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PART 3.] NicJwUs: Jofja neighhourhood and old mines on the Nerliidda- 
Note on the Joga neighbotjehood and old mines on the Nebbudda, hy 
G. J. Nicholls, C. S., Officiating Oommissioner of Excise, Central Provinces. 
In the tract of country between the Great Indian Peninsula Railway, the 
Cbota Tawa (which divides the Nimar and Hoshangabad districts), the Nerbudda 
and the Ganjal river, most of the western area is composed of metamorphics and 
Bijdwars, and these in the eastern ai’ea pass under alluvium. 
Granitic and syenitic rocks show at Harda in the river bod. These rapidly 
pass into gneiss as we go north-west towards Handia. The gneiss soon passes 
under cherty bands and quartzose breccia. Due north from Harda about seven 
miles, and to the east of the road to Handia, the streams lay open beds of much 
disintegrated granitoid or gnoissic rock which would probably yield kaolin. 
Between two and three miles south of Handia small hills, with a westerly run, 
are met, composed of a peculiar quartzite belonging to the Bijawar series. 
At Handia the bed of the Nerbudda is of granite, the felspar being of a 
marked red colour. Across the river at Nimawar, the quartzites again come in. 
Prom Harda to the south-west, granites are found till the Machak valley is 
met near Mandla. Further down the railway line trap comes in, a softish red 
or reddish purple stone, easily cut and used for bridge work. 
Down the Machak which runs in a north-west direction at Dhanwara, a coarsely 
crystallized protogene rock forms the bed of the stream. 
At Deopur a limestone has been quanned to a considerable extent.' 
Westward of this, through Gambir to the Chota Tawa, there is much schist 
and gneiss, Avith trap outliers superimposed. Going due west of Harda to 
Sontalai, I quickly left the granite and syenite and passed beyond the gneiss. 
From this to Sontalai, bands of yellowish brown chert and outcrops of a highly 
silicious limestone (Bijawar) alternate in a mo-st confused manner. Where there 
are hills, as at Niljhar, they are mostly of quartzite with chert and jasper. The 
surface of the limestone is much weathered and gnarled, and the silicious layers 
stand out in relief, often assuming the half vitrified look of hornstone. Close to 
Sontalai, there is much ferruginous debris, probably from the numerous iron 
melting fuimaces once worked on the western side of the Aullago. 
A curious conglomerate rather than breccia occurs in the stream west of the 
village. In the afternoon I went to the iron mine about two and a half miles from 
Sontalai near the Machak river, seemingly a pocket of hasmatite and iron ochre 
it has been worked out to a depth which is below the jiresent levml of the water 
in the pit. About here, frequent and quick transitions take place from gneiss to 
schist and naiTow greenstone or diorite bands, giving the appearance of inter¬ 
stratification. The position of these and of the schists is generally nearly vertical. 
Lumps of quartz and nodules of trap lie about on the ground, also a few agates 
and flints. From Sontalai to Joga across the Anjan, the trap and greenstone 
dykes, and mctamorphic schists disappear. The elevations are almost entirely 
of quartzite, and the yellow-brown cherty jasper is much stronger. South of 
The specimens forw.irdeJ are of Lameta limestone, the same ns that quarried at Jabalpur. 
H. H. M. 
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