RECORDS 
OF THE 
GEOLOGICAL SUEYEY OF INDIA. 
No. 1.] 1870 [February. 
Annual Repoet of the Geological Survey of India and of the Museum of Geology, 
Calcutta, foe the Yeae 1869. 
The close of another year (1869) calls for a brief summary of the progress of the 
Geological Survey since our last report. 
The area, which it is possible to examine geologically within a year, depending essen¬ 
tially on the number and ability of the officers employed, it is necessary, first, to premise that 
during ten months of the twelve just passed, Mr._ W. T. Blanford, Deputy Superintendent, 
was absent, being engaged in the elaboration of his report on the Geology and Natural History 
of Abyssinia, the result of observations made while attached as Naturalist to the 
Abyssinian Field Force, and during a brief visit, subsequently to the return of this force from 
Abyssinia, to the adjoining territory of Bogos. Mr. Blanford was, at the beginning of the 
year (1869), ordered to proceed to Europe, where alone he could have facilities for the 
comparison and identification of his collections and of reference to all previously published 
accounts. After an absence from India, on this duty, of about six months, Mr. Blanford 
rejoined the Geological Survey at the beginning of November, and immediately took the field. 
Mr. Ormsby, who (as reported last year) had been obliged to proceed to Europe, suffering 
from sunstroke, returned just before the working season commenced in November. During 
the most important and largest portion of the year, therefore, the survey was without 
the aid of these two gentlemen. Mr. W. King and Mr. F. Mallet obtained 12 months’ 
furlough each, and left in September for Europe, having completed their maps and reports of 
the previous season; and their services will,of course, he wanting during the present season. 
Last year Iliad to report that Mr. Charles Oldham had proceeded on furlough in Nov¬ 
ember, and with deep regret I was called on to report his decease in April last. In him the 
Government of India lost a trained and able servant, distinguished for his conscientious 
devotion to duty, and for the care and skill with which he, as Deputy Superintendent for 
Madras, conducted the labours of the party working there. In him also the officers of the 
Survey regret the loss of an esteemed colleague. This death, resulting from the effects of an 
attack contracted during his active service in India, adds another to the long list of those who 
have succumbed to the very trying exposure in the worst and most unhealthy _ parts of the 
country which the pursuit of Geology in India necessarily entails. The remaining officers 
of the Survey have all been actively engaged during the year. 
Soon after the commencement of the year (1869), having then just returned from the 
Punjab, I proceeded to Cachar and Sylhet, to examine, on the spot, the evidence connected 
with the serious earthquake of the 10th of .January, which had caused such extensive 
damage. I was unfortunate in visiting the localities just at the time when all the available 
carriage of the district was needed for the Military expedition then just leaving Silchar; so 
that I found it impracticable to see quite as much of the country as I could have wished.. I 
succeeded, however, in obtaining some accurate and valuable observations. And in returning 
I crossed the Khasi Hills, noting the results of the same earthquake at Sylhet, Cherra 
Poonjee, Shillong, and Gowhatty. A brief notice of these results was given at a meeting 
of the Asiatic Society of Bengal in March (vide Proceedings of the Society for April 1869, 
p. 113). While working out these observations, 1 was led to notice how little ol any accurate record 
existed in this country regarding the earthquake shocks to which many parts of it are 
