Panna in Bundclkhand. 153 



process of lixiviation, such is the case also on the banks of the 

 Tons river, and Mr Stirling, who published an account of the 

 diamond mines of Panna, remarks, that salt abounds in the 

 soil at the foot of this range, opposite Allahabad, and between 

 that place and Mirzapur. These facts, therefore, together 

 with the general horizontal position of the beds, the existence 

 of lias limestone reposing upon them, the distinct interstratifi- 

 cation of a series of slate clay, and above all, the cropping out 

 of bituminous shale from beneath the whole mass, would ap- 

 pear to justify the use of the term which I have applied. 



I have been thus prolix, because it is of importance that I 

 should be clearly understood with regard to my nomenclature, 

 and, if I am wrong, my own description may, perhaps, serve 

 to correct my error. Having thus premised, I shall now pro- 

 ceed to give as brief a description as I can of the mines in 

 question. 



The natives describe the mines by using the terms chila, or 

 superficial, and gahira, or deep, and the matrix they call 

 maclda ; the rocky matrix of the deep mines is always a con- 

 glomerate, and, if it is a gritstone with a silicious cement, and 

 its pebbles are of ancient rocks, and waterworn, it is termed 

 paJcka or mature ; but if the cement is argillaceous, and its 

 pebbles are of more recent rocks, it is then called kacha, or 

 immature ; the matrix of the superficial mines is universally 

 called Lalkakru, or red ironstone gravel, mixed with ferrugi- 

 nous sand or clay. This gravel is waterworn, and sometimes 

 quite rounded like swan shot, and when found in the fissures 

 and interstices of the upper sandstone, it is mixed with ferru- 

 ginous sand, but, on the other hand, when imbedded in ferru- 

 ginous clay, it is usually found covered with vegetable soil, 

 and reposing upon slaty marl ; — sometimes, however, it is sur- 

 mounted by a stratum consisting of particles of common kankar 

 imbedded in yellow clay, which occasionally mingling with it, 

 forms another description of matrix, which, being calcareous, 

 is called hadda ; the diamonds of the glen of the Bagin river, 

 have evidently been transported thither from their native beds, 

 and in all probability the gangue in which they now rest in 

 the basin of the waterfall, greatly resembles the cascalho of 

 the Brazils, or that of Sambhclpur, in Southern India. 



