BUNDELCUND. 81 



The underlying portion of this group is the more interesting, and it 

 T .. . . will probably yield the clue to the formation of the 



.Lower division. J 



whole ; unfortunately its soft condition gives one 

 little opportunity of seeing it; I cannot say that I got one satisfactory 

 section. It is from this that the iron-ore is procured, and the best chance 

 of studying it is in the pits, they are to be found at all the localities 

 I have mentioned, but most of them are permanently abandoned and none 

 are worked till late in the season ; in this way, by thinking I should yet 

 hit upon better occasions, I lost the only ones that offered. I can give 

 however some general indications as to its nature ; it is as permanent in 

 characteristics as the laterite, and like this, retains no indication of its 

 original state ; it may in aggregate composition be the same as the later- 

 ite, but in it the isolation of the iron has been more complete, and operated 

 in a different way, if indeed the two ingredients were ever mixed which 

 I am inclined to doubt ; there has been no induration, of the mass, which 

 is principally a light, soft clay, generally with a brecciated aspect on 

 transverse fracture, arising from the angular irregular form of the specks 

 of white soapy earth in the loose ochreous matrix ; it is altogether a very 

 similar rock to the gangue of the haematite in the Bijawur iron field, this 

 being of course more compressed and close grained. 



I have only formed my opinion of the ore from refuse specimens : 



at the pits on Murwnrrea Hill, south of Manik- 

 Iron Ore. 



poor in the Banda District, I got fragments of 



a tolerably pure earthy red haematite, this is worked for iron, and 

 the natives told me it occurs in strings through the clay: but by 

 far the commonest ore and apparently the favourite one is a porous 

 red haematite ; it is a very peculiar rock, this texture is sometimes 

 so prominent that the stone is a light, cellular iron-pumice, not scoriace- 

 ous, or strictly porous, but minutely cellular ; I did not see how it 

 occurs. These ores are sought for towards the base of the clay, and the 

 native method of getting at it surprised me ; on the steep slope of a hill 



M 



