8. The iron ore no doubt is good, but the difficulties in the way of working it profitably are so great that the author's sanguine expectations seem unlikely to be fully realized. V. Ball, in his day the best authority on the subject, observes, 'As will be abundantly shown in the course of the following pages, the manufacture of iron has, in many parts of India, been wholly crushed out of existence by competition with English iron, while in others it is steadily decreasing, and it seems destined to become extinct' (_Economic Geology_ (1881), being part of the _Manual of the Geology of India_, p. 338). Ball thought that, if improved methods of reduction should be employed, the Chândâ ore might be worked profitably. As regards the rest of India, with the doubtful exception of Upper Assam, he had little hope of success. Full details of the working of the mines in the Jabalpur, Narsinghpur, and Chândâ districts of the Central Provinces are given in pp. 384 to 392 of the same work. See also _I. G._ (1908), vol. x, p. 51; and _The Oxford Survey of the British Empire_ (Oxford, 1914), vol. ii, Asia, pp. 143, 160. A powerful company formed at Bombay in 1907, operating at a spot on the borders of the Central Provinces and Orissa, hopes to turn out 7,000 tons of 'steel shapes' per month. Coal is not found below the very ancient sandstone rocks, classed by geologists under the name of the Vindhyan Series. The principal beds of coal are found in the great series of rocks, known collectively as the Gondwâna System, which is supposed to range in age from the Permian to the Upper Jurassic periods of European geologists (_Manual_, vol. i, p. 102). This Gondwâna System includes sandstones. A coalfield at Mohpâni, ninety-five miles west-south-west from Jabalpur by rail, was worked from 1862 to 1904 by the Nerbudda Coal and Iron Company; and is now worked by the G. I. P. Railway Company. The principal coal-field of the Central Provinces for some years was that near Warôrâ in the Chândâ district, but the amount which can be extracted profitably is approaching exhaustion; in fact the colliery was closed in 1906. Thick seams are known to exist to the south of Chândâ near the Wardhâ river. See _I. G._, 1907, vol. iii, chap. iii, p. 135; vol. x. p. 51. 9. See note to Chapter 25, _ante_, note 7. 10. 'Pickpockets' is not a suitable term. 11. The Persian word 'doâb' means the tract of land between two rivers, which ultimately meet. The upper doâb referred to in the text lies between the Ganges and the Jumna.