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Records of (he Geological Survey of India. 
[vol. v. 
without any mention of the conditions so pointedly attached to them, and without any notice 
of the unfavorable realization of those conditions as proved in subsequent trials and as already 
published in my report of May 1871 (Rec. Geol. Sur., Vol. IV., page 67). Some further trials 
during the past season in the same ground to the north of the mines have not resulted in 
anything more hopeful. Shallow pits and galleries were driven upon the outcrop in several 
places, but the seam, besides being greatly crushed, exhibits much original impoverishment, 
shale having to a great extent taken the place of coal. It is certain, however, that this 
change is only a local accident, not a steady northerly extension of the coal, for in the vertical 
seams still further north, in the abandoned miues of the Sitariva Company, the coal, though 
ruined by the crushing it has undergone, does undoubtedly represent a rich deposit. 
This fact of rapid local change suggests an explanation of a very puzzling structural 
feature in the Narbada Company’s mine. It has been often mentioned how the massive 
bed of coal stops out on the north-east against a steep face of sandstone. Although there 
were little or no signs of friction, and sometimes not even of crushing in the coal, this feature 
was accepted as a fault, having, according to the ordinary rule, an upthrow on the north-east. 
On this supposition a gallery was driven across the bedding, the (lip being north-easterly, 
to find the coal beyond the fault; shafts were also sunk on the hill above the fault on tho 
north-east, but without any success. On the chance of its being a reverse fault, a boring was 
driven to some depth, the shaft of the mine under the river proving the same ground, but the 
seam was not found. It was thus plain that, if a fault, it must have a very considerable 
throw. Against this, however, some very strong d priori reasons were existent. The boun¬ 
dary of the two formations sweeps across the run of this supposed fault without any dis¬ 
placement, showing that the age of the fault (if it existed) must be older than the Mahadeva 
beds, and on the other hand the constant parallelism of tho strata in tho two formations, with 
great steadiness of horizon in the lower group at tho boundary, would be almost incompatible 
with so great a disturbance affecting the lower group only. There is some direct evidence in 
support of these arguments ; in the gallery and the shafts driven beyond the ‘fault’ in search 
of the seam, a quantity of hard black sandy clay with thin st rings of coal was cut, for which, 
unless it represent the seam, no horizon could be assigned. I believe then that this is only a 
fault in the wider sense given to the term by miners of the nature of what is sometimes 
called a horse-back, a thick drift of sand against which the coal deposit ended. An analo¬ 
gous feature occurs in the new mine on the lower seams ; theso stop abruptly against an east- 
west fault, of which a section is exposed in one of the road cuttings, showing certainly 
some slipping along the crack, but in the position of the seams beyond this small slip there is 
only found a band of coaly shale and eveu this dies out within a few yards. 
Regarding tho exploration of the Satpura coal basin in other regions, I would strongly 
recommend that efficient trial be made both in the Dudhi and Tawa valleys at some distance 
from the north boundary of the field. In my detailed geological description of the ground 
I notice some features which complicate very much the calculation of the depth at which the 
coni may ho cut; indeed any estimate at present without any local precedent to guide one 
would be no more than a guess. The analogy of other Indian coal fields, so far as known, is 
altogether in favour of the coal here boing within a workable depth. I would recommend 
Budi, in the Dudhi valley, and the banks of the Suk Tawa, south of Kcsla, in the Tawa 
region, as suitable places for trial borings. An analogous position might be chosen at Bichla 
on the Sitariva. All these places would be clear of the unfavorable conditions—coarse con¬ 
glomerates, high dips,and copious trap intrusions—which increase the difficulties of exploration 
close to tho boundary of the field, as has been so unfortunately experienced in the trials made 
by the Narbada Company; the borings they have attempted to the south have‘come to 
grief at small depths in the coarse conglomerate. The only inducement to keep near the 
boundary there, was to be more or less within known and calculable conditions. In choosing 
