216 W. BLANPOUB, WESTERN INDIA. [PaRT III. 



clear that there is any distinct bed^ but the ore is rich and found in 

 several places. 



The few furnaces which still exist around Chandg-urh (the manufac- 

 ture is fast dying out on account of the difficulty 

 Chandgurli. 



of procuring- fuel) are similar in form and size 



to those employed in other parts of India, but differ in a few peculiarities. 



They are hollowed out of a bank (as in Bheerbhoom) and not built up, 



and are square inside, not round. They are about 5 feet high. The 



bellows used are worked by the hand. 



Formerly there was a manufacture of iron at Bagh, but this has 



gradually disappeared from want of fuel. Dan- 



gerfield, in 1818, found three smelting furnaces 



and three forges at work. Now there are none, and there have been none 



for some years. The ores at Bagh were obtained from surface deposits, 



but the source is the same as at Burwai and Chandgurh, the highly 



ferruginous breccias of the Bijawur rocks. No iron works now exist in the 



western portions of the Satpoora hills. At Turkesur, however, close to 



Surat, are piles of iron slag marking the sites of old furnaces, although, 



so far as could be ascertained, there is no tradition- 

 Turkesur. 



ary record, even amongst the natives, as to the 



date at which the manufacture occurred, and they appear totally ignorant 



of the source of the slag. 



Lime. — Limestone is by no means so abundant in the western 



portion of the Nerbudda valley as in the eastern. There is certainly 



much limestone in the Bijawurs, -although it is 

 Bijawurs. . .... 



usually too impure and too much mixed with silica 



• be of use. About Chota Oodipoor there is a large quantity of crystal- 

 line limestone in the metamorphics, and some 



Chota Oodipoor. , -\ ia • ia r^^ i i 



occurs here and there m the Champaneer beds. 

 The uppermost bed of the Bagh group has been shown to be 

 generally calcareous, and it is frequently sufficiently 

 ^^ ^ * pure to be available for extracting Kme. 



( 378 ) 



