MANUAL OF THE NILAGIRI DISTRICT. 97 



time could not be accounted for, and these were doubtless also sites CHAP. V. 

 of old gold- workings. Subsequent information seems to confirm geolog7and 

 this idea, as Colonel Beresford obtained, in 1874, traces of gold Mineralogy. 

 from fragments of quartz picked up in the neighborhood of these 

 localities. This is, however, all that can at present be safely said 

 as to the possibility of gold on these hills ; while, at the same 

 time, the general absence of any of the chloritic varieties of gneiss 

 on the Nilagiris is, if we are guided by the character of other auri- 

 ferous regions, a feature which ought to inspire great caution in 

 the expectation of gold in any quantity in the Nilagiris quartz 

 lodes. 



Though the Wainad, and more especially the south-east division. South. E 

 has been partially examined by the Geological Survey Department, ^^^^*'^* 

 no complete memoir has as yet appeared. From the " Prelimi- 

 nary Note on the Gold-field, South- East Wainad,^^ ^ by Mr. King, 

 much information on the geological structure of this tract will be 

 • found, together with a map exhibiting the same. The paper also 

 gives a brief narrative of the ancient gold mining history of 

 Wainad and Nellambur, fuller details of which were published 

 by Government in 1874 in a pamphlet entitled "Correspondence 

 regarding Gold Mines in Wainad." Further information on the 

 subject, especially in relation to lands having gold, whether public 

 or private, and the State's right to the metal will be found in the 

 orders of Government, 2nd April 1875, No. 512, and 2 3rd January 

 1877, No. 319. The Government have not yet disposed of the 

 questions raised. I must content myself with referring the 

 readers to the above papers, as this paper has already reached 

 to too great a length, and the questions relate more properly to 

 the recently annexed portion of the district, of which I am not 

 expected to treat in detail. 



1 Kecords of the Geological Suivey of India, Vol. VIII, Part 2, 1875. 



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