MALLET, VINDHYAN SERIES. 121 



stones. They are said by the priest in charge to have been dug- out of 



the ground at their present site about 70 years ago by a former Rajah 



of Bhurtpur. 



The remaining resources of the Vindhyans may be disposed 



of in a few words. Superficial deposits of iron ore 

 Iron ore. 



occur scattered over the Kymore table-land, which 



are worked to some extent. The rock-laterite also, which occurs in 

 outliers on the Punna range of hills, is underlaid by some yards of white 

 and purplish clay containing irregular segregated accumulations of brown 

 haematite, which is extracted and smelted to a considerable amount. 



The joints of the black Bijigurh shales are often rusty from de- 

 composed pyrites, and are sometimes filled with 

 Siilpliate of iron. 



veins, one or two inches thick, of the impure min- 

 eral. The frequent rusty appearance of the shale itself too, arises from 

 disseminated pyrites. The mineral is grantilar and very impure, a 

 condition extremely favorable to its decomposition ; and hence, especially 

 in places which are damp yet sheltered from rain, as underneath over- 

 hanging ledges, a thick efilorescence of sulphate of iron is common, 

 which is collected and exported to a trifling extent. 



The black color of these same Bijigurh shales led to a behef of the 

 existence of coal in the Kymore hills, the report 

 having been originated by a Mr. Hyland,* and a 

 similar idea was entertained by Franklin with regard to certain black 

 shales of the Lower Vindhyans in Bundelkund. The Bijigurh shales 

 on a weathered surface certainly have in places a remarkably coal-like 

 appearance externally, but the similarity unfortunately ends there as 

 they are perfectly incombustible ; they are simply black shales and 

 nothing more. The erroneousness of Franklin's conclusion has been 

 already pointed out by Mr. Medlicott.f It is now well known that coal 



* Vide p. 8. 



t Memoirs, Vol. II, p. 91, 



( 121 ) 



