PART 3.] 
Oldham : Geology of the Central Provinces. 
81 
of more sandy reddish soil, while the hollows below consist solely of the finest regar. This 
appears to be due to the more argillaceous and finer portions of the decomposed rocks below 
being washed away by ordinary pluvial action from the slopes and accumulated in the 
hollows, where this finer mud forms a soil much more retentive of moisture, and which 
therefore rapidly becomes more impregnated with organic matter, and is often marshy. 
Regar can thus be formed wherever a truly argillaceous soil is formed: and its general, 
but by no means universal, absence over the metamorphic and other rocks is easily accounted 
for by the fact that theso rocks for the most part yield sandy, not clayey soils. It is never 
of any very great depth, and, excepting when re-arranged by rivers in their recent deposits, 
it is therefore never met with at any great distance below the surface. 
Obviously formed from the re-arranged wash of the older and more widely-extended 
soils we find large areas of very fertile soil, consisting of clays rather more saudy than the 
older alluvium, and not therefore so black or adhesive. Though rarely formed altogether 
of the true regar soil, it frequently contains a large proportion of this, mixed with other 
clays and sands. Every intermediate form of soil occurs, and it would by no means be an 
easy task to distinguish them all. In an agricultural point of view, it is interesting to seo 
how exactly the limits of certain kinds of cultivation coincide with the limits of these 
marked varieties of the alluvial deposits of the country—facts which the local officers will 
doubtless be able to illustrate more fully than I can. 
The preceding sketch has necessarily been of the briefest and most general character. 
Those who desire to study tho geology of the Central Provinces in greater detail may refer 
to the many papers more or less immediately bearing on this country—of Maleolmson, 
(Transactions, Geol. Soc., Lond.); Ilislop (Journal of Asiatic Society, Bengal; Journal of 
Bombay Branch Royal Asiatic Society; Quarterly Journal Geological Society, Loudon); 
Medlicott, Oldham, Blanford, Theobald, (Mem. Geological Siuwey of India; Records Geolo¬ 
gical Survey of India), iu which full details will he found so far as the country has yet been 
examined carefully. 
I shall also leave the discussion of the economic value of the several rocks to the detailed 
statements of the local officers, who have infinitely better opportunity of knowing how and 
to what extent such materials are economised within their’ own districts. I have solely 
attempted to give as briefly as possible a general connected outline of the successive formations 
known to occur within the limits of the Central Provinces, trusting that this outline may be 
filled in with greater detail by future researches. 
N. B .—The following papers hearing on the Geology of the Central Provinces have been 
published since the foregoing was written:— 
The coal-field near Chanda, Central Provinces.—Records, Geol. Surv., India, 1869, p. 94. 
Lead in Raipur district, Central Provinces.— Bnd, p. 101. 
On the lead vein near Chioholi, Raipur district.— Ibid, 1870, p. 44. 
The Wardha river Coal-fields, Berar and Central Provinces.— Ibid, p. 45. 
Coal at. Korba in Bilaspur district.— Ibid, p. 54. 
Mohpani Coal-field.— Ibid, p. 63. 
Lead ore at Slimanabad, Jabalpur district.— Ibid, p. 70. 
Coal east of Cbhattisgarh iu country between Bilaspur and Rancbi.— Ibid, p. 71. 
The plant-bearing sandstones of the Godavari valley; on the southern extension of rocks 
belonging to Jibe Kamila group to the neighbourhood of Ellorc and Ilajamandri, and on 
possible occurrence of coal in same direction.— Ibid, 1871, p. 49. 
