APPENDIX. 273 



too limited in extent, to be worth the expense of extracting ; while the rock is itself 

 so intensely hard and intractable, that I am convinced the cost of mining the ore 

 would be ten times the whole value of the metal extracted. To follow up such 

 nests of ore may be remunerative with some of the more valuable metals, but in 

 this case would never pay. No doubt these breccias have yielded povtions of the 

 rolled and loose ore now scattered over the surface, to the long continued and 

 economical processes which nature has adopted in wearing down their surfaces, 

 but as a practical source of Iron Ore they are altogether worthless." 



" For the extraction of this ore, no rent or tax is paid; the landlords of the 

 district charging a small sum (one rupee) annually for each furnace erected within 

 their limits. Its cost therefore varies principally with the distance to which it has 

 to be conveyed. At Poonassa, a distance of 12 miles, over a tolerable road, but 

 with a bad crossing of the river, (where the ore has all to be taken off the carts, 

 carried in baskets by coolies down the water, there shipped into small boats and 

 on arrival at the other bank, again to be carried up the steep banks by coolies and 

 then reloaded on carts for conveyance to Poonassa) in Poonassa I say, this cost 

 is one rupee for about 7f mds. or a little less than 4 rupees or 8 shillings per ton. 

 At Chandgurh, Bankeepulla, and other villages which lie on the same side of the 

 Nerbudda and at a shorter distance from the ore pits, the cost of the ore is of 

 course much less ; and I am satisfied that within an average distance of, say, ten 

 miles from the " mines" the ore could be supplied at a mean cost of 4s. 6d. to 

 65. Od. per ton." 



"I do not see reason to agree with Mr. Jacob in the estimate he forms of the 

 inexhaustible supply of this ore which exists, but I think there is a large amount 

 of very rich, valuable and easily wrought, ores here available- But unfortunately 

 there is by no means the same abundance of fuel for the reduction of this ore. 

 Mr. Jacob says, " the district for miles is dense jungle ; the timber is of the high- 

 est specific gravity including Undial and stunted teak ; it is admirably suited for 

 the manufacture of charcoal, and the supply will last for many years." I must 

 say that the wretched coppice which covers the stony, parched, and poor soil of 

 the country could only have appeared " dense jungle" to an eye quite unused to 

 Indian scenery. There is, no part of it which cannot be ridden through with ease. 

 The timber is all small, and the useful or hard wood trees form but a very small 

 proportion of the whole." 



" Bearing on this question I may state that the remains of many smelting fur- 

 naces may be seen through the country, now abandoned, and abandoned solely 

 because fuel was not obtainable in the vicinity, while the ground all around is 

 covered with trees : trees however of salee, which is useless for the furnace. 



But the most satisfactory proof of the want of fuel, even for the present demand, 

 will be found in the fact that when a proposition was made to buy • up all the Iron 

 made in the district and to make advances to the people to enable them to set up 

 new furnaces, and thus to increase the supply, the offer was declined, and for the 

 simple reason " that fuel could not he obtained." 



Y 



