PART 2.] 
Ball: A/ga r It. sandstones near Cuttack. 
G7 
To the north of Mandasal there is a considerable area, traversed by the road, in which 
metamorphic rocks occur. Owing to laterite, the limits of this area and the relations between 
the gneiss and quartzites occurring in it, with the surrounding sandstones, are very much 
obscured. 
Between Mandasal and Bobaneshwar, sandstones of the same character occur, forming 
at Kandagiri the small hill famous for its enormous giifnpas or cave temples. To the south¬ 
wards and also to the east, at a point about a mile to the west of Bobaneshwar, the sandstones 
disappear under great spreads of laterite. The eastern limits of the sandstones in the 
country stretching northwards between this and Naraj are also effectually concealed by 
laterite. It is quite possible that the sandstones may stretch eastward for several miles under 
tbe alluvium of the delta. 
Although in the foregoing pages these rocks have generally been spoken of as occurring 
horizontally, it seems to be the case that, viewed as a whole, there is a slight dip to the 
south-east. 
Having now described the appearance of these rocks and enumerated the various data 
available, the question as to the probability of coal-measures occurring underneath them 
may now be resumed. 
That there is no inherent impossibility of such being the case has been already demon¬ 
strated on a previous page. A basin of coal-measures, the edges of which have been over¬ 
lapped, may possibly occupy the centre of the area, and it can only be in view of such a 
possibility that any exploration can be undertaken. As a matter of observation, tbe beds of 
sandstone are horizontal, or are practically so, and whenever their boundaries are not obscured 
by alluvium or laterite, and, consequently, tbe underlying rocks are exposed, the latter in¬ 
variably prove to belong to the metamorphic series. 
Owing to the occurrence of such metamorphic rocks at or close to the boundaries of the 
sandstones on the north, west and south sides, respectively, it is clear that if the hypothetical 
basin exists, its limits are overlapped in those directions, and it therefore follows that explo¬ 
ration by boring, if undertaken, should be directed chiefly to the eastern central portion of 
the area. For this purpose the vicinity of the trunk road is well situated, besides possessing 
other manifest advantages. Further to the east, and even in the station of Cuttack itself, 
borings might be made, which, in so far as anything is certainly known to the con¬ 
trary, might be regarded as having an almost equal chance of proving coal-measures. 
But tbe difference in chance, slight as it is, together with the difficulty of carrying out 
a boring through a possibly considerable thickness of alluvium, should, I think, determine in 
favor of the former. 
On the accompanying map I have marked the localities in which the borings might be 
made, the numbers indicating roughly the order of their relative importance. Nos. 1 to 5 
would he the most important. If they proved, as they might do at a very small depth, 
that metamorphic rocks underlie the sandstones, without any coal-measures intervening, then 
it would be useless to proceed with the others. 
In conclusion, I wish to make it quite clearly understood, that the indications do not 
appear to me to be such as to justify any good hopes of success, and consequently I cannot 
recommend any further expenditure being incurred for exploration by boring or otherwise. 
The decision as to boring-operations being undertaken resting with the Government, and 
the possibility of there being hereafter such a local demand for coal as to make it desirable 
to put the matter to a final test, are my reasons for having discussed the question of boring 
as above in detail. 
