m 
Records of Ike Geological Surrey of India. 
[VOL. V. 
To the west of the field, the land rising t.o the low flat-topped hills of Perrumpoodee, 
&c., is all made up of Kamtlds, under which the Beddadanol Bardkars may extend for 
any distance, though they will—if such he the case—be at too great a depth to justify mere 
trial boring, unless some better evidence of coal can be obtained from the sandstones now 
exposed. Along the eastern edge of the field the strata are lying directly on qnartzose 
gneiss, without any interpolation of Talchirs. Indeed, around the edge of the whole of 
the area in the two districts now referred to there is no occurrence of these latter rocks; 
tho Kamtlds, except in. Beddadanol neighbourhood, resting on gneiss. 
On the whole, it is very much to be feared that there is here only a small patch of 
Bardkars which does not extend far under tho Kamtlds-, so that, if coal were eventually 
struck, the quantity would be so small as to bo merely sufficient for local use. According to 
nil the observations and conclusions of my colleagues who have worked at the coal rocks of 
1 ndia # it seems pretty clearly established, that the Kamudas, so extensively developed in 
Bengal, became of less and less importance to the west and south-west, the Raneegunge beds 
eventually being entirely absent or represented by rocks containing no coal, until there was 
only a scries of small outlying basins of the lowest group or Bardkars deposited on the lower 
part of the Godavari valley which now remain as the coal-fields on the Pungady Yagu 
(Kamarum) and at Singareny, and last the saudstones of Beddadanol. On the other hand, 
fhe Kami his, considered to be in part at least representative of a higher series (Panchei ) 
have thickened out greatly in this direction, and constitute the great area of sandstones to 
tlie north of Ellore and west of the Godavari; which have in no case been found to contain 
coal. 
There may, of course, be other patches of Bardkars under this spread of Kamtlds, 
but it would be working on mere chance, and at a most enormous cost, to attempt to pierce at 
random through this thick series on the expectation of striking on any bidden coal store. 
The succession of these Kamtlds is so dear one bed under the other for the whole distance 
across the strike from south-west to north-cast, at a varying dip of 5°, 10°, 20°, to the south¬ 
west, without once a sufficient undulation to bring the bottom beds nearer to the surface than 
they can he struck along the north-east edge of the field, that all borings would run to an 
enormous depth. The only locality where at one time there appeared the slightest chance 
of finding lower beds brought nearer to the surface was in the Ponakamaud Station range 
of bills, about 24 miles due north of Ellore, but it was soon found that the strata on the 
north-east slopes of the range were still underlaid by many hundreds of feet of beds of the 
same series. 
Nevertheless, the finding of coal in the Madras Presidency is of such vital importance 
that it seems advisable to have a series of borings made in the Beddadanol field. A very 
few trials, and these of no great depth, possibly not more than 300 feet at the most—and 
even this depth could to a great extent be avoided by putting short bore-holes down in a line 
across the strike—would settle a question liable to crop up continually so long as it was 
believed that sandstones of the coal measures existed in the Godavari district which had not 
been explored in this way. Boring tools could probably be obtained from the depots on the 
adjoining Godavari works, and possibly competent parties to take charge of the trials. 
WILLIAM KING. 
See Rec. G. S. of X., part 3, vol. IV. 
