66 MALLET : GEOLOGY OF DAEJILING AND WESTERN DUARS. 



pears below the alluvium, there is clearly an almost unlimited supply 

 of ore. It is, however, of poor quality, the better portions containing 

 only about 30 per cent, of iron, as shewn by Mr. Tween's assays — 



No. of assay. Rentage 



1 ... ... ... 308 



2 ... ... ...' 28-7 



3 ... ... ... 323 



The ore Varies from a strongly ferruginous clay to an impure brown 

 hematite, and has frequently a pseudo-brecciated aspect. It is not 

 smelted by the natives, although there are vague traditions of its having 

 been once worked, and of hammers still to be seen on the hill, so heavy 

 that no one can lift them ! The Chenga naddi brings down lumps of 

 ore, an assay of one of which gave 39' 6 per cent, of iron, but the 

 lumps which stand such water-transport are the tougher and purer, 

 or less clayey, portions. 



Taking into account the poorness of the ore, and the facts that 

 there is no considerable supply of limestone within 60 miles (unless in 

 the unexplored country of Nepal to the westward), and that the Darjil- 

 ing coal, if practically workable, will certainly be more expensive at the 

 mines than Raniganj coal at the pit's mouth ; also that wood is already 

 growing scarcer and dearer in the hills west of the Tista, owing to the 

 demand for tea-making, there is little reason to suppose that iron works 

 could ever be profitably established at Lohargarh. In other parts of the 

 country, more centrally situated, cheap coal and good ore are found 

 together. 



A valuable bed of iron-ore was discovered four years ago, about a 



mile east-south-east of Sikbhar. It is two or 

 Sikbhar. 



three hundred feet above the bed of the Rer, and 

 some three thousand feet above the sea. It has, as yet, only been 

 worked at two spots, about two hundred yards apart. The section at 

 the eastern digging includes actinolite rock, with some quartz- and talc- 

 schist containing octahedrons of magnetite ; this is covered by the band 

 ( 66 ) 



