PART 3.] 
M edlieoU : Mohpani Coal-field. 
69 
just south of Kaklaur, where sandstones have been extensively quarried in long trenches : 
they are fine-grained, pale, earthy flaggy sandstones with shaly partings; some are very 
regularly ripple-marked, and all have a steady dip of 15° to south; they seemed to me 
most like Upper Talehirs, but at one point next the trap south-east of Kaklaur, there is a 
thick, black, earthy rock, like a carbonaceous shale, altered by the igneous rook with which 
it is in contact. These few observations, which are all that I could discover in the flat 
ground between Mohpani and Khairi, where the metamorphic rocks appear in force, may servo 
to show how very precarious the search for coal must bo in that area. 
Southwards and westwards along base of ridge. —I would recommend, therefore, that 
every endeavour be at present directed to following the run of the coal-measures along the base 
of the ridge, where they must appear if they exist at all; and for some little distance at 
least, very positive directions can he given to guide the search. As has been already remarked, 
the coal in this field, wherever it is seen, occurs within a few yards of the base of the easily 
distinguished Mahadeva rocks. For a short distance, this character may he taken as a clue; 
but as the ridge is oblique to the boundary, and thus recedes from it west wards, the Mahaddvas 
alter; sandstones and pale clays take the place of the coarse conglomerate at the base 
of the scries; so that it becomes very difficult indeed to fix the boundary of the two for¬ 
mations where the sections are poor. The last place where this boundary is well seen is iii 
the stream immediately west of Bainar village, where the conglomerate rests upon some 
sixty feet of sandstone, below which the section ceases. A trial shaft is now being sunk here, 
at my recommendation, by the Sitariva Company. For several miles to west of this, 
1 only found one spot, on the east side of the recess south of llichai, where rock is visible 
below the conglomerate. South of Kaklaur I could not pronounce positively on the 
position of the rocks that are obscurely seen at the base of the ridge. For a mile from 
the base of the ridge in the Khairi stream, there is a fair section of the new bottom 
Mahadeva strata, pale greenish brown and mottled red clays with sandstones, having a 
variable dip. It is presumable that the outcrop of the coal-measures (if they have not 
thinned out and been overlapped) passes, between Kaklaur and the base of the range, 
towards the metamorphic rocks south-west of Khairi. The safe way to settle the point 
will be to follow the strike by shallow pits or borings westwards from Bainar. 
Evidence as to southward, extension .—An idea seems to have obtained that the coal 
does not exist beneath the Mahadeva rocks to the south, or at least that it is out of reach. 
This opinion appears to have been started by Mr. Blackwell, the mining engineer who selected 
the ground for the Narbada Company : in a section drawn by him on the map of the 
ground, a great fault is placed along the boundary of the measures with the conglomerate. 
[ can find no confirmation of such a view; and certainly the trap-dyke which Mr. Blackwell 
introduces along his fault has no existence. It is rather in that southerly direction that 1 
hope the coal may be most favourably worked, as being probably steadier, less affected by- 
faults and trap-dykes. The fact, however, remains to be proved. The Narbada Company 
put down a bore (No. 2) to a depth of 256 feet on the flat ground of Mnlpi village 
1,100 feet from the boundary, in a south-easterly direction from bend of river, and south 
of the run of Mr. Blackwell’s fault. The bore only passed through conglomerate and red 
clays; hut taking the most favourable view of the case,—supposing there to he no faulting what¬ 
ever, and no thickening of the upper rocks,—the boro stopped just short of the measures. An 
average of several dips, taken in the conglomerate at the boundary, gives 15°; at 400 yards 
up the river it has flattened to 6°, which would reduce the mean to 13°5\ in which case the 
measures would ho 266 feet deep at the bore in question. Another bore was put down to a 
considerable depth at the edge of the river below the bend; hut this of course was a failure, 
being visibly below all flic coal, every inch of the section being well exposed in the river close 
by. The best means of immediately testing the southern extension of the measures is from a 
shaft (No. 2) that was sunk to a depth of ill feet close to the bend of the river on left bank. 
After passing through twenty-eight feet of surface gravel and forty-seven feet of conglomerate 
and red clay, the measures were reached, and coal was cut at the bottom. Unfortunately at this 
point the water made so fast that the work had to he stopped. The finding coal beneath the 
conglomerate does not finally settle the question of a great fault here, the pit being so 
near the boundary; and I was informed by Mr. Taylor, the very intelligent miner who 
had charge of the works at the time, that in the upper part of the shall, and altogether 
in Mahadevas, the strata were cut by a fault having a steep southerly underlie; there was 
no means of ganging the amount of throw. The feature is now concealed by the casing of 
the shaft. Where small faults are so frequent, as in the mines close by, there is really no¬ 
thing especially discouraging in finding one here; it is probably no greater than those 
