Records of the Geological Survey of India. 
[vol. VI. 
2 
workable coal being traced more to the south in the Dudlii valley. To test the former, Mr. 
Medlicott recommended that boring trials should be made near Gadurwarra, and this has 
been commenced. The actual borings have been placed under the charge of Mr. Collin, a 
coal engineer who had been engaged at Wurrora in the Chanda district. But badly supplied 
with tools, and at a distance from any place where mechanical appliances and instructed 
labour could be obtained, the progress hitherto has been very small and very disappointing. 
Mr. M edlicott is only responsible for the proper selection of the locality, the actual working 
being under different control. The false economy of attempting to carry out such an 
undertaking without proper tools and efficient supervision cannot be too strongly insisted on. 
Mr. Medlicott meanwhile has been endeavouring to push on the geological examination of 
the adjoining country, this being the necessary preliminary to any further practical search for 
coal, his progress in this being, however, most seriously retarded by the necessity of looking 
after boring operations so inefficiently conducted, without any countervailing advantage. 
Mr. W. L. Willson has been steadily engaged in extending the geological lines and 
boundaries, from the north of Dumoh, where he had been engaged, into Bundelcund and 
the adjoining territory of Itewah. The district examined is as yet incomplete in itself, 
and any description must be deferred. Mr. Willson was, during the recess, most usefully 
employed iu the preparation of the maps of Dumoh district on the scale of 1 inch = 1 
mile for publication, some of which are now ready. 
Mr. Mallet, who had, as reported at the elose of last season, proceeded to the coal-fields 
of lvota, on the southern borders of Mirzapdr district, mapped out its limits. He notices 
some fourteen outcrops of coal, most of them, however, very thin and worthless; some two or 
three have a workable thickness of fair coal. All appear to be on about (lie same horizon,not 
more than two being seen in any cross section, the richer outcrops thus appearing to be only 
local. Mr. Mallet lias also added many interesting mineralogieal observations to those 
in his previous report upon the rocks occurring in the widely spread gneiss series, especially 
upon the valuable bed of Corundum which he had noticed in that neighbourhood. These 
notes having been published in the Memoirs of the Survey need not he alluded to here more 
particularly. During the later part of the year, Mr. Mallet has taken up the examina¬ 
tion of the Ilazaribagh district. A considerable part of this district bad been gone over 
some years since, but the topographical maps, which were then available and which were 
shortly afterwards condemned, were so imperfect, and those resulting from the re-survey so 
entirely different, that it has not been found practicable to transfer the geological lines, &c., 
without absolutely going over the ground a second time. Mr. Mallet’s labour will be 
confined chiefly to tlie crystalline and metamorphic rocks. In a similar way, Mr. James 
Willson lias been, since bis return from sick leave, engaged in putting in the geological 
boundaries and divisions of the coal-fields in the south of the same district on the new 
maps preparatory to publication. 
In the early part of the season, Mr. Ball was engaged in the examination of the coal¬ 
bearing rocks iu Sirguja. Among those areas, the small coal-field of Bisrampur is in itself 
complete, and will shortly be published. Among these rocks Mr. Ball has noticed a case of 
unconformity between the lower group, or the Burakdr rocks, aud the upper sandstones, defined . 
by faulting in the lower rocks not effecting the upper. This is a very unusual occurrence, hut 
is of high interest if established by further research. 
In the latter part of the year, Mr. Ball has been deputed to accompany J\lr. 
II. Bauerman, who had been sent out by the Right Hon’ble the Secretary of State, in 
his visit to the more important iron-yielding districts, with a view to giving a definite 
opinion on the feasibility of establishing iron works in India, and with him has visited 
