PART 3.] 
Medlkott: Mohpani Goal-field. 
(J5 
and they are the last rocks seen at the north end of the section in the river. On the tops of 
the hills, and generally at a distance from the edge of the basin, the Mahadeva formation 
is largely composed of sandstones above, associated with earthy beds below. 
Mahadeva coal .—It is important to notice here the coal that occurs in this formation. 
Much labor and expense have already been devoted to it; and I am aware that hopes are still 
entertained of it by intending speculators. Without wishing to deter men linally from 
exploring what may possibly in some local instance turn out a good tiling, it is but right that 
all should be informed of what is known regarding it, .Many thousand maunds of this 
coal were cut by Mr. Walker, contractor for the Narbada bridge, at Lamdta ghat on the 
Narbada, and profitably used for lime and brick-burning. Some was also extracted on the Slier 
river near Sehora. The same coal has been examined in many other places, as in the 
Mahanndi, to the north-east of Jabalpur; in the Hard river, a tributary of the Sakkur; 
on the flanks of Nimugarh, south of Mohpani. Many years ago this coal ivas cut in 
sinking a well within the station of Jabalpur. Its characters are everywhere the same,— 
a bright jetty lignite-coal, disseminated in threads more or less abundantly in thick shale 
and sandstone; the proportion of coal is exceedingly variable, and, except iu rare cases, 
altogether too small for use. In the nearly continuous rock-section in the Slier and Maehariva 
rivers, this coal is exposed ten or twelve times in a length of as many miles, without any 
change of character, and offering no encouragement to any attempt at mining. It certainly 
would not bear transport or keeping; and the most that can ever be expected of it is for local 
use for rough purposes. 
To one who is not familiar with the characters of these formations, and accustomed to 
discriminate between varieties of similar rocks, this Mahadeva coal-band might readily pass 
for the true coal-measures, as it often occupies an analogous physical position at the edge of 
the plains. The simplest criterion is the coal itself, which is quite unlike the Damfidn 
(Barakar) coal. Although found in so many distant localities, the coal-band is certainly 
not a constant member of the scries; nor is it even likely that all the known seams are 
on the same horizon in the series. 
Barakar group .—The Barakar group is not more than 500 to 000 feet thick, com¬ 
posed of strong beds of gray and white felspathic sandstone, alternating near tbo top with 
carbonaceous shales and coal-beds. Wherever the section is exposed in the neighbourhood 
of the Sitariva, these beds are found close beneath the bottom red clays or conglomerates of 
the Mahadevas. 
TalnJiir group .—The Talehir group is typically characterised by beds of fine greenish 
silt, or siKoiouS clay and sandstones, in either or both of wfech pebbles and boulders, often 
oi large size, are thinly scattered. The fine earthy sandstones pass up by imperceptible 
gradation into the Barakar rock, so that the boundary between them, in the absence of 
characteristic fossils, must often be arbitrarily assigned. These rocks occupy a large space 
between the north and south outcrops of the coal-measures on the Sitariva. 
Structure of the rocks .—The general section (see figure) north and south across the field 
will illustrate the relations of the rock-groups and explain the present structure. There is no 
33 
General section from south to north, across the Mohpani coal-field. 
Scale, 2 inches =• 1 mile, a, Mahaddva : b, coal-measures: c, Talehir ; d, metamorphic. 
The dotted lines indicate the probable mode of extinction of the coal-measures to the north. 
