On the Occurrence and Distribution of Gold in India. 527 
The Wynaad forms a terrace of mountain land intermediate 
in position between the low country of Malabar and the lofty 
plateau of the Nilgiri Mountains. It is separated into three por- 
tions, which are locally known as North, South, and South- 
East Wynaad ; the latter portion has recently been transferred 
from the official limits of the Malabar jurisdiction to those of 
the Nilgiri District, and in it the principal gold tracts are situ- 
ated. 
The principal rocks of the area are granites, gneisses, and other 
forms of metamorphic rocks which are traversed by numerous 
quartz reefs. 
In the tract to which Mr. Brough Smyth gave his particular 
attention, and which covers about 500 square miles, 200 out- 
crops, not necessarily distinct reefs, were counted ; they are, in 
short, stated to be more numerous, proportionately wider and 
richer than in almost any part of Australia. Mr. King, first, and 
subsequently Mr. Brough Smyth, pointed out that throughout the 
area there are no accumulations of drifts or deep leads covered by 
volcanic formations such as characterise the Australian fields. 
Operations, therefore, have been hitherto, and must be in the 
future, conferred to “surfacing” and quartz mining, a regular 
hydraulic system of mining being inapplicable. 
By all the authorities it is considered that the native processes 
of washing, as practised to-day by the Korumbas and Moplas, is 
of high antiquity, dating so far back as 500 years B.c. There is 
evidence, however, that operations were not limited to mere 
washing, but that mining was carried on by one or more classes 
of people who have no representatives at the present day. Mr. 
Brough Smyth enumerates the traces of this higher skill under 
the following heads :— 
1. Quarrying on the Outcrops of the Veins. 
2. Vertical Shafts. 
3. Adits. 
4. Vertical Shafts with Adits. 
5. Shafts on underlie. 
And remarks that they show different degrees of knowledge of 
the miner’s art. 
The vertical shafts though not considered to afford evidence of 
the highest degree of mining skill offer a problem difficult of 
