were found fragments of Avicula, Corbula and Nassa. It would thus appear that estuarine have succeeded marine conditions in Recent times in the Little Rann. Captain F. W. Walker visited the salt workings of the Sagaing Sagaing and Shwebo : and Shwebo districts. His results have been Burma. noted in the last annual report. Tin. The alluvial flats of the Khe Chaung (Survey sheet 96) carry tin Mergui district, Burore, and have recently been worked for tin. ma. Steatite. Steatite or Talc occurs associated with the Dharwar rocks in Seraikela State, and was at one time worked west of Bara Kadel in the southern end of the State. Here the mineral occurred in situ as Seraikela: Bihar and Orissa. the altered product of an ultra-basic igneous rock. According to Mr. J. A. Dunn more thorough prospecting might bring to light additional high-grade deposits. Water. In reply to a request from the Great Indian Peninsula Railway Rao Bahadur M. Vinayak Rao was deputed Chalisgaon Bombay. to report on the water-supply at Chalisgaon Railway station at the junction of the Ar and Tittur rivers. The supply from a well in the bed of the Tittur and from others close by having proved inadequate, a dam had been constructed across the Ar river at Warthan, some eight miles south of Chalisgaon, and water led from the resultant reservoir by a pipe to the Railway station. This arrangement proved a failure owing to leakage through the dam. Mr. Vinayak Rao found it difficult to prescribe a remedy for the leakage but has suggested the addition of powdered dry clay. With regard to the prospects of additional wells, there are two possible sources of water. The rocks of the neighbourhood consist of a vesicular trap overlain by a dolerite, and are concealed south and east of Chalisgaon by Older Alluvium. Water has been tapped in the junction between the vesicular trap and the dolerite, and also from the Older Alluvium. Judging from the yield of a private well near the railway station the supply from the former source is very limited; the owner of this well is, with the assistance of the Agricultural Department, putting down a boring, the result. of which is awaited with interest. From the Older Alluvium, which in places reaches a thickness of nearly 100 feet, there are more hopeful prospects. Wells east of Chalisgaon market and south of the Tittur appear to yield a fairly good supply. In November, 1922, Dr.. Cotter examined the tube-wells of Mandalay and reported favourably on the prosWater Supply of Man- pects of obtaining sufficient supplies of drinking water for Mandalay town. dalay. Mr. Hallowes considers that the water-supply in parts of Hyderabad could be supplemented by sinking wide deep wells to reach the porous calcified gneiss Hyderabad Deccan. or one or more of the inter-Trappean horizons. Water: Landi Kotal, N.-W. Frontier. While in the North-West Dr. Fox proceeded to Peshawar and the Khyber Pass to see the tunnels on the railway and to discuss with the Engineer-inChief the possibilities of augmenting the watersupplies for the Fort at Landi Kotal. It was agreed that increased rainfall is probably the only really effectual remedy, but that there is a possibility of tapping underground water on the south side of the valley in the limestone by a moderately deep boring. A boring, 400 feet deep, in the lower valley of Landi Khana would, in Dr. Fox's opinion, almost certainly tap good supplies of rather "hard" water; this might necessitate softening for use in locomotives, and would, moreover, have to be pumped up to Landi Kotal from a position which could possibly be rushed by a determined enemy. N.-W. Frontier. A request from the Military Works Department for an examination of the water-supply of the four military posts of Kohat, Bannu, Dardoni and Manzai was met by the deputation of Mr. D. N. Wadia, who visited these areas towards the end of the year, and has submitted a report. Khasi Hills: Assam. GEOLOGICAL SURVEYS. A short remnant of the field-season was spent by Rao Bahadur Vinayak Rao in a continuation of Captain. Palmer's work in the Shillong Plateau of Assam. In the western part of the Khasi Hills bordering the plains, Cretaceous, Nummulitic and Tipam rocks were identified, and the resemblance of the latter to the Siwaliks noted. Mr. Vinayak Rao considers that the beds west of Bagali Barar, extending as far as Moheshkala on the Garo Hills border, are probably of Dagshai or Kasauli age. During the field-season of 1922-23, the Bihar and Orissa Party consisted of Mr. H. Cecil Jones (in charge), Messrs. G. V. Hobson, J. A. Dunn and SubAssistant Durgashankar Bhattacharji. Singhbhum : Bihar and Orissa. Mr. Jones continued the geological survey of the Kolhan Government Estate in Singhbhum, to which reference has been made in preceding General Reports. His work was interrupted by inspections made by him of the boring operations of the Tata Iron and Steel Co., on some of the iron deposits held by them near Mohudi, east of Jamda, and also by visits of inspection to Mr. J. A. Dunn who was working east of Chaibassa in Singhbhum, and to Mr. Bhattacharji who was working west of Nagpur in the Central Provinces. Mr. Jones accompanied the Director in an inspection of some of the iron ore deposits of the Kolhan Government Estate, and of Keonjhar State. Towards the end of the camp-season Mr. G. V. Hobson accompanied Mr. Jones for a few weeks, in order to gain experience in geological mapping. a