202 KIIASI HILLS. 



The principal sites of flie mining operations within the Khasi hilk 

 are near Mohm, Nonkrim, Lailangkot, &c., on the granite district of 

 that neighbourhood ; and more to the West near Lungkoi. In other 

 places, where no washings for ore are now carried on, the enormous blocks 

 of granite strewed over the surface, and piled up in gigantic masses' 

 bear evidence to the former existence of workings, of the magnitude 

 of which they remain the lasting monuments. The richest portions of 

 the washings have been generally on the outskirts of the granite area, 

 or near its junction with the rocks that rest upon it. 



The only ore worked in these hills occurs in the form of a iine sand 

 consisting of minute crystals of titaniferous magnetic oxide, which are 

 irregularly distributed in the mass of the softer portions of the granite 

 rocks, and also occasionally in some of the gneissose beds. The upj^er 

 portion of the granite is partially decomposed to a considerable depth, 

 and this soft and easily yielding rock is not quarried, or mined, but 

 simply raJced into a small stream of water conducted along a httle 

 channel formed at the base of the small scarp, or face of rock, from 

 which the ore is obtained. The process of washing is carried on 

 precisely as Mr. Yule described it in 1842. The manipulative skill of some 

 of the Khasi women, acquired by long practice in these operations, is very 

 great ; hence a very small proportion of the ore is lost in the washing. 



With very few exceptions this ore is not reduced or smelted in the 

 villages, adjoining which it is procured. It is sold in baskets of a 

 tolerably fixed size and shape, seven of which contain about three 

 maunds of the ore. It is carried, often for many miles, to the villages 

 where the smelting furnaces are situated. In most cases the crade 

 iron, as it comes from the smelting furnaces, is again brought to market 

 and carried to other villages, where it is manufactured into tool sand 

 other articles for market. 



By much the larger portion of this cutcha iron, in the balls or 

 lumps in which it comes from the smelting furnaces, is sent to the 



