PART 1.] 
Annual Report far 1874. 
5 
These investigations detained Mr. Hughes, so that he did not get to his regular work 
until late in January. With Mr. Fedden’s aid he then remapped the northern portion of 
the Wurrora coal-field, taking advantage of any recent exposure of the rocks in order to 
revise his geological lines. In a country so largely and thickly covered with alluvial 
deposits, it becomes necessary to pick out every single point so as to obtain any clue even 
of a trivial kind which may lead to the identification of the various rocks so badly seen. 
And this Mr. Hughes appears to have done with much care. It is gratifying to find that 
the practical conclusion based solely on such geological investigations, as to the existence 
of coal in the neighbourhood of Bander, has been fully confirmed by actual borings com¬ 
menced entirely on Mr. Hughes’ recommendation. These borings have proved the existence 
of coal many feet in thickness, the occurrence of which would never have been suspected 
from any surface exposure of the beds. This fact becomes of higher importance, because 
the locality of this coal is greatly nearer the very valuable iron ores of the country than 
any previously known beds of coal in the Wardha valley fields. 
Passing into the Berars and the Nizam’s territories, Mr. Hughes continued these 
investigations, and was able to give important advice and aid to the Nizam’s officers. 
It is a source of much regret that in consequence of the frequently recurring and con¬ 
tinued interruptions to Mr. Hughes’ progress in that district, the mapping of this Wardha 
coal-field is not yet completed. There is still a considerable area calling for careful examina¬ 
tion, and in which it is not improbable that valuable results may yet reward our search. 
It would only cause greater delay to put any one else to complete this work now. And we 
can therefore only hope that it may yet be practicable without any much prolonged delay to 
complete the examination. The very existence of true coal in these districts and the sound 
knowledge already obtained of its extent and amount is altogether the result of the labours 
of the sur-vey, and we should be glad to complete the investigation of the rocks as soon 
as practicable. 
Towards the end of the year Mr. Hughes’ aid was again sought for by two separate 
companies, who have undertaken to remove the all-important trial of actually smelting 
iron in this country from the field of speculation and writing to that of actual experiment 
on a commercial scale, in order to point out to them the most favourable localities for the 
procuring of ores, coal, &c., &c. He had scarcely concluded this work when the year closed. 
He will thus again have only a brief season to devote to his systematic work. He will, I am 
sure, do all that can be done in the time, but it will be entirely impracticable to complete the 
field in one short season. 
Mr. Fedden, who, as stated in last year’s report, had been absent on sick leave, did not 
return to work until late in January, 1874. He then joined Mr. Hughes in the Wardha 
valley field, and worked with him for the remainder of the season, putting in the detailed 
geological Hues in parts of the Chanda district and in the adjoining territories of the 
Nizam. At one place north of Wurrora, Mr. Fedden was fortunate enough to discover a few 
specimens of fossil fishes in the uppermost beds of the sedimentary rocks, at about the same 
horizon as that on which the Reverend Mr. Hislop years since found similar remains. These 
will doubtless prove a valuable addition to the limited evidence we already possessed on 
which to base a conclusion as to the age of these beds. Mr. Hislop classed these rooks as 
belonging to the infratrappean beds of that neighbourhood in which he states that he 
found shells of the same kind as from the intertrappean layqrs, mixed with bones of large 
animals. On this evidence he referred the rocks to the same age relatively as the Lameta 
beds of the Narbada valley. 
During the current season Mr. Fedden is attached to Mr. W. T. Blanford in Sind. 
