Memories of the Geological Survey of India -Vol-XI, Part-1

Abstract

On the Geology and Mineral Resources o f the DarjIl in g District and the Western DuXrs, by F. R. M a l le t , f.g.s., Geological Survey o f India. For many years the existence of coal has been rumoured from time to time in the outer range of the Sikkim Himalayas. Fragments of the mineral had frequently been observed in the hill streams, and its occurrence in larger quantity had also been reported. Amongst other places, the Si volt valley, close to the debouchure of the Tista,* was mentioned, and so long ago as 1853 this locality was brought to Dr. Oldham’s notice by Dr. Campbell, then Superintendent of Darjiling. * Specimens of the coal were also sent by him to Mr. Piddington, whose analyses of them gave very favorable results.+ A brief examination of the Sivok and neighbouring streams, however, by Dr. Oldham, sufficed to prove that the coal was nothing more than the fossilized stems of individual trees, such as has frequently been observed elsewhere in the same Tertiary rocks, along the base of the Himalaya, and which were economically worthless