Mem. G. S. I., Vol. XV, pt. I). 
This gi'ouud is more accessible from the trunk railway than the coal-basins of the 
upper Damuda valley; and projects for working the coal have lately been jn-o- 
posed. Two new coal-fields have been marked in the basin of the Koel river : the 
Aurunga field on the east has an area of 97 square miles; and the Hutar field 
on the west, traversed by the river Koel, has an area of 78 square miles. Both 
measurements include the whole of the Gondwana deposits, but the areas to be 
deducted from the Talchir outcrop are small. So far as could be determined fi’om 
surface indications, the coal of these areas, especially in the Aurunga field, is not 
so good as that of the smaller Daltonganj field, lower down the Koel, to the 
north. 
The geological interest of this ground is, that here a marked change takes 
place in the petrological characters of the Gondwana system, between the series 
as developed in the Damuda valley coal-fields and that found in the great 
midland area of South Rewah (the Son region), as well as in the Mahanadi and 
Godavari regions. In the Damuda region three considerable deposits (the Iron¬ 
stone Shales, Raniganj, and Panchet groups), of lower Gondwana ago, are petro- 
logically well distinguished from the lower coal-measures (BarUkar grouji). 
These gi'oups are here overlaid by a thick sandstone, generally characterized by its 
comparative want of earthy bond, and its consequent porosity. It was originally 
named the upper Panchet group, in the Raniganj field; but from its presum¬ 
able equivalence to the Dubrajpur sandstone of the Rajmahiil region, in which 
upper Gondwana fossils occur, and from partial unconformity, it has latterly 
been separated from the lower Gondwana series, under the general name 
‘Mahadeva,’ which is at present a partial equivalent for upper Gondwana. In the 
midland and south-eastern regions a sandstone of this type rests immediately 
upon beds representing the lower coal-measures of Bengal, and overlap-uncon¬ 
formity is at many places very marked at this horizon. Notwithstanding these 
marks of changed conditions, it appears fi-om tho fossils that a great thickness 
of these upper sandstones (Kamthis) in tho Godavari valley must be recognized 
as lower Gondwanas, possibly on the horizon of the Raniganj group of the 
Damuda fields. 
Mr. Ball established the same fact for the upper sandstones at Hengir in the 
Mahanadi region; and he now (1. c., j). 46) confirms the observation of the 
strong resemblance between that rock and the sandstone resting on the lower 
coal-measures in Western Palamow, but w'hich he shows to be unquestionably 
identical stratigraphically -with- the supra-Panchet sandstone of the Damuda 
area. Upon this the suggestion is made that the Hengir rocks present ablendino’ 
of the characteristics of two groups, which in Palamow are separated by a distinct 
