PART 1.] 
Annual Report for 1870. 
3 
Mr. Ball, as stated in last year’s report, was deputed to revise the maps of the Rajmahal 
hills, which are now ready for publication, so soon as the copper plates of the sheets of the 
Indian Atlas can be obtained from England and the maps transferred to stone for the 
geological lines. In the present season Mr. Ball has proceeded to the south of the Chota 
Nagpur country and Sirgujah, with a view to determine, at least approximately, the bound¬ 
aries of the extensive spread of coal-hearing rocks which there occur. For a large portion 
of this country maps arc now for the first season available. But there are still important 
gaps, for the plans of which we shall have to wait for some tune. Still it is hoped that we 
will be able to fix the boundaries with, at least, approximate accuracy over a very consi¬ 
derable area. Progress in these districts is unavoidably slower than elsewhere. Much of 
the country is without a road at all, and much of it is accessible only with elephants. 
In the early portion of the year, Mr. Ormsby had completed the revision of a large 
portion of the Bhaugulpore country. But his illness, and lamented death, prevented the 
final completion of the maps of that area. 
Mr. Mallet, who rejoined the survey towards the end of the year, has resumed the area 
on which he was last engaged, viz., the southern parts of Mirzapur and the adjoining parts 
of Eewah, &c., in the same valley. These are said to he rich in mineral wealth; and we are 
now for the first time able to take advantage of the recently completed maps of Rewah, &c., 
and to use them as records for the geological observations. Mr. Mallet had, on his return 
from Europe, been ordered to stop at Aden, and examine Aden and the country lying to the 
north of it between the peninsula and the hills with a special view to determine whether 
the principle of Artesian wells could be applied there with any prospect of success, in order to 
increase the supply of good water to the cantonments. Mr. Mallet’s report on the geological 
structure of this country will shortly appear in the Memoirs of the Survey. 
In Madras, by the absence of Mr. King and the death of Mr. Oldham, the party of the 
survey was reduced to only one, Mr. Foote. He completed the geological mapping of a 
considerable area of country, stretching along the valley of the Upper Kistna and adjoin¬ 
ing- area. Here the chief object has at present been to determine, ou the one side, the outline 
of the great Deccan trap rocks, which have overflowed all the earlier formations, and cover 
them with a thick and nearly continuous spread of old volcanic lavas and muds, and, on the 
other hand, to fix also the general boundary of the immense area of fundamental gnetssic rocks 
which constitute the basement rocks of everything else. Between these two, various other series 
crop out irregularly, and it is important to determine what these may he. This is the posi¬ 
tion which the coal-bearing rooks of India, among others, occupy, and there seem no sufficient 
reasons, a priori, why detached portions of these should not occur along the boundary in its 
south-western corner, as well as on the north-eastern. Hitherto no trace of them has been 
found, but, of course, we can only speak with any certainty regarding that portion which has 
been examined. Mr. King, who has recently returned from leave, has now rejoined the Madras 
party, and has taken up the continuation of the same boundary lines to the north by east, and 
will, I trust, during the present season, he able to carry his geological examination at least as 
far as Koolburga, while Mr. Foote will more especially extend his enquiries by the south and 
west to the Belgaum area, so as to join his lines with those already mapped some years since 
by Mr. Wilkinson in the Kokan and southwards to Goa. 
At the commencement of the year, Mr. W. T. Blanford was actively engaged in the detailed 
examination of the Berars and of Chanda district, and had nearly completed the portions of 
the Berars lying north of the Pern or Pein river. Ho was then specially diverted from this 
to visit and obtain a general idea of the extent and value of the coal-fields which had been 
for more than thirty years known to exist in Bilaspur, near Kurba, Ac. No topographical 
maps of this country, excepting in small detached areas, had been published up to date, and 
a detailed examination was, therefore, impracticable. I believe it was the late Colonel Ouseley 
