Panna in BnmUekhand. Jfj.i 



tlie diamond of Panna is situated in sandstone, which I ima- 

 gine to be the same as the new red .sandstone of England ; also, 

 that, (if the transported diamonds are excepted,) there is at least 

 400 feet of that rock below the lowest diamond beds ; and, 

 further, that there are strong indications of coal, underlying 

 the whole mass ; how far this may agree with the geological 

 position of the same description of mines in Southern India, 

 will best be seen from the following extracts. 



As far as I understand Dr Heyne in his tracts on India, 

 pages 103-4, the hills which surround the rock mines of fian- 

 ganpilli, are composed of slate clay, and his account of them 

 reminds me much of Panna, he says, " they are straight at 

 top, and usually level for some extent," so that even villages 

 are built on them — he says also, that " the water of the wells 

 is brackish," a strong indication of their saliferous nature, and 

 further, " that the country about Banganpilli is sandy and 

 stony, and that the stones are chiefly conglomerates, composed 

 of silicious materials. 



With respect to the rock in which the matrix of the dia- 

 mond is found, his description is as follows ; — " the solid rock 

 of the hills (which, by-the-bye, is not quite destitute of dia- 

 monds,) is an aggregate, consisting chiefly of a coarse grey 

 hornstone, with rounded pebbles of the same species, but of a 

 fine variety of stone, or of jasper, of different colours : at some 

 depth, this rock becomes ferruginous sandstone, the grains of 

 which are finely cemented together, and this kind of stone 

 usually forms the roof of the floor of the mines ; the floor is 

 generally of a reddish brown colour, with shining particles, 

 and strikes fire with steel ;" again he savs, through the solid 

 rock the miners must make their way before they arrive at 

 the diamond matrix. 



l)r Voysey's account of these mines is, " that the diamond 

 matrix," in its rocky state, is " a sandstone breccia ;" it lies 

 under " compact sandstone, differing in no respect from that 

 which is found in the main range, it is composed of a beauti- 

 ful mixture of red, and yellow jasper, quartz, chalcedony and 

 hornstone, of various colours, cemented together by a quartz 

 paste, it passes into puddingstone composed of rounded peb- 

 bles of quartz, hornstone, &C. cemented bv an argillo-culeare- 