The geology of the area worked by Mr. Jones is complicated, and the work consequently somewhat slow. The breccia conglomerate noted by Mr. Jones during his preliminary survey of the iron ore bodies in field-season 1918-19 has now been located by him in several other parts of the area. At present the work done on these different occurrences has not been connected up, but where it has been possible to work out the sequence, certain similarity has been made out. The breccia conglomerate is a very striking rock, but is somewhat variable in character, and usually consists of angular to sub-angular fragments, mainly of banded hæmatite quartzite and cherty silica in a siliceous cement, but in some cases, as at Jiling Buru near Gua, the rock is made up of angular to sub-angular fragments of laminated hæmatite cemented together by ferruginous material. This latter variety forms a valuable ore of iron. Near Tholkabad on the western side of the main iron-ore range the breccia conglomerate is very thick and is well exposed, whilst at Sagad Buru near Bukna on the east of the same range, there is a good section showing the same breccia conglomerate but as a much thinner bed. The sequence of rocks at these two points very similar and is as follows: is Quartzite. Tholkabad. Reddish purple shale. White fine-grained quartzite. Ferruginous sandy shale. Breccia conglomerate. Sagad Buru. White fine-grained quartzite with a thin band of conglomerate near the top. Reddish shale. Breccia conglomerate. The breccia conglomerate overlies a considerable thickness of lightcoloured shales at Sagad Buru. A very similar sequence of rocks, but reversed in order, was noted near Balibah, some five miles north of Tholkabad. Here the sequence was as follows: Breccia conglomerate Brown sandy shale. White fine-grained quartzite. Grey quartzite. The breccia conglomerate and the white quartzite here and at Tholkabad, appear to be the same bed. This possibly indicates an overfold about this point, but the area between Balibah and Tholkabad has not yet been worked out, and the elucidation of this possible overfold will have to remain for another camp-season. Some time was spent on some of the basic trap intrusions of the area. Owing to the large amount of silicification and weathering that has taken place in some of these rocks the mapping of boundaries is difficult. The trap very often weathers into a shalelike rock which is indistinguishable from the ordinary shale of the area. F J Mr. J. A. Dunn continued his work on Survey sheets 73,,,! 15' 13' 2 and, of the Singhbhum district and Seraikela State. The granitic area, as reported last year, is cut up by a remarkable and regular series of reticulating dolerite dykes which frequently attain large dimensions, reaching to half-a-mile in width and cropping out for 8 or 10 miles along the surface of the ground. North of Gobindpur (sheet 73) is a large circular outcrop of dolerite which may be a relic of the boss from which many of the dykes emanated. The Iron Ore series continues to north of Seraikela but within a short distance gives place to schists, quartzites, phyllites and epidiorites of undoubted Dharwar facies. Both groups dip northwards and appear to have the same strike, the Iron Ore series beneath the Dharwars. The nature of the junction was not made out but the boundary was placed provisionally at a peculiarly sheared conglomerate in which the pebbles were found to be squeezed and drawn out in a remarkable manner. It is presumed that the sequence has been inverted by an overfold. Mr. G. V. Hobson accompanied Mr. Jones in the Singhbhum district for about a fortnight for instructional purposes in field mapping just north of Tholkabad, after which he continued the mapping northwards towards Ponga. The whole area is covered with shales with the exception of a small patch of conglomerate just north-west of Kulaiburu and of one or two isolated patches of igneous rock in the streams. Burma. During the field-season 1922-23, the Burma Party consisted of Dr. G. de P. Cotter (in charge), Rao Bahadur S. Sethu Rama Rau, Mr. E. L. G. Clegg, Captain F. W. Walker, and Mr. Bankim Bihari Gupta, Sub-Assistant. In November and December, Dr. Cotter visited the Man river section in the Minbu district with Mr. Clegg and Captain Walker, and the section between Pakokku and Gangaw with Captain Walker, for instructional purposes. ma. I I I Mr. S. R. Rau continued the geological survey of the Mergui district, his work covering portions of sheets Mergei district, Bur- 95, 96, and 96. The geological map of Mergui has thus been carried southwards to the latitude of 11° 30.' The area mapped consists of the mainland and the islands close to the coast. By far the greater proportion of the country mapped is covered by rocks of the Mergui series. These consist of dark grey argillites, indurated grits and agglomerates, dipping at high angles with a prevalent strike of from 15° to 20°. On the islands and on the coast phyllites, quartzites and indurated shales characterise the Mergui series in which are several small intrusions of biotite granite and of tourmaline pegmatite. A larger boss of granite is exposed at the source of the Khe Chaung in sheet 96 In this neighbourhood the alluvial flats of the Khe Chaung carry tin ore, and have recently been worked for tin. In Medaw Island (sheet 96) a sill of fine-grained olivine basalt is found in the Mergui series. Mr. Rau |