PART l.j 
Annual Report for 1873 . 
7 
improvements in tlie art would be most suitable to the circumstances ; but, of course, whoever 
may be entrusted with tlie conduct of the experiment would form his own opinion upon 
this point. Meanwhile further search is being diligently made by the Survey for means 
of surmounting the known material deficiencies. 
In the foregoing paragraphs frequent mention has been made of the Vienna Exhibition 
as having caused interruption to work during the field season, which is already so restricted 
by the conditions of the Indian climate. This was duly noticed by Dr. Oldham in liis 
last report; and it was shown how largely this circumstance was due to the present crowded 
and confined condition of our museum and offices, whereby we have been prevented from 
making even such collections for head-quarters as would sufficiently illustrate our field-work, 
and much less provide duplicates for distribution or for exhibition elsewhere. It is satis¬ 
factory to know that this disability will certainly be shortly removed by our removal during 
this and the ensuing year into the new Imperial Museum buildings. Once the drawback 
I have mentioned is removed, the occasional muster of a special collection for foreign exhibi¬ 
tion will be altogether a gain—as an incentive to keep up to date, as a means of effecting 
valuable exchanges of specimens, and, not least, as an opportunity for selected officers to 
renew their acquaintance with men and things in more civilized regions, and to improve 
their knowledge in the highly progressive sciences with which we havo to deal. 
During the present season the distribution of the work is in continuation of that of 
last year except in the oases of the following officers: Mr. Theobald has been transferred to 
the North-West Provinces. One of the most interesting problems of Indian Geology awaits 
solution there—to get materials for unravelling the palaeontological sequence in the immense 
series of deposits based (transitionally) upon the marine nummulitics, and ending above in 
the deposits containing the great mammalian fauna known as Sivalik. A first step in this en¬ 
quiry will be to discriminate the proper horizons for the species of tlie numerous fauna now 
known as ‘ Sivalensis,' derived from strata for which very different stratigraphical positions 
have been subsequently assigned. 
On the urgent requisition of the Government of Bengal to have a mineral survey of 
British Sikkim and the fringe of the Himalayan range to the east, principally in the hope of 
discovering some serviceable coal deposit, Mr. Mallet has been detached for that duty. The 
chief expectation of success rests upon fact that rocks of the Damnda age, containing the 
well known fossil plants of the Indian coal-measures, are known to occur obscurely along 
the inner boundary of the tertiary sandstones flanking the mountain range. The occa¬ 
sional carbonaceous deposits in these younger formations themselves have nowhere, as yet 
seen, offered any encouragement to extended search. 
Mr. Hughes has been deputed to carry out some special inquiries regarding the con¬ 
ditions for iron manufacture. He has already reported briefly upon the available deposits 
of Ivumaon, and is now engaged in bringing together additional information to reduce 
tlie difficulties of the undertaking in the Raniganj field. It is hoped that there will still 
be enough of tbe working season left to admit of bis completing the examination of the 
Wardba coal-field. 
Mr. Ball has for the present taken up Mr. Medlicott’s work in the Satpura region; 
and is to afford geological guidance for the boring operations. Mr. Hacket has resumed 
his work in Rajputana, which had to be suspended some years ago on account of the famine 
in that region. Mr. Medlicott is to devote what time he can spare for field-work to an 
examination of the coal recently discovered in the Garo hills. This coal can be certainly 
