BUNDELCUND. 67 



matrix, and which Franklin has correctly laid down on his map, are sim- 

 ply the remnants of former spurs and outliers of the table-land, such as 

 are common all along under the scarp for many miles in either direction. 

 The closeness with which they follow out the diamond layer gives full 

 opportunity of studying its run or position, and thus we get at some proxi- 

 mate causes for the small area occupied by the deposit, on which subject 

 Franklin makes some characteristic remarks. The different circumstances 



„.„ , „ of the bed in the two fields, Punna and Kumerea, 



Different modes ot 



working. necessitates, for the natives, a different method of 



working, much to the disadvantage of the Punna mines — although the 

 seam is there deeper than any where, they do not get at it by a shaft, and 

 then extract the ore;. they go to the immense labour of excavating great 

 pits, 25 feet in diameter and often over 30 feet deep, for the sake of the 

 small patch of diamond conglomerate thus uncovered: the thinness of 

 the layer can be no reason for this, it must be the crumbling, broken 

 nature of the ground. In the Kumerea field the roof is commonly a 

 strong sandstone which allows the removal of several square yards 

 from beneath it, with safety. The rock diggings in the eastern field 

 can be seen at any time, but to see the Punna mines one should go 

 about the end of March : when I was there they were still some 3 feet 

 above the seam ; as well as I could estimate, without a levelling in- 

 strument, this must be on, or very near to, the surface of the Kymore 

 sandstone; the nature of the gangue in all these pits suggests this posi- 

 tion, it is coarse, loose, and iron stained, whereas, to the east it is a 

 clear hard sandstone conglomerate. 



" The rock diggings near Punna do not cover a surface of more than 



20 acres, they are on a low, flat, rising ground at 

 Near Punna. , , ■, ,, T7 - 



the base of the slope from the Kymore scarp; 



there were five or six pits in progress. The section is — three feet of 



soil, on a smooth surface of boulder clay : this latter contains large and 



small rounded boulders of sandstone, possibly the remains of masses 



