96 
Records of the Geological Survey of India. 
[vOL. XII, 
inefficient management of the mining operations, especially for works of explora¬ 
tion, by the Xarhada Coal Company, within whose property the known field lies. 
The mines were started at or close to the outcrop in the Sitariva river and within 
n short distance, in both directions, the coal was found to be cut out against 
two intersecting planes of faulting, the calculable amount of coal being, of 
course, limited to what lay in the small triangular area between these planes 
and the outcrop. There never was any reasonable doubt that the coal did 
occur outside these faults in one or other direction, or in both; and confidence 
in the resources of the field was sufficient to guarantee the construction of a 
full-gauge branch railway, 13 miles long, from Gddarwar-a to the pits; still, 
as time wore on, the urgency of proving the extent of the field became more 
and more pressing, so as at least to be prepared to break fresh ground before 
the original small block of coal-measures became exhausted. 
There were two directions for these explorations: one to the south-east, 
to the dip of the measures, towards the main area of the basin; the other to 
the north-east, on the local strike of the measures. The objections to the latter 
ground were, that the disturbance of the rocks, ah'eady a sufficient difficulty in 
the existing workings, was known to be indefinitely greater to the north ; and, that 
being also the direction of the edge of the basin, there was an extra presumable 
risk of original banking out of the seams. The fear in the other direction was 
that the measures might be let down to an inaccessible depth; but of this opinion 
there was no confii-mation in the outcrops, which are fairly exposed in the bed 
of the river. These considerations were repeatedly, but ineffectually, urged 
upon the mining administration. The ground to- the north-east was super¬ 
ficially the easier to explore, and efforts were chiefly spent upon it, but without 
the smallest success. Borings were also attempted to the south, and even a 
new shaft begun in that direction; but in no case was the trial carried far 
enough to touch the coal, even at the depth calculated from the dips, tvithout any 
allowance for possible small downthrow. 
When I visited the field in December 1876, in company with Mr. Hughes, 
the uncertainty was still pending, no advance having been made with the ex¬ 
ploration, and the original block of measures was being rapidly worked out. 
The trials in other parts of the Satpura basin were then in progress, but hopes of 
success were waning, and altogether the prospects of mining enterprise in this 
part of India seemed at its lowest ebb. When in October 1878 the last experi¬ 
mental trial outside the Mohpani field had failed to prove coal, the necessity for 
a proper exploration of the ground within that field became imperative. To urge 
this point, and to see what had been done since the close of 1876, I visited 
the collieries in March of this year. 
It was said above that there never had been any valid doubt upon the 
extension of the seams to the south-east; that there was no evidence for the 
supposition of a great fault, throwing the measures down out of reach on 
that side; still, until the gi’ound was proved, anxiety could not be altogether 
allayed. In 1870 (see Bees. Gcol. Surv. India, Vol. Ill, p. 69), I pointed out 
that “the best means of immediately testing the southern extension of the 
measures is from shaft No. 2,” which had been long since abandoned on account 
