pabt 3 .] Mallei: Limestones in the neighbourhood of Bardkar. 
151 
A little south of the boundary between the Ironstone Shales and Raniganj group, at the 
villages of Jassaidhi and Gangutia (about two miles south-east of Barakar), a band of lime¬ 
stone is visible which seems to belong to the same horizon. It is only a few feet thick, and 
gave on assay 38'2 per cent, of insoluble matter; so that it is useless as a source of lime. 
It appears from the foregoing details that the calcareous bands are in the Raniganj 
group, at the lower part of it. The contiguity of the Panchet beds to the limestone, south 
of Baghmara, is therefore apparently due either to the unconformity between the Raniganj 
and Panchet groups,* or to an undetected fault to the east of the limestone. 
Hansapathar limestone .—Six miles west of Baghmara there is an abundant supply of 
limestone of good quality, Occurring as a strong band in the gneiss. The country is open, 
with merely a thin covering of soil, through which the rock penetrates in many places. 
In a quarry half a mile west of Hansapathar the outcrop is some 50 yards broad, the 
beds having an average dip of 30° to the north, giving a thickness of rock of 70 or 80 feet. 
Of this, I think, fully three-fourths are available limestone, the remainder consisting of in¬ 
ferior stone, and perhaps intercalated beds of gneiss. The quarry is near the bank of a small 
stream, and elevated 10 or 15 feet above it; so that there is a large quantity of stone above 
the water-level. A little to the east, the dip (either by a very sharp twist, or by a fault) alters 
to east, and is nearly vertical. A short way north of Hansapathar some 25 feet of limestone 
is seen in another quarry, but this is only a portion of the whole. On the north side of 
Asta, again, the rock occurs in great force, dipping to the north at 50°—80°. The breadth 
of the outcrop is about 60 yards, giving a thickness of, say, 150 feet, of which more than 
three-fourths is seen to be good stone, free from hands of gneiss, &e. The amount of free 
drainage here is about the same as in the quarry first mentioned. The limestone is also 
exposed, although less fully, half a mile east of Asta. 
Considering, then, that the outcrop is visible for about two miles, and the thickness of 
the hand, it is clear that the amount of stone within reach is very large indeed, while the 
thinness of the superincumbent soil, and the circumstances of the drainage, allow of its being 
worked under very favorable circumstances. 
The rock is a white crystalline limestone, which varies somewhat in texture. Some parts 
are comparatively fine-grained; in others the crystalline facets are a tenth of an inch in 
diameter. Some beds contain strings and nests of quartz and felspar, and disseminated 
crystals of actinolite. When such impurities occur hr lai'ge quantity, the beds containing 
them weather more slowly than the others, and stand out more prominently above the sur¬ 
face, Scales of brown mica (phlogopitc ?) are frequently scattered through the rock. 
The analysis of an average sample of this limestone yielded— 
Calcic carbonate ... ... ... ... 8343 
Magnesie carbonate ... ... ... ... -78 
Ferrous carbonate ... ... ... ... *68 
Phosphoric acid ... ... ... ... *02 
Insoluble ... ... ... ... 16’1S 
101-09 
Of the insoluble residue, 80'35 per cent, (or 13'00 per cent, of the limestone) is silica. The 
rock only contains a trace of sulphur (less than ’01 per cent.) 
* Vide Memoirs, Geological Survey of India, Vol. Ill, page 126. 
