NELLORE COPPER WORKINGS. 11 



CHAPTER VII— NELLORE COPPER WORKINGS. 



The mineral or building resources of this part of the Carnatic have 

 already been generally and incidentally noticed; from which it will have 

 been surmised that they are not of any great value or importance, except 

 locally, or because they have not been sufficiently developed. 



However, the Nellore district is more particularly known in this 

 On northern edge of connection as having from time to time given 

 field - promise of good copper ores. The proper region 



of workings lies just on the northern edge of the present area, and was 

 examined by Charles M. Oldham, or on the southern edge of the next 

 area treated of in Mr. Footers memoir ; but I have failed to discover 

 Oldham's notes, and Mr. Foote only refers to this mineral resource very 

 cursorily. My own work did not lie anywhere near this region, so that 

 I only saw the faintest traces, previously noticed, occurring on the right 

 bank of the Penner, near Yarabully. However, I saw most of the speci- 

 mens collected by Oldham, and these, with his verbal information re- 

 garding them, when compared with the Yarabully rocks, all showed that 

 the copper occurs in a band of hornblendic and garnetiferous schists, with 

 which are associated intrusive sheets of trap. The strings and irregular 

 masses and nests of copper ore occur for the most part in the traps, but 

 they also run with the schists. There is no regular distribution of these in 

 the traps, but the strings run across and occasionally with the laminse of 

 the schists. No good and tolerably continuous lode is apparent, nor has 

 one ever been found ; indeed, the general look of the rocks and of the 

 country is most unpromising, there being very little signs of copper at the 

 surface, the best specimens only being found among the debris from the 

 old workings, while every hole that has been made only shows how all at- 

 tempts to mine must have been rapidly frustrated by the influx of water. 



Good big lumps of earthy -looking trap are often obtainable, with a 



Results not very en- g°od deal of ore distributed through them, which 



couraging. certainly have a very promising look, and this is 



about the most that can be said of the industry, for all attempts have 



hitherto failed to produce any encouraging returns ; nevertheless I am 



( 185 ) 



