236 GEOGNOSY OF INDIA. 



gallery is always small ; in those parts where the hardness 

 of the rock occasions any difficulty in working it is scarcely 

 sufficient to admit a person even in a creeping posture. In 

 no place will it admit of an erect position. The ore is de- 

 tached by means of a very ill-shaped and disproportioned 

 pick, and by chisels and hammers. It is removed from the 

 mines on skins drawn along the floor of the gallery by boys. 

 The ore, being delivered at the mouth of the mine, is re- 

 duced to small fragments by the hand. At Dhanpur, how- 

 ever, the work is done by a water-mill. It is next roasted 

 in an open fire or forge-hearth with charcoal, and the heat 

 occasionally urged by means of two air-bags or skins, 

 which are alternately shut and opened by the hand. After 

 being in this way imperfectly roasted, it is smelted on the 

 forge-hearth, and the process is repeated till the metal is 

 sufficiently pure. No flux appears to be used to assist the 

 operalioji. . . 



Iron Mines. — The wretched condition of Indian nnmng 

 is shown by the fact that the united rent of the numerous 

 iron-mines does not exceed the annual sum of 1500 rupees, 

 while the iron is of the very worst quality. The mining 

 and metallurgical operations in use are on a parallel with 

 those of Europe during the dark ages. The Himmaleh 

 mines supply chiefly varieties of red iron ore, affording from 

 60 to 30 per cent, of metal. Red hematite, associated with mi- 

 caceous iron ore, occurs in a large bed in gneiss at Dhaniakot 

 on the Cosillah. At Ramghur, on the road from Bhamaori 

 to Almora, there are beds of the scaly red iron ore also in 

 <rneiss. Compact red iron ore occurs in clay-slate, contain- 

 fng beds of limestone, at Katsari on the Ramganga. The 

 iron manufactured from it is esteemed the best in the 

 province of Kemaoon. Near Kalsi, on the Jumna, there 

 is an extensive bed of specular iron ore. In Chawgarka- 

 ^urgunnah the ore is the brown or the hydrated species, 

 which contains manganese ; hence the superiority of the 

 steel prepared from it. 



Lead Mines.— Of these mines, which are numerous, the 

 most productive are situated on the river Tonse, at no great 

 distance from the Deyra Dhoon. The Borela mine in this 

 district formerly paid'2000, the Maijar 4000 rupees yearly ; 

 but the present rents axe much lower. The ore, which is. 



