34 king: nellore portion oe the carnatic. 



He says further : " Mr. Kerr, who has since visited the whole of the 

 mining district and examined all the formations and the old works 

 with great care, states that the former excavations are of prodigious 

 magnitude, many of them occupying several hundred feet square, and 

 having a depth of 50 or 60 feet. The matrix rock and rubbish are now 

 c : cumulated in three enormous tanks ( ? banks), but on clearing 

 q away the mouths of the galleries extending into the rocks were 

 - overed : blocks of the ore have been used to mend the village tank at 

 Guramanipenta, and Mr. Kerr imagines that any quantity of the richest 

 ore may be obtained at a trifling expense and within a hundred feet of 

 the surface. Extensive hills formed of lumps of ferruginous slag, now 

 covered with vegetation, point out the situation of the ancient smelting 

 houses. 



" The richest ore of the three is at the same time the most abundant, 

 ?nd promises to yield the safest return, as it runs in unbroken veins. 

 This ore is a combination of carbonate and sulphuret., the former inter- 

 mixed with the latter, but readily distinguishable from it, as the 

 sulphuret is crystallized and has the grey metallic lustre of galena. The 

 specific gravity of this ore is 3*77, being intermediate between that of 

 the carbonate, 3-£, and the sulphuret, 4" 5." 



The history of the Nellore copper mines is given in Mr. BoswelPs 



„ ,, n _„ Manual of the district ; and I here take the 



History of the copper 



working. liberty of appending the following extracts from 



hat work : — 



"In 1801, copper ore was discovered in this district. Mr. J. B. 



Travers, Collector, in letter to Board, dated 7th January 1803, submitted 



proposal from Captain Ashton for working the copper ore then lately 



'iscovered, in the Western Pollums. The vein first discovered was near 



a village ( Yerrapilly) , and appeared to have been exhausted from ex- 



avations in the vicinity. The inhabitants said that copper had been 



made there in former times; they knew from tradition and nothing 



aore. 



" Subsequently very extensive veins were found in the neighbourhood 

 ( 19* ) 



