11EC0RDS 
OF THE 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OE INDIA. 
Part 1.] 1873. [February. 
Annual Report of the Geological Survey of India and of the Geological 
Museum, Calcutta, foe the year 1872. 
During the twelve months of 1S72 our working stall' was diminished in number by 
the absence, either on leave, or on special duty elsewhere, of several of the officers of the 
Survey. 
As stated in last year’s report, Mr. W. T. Blau ford was deputed to accompany the 
Boundary Commission in Beluchistan and Persia. Two very interesting papers on parts 
of the Persian Gulf and of the shores of Arabia visited by Mr. Blanford, while waiting 
for the arrival of his fellow labourers, have been given to the public during the year. Later 
on, at the close of the boundary labours, he was compelled by ill health to proceed direct to 
Europe, where he arrived in September. It is to be hoped that he will be able to work, up 
the extensive and valuable materials he has acquired, together with those of his colleagues 
in the duty. Taken as a whole, it is certain they will form one of the most valuable contri¬ 
butions to the Natural History of a little known portion of the earth’s surface, which offers 
many points of high interest and importance, in so far as it forms a connecting link, as it 
were, between our Indian empire and the wide areas of Arabia on one side and of the Cas¬ 
pian and Russia on the other. Mr. Blanford also had opportunities not often offered to 
European naturalists, which, I doubt not, he made ample use of. On this duty he has been 
absent during the whole twelvemonths, Mr. Foote was absent for three months from 
August to November. But this interfered only slightly with the progress of the work. 
Mr. Fedden, who had been suffering from frequent attacks of fever in the unhealthy district 
of the Pemgunga and Wurdah valleys, left the country on sick leave in May, and has been 
absent since. Mr. Hug lies, who had been invalided in the same districts during the work¬ 
ing season of 1871-72, returned to duty and resumed his wovk in November 1872, and lias 
since been actively engaged. Dr. Waagen was also compelled to leave for Europe on medical 
certificate at the close of the year. Mr. J. Willson, who had been absent on sick leave from 
May, resumed his duties early in December, and at once proceeded to the field. These con¬ 
stant changes, necessitated in a great measure by the heavy work and great exposure to 
which the assistants of the Geological Survey are subjected, unavoidably retard progress and 
delay the completion of maps. 
At the commencement of the year (January 1872), Mr. Medlicott was actively 
engaged in the examination of the Satpura coal-fields and adjoining country. Some of the 
results of this examination are already published. Of these results the most important, 
practically, were two—the possibility of coal being found to extend under the more recent 
deposits of the Narbada valley proper outside the hills, and the probability of beds of 
