COPPER. 61) 



Copper. 

 The method of copper-mining adopted in Darj fling is very similar 



to that generally pursued in India in most native 



Method of mining. m m 



mining operations. The mines greatly resemble 



magnified rabbit-holes ; meandering passages are excavated with little 



or no system ; and although some precaution is taken to support the roof 



in the more shaky places by timber props, the number of galleries fallen 



in show how inefficiently this is done. 



The passages average about a yard in height and width ; but where 

 the rock has not yielded a paying proportion of ore, they are contracted 

 to a size barely sufficient to admit a man's body. Access to the interior 

 of the mines, therefore, is gained by crawling on ' all fours/ and in the 

 narrowest parts, by lying flat on the face and progressing after the man- 

 ner of serpents. As a natural consequence of such a primitive system, 

 the excavations cannot be carried beyond a very trifling depth, as com- 

 pared to European mines ; although taking the actual risks incurred into 

 count, and imaginary dangers, which the stillness and darkness within 

 the bowels of the earth are not calculated to dispel from the minds of a 

 simple, superstitious race, no little courage is shown by the miners in 

 excavating as far as they often do. 



The tools generally used are an iron hammer and a round pointed 

 chisel, which is held by a strip of split bamboo twisted round it. Small 

 picks are also sometimes employed.* The lights used are thin strips of 

 dry bamboo, a bundle of which the miners take to work with them ; 

 they say that the smoke is less irritating to the eyes than that from 

 other kinds of wood. They are, I believe, all Nepalis : the Lepchas 

 never engage in such occupations. 



The ore, which is copper pyrites, is brought from the mines in 

 small bamboo baskets of an elongated form, so as 



Dressing of the ore. m 



to be readily taken along the narrow passages. 



* Illustrations of these tools and of the smelting furnace are given in Percy's Metal- 

 lurgy (Vol, I, p. 388), Mr. Blanford mentions that in the Mahanaddi mine, the rock was 

 loosened by lighting fires against it. 



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