258 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[October i, 1885. 



But if the diamond, amber, coal, an.1 petroleum 

 are absent from "ur rock formations, liappily there 

 can be no question as to either the quality or 

 the quantity of our minfral carbon in tlie shape of 

 Plumbago, of which indeed, in the form most valuable 

 for the manufacture of metal-melting crucibles, Ceylon 

 seems to have as much a natural monopoly as she has of 

 first-class cinnamon in the vegetable world. There are, 

 no doubt, vast deposits of graphite in North America, es- 

 pecially in Canada, but the mineral seems to be gener- 

 ally diffused in rock from which it is difficult and ex- 

 pensive (labour being scarce and dear) to separate the 

 small p!»rticles. Graphite, although rare in a form eco- 

 nomically valuable, seems very widely d'stributed over 

 the face of the earth. In India plumbago has been 

 found in a large number of places, and has been 

 the subiect of many experiments and much dis- 

 cussion, but the results have been hitherto disappoint- 

 ing. It generally appears sparingly in very quartzy 

 rock, and in heavy ferruginous gneiss. The mineral is 

 deficient in lustre, contains much iron, and one specimen 

 gave 35 per cent of lime. Lime i.s, perhaps, even more 

 fatal to the value of plumbago than iron, and although 

 graphite may occur in the magnesian limestones of Cey- 

 lon (I never heard of but one instance), it is quite mani- 

 fest that digging in the dolomite need never be resortsd 

 to, the mineral being so plentiful in our quartzy gneiss, 

 where the only enemy encouutered,and that, happily, not very 

 frequently, is iron. Like some other adversaries, this one 

 sometimes appears in guises the most radiantly beauti- 

 ful, in the (uesent case as pyrites varying from splendidly 

 crystallized masses, with facets polished like finest silver, 

 and again simulating auriferous treasures by putting on 

 the most glorious colourings of gold, shading away to a 

 lovely and delicate green, indicative, tliis tint, it is supposed, 

 of the presence of sulphate of copper. 



This auriferous coloured pyrites is appropriately named 

 in Sinhalese diija rat-ran, or "water genigold," the re- 

 coguition of water as the agent to which the formation 

 and its brilliant colours are largely due being, curiously 

 enough, in perfect accord with the conclusions of the most 

 advanced geological scientists. 



To Mr. 'Williams, Acting Government Agent of the North- 

 Western Province, I am indebted for a collection of in- 

 teresting specimens from Polgola on the road to Dam- 

 bulla, showing how plumbago is associated with and forms 

 round a nucleus of crystalline or semi-opaque and some- 

 times garnetiferous quartz (ihe position of the minerals 

 being, I am told, occasionally reversed), and quite a num- 

 ber of pieces of rock which the non-scientific might well 

 be excused for regarding as coated and permeated with 

 brilliant golden ore. These may be regarded as thetiowers 

 of the subterrannean regions where plumbago is mined. 

 I am bound to state, however, that the brilliancy of iron 

 pyrites has no effect in modifying the inimical feelings 

 ■with which those connected with the plumbago enterprise 

 regard the mineral, while they talk with di.'sapproval and 

 disgust of the i/aliora=(a)!/a iron, iora dross: iron dros.s, 

 the h.ard iron-like form of plumbago ; and anyone desirous 

 of procuring specimens will be made heartily welcome to 

 what in the eyes of the plumbago dealer is associated 

 with a rocky inferior and unsaleable product. But truly the 

 pure st,tt mineral itself, in its various forms of crystalliz- 

 ation, the most prevalent being a radiating star-like arrange- 

 ment, and its variation of sparkling colours from steel 

 grey to pktes of jet black, may be regarded as a veritable 

 " thing of beauty." A collection of first-class lumps, each 

 highly polished and lustrous, intended for sliipmeiit to 

 Germany, which could be seen at Mr. W. A. Feruando's 

 store recently, was ceriainly a striking sight. In connec- 

 tion with this collection ot silvery masses, Mr. Fernando 

 showed us specimens of a dark-coloured variety, of needle- 

 like formation, which he .said he had been requested by 

 his customers to make up .separately, as the ordinary 

 mills could not easily grind that pariicular quality. Graph- 

 ite generally, hke iodine, shows a bright metallic sheen, 

 but it is at once distinguished from the true meta's by 

 its soft and unctuous mechanical condition. I am speak- 

 ing of first-class mineral, for, showing us a specimen of 

 plnndjago formed, apparently, over an irenslone imcleus, 

 Mr. Fernautlo declared such ore to be unsaleable. In truth, 

 i»he reasons why our Ceylon graphite is so much sought 



after, are the entire absence of lime from the mineral, 

 and in most cases its equal freedom f i om ferruginous 

 particles, the small proportion of foreign substances, if 

 any, being volatile matter and minute frag- 

 ments of silica and alumina. Besides grinding to extreme 

 fineness, an acid bath is used thoroughly to purify graph- 

 ite used for certain delicate purposes, such as electrotyp- 

 ing, when the finest and purest dust is required to coat 

 surfaces of wood, jilaster of Paris, and guttapercha, kc, 

 to render them conductive. An authority, of all in the 

 world, perhaps, best qualified to .speak, describes Ceylon 

 plumbago as combining the two qualities of being almost 

 as refractory as asbestos and at the same time the most 

 perfect conductor ot heat. 



