PART III. 



Economic Geology. 



This will be a short chapter ; with the exception of building" stones. 

 Paucity of valuable ^^^ minerals of value have been met with in 

 "^^'^^^'^^®- Western India. Coal is entirely wanting- through- 



out the tract under description ; no trace of any of the rocks usually ac- 

 companying it having been anywhere seen where lower beds appear 

 from beneath the trap. 



Iron. — The iron manufactured in the Dhar forest near Poonassa and 

 Chandgurh has already been fally treated of by Dr. Oldham in the 2nd 

 Volume of the Memoirs, p. 271. Some fine works were subsequently 



built by the Indian Government at Burwai under 

 Burwai. 



the superintendence of Mr. Mitander, a very able 

 Swedish metallurgist. Every difficulty was overcome, and the works 

 were perfectly ready for the manufacture of iron, when the Government 

 finding that additional European assistance was necessary in order to 

 carry on the manufacture, declined to sanction any further expense, and 

 offered the works for sale in 1864. Unfortunately, despite the great 

 demand for iron throughout the country, no attempt has been made by 

 any private person or public company to carry on the working.* 



The ore at Burwai is found in irregular masses of breccia, the matrix 

 of which is chiefly brown haematite, in the Bijawur series. It is not 



* It is, I think, a subject for regret that the small additional expense necessary was 

 not sanctioned, and that the very great outlay upon the works should have been spent with- 

 out deciding the question whether the iron manufacture can be carried on in India at 

 a remunerative rate. It is also unfortunate that Mr. Mitander should have left India 

 without an account of his various experiments, and the plans he adopted for burning and 

 storage of charcoal, making fire bricks, (in which he completely succeeded), &c., being 

 published in a form in which they would be useful to any one establishing iron works in 

 ludia. 



( 377 ) 



