ECONOMIC RESOURCES : IRON. 115 



fragments of ore long after the other materials had been washed away j 

 these fragments might conceivably be a remnant left after the erosion of 

 many hundreds of feet of rock. 



From the tabular character of most of the fragments, whichi are rarely 

 more than two inches thick and more commonly only one and-a-half, it 

 seems probable that the layer was a thin one ; and it is further probable 

 from the dips of the rocks and of the veins of quartz and granite that its 

 underlie was steep. 



However promising this spread of fragments along a line of strike 

 may appear to casual observation, it is, under the circumstances, not such 

 as to justify a belief in the existence of an inexhaustible supply, though 

 such may exist hidden away under the surface. 



Lunkha. — In a small ridge north of the village of Lunkha there is a 

 considerable abundance of fragments of magnetite. One irregular block 

 measured upwards of half a cubic foot in content. 



There being no higher ground in the immediate vicinity, these frag- 

 ments must necessarily mark the position of the original outcrop, which 

 extends at least as far westwards as the Semah road, but I did not see any 

 sign of its being exposed in the section in the bed of the Aurunga. This 

 ore is very pure magnetite. Should occasion arise, it would not be a very 

 arduous undertaking to sink a few trenches at right angles to the strike. 

 These could not fail to find the veiuj if any of it remains to be mined. 



Kopeh, soutJi-toest. — One mile to the south-west of Kopeh, I found, 

 in the ravines, a large rounded fragment of magnetite about the size of a 

 man^s head, which had probably been derived from a nest in the horn- 

 blendic rocks occurring in that neighbourhood. None was found in situ. 



Kopeh, south-east. — The iron- workers at Kopeh, though living close to 

 the Lunkha ore, do not make any use of it, and when I shewed them a very 

 fine specimen of magnetite, said that it would not answer for their purposes. 



The ore they do use consists of small semi-deeomposed-crystals of 

 magnetite derived from disintegrated granite veins, and laboriously 



( 115 ) 



