90 BUNDELCUND.- 



in the one case, the same causes would probably make it fail in the 



other. 



The ore of the laterite group is but little worked by the natives, 



probably it cannot compete with the Bijawur 

 Laterite ore. 



iron ; unless perhaps in the laterite hills north 



of Simereah, I doubt ff it could be got in sufficient abundance for 



operations on a large scale. 



The quantity of iron extracted annually from the Bijawur ore must 



be very great. A small portion of it only is 

 Bijawur ore. 



worked up near the mines on account of the 



scarcity of fuel. The forges appear to have receded gradually as 

 the wood became used up, and are now most active at a distance of 

 about 8 miles : beyond the range of this cause of consumption the hills 

 are densely covered by forest. The Bijawur ore is of the same kind as 

 that most common in the Nerbudda valley, as at Chandgurh, a dense 

 sub-crystalline red haematite, but it presents considerable advantages 

 over the ore there, both in respect of facility of extraction and freedom 

 from impurities ; there, the mines, those at least which do not come under 

 the head "superficial," are always, as far as I know, in hard rock and 

 the gangue is commonly a bad one, quartzite ; whereas here the 

 containing rock is a compact dry clay, free from gritty or siliceous 

 impurities and sometimes so impregnated with iron as to be itself an 

 ore. The difference in the nature of the deposit in the two places need 

 raise no doubt as to the abundance of the Bijawur ore — though appa- 

 rently a cotemporaneous deposit, the limit of supply is practically a very 

 distant one. 



The Gwalior iron deposit is different from any I have seen : it too is 



cotemporaneous with the rock containing it, and 

 Gwalior ore. , ... 



in a fuller sense than the Bijawur ore is; it is 



strictly stratified. A block of the ore consists of thin laminae of earthy 



red haematite and of a brown or gray fine grit; in the thickness of an inch 



