28
Nov 1892, Camp via Lahore, Mss Eur
C258/11To Willie:
I
have a School of Mines man named Edwards, who joined the survey a year ago, to
assist me at this job. He isn't a
bad fellow, rather musical, but not very strong and I don't think he has taken
to this kind of life very much.
28
Nov 1892, Salt Range, Mss Eur C258/11 to his father- thanks his father for
teaching him how to survey, plane table etc when he was younger. "The
salt occurs in a red marl at the base of everything , but there are some very
curious points about it , as the red marl is frequently intruded into the
overlying rocks as if it were an igneous rock. One of our men, Middlemiss, has started a theory that it was
a sort of salt seam on the surface of igneous rocks that did not flow at the
surface, but that idea does not seem to have met with much acceptance. I have not seen any of these eruptive
beds yet, but I hope to do so before I leave the country.
10
April 1892, Lahore, Mss Eur C258/11 to
Polly?
Slept
the night at [?Harranpur] (near Lahore). We picked up Mr Middlemiss, who is on the survey and a great friend of
mine, at lake Musa , the junction. He had come down from Abbatobad. Dr King walked the whole way up from Harranpur 16 miles and did two days
hard walking while he was here. He
left us on the 7th and walked most of the way back. Truly he is a wonderful man, 60 years old and most of it
spent in India
25
Dec 1894 On the train to Sukkur C258/60
Hari
Lal relates an accident with the drilling casing. Drilling operations in
Sukkur. Sibi by train to Baber Kach. Fishing.
9th
February 1995 Tuesday 1 C258/60
I
have said goodbye to Mr Griesbach who has been talking away forgainst me for
the the last two or three hours. He has been giving me all the news of the
Dept. I fancy he hasn't been having an easy time of it with Messr. Oldham and
Bose to say nothing of Dr Warth and his 8 children to keep in order. Anyhow he does not give a very rosy
account of his position and I fancy he would be very glad to find himself an
irresponsible Superintendent again. He is looking very well all the same as if Calcutta agreed with him.
23 July 1895 , Calcutta, Griesbach
to la Touche C258/55.17. Geol. Survey of India
My Dear laTouche
Your letters of the 31/5 and
28/6. To begin with the maps
etc. from the VI International
Geological Congress: they were
sent off some time ago and Blandford has done the needful with them. He has kindly consented to act as our
deputy on the congress. I suppose
the exhibition is going on now.
I do not know what they are doing at
Sukkur now; the job has been handed over to the N. W. R. to manage the whole
now. I do not suppose that so far
anything too startling has occurred or else I should have heard of it, and I
should not wonder whether they are still trying to make way in that stiff
clay. I do not fancy they will
strike oil, I must say.
As regards the remarks in my quarterly
notes. I fully anticipated your
annoyance but as I acted in perfectly good faith according to my [?lights] you
must excuse the remarks. I still
think Mr. Early need not have been engaged and I cannot agree to what you say
about the fossils. Those few which
Hira Lal brought are not casts but are rather poorly preserved, though covered
with dry mud and as the greater depth of the bore-hole was cased, any caving in
of the sides could only affect a small thickness of the beds, so that there
could not be any very extensive mixing of specimens from different horizons. You are wrong about the fossils in the
Sukkur limestone, the latter is simply crammed full of them, but one has to
hammer a good deal before good specimens come out of the hard rock. Especially the flint nodules are full
of bryozoa and forams which are admirably preserved.
As regards the box of speciments of salt sent I must
confess to an error, which I shall acknowledge in my next quarterly notes. As
you correctly suggested , the box was stored away in the office. Webb had received the R. receipt, sent for the box and just put it somewhere
without reporting it to anyone, although I made repeated inquiries after that
particular consignment from Sukkur. The fault rests partly with you though. Had you sent an official Memo with it, instead of just writing
to Webb, we should have had a record of the box of specimens and I would have
known that you sent it. I
remember, for instance, nearly a year ago, when the office was put in order, we
discovered a box which had opened and was partly filled with specimens badly
wrapped up, and most with cutcha sort of labels and insufficient references. They were mostly rubbish and all, I think, was chucked
away. From the writing on the
labels they must have been yours.
But that is and
must be the fate of all specimens which are not properly authenticated by
proper and very definite labels, containing every possible reference to
identify the locality.
Those salt specimens are very poor by the
way. You showed me nicer ones when
I was at Sukkur, though they wanted shaping. - There is no oil film on the
water in the bottles sent but it smells like kerosine.
You sent before leaving Sukkur a number of
maps, one or two geologically coloured, but without an index to the
colours. What do these maps refer to? There was not a line with them to
show what you wanted done with them, and I keep two on my table as simple
curiosities.
We have no monsoon this year
[1]
and I fear there will be difficulties over it.
Have you seen King and his new baby
[2]
? - With kind regards to you
and Mrs. LaTouche.
Yours sincerely, C.L. Griesbach