March 30, 1882 | 
NATURE 
599 
bered, in treating of this part of the subject, that it is still 
a matter for doubt if the diamond in India has ever been 
found in its ovégzzaZ matrix. The lowest diamond-bearing 
stratum at the base of the Karnul series is itself a detrital 
conglomerate, and it is not unreasonable to suppose that 
the diamonds in it may, like the other ingredients, have 
been derived from some older metamorphosed rocks. 
Very copious details are given as to the various mines 
and as to their respective produce. The history of the 
great Mogul diamond is narrated, and the conclusion 
«come to that it is probably now in part represented by the 
Koh-i-nur. As a practical application of known facts, 
the prospect of diamond mining in India under European 
direction is dismissed as unprofitable. With scientific 
guidance, backed by capital and proper mining appli- 
ances, it might at first appear that mining by Europeans 
ought to succeed, but on a closer investigation it will be 
gathered that there are in diamond-mining certain pecu- 
liarities which distinguish it from most, if not all, other 
forms of commercial enterprise; and as a principal of 
these the facilities for peculation in consequence of the 
readiness with which the gem can be secreted, must be 
reckoned. Furthermore, it would almost seem that, 
except under a system of slavery, the diamond cannot 
be worked profitably in India. The present system, 
though not so called, practically amounts to slavery ; the 
actual miners are by advances bound hand and foot to 
‘the farmer of the mines, and these are content to wait 
for months together without any return; their outlay 
being very small, and there being no heavy expenditure 
of capital required. 
The myth regarding diamond-seeking, made so familiar 
to every one by the travels of Marco Polo and Sindbad 
the Sailor is of great antiquity. 
“ Perhaps one of the best accounts of it is by Nicolo | 
Conti, who travelled in India in the early part of the 
fifteenth century. He says that at a place called Albeni- 
garas, fifteen days’ journey north of Bizengulia, there is 
a mountain which produces diamonds, This Albenigaras 
might be Beiragarh, the modern Wairagarh ; that it was 
so is doubtful, but its identity is perhaps immaterial. 
Marco Polo undoubtedly referred to the localities in the 
Kistna Valley. Nicolo Conti says that the mountain 
being infested with serpents it is inaccessible, but is 
commanded by another mountain somewhat higher. 
“Here at a certain period of the year men bring oxen 
which they drive to the top, and having cut them into 
pieces cast the warm and bleeding fragments upon the 
summit of the other mountain by means of machines 
which they construct for the purpose. The diamonds 
Stick to these pieces of flesh. Then come vultures and 
eagles flying to the spot, which seizing the meat for their 
food fly away with it to places where they may be safe 
from the serpents. To these places the men afterwards 
come and collect the diamonds which have fallen from 
the flesh.’ He continues with an account of how: other 
Jess precious stones are obtained, and this part of his 
description is that of ordinary Indian diamond-mining. 
Allusion has been made to the native belief that the 
diamond mines were under the special patronage of the 
goddess Lakshmi, and that sacrifices were made to pro- 
pitiate her. There is reason for believing that sacrifices 
were made on the opening of new mines, and probably 
also when the supply of diamonds ran short. 
“The late Mr. M. Fryar, when visiting a stream-tin 
washing at Maleewoon, in Tenasserim, was requested 
first to remove his boots, being told that on a former 
‘occasion a European visitor insisted on walking up 
to the stream with his boots on, and that in conse- 
quence it ceased to yield ore until two buffaloes had 
been sacrificed to appease the insulted guardian spirits of 
the place. 
“This is scarcely a suitable place for fully illustrating 
this subject, but the following, if put side by s'de with 
} 
i 
Nicolo Conti’s account, so completely explains it that it 
will perhaps be sufficient for present purposes. 
“ Dr. J. Anderson, in his recent report on the expedition 
to Yunan, describes having witnessed the sacrifice of two 
buffaloes by the Kakhyens to the NAts or evil spirits. 
The animals having been slaughtered on two bamboo 
altars were cut up and the meat distributed, certazn por- 
tions with cooked rice being placed on a lofty bamboo 
scaffolding for the use of the Nats. It goes without 
saying that birds would help themselves to these offerings. 
“Credulous travellers in early times might very possibly 
have supposed, on witnessing such a preliminary sacri- 
ficial rite, if at a diamond mine, that it was an essential 
part in the search for diamonds, and it would not require 
any very great stretch of Oriental imagination to build 
up the fable on such a substratum of fact. The bamboo 
scaffolding in all probability represents the machine 
mentioned by Conti.” 
Graphite or plumbago, as found native, contains from 
go to 99 per cent. of carbon. The only deposit in India, 
with the possible exception of another at Vizagapatam, 
which seems of any present promise is that which occurs 
over a wide tract in Travancore. At the present day 
nearly all the plumbago ef commerce comes from Ceylon. 
Of the precious metals Platinum occurs in very minute 
quantities, with gold-dust, and has been probably derived 
from metamorphic rocks. 
Silver is found associated with gold, and in combination 
with sulphur, and as a sulphide it is often associated 
with sulphide of lead, antimony, &c., but the amount of 
silver produced over the peninsula is very small. 
Gold is met with very generally distributed over British 
India. The ultimate derivation of most of the gold of 
Peninsular India, is doubtless from the quartz reefs which 
occur, traversing the metamorphic and submetamorphic 
series of rocks ; but there is also evidence to show that 
in some parts of the country gold occurs in certain 
chloritic schists and quartzites, and possibly also in some 
forms of gneiss, independently of quartz veins. As to the 
relative productiveness of the reefs in the different groups 
or series of metamorphosed rocks, the imperfect evidence 
which at present exists is somewhat conflicting, the truth 
probably being that no one rule holds applicable to the 
whcle of the country. The presence of gold, either as 
an original deposit, or as a detrital product from the older 
rocks, has not as yet been proved in any member of the 
great Vindhyan formation; but in the next succeedinz 
formation several of the groups included in the Gondwana 
system are believed to contain detrital gold ; of these the 
evidence seems clearest in the case of the Talchir. Iti; 
almost certain that the gold obtained in the Godavari, 
near Godalore, is derived from rocks of Kamthi age, and 
the gold of the Ouli River, in Talchir in Orissa, is derived 
from sandstones. The only other sources in Peninsular 
India are the recent and sub-recent alluvial deposits, 
which rest on metamorphic or sub-metamorphic rocks. In 
the Extra Peninsula districts gold is met with in rocks cf 
several different periods. In Ladak certain quartz reefs, 
which traverse rocks of the Carboniferous period are 
gold-bearing. In Kandahar gold occurs in rocks of Cre- 
taceous age, and the deposit seems to be an original one, 
connected with an intrusion of granite. Lastly, all along 
the foot of the Himalayas, from west to east, from 
Afghanistan to the frontiers of Assam and Burma, the 
tertiary rocks which flank the bases of the hills, and 
which occur also in the Salt Range, and at Assam, south 
of the Bhramaputra, are more or less auriferous, but the 
gold is detrital. 
The history of gold mining in India is lost in a very 
remote antiquity. Vast amounts of bullion were carried 
away by the Moslem armies of the fourteenth century. 
Some would place the Ophir of King Solomon en the 
west coast of India, and much of this precious metal as 
has been already collected from the golden sands of the 
