CHAP. 9.] ECONOMIC EESOUUCES. 8t 



The iron formerly manufactured in Kutch was derived from either 



the hEematitic laterite of the sub-nummulitic group. 

 Iron, 



or from some highly ferruginous deposits largely 

 impregnated with this ore, occurring near Buehao ; the age of which is 

 somewhat doubtful, beyond that it is associated with the stratified trap, 

 and believed by Mr. Fedden in part to underlie the latter. 



The iron to judge from small specimens appears to have been good ; 

 but smelting operations have been discontinued for some time in conse- 

 quence of the facility with which foreign iron can be obtained. The 

 principal places where the manufacture was carried on were the neigh- 

 bourhoods of BuchaOj Loonwa and Doodaee in the eastern portion of the 

 central plain, and Mhurr at the western side of the province ; but some 

 ancient smelting places, of which the present generation knows nothing, 

 existed near Vittrooe hill in Wagir, (and probably also elsewhere.) 



Several of the Jurassic beds are so ferruginous that some iron 

 might be obtained from their haematite. 



Alum is manufactured to a large extent at Mhurr during certain 



months of the year ; and the works are reported 

 Alum. ^ 



to have been carried on for the last five or six 



centuries (Grant). The material used is a pyritous dark gray or black 

 shale closely associated with a soft aluminous pseudo-breccia of the 

 sub-nummulitic group. This appears to overlie or enclose the shale, or 

 to have invaded it, as fragments of the shale form a coarse angular 

 breccia with the aluminous rock as a matrix in some parts of the works. 

 The native burrowings, however, afford very poor opportunities of study- 

 ing the relations of the rocks, the air in them being so bad that it is diffi- 

 cult to obtain light ; and much of the ground may have been disturbed 

 by ' Old mens' workings, these being stated by Colonel Grant to fall in 

 every year. These works are narrow passages sunk after the manner of 

 some wells vertically for 22 'guz' (cubits) with a rude incline to descend. 

 They are then carried anywhere horizontally into the deposit and are 



( 87 ) 



