16^ ■ IRON ORES OF KTJNJAMULLAY. 



to coarse sand by pounding' (often with only a round stone) if not found 

 in a state of sufficient comminution."^ 



The second method of getting- the ore is by rude attempts at shafts^ 

 inclining according to the dip of the bed^ and joined together by still 

 more irregular galleries^ all running in one line in the richest part of the 

 bed ; the greatest depth attained may be about 15 feet below the sm*face, 

 and the greatest diameter of the shafts is certainly less than 6 feet. 

 This second method of working, which, so far as could be ascertained, is 

 confined to bed No. 1 of our list at the north-east end of the ridge, is 

 hardly more efiective than the first, yielding only a small quantity of the 

 rough ore, and is dangerous, from the absence of any thing like timbering 

 of the chambers. At this place No. 1 bed has of late been worked, 

 chiefly by the first mode for the supply of the Porto Novo Company's 

 works at Poolamputty, on the left bank of the Cauvery, 26 miles north 

 of the great railway bridge at Errode. 



The cost of collecting and picking the ore, Mr. Maylor states to be 

 1| Rupee (3<s. Qd.) per ton, while the carriage to the works at 

 Poolamputty, a distance of 20 or 25 miles, comes to about 3| Rupees per 

 ton, aheavy charge, which must considerably counteract the advantages of 

 cheap fael and water carriage during the flood season of the Cauvery, for 

 which that site is said to have been chosen. It can hardly be doubted 

 that the completion of the Railway will exercise great influence on the 

 demand for the beautiful ore of Kunjamullay, and, it is hoped, greatly 

 increase it. 



The jungles of Salem district are being thinned, and in many places 

 ruined, by the careless and wasteful way in which wood is cut down for 

 building purposes j more still, perhaps, by the miserable native method of 

 making charcoal-j but the most wasteful and injurious practice, (and 



* A full account of the process of smelting and of the various shapes of the smelting 

 furnaces adopted by the natives, may be found in Mr. E. Balfour's Report on the iron ores, 

 &c., in the Central Museum at Madras. 



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