The various portions of the world in which graphite is found 

 were then enumerated, from North America to Japan, and the 

 fir.st mentions of Ceylon plumbago were traced, evidence not 

 being forthcoming to prove Bennett's assertion that Ptol- 

 emy, who wrote in the second century of our era, had re- 

 ferred to the mineral. The historical records of Ceylon 

 are as silent regarding plumbago as they are with r. f er- 

 ence to cinnamon, but a medical treatise of the four- 

 teenth century, (about the date of a MS. extant in 

 Enr«pe said to be ruled with black lead) tptaksof lalu- 

 miiiiran (black mica), as a medicine when boiled and sub- 

 jected to the detergent influence of Euphorbia juice. The 

 Oumberlar.d black lead was also sought after as a medicine 

 about a century and a half ago. 



To quote again :— The officer of the late Ceylon Eifle 

 Regiment who wrote a book on Ceylon stated that Thun- 

 berg, the Scandinavian naturalist, who wrote in 1777, was 

 the first to notice plumbago as a product of Ceylon. This 

 was an error. Robert Knox, who wrote in 16S1, mentioned 

 the existence of the mineral ; and Valeutyn gives a letter 

 of a somewhat earlier period by the Dutch Governor 

 Ryklof van Goens, dated ■24th September 1675, addressed 

 to his successor the Ooverror-General Jan Maatsuyker, in 

 which he mentions veins of plumbago (pot/oo() in the hills 

 and mines in the lowc^untry. He described it as a pro- 

 duct ot quicksilver, an error which, repeated, may explain 

 the alleged discovery of a mine of quicksilver near Kotte 

 soon after the British took possession of Colombo, So im- 

 portant was the latter discovery deemed at the time that 

 a military guard was placed over the mine ; but sub- 

 sequently" the existence of quicksilver in Ceylon became as 

 mythical as that of anthracite seems now to be, or the 

 alleged di.scovery of coal by the Dutch who are said to 

 have disregarded it in view of the abundance of wood 

 fuel. * * * A Mr. Ive, who wrote apparently in 1755, 

 professed to have di.scovered '-black lead" and copper ores 

 in Ceylon. Mr, W. P. Banesinghe has unearthed for me 

 the tradition that the last King of Kandy, infamous for 

 his cruelties as he is famous for his esthetic taste, added 

 to his many-sided character a development of the com- 

 mercial instinct, supplying, it is s.aid, plumbago to merch- 

 ant ships, more than seventy years before such enter- 

 prizing traders as the Fernandos and De Mels appeared 

 on the scene. The tradition seems also to indicate that 

 some of the plumbago in which the monarch traded was 

 dog from a mine on the lands of Molligoda Disawa. 



Then followed references to notices of plumbago by 

 Cordiner and Davy. Bertolacci, although he dealt 

 with every export of any importance in detail up to the 

 end of 1813, makes not the slightest mention of plumbago. 

 The export of the article must have Cdmmeuced between 

 1820 and 1830, however, for Mr. Joseph Dixon, the fou'ider 

 of the great Auurica:. Orucible Couipany, obtaiucd a 

 shipment of Ceylon plumbago in ISrJ'J, In that very year 

 Col. Colebrooke, one of the Commis.sioners on Ceylon 

 affairs, stateil in his report that provision had been 

 made for the delivery of cinnamon and black lead in the 

 Kandyan Provinces ( then irclnding Ihe Seven Korairs) at 

 fixed rates, KL-fcrence to the Government (lalendars shows 

 thai there is i o mention of plumbago untd 1S31, when it 

 was ii.c'udcd in the list .f articles liable to export duty, 

 the rate beilis Wd. per cwt. The amc.unt of revenut' at 

 this rate in 1S3-' was £22 18.< (W. The niim-ral di<i not, 

 ho.vcvcr. assume real importance in Ihe conmi' rce ot Ceylon 

 until 1834, and for the half-century which has elapsed 

 between that year and the md of 1S84 I posse ss, thanks 

 to the courtesy of the Assistant Auditor-General, Mr. C. 

 Dickman, full details of the rise, progress and fluotu- 